Canon 5Dmk4 Travel Photography in L.A.

heading to l.a. from sydney.

pastel skies over venice beach as we landed.

flying to l.a.  |  the first thing we did when we landed was eat in n out burger  |  a house we passed on the street

sunset at griffith observatory was magical.

watching the mountains disappear into the l.a. haze.

instagram photos: 1. rodeo drive 2 + 3. griffith observatory 4, 5 + 6. visiting the getty centre 7, 8 + 9. universal studios 10, 11 + 12. disneyland

the happiest place on earth! when i got back home after watching the midnight fireworks over the disneyland castle, i scrawled in my travel journal "i'm smiling the widest smile i have and my insides are made of butterflies. it was one of the most magical days." and promptly passed out of exhaustion as shown by my pen scrawl off the page from the last letter.

early morning drives around l.a.

wandering the streets of beverly hills where the roads are paved through a tunnel of trees and there are picture perfect houses with picture perfect lawns.

on our last night in l.a. before flying out to nyc, we went to see ben folds live at the greek theatre. it was the perfect way to end our trip, watching my favourite artist perform under the stars.

i was obsessed with all the brightly coloured flowers that painted the city of l.a.

after new york, we had a few extra days to spend in l.a. so we stayed in a little house next to venice beach.

walking along the venice canals.

on my birthday we went to the cheesecake factory and six of us chose six different flavours of cake to try. they were all delicious.

i didn't take my camera with me when we were exploring venice beach, so all i have are a few iphone photos.

a bit of shopping on our last day in l.a.

visiting el matador state beach in malibu. you can find that blog post here.

runyon canyon with dan and hayden where they filmed part of hayden's music video at the top of the mountain with l.a. glistening in the background.

the last pit stop in l.a. before driving to san francisco was the charmed house! we stopped by in the morning the four of us - sam, dan, hayden and myself super excited to see it in real life as we all grew up watching the show when we were younger.

we departed cold wintery sydney early in the morning one day in july to get on a mammoth 12 hour flight to l.a. when we landed, we picked up our hire car and it was my first time soaking it all in and driving on the other side of the road. it was magical being somewhere new. we spent four days in l.a. where we did lots of shopping, exploring and taking hundreds of photos before getting on another plane to spend a week in new york. when we got back from nyc, we got straight in the car and drove to joshua tree to spend my birthday in the desert (i'm so excited to share those photos with you!) and back to l.a. where dan and hayden joined us after spending time filming his new video clip and jess and nat went back home. 

i miss the sunny days in los angeles, the big streets, the interesting people, all the amazing food, i even miss the highways and the traffic and crazy drivers. my favourite moment was being at the griffith observatory watching the sun go down, watching the lights turn on in the city. pink, blue, yellow, orange, purple, white, it was stunning. i couldn't unglue my eyes from the sky. somehow i drowned out the noise of the mass of people swarming everywhere at the top of that hill and i breathed in every second of the moments that passed as if i never would again. 

i had so many people tell me that l.a. is boring and gross and after spending some time there i came to the conclusion that l.a. is so not magical that it is. it's dirty but quirky. the city is covered in a layer of grime and it's coloured in a soft pastel tone with the most wonderful sunlight you could imagine. while driving around, my eyes dart to the brightly coloured bougainvillaea that climbed, crawled, twisted and relentlessly grew itself to any thing it could hold onto. i noticed that l.a. isn't just one place or a city centre like sydney. it's huge and it's everywhere. i feel like i need a lot more than a week to get to know this place better. l.a. you were a wild ride and i can't wait to visit again soon! 

I also have some exciting news because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x

all photos edited with my new lightroom preset L.A.!

2015

my year in 100 pictures.

in the meadows. ladyluna fall campaign

fall campaign for  ladyluna boutique

model  sabrina @ balistarz

hair + makeup  abbey love

i loved shooting the fall lookbook & campaign for ladyluna earlier this year. our day started bright and early in the studio where i set up my lights and backdrop to spend half the day shooting the lookbook images. you can find those pictures on the ladyluna website if you'd like to have a look! once we were finished with the studio lookbook, we sat down to eat a healthy lunch before packing everything up and heading out to shoot the campaign.

we all drive and meet up at our beautiful location for the rest of the day, centennial park. the sun was shining bright after what i remember being a week or two of miserable rainy weather in sydney, so we were very lucky and appreciating every moment of sunshine that we could. we start shooting in our first location and eventually packed everything into one car - four girls + dan, lots of clothes, camera equipment and more and drove around, continuously stopping at different locations to shoot.

if you'd like to see some behind the scene photos from the day, i stole a few of the lovely iphone bts snaps abbey love took on the day and put them all together in a blog post! you can find that blog post here.

all photos edited with my Summer Haze Lightroom Preset.

malibu

the heat in l.a. was getting exhausting. day in and out of sunshine and we decided to head to the coast for some fresh air. malibu delivered everything i thought it was going to be. i loved driving on the brilliant coastal road, endless californian ocean to your left and towering mountains to your right. i won't ever forget the sight.

the first picture in this blog post is the traffic on the freeway. one second there was peak hour traffic and the next everyone was zooming past. we found out pretty quickly that you don't fit in on the road in l.a. unless you speed excessively, don't indicate, eat while you're driving and run red lights. it was my first time driving on the other side of the road but i got used to it pretty quickly! the only time i would be confused was when i walked to the car throughout the day and i would always automatically walk to the passenger seat to start driving before realising and running around the car to the correct side while giggling.

i was so excited seeing a yellow school bus for the first time! 

photo pit stops along the way.

a few notes from my travels that i scribbled in my notebook sleepy eyed in bed on the night we got back to our apartment:

//

the sun is a hazy mess on the horizon.

ocean, mountain, desert.

powerlines and palm trees.

//

All photos edited with my Lovestruck Lightroom Preset!

rose tinted

while i was in melbourne a little while ago, i got to catch up with caitlin may and shoot with a group of talented ladies. we met up at caitlin's house in the morning where jan worked her magic on hair and makeup on aimee, then we headed off to our location. while we were shooting, it rained and the sun shone. we pat beautiful horses and ran up and down the middle of empty roads.

collaboration with  caitlin may photography

makeup  janice wu

model  aimee @ vivien's

photos in the field edited with the NEW! dulcet photoshop action | black and white images edited with paris lightroom preset

3inch campaign

campaign for  3 inch fashion

model  megan emmett @ wink

hair + makeup  lidija j

clothes + accessories  3 inch fashion

film  dan @ i make films

www.3inch.com.au

steph smith: hello molly campaign

campaign for  hello molly

model  steph smith

hair + makeup  lidija j

film  dan @ i make films

totem tally campaign - part 2

campaign for  totem tally

model  phoebe @ chadwicks

makeup  rashelle mua

totem tally campaign - part 1

campaign for  totem tally

model  phoebe @ chadwicks

makeup  rashelle mua

this week: smoke & mirrors

this week: smoke & mirrors

1. shooting editorials in abandoned buildings. i made a vlog from this day of shooting but i can't release it until the magazine has been released! i'm dying to share it with you all. 

2. i received my copy of the latest white magazine where my latest editorial for them has been printed. i posted an outtake to flickr a while ago, you can have a look at the picture here + i'll be blogging the entire set soon. 

3. testing my night portrait lights on dan at the end of a wedding we were shooting. 

4. behind the scenes of the on-location lookbook + campaign i shot for totem tally, blog post coming soon ^_^

5. selfies with dan. 

6. the beautiful countryside, where the air is fresh and the cold is so icy it's comforting. we get to spend the majority of our weekends here and i am so thankful for it. it reminds me of when we were in europe.

blue mountains

in the springtime, dan and i set off on a frosty morning to visit the blue mountains. i spoke of feeling over worked and wanting to take more time for myself in my winter blog post and this was one of those instances. life is too short not to get out and do things that make you feel alive. it was wonderful waking up in the morning and not turning on my computer or checking my emails. i took my time getting ready, curling my hair, giving my eyes wings and picking out a dress to wear. 

without a rush or a care in the world, dan and i set off and drove with our windows down and the music loud to the mountains. we stopped at a few places throughout the day. all places i've been to before but haven't seen in years. our first and main stop of the day was at the everglade gardens. we wandered through the trees and the manicured hedges stopping to take pictures everywhere. i laid on the grass with the flowers and dan took my portrait. 

we set off again and stopped on the side of the road in the suburbs to take pictures with the cherry blossoms that were blooming throughout the town. we made a quick stop at the three sisters for a couple of cloudy photos but went to fossil rock lookout and sat on the highest rock we could find to watch the sun go down. 

adventure is something i look forward to the most. there is nothing more that i love than being in beautiful, natural places. to walk around, take pictures and just be happy being outside. until next time, blue mountains. 

all day time photos edited with lovestruck & all night time photos edited with disposable film. 

this week: hotel rooms

this week: hotel rooms

1. lunches with my sister. 2. pretty tiles i came across. 3. selfies with my new jewellery gifted to me by ruusk. 4 & 5. a pretty wedding we were photographing on a rainy day. 6. breakfast. organic yogurt with fresh berries. 7. i received my latest white magazine editorial in the mail. 8. updates from my mum who is currently overseas with her partner. this is a photo from ushuaia, argentina. 9. after a week of being sick and bed ridden, it felt nice to be warmed by the sunshine on a campaign shoot at the beach all day.

1. korean bbq with dan and my best friend sam. 2. sleepless weeks = tired me. 3. suburban sunsets after on location shoots. 4. i started going for regular runs/jogs again in this beautiful place *i have a little story about this at the end of this blog post! 5. at the white magazine hq. 6. stunning locations, my job lets me explore some of the most beautiful places i've ever seen. 7 & 8. dan and i at our hotel room. 9. delicious breakfasts before dawn for the big day ahead.

i post all these photos on my personal instagram account: julia.trotti

i also have an account where i post just my photography work (and occasionally some behind the scenes too!): juliatrotti

going back to photo number 4, i have a little story i wanted to share. i posted this on my facebook page the afternoon it happened, but i thought i'd re-share it here today: i was out for a jog this afternoon and while on my way, there was someone sitting in the distance who kept looking up every so often. as i approached them they asked “hey…. are you that photographer?”. right behind me dan was approaching and he mentioned “and you’re the videographer!”. we talked for a little bit before we went off running again, me with a big goofy smile on my face. it’s such a humbling experience when this happens. just a few weeks ago while i was going to get my car washed i gave the girl at the cash register my name and when she heard me her face sprung up and she started talking about being a fan of my work. i know it can be so daunting to go up to someone you don’t know to say hey. but i just wanted to say that i really appreciate it. it honestly and truly makes my day. thank you.

citrus & blooms

model  megan emmett

hair + makeup   lisa fahey

kimono  age of intimacy

swimsuit  black milk clothing

flowers  chanele rose flowers

all images edited with expired film & sun splendour.

sunflower: white magazine

photography  myself

videography  dan @ i make films

model  allison @ the agency

hair + makeup  abbey love

styling  elyssa colthorpe

styling assistant  bonnie gray

editorial for  white magazine | issue twenty six

this week: monochrome

this week: monochrome

1 & 2. shooting a campaign for ruusk jewellery. 3. lookbook shoots in the studio. 4. having fun on set shooting the hello molly campaign with steph smith.

this week was spent creating a sea of images that i couldn't be happier about. i spent almost every day shooting campaigns for ruusk jewellery, age of intimacy and hello molly. i can't share too much just yet, so here are a few sneaky behind the scenes and outtakes of what i have been doing this week. expect to see lots of pretty pictures soon! 

alexandra redmond jewellery campaign

campaign for  alexandra redmond jewellery

model  natty

hair + makeup  emmily banks @ depths of beauty

this week: on the road

this week was spent driving from shoot to shoot. dan and i spent one day photographing in the southern highlands, the next day shooting in sydney and the day after that shooting a campaign on a misty northern beaches shore. i can't say that this was a big week just yet though! next week is even bigger, with three campaign shoots for brands and a location scouting day for a campaign i'm shooting the week after that. i've never loved doing what i do more than i do right now <3

all photos edited with almond for lightroom 4 & 5

dulcet

model  chevelle

makeup  kat quinn

film  dan @ i make films

white sequin dress  vintage

all other outfits  suzi rose

all photos edited with hush river for lightroom 4 & 5.

this week: studios & florals

this week: studios & florals

this week: white sands

in january, your clothes stick to your skin and cracks form in the pavement from the hot sun and balmy nights. to escape the temperature and make the most of the crystal clear days we've been experiencing, dan and i went on a road trip to a beach known for its white sand and turquoise waters, jervis bay. we arrived after a long drive and walked down the forest track to the beach. it was so windy the sand was whipping and stinging our legs. we put our things down and were about to get into the water when a couple of people came up to us to point out a shadow in the water that was swimming back and forth to the shore, which turned out to be a shark! safe to say we didn't end up swimming there.  

instead, we set off to find another beach (there are so many stunning beaches in the area), and came across this beautifully secluded pocket in the jervis bay area. we dipped in the water for a couple of hours in the setting sun. when our fingers were wrinkled, we got out of the ocean and sat on the beach watching the clear waves crash on the white sand. we stayed there until we were the only ones left on the beach. family after couple after person arrived and left until we were alone.

on our drive home, we stopped to let a wild echidna cross the road and then watched the bats migrate north at dusk.