Getting back to Raptureimages initial question regarding whether you can have somebody contract to you the answer is yes. You will need her to provide you with an ABN (as previously mentioned) which can easily be obtained through www.abr.business.gov.au.
With respect of the employee/contractor debate. There are some tests under the Personal Services Income Tests whether somebody is basically an employee or actually running a personal services business, these tests are as follows:
Initial Test 80% of income tast - this is the principle test and if passed the below tests are no required to be checked. Please note however, that if she is contracting to you through an ABN the test applies to the contracting in which the ABN is held not her employment income. However, as you have mentioned this is only a weekend gig and not a significant amount of income will be earned, I don't think you will have too many issues and besides I think she will probably pass a couple of the tests shown below.
Next set of tests:
Business Premises - does she lease business premises that she operates from?
Employment Test - Does she employ other people for this job?
Tools - Does she provide her own tools (in this case yes if she brings her own camera).
Liable for Rectification - is she liable to rectify any mishaps which may occur (e.g. bad photo that she has taken). This is one test that the ATO does look it in detail so I would make sure that one is adhered to.
However, reading your initial post again it shoulds like you are basically looking to treat her as a partner in the business, in which case you may be better operating as a small partnership. If operating as as a small partnership you are both on a level playing field and you are both looking to grow the business but I would recommend that you have some kind of partnership agreement drawn up (this can something very simple).
A further thought surrounds the business v's hobby tests of the Income Tax Act. This would depend on the way in which you operate for example if you are seeking wedding photography shoots and documenting this in a system fashion then you are probably running a business; however, if you are just doing the odd shoot here and there without having any systems and only doing the shoots as and when they come up you are probably doing a hobby. The difference is that a business is obviously assessed for incoem tax where a hobby is not.
Referring back to other posts, I would strongly recommend that ensure that you have the appropriate insurance (including workcover) in place prior to doing this shoot.
I also recommend that you have some sort of written contract/agreement, this can something very simple (e.g. heads of agreement). In my experience people are nice until something goes wrong. Having said this I understand that their is no substitute for building strong relationships with people and but it also better to have a fall back.
Hope this helps.
Craig.