Sparkography

Ok, I’ve posted a photo of an old building but I’m going to start by talking about old people. Bear with me.

I think that old people are great. Now that doesn’t mean I hang out with them knitting scarves and doing jigsaws. But as I’ve got older I’ve found myself looking back at my childhood and realising what a brat I was to my hard working parents, and so I’ve started to appreciate what they went through for me. They’re now in their 60s and heading down under to see me in a few weeks, which I’m really happy about. So I’m in the middle of planning a trip to New Zealand for them (and myself of course – I’m feeling the need for a few dramatic landscapes!) but I have to take into account that as senior citizens they’re unlikely to want to do bungy jumps and skydives.

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So on Tuesday night I might have had a few glasses of wine. And beer. And saki. And cocktails.

But when I woke up at 6am the next morning to a room bathed in red light, I really didn’t think I’d had enough to make my eyes bleed. What on earth/mars was going on?

My photojournalistic gene instinctively kicked in (quite fortunately as the adrenalin boost instantly cleared my hangover before I realised I was supposed to have one) so I grabbed the 5D2 and headed out on to the balcony to survey the most surreal experience since…well, the night before to be honest but I won’t go into that now!

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Photography courses can be a bit hit and miss. Websites can only tell you so much about what to expect, how much you’ll learn and what the tutors are like and, while word of mouth is powerful, there are so many courses out there you can’t possibly get feedback from someone who’s done each one. So sometimes it’s a case of suck it and see.

Luckily the People Photography workshop run by SPW (Sydney Photography Workshops) that I attended on Saturday (along with my good friend P) was just as described and more. Under the expert tutorage of Daniel Linnet and his fine team our small group honed our manual shooting techniques and use of natural and flash lighting composition at two locations, with the help of brilliant models Daniel and Zoe from Grayboy.

The first location was a boxing gym with Daniel where we shot documentary style as he trained, using only natural light. I was amazed at how many different ways there were to light a subject naturally, and how subtle changes in pose and location can make a huge difference to the final image.

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Sunrise is getting ridiculously early these days. Too early even for me.

That’s a shame because I love getting down to the beach pre-dawn. For a lot of people setting the alarm for 5.30am to go and exercise is ok, but setting it that early to take photos has a touch of insanity to it, and dragging yourself out of a warm bed to head out into the chilly darkness doesn’t make a whole lot of sense either. Add the fact that you’re never guaranteed a spectacular sunrise and it’s quite reasonable to wonder whether I’m just extremely bored or an insomniac. However, the sky is now getting light from 5am, which is pushing my limits given that I don’t sleep until after midnight. So when is daylight savings kicking in?!

Once that comes around I’m sure I’ll resume my pre-dawn ritual. I actually like the lottery of heading out into the dark and guessing the best location to set up my tripod when I can’t even see if there are any clouds, let alone guess whether the next 30 minutes will bring my holy grail – a blanket of glowing pink covering the beach and the sea.

However, even if that doesn’t happen it’s still worth hanging around until the sun rises. By that time Bondi Beach is a hive of activity; the runners are pounding the promenade, the boot campers are doing their push ups, and the surfers are sitting out at the back waiting for their perfect break.

I love this town.

The Bondi to Coogee coastal walk in Sydney’s eastern suburbs is one of the most popular pasttimes for both locals and tourists.

Each day hundreds of people stroll, jog or run along the route which has a permanent view of the ocean and passes through the beaches of Tamarama, Bronte and Clovelly as it meanders south. The Bondi to Tamarama stretch also hosts the famous Sculpture By The Sea exhibition.

There are many prominent lookout points along the walk to cater for the throngs of visitors wanting to take home a photo souvenir; but every now again you spot a new vantage point, such as this one which I noticed early one spring morning as the sun emerged from the ocean.

It’s going to be a hot weekend in Sydney, which means the sun-seeking crowds will be descending on Bondi. But they’re not the only ones. I also spotted a squid, octopus, crab and…teddy bear down there.

Yep, the Festival Of The Winds is back. Tomorrow is the main day so get down here to enjoy kite flying displays, music, and entertainment. All in glorious 30C sunshine! (Did I miss a couple of seasons or are we still in winter??)

Call me an old romantic but I have a real soft spot for those old black and white movies from the 1930s and early 40s like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon.

There’s an elegance in the way people like Humphrey Bogart carried themselves and especially in the way they dressed. Back then men would don suits and trilby hats just to get the milk and papers!

In fact the Art Deco period as a whole had a massive sense of glamour and refinement about it. The lines and curves just seemed to work, whether they were applied to buildings, furniture or cars. Decades later Art Deco relics still have huge appeal and it’s no wonder that classic cars from that period are extremely popular as wedding cars. Their aerodynamic sweeping lines and symmetry convey so much about that age of elegance and innocence that they are they perfect vehicle to transport a newly-wed couple wearing the most important outfits of their lives.

So when I was in Canada very recently for the wedding of my good friend Rob and shooting the groom’s preparations on the morning of the big day, I was thrilled when his wedding car arrived – a classic Bentley Mark IV. Making sure I’d covered off my checklist of groom photos I headed outside to spend a few moments capturing my own slice of romanticism.

When I first moved to Sydney the last place I wanted to live was amongst the backpackers and tourists of Bondi. I wanted city living, walking distance to work, and stumbling distance from the bars and clubs of the CBD. So I moved to Pyrmont.

Big mistake.

Now Pyrmont did tick all three boxes in a big way. I had a split level apartment in a warehouse conversion, I was 5 minutes walk from work, and just the length of Pyrmont Bridge from the crowds of King Street Wharf.

But it was boring. Oh my god it was SO boring.

No surprise then that when my lease came up for renewal six months later my thoughts turned to getting away from the city and Bondi came blipping back onto my radar. Not by choice I might add; more because my mates were giving me a hard time for moving halfway round the world only to live in another city apartment when the most famous beach on the planet was just half an hour away!

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I love dancing and I’m not at all embarrassed to admit that I’m pretty damn good at it too!

However, this wasn’t always the case. At school I was a typical male cardboard cutout who would awkwardly rock sideways from foot to foot without a clue what to do with my arms, let alone a girl.

Aerobics changed all that. But that’s another story! However, the result was that not only did I find my rhythm but I realised I knew how to apply it too and pretty soon I was the centre of attention on dancefloors all over London. Well, New Cross at least.

However, regardless of whether it was New Cross or New York, I felt as empowered as John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Complete strangers would come up and say hello, entrance queues would be bypassed, and velvet ropes would part. I even had groupies! Fast forward a good dozen years and 10,000 miles and I will still stride onto any dancefloor in Sydney expecting to own it. That’s the massive effect that music and dance had on me.

So when I was recently in Waikiki, Hawaii and chilling out on my hotel balcony during sunset before yet another big night, the building opposite didn’t look like a concrete tower blocking my view of the beach. It looked like a disco dancefloor.

This is it. Taken in 2004 with a humble Sony Ericsson mobile phone late one afternoon on the French Alps, this is the breathtaking view that inspired me to explore the world of photography in the hope that I might find and capture equally incredible image

We were the last group allowed to take the chairlifts to the top of the mountain. When we disembarked, we turned to face the run back down to the village and this is what we saw. The late sun was descending while a torrent of cloud swirled around the mountains. It was nature at its most exhilarating. The rest of my group saw this as a sign to descend as quickly as possible and set off immediately. But I knew this was a sight I might never experience again, so I pulled out my mobile phone, took the shot, and had one final look before donning my goggles and making my way down through the cloud. It was a moment I’ll never forget.