Salt, sand and sunshine...
There is nothing better than a sunny summers day on your favourite low-key beach.
Book-in hand, warm breeze filtering through your hair - the Australian sun kissing your skin.
Theres a certain magic here.
Be it the confidence of a woman in her favourite bikini - loving herself.
Or be it the magic of pages, the sent of old printed ink, the feeling of being lost in a life of another while your own life floats by around you for a minute.
This magic is calm, inviting, rejuvinating in all its purity.
And it's uniquely mine...
I have always felt connected to the unique coastal climate of Australian's eastern shores.
As a creative, I feel the need to express this lifestyle in a way hat truly represents my own values with the beach.
So, I started looking into relevant lifestyle photography which resemble the relaxing, summer-loving beauty of the coast.
Every image I found was so rich in warmth, colour and vibrancy.
It is through this initial exploration that I uncovered a love for flat-lay: a style of lifestyle photography that is taken from birds eye view, depicting relevant/related objects laid out on a flat surface.
I found that flat-lay, being item-orientated, allowed a means to express my own unique relationship with coastal living and aspects of the beach that are special to me as an individual.
There were several factors I had to consider to achieve the desired flat-lay photo, including what objects to include, location, and how to work with natural lighting.
Objects:
Choosing what items will be involved in the flat-lay was fundamental in the expression of my values surrounding coastal lifestyle. For this I chose to incorporate three things that are must-takes to the beach; my favourite scrunchies to pull my hair back in the summer heat, my favourite swimmers that boost my confidence and my current favourite book to get lost in and help me relax. These objects, predominately shades of yellow, express the bright, happy, warm and bubbly connotations of being at the beach and the vibrancy of coastal living.
Location:
Where the photo was taken was a vital aspect of the photo. Coastal lifestyle endorses images of sun, sand and waves. For the purpose of flat-lay, the sand was the perfect option. However, it was a challenge dealing with the varying textures and colour of the sand as the day I took the image was the first sunny day following a week of rain, meaning the sand was somewhat harder, less forgiving and darker in colour than usual - challenging the smoothness and vibrancy of the image. I tried to flatten the sand somewhat to aid this factor, however later decided to embrace the textures and go for a more natural image quality.
Lighting:
Lighting was the biggest challenge of this image. As I was shooting outdoor at a real coastal landscape, studio lighting was not possible and I had to rely heavily on natural lighting. I struggled with this aspect as there was fast-changing cloud coverage following a week of stormy weather, which saw an increased need for lighting manipulation post-shoot that I previously desired. I struggled getting the vibrancy of the image to be of quality, and also found shadowing and tone to be a challenge when adapting the lighting. Shooting on a sunnier day was not possible for the sake of the task, however would have been beneficial in increasing the lighting quality and golden tone that is so key in my desired coastal lifestyle imagrey.
End result:
The end result was a bright, sun-soaked vibe with textured sand and a saturated vibrancy in the objects. The image successfully portrays the values of coastal lifestyle that I hold so dearly; warmth, confidence, vibrancy and relaxation.
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