But I would like to announce the arrival of two new additions to my photographic life:

1 – Milton Gan Photography has launched on facebook! It’s going to be a major outlet for promoting my life stage work so if you like my photos or would like to book me for a session then take a look and leave a comment! You can visit and like Milton Gan Photography here! This page features my new social media logo, created by the very talented Lauren Jennings. The full scale logo will soon be making its debut on my new website once it’s completed.

2 – Today I became the proud owner of an iPhone 4!  This will mark a major change for my Project 365 as the lo-fi randomness of the iPhone 3G’s 1mp camera has now been upgraded to 5mp luxury! I’m still to try out my Best Camera and TiltShift Generator apps on these photos but hopefully they’re compatible and will continue to produce little daily delights for you!

Right I’m off to have a play!

A year goes by pretty quickly these days (is that another effect of climate change?) and at first I thought I’d struggle to find ten images that I’d proudly mount on pedestals. But a trawl through my library reminded me just how many shoots, jobs and photos came out of those 12 months! So the problem was then drawing up a shortlist of the best ten.

And then there’s the subjective part: what defines a top photo? Should it be a personal favourite of mine or others? Should it feature a person or place that’s dear to me? Should it have captured a unique event or moment in time? Should it be technically well executed? Or all/some/none of the above?

Well after careful consideration I’ve selected my top ten images. Some of them I honestly didn’t expect to make the final cut, but for some of the reasons mentioned above, I felt that they deserved a place. Please have a browse and let me know which is your favourite.

Here we go, in no particular order (as that would take another three months!):

Disco Condo

This is one of my all time favourite shots and it’s also by far the standout favourite amongst my friends and those who have looked through my work and given me feedback. I suppose the thing that surprises people most about this photo is the fact that it was spontaneous. I just walked out onto my hotel balcony in Waikiki and this is what the building opposite looked like. No scouting for a location and no waiting for hours for the lights to come on. And that’s the magic of photography: the ability to make the everyday things around us look amazing. Read more about Disco Condo.

Lake Taupo Trance

On many photographers “to do” lists is a long exposure of a jetty leading out into the water, and it was certainly high up on mine for quite a while. But a trip to Lake Taupo in NZ finally gave me the opportunity to cross it off. This was taken at sunset after a day of unsettled weather. My west facing position gave me a nice golden glow on the horizon, while my ND grad filters blurred out the water, gave the clouds movement, and saved the sun’s highlights from blowing out. The ghostly blur of the swaying boat adds extra atmosphere. Read more about Lake Taupo Trance.

Sydney Dust Storm: Centrepoint Shroud

The Sydney dust storm was memorable for anyone in the city that morning and especially those, like me, who woke up at dawn to find they had relocated to Mars overnight. I took a heap of shots to commemorate this special event (and put the 5D Mk II’s dust proof claims to the test!) but this one is my favourite. It was taken in the CBD as I made my way to work. The dust was starting to clear but there was still an eerie silence as the city’s commuters tried as best they could to go about their daily routine as if everything was normal, despite this golden mist cloaking them! I like the perspective in this shot and how the silhouetted Centrepoint Tower in the distance gives a sense of how widespread the dust is. Read more about Sydney Dust Storm: Centrepoint Shroud

Sculptured Sunrise

Every year Sculpture By The Sea is one of the most popular events in Bondi, with amazing works of art adorning the beautiful Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. There are opportunities galore for photographers, but if you want a nice clean composition you need to get there early, as in dawn early. And for that effort you may be rewarded with a shot to remember. Read more about Sculptured Sunrise.

Balance Beam

I spent quite a few mornings during the summer weekends at Cooper Park in Bondi. It was a haven for dragonflies and damselflies, and after the first morning of using my macro lens to get up close and personal with them, I was addicted and couldn’t wait to go back and take more! Most of the inhabitants were these Sydney Flatwing damselflies. They were amazing models! Very photogenic and totally unfazed by the camera despite the lens being just millimetres from their tiny faces! One of my shots (Red 5 Standing By) became an instant hit on my RedBubble web gallery, but my favourite is this one. I’d identified a broken stalk which I thought would be make a great perch and staked it out. Several hours and meat pies later (kidding) and this little fella decided to drop by and pose.

Red Vent

I’m a big fan of photo genres based around buildings, from clean architectural photography and lifestyle interior shots to eerie derelict warehouses and gritty urban cityscapes. Sydney offers a whole host of these opportunities and I try to make the most of them. This shot was taken very close to where I work. It’s a composition that called out to me as I was walking past, so I duly obliged. I like this for the vent’s splash of colour against a neutral canvas, and also because my decision to position it off-centre paid off and resulted in a more interesting image.

Opera House Streakers

This was one of the first images I shot with my 5D MkII. It was taken on the opening night of Vivid Sydney, a festival of light. Amazing installations had been set up all over the CBD but the centrepiece was the Opera House as a canvas for a series of light projections created by Brian Eno. I was taking long exposures to flatten out the water and enhance the ambient light, but as a working harbour there were boats constantly going through the shots, causing ghost images and light trails. I decided to use this to my advantage and waited for a small sailboat to approach, then I hit the shutter and soaked up its light trails as it bobbed past, adding extra colour interest to the shot.

Nintendo Launch Party

This shoot was memorable for me as there was a lot of pressure to perform (ahem). It was my first corporate event, there was decent money involved, and clients and celebs were present. Nintendo were releasing four new games at the trendy Oxford Arts Factory and had divided the venue into zones with each one set decorated to reflect one of the games. The zone for Style Boutique resembled a star’s dressing room with big mirrors surrounded by lightbulbs. I like this shot for two reasons. Firstly it was technically well executed given the cramped conditions. I needed to avoid catching myself or the flash in the mirrors and so I ended up in a corner on tip toes with elbows all over the place. But the resulting composition is strong, and the exposure and bounced flash balanced out nicely. Secondly I like this because it was taken just at the right moment when the main subject looked up and realised she was in my crosshairs! Plus the all important products are in clear view.  There’s a lovely natural energy to the shot and most importantly the client was very happy with the results! Read more about Nintendo Launch Party.

Renny

Renny is an agency model with Platform Models and she was my first proper model shoot. I met her when I was shooting the NSW finals of the fashion tv Diamond model search and soon afterwards organised a shoot with her in a few locations around Bondi. Renny is an absolute star and a true professional; very easy going off camera, but when she’s in front of the lens she really knows how to work it! I’d scouted a few locations around Bondi that I wanted to use and this is my favourite – the entrance to an art deco apartment block at North Bondi. It has a very Miami feel to it and the outfit my stylist Ali picked out for Renny suited it perfectly. Another of the photos I took during the shoot is now featuring in Renny’s portfolio and the Platform Models website gallery. I’m really happy that the preparation that went into my first model shoot paid off and resulted in some great photos for both myself and the model. Read more about Renny.

Mitchell’s Christmas Party

It’s probably fitting that we finish on this image as it’s from a Christmas party. The setting was Luna Park and the company is Mitchell’s, the highest billing media agency in Australia (and one of the main rivals to the agency that I work at!). Everyone was up for a top night so I went full throttle and took a great collection of images. This one in particular stands out for me. It’s one of those shots where you see something new every time you look at it as there’s so much going on, such as the main subject spinning around while balancing her glass, the trumpet player in action on the stage, and the girl off to the right posing with her friend in front of her own camera. A nice amount of ambient light has been soaked up, giving the image a lovely range of colours, the flash has frozen the moment perfectly, and the angled camera position delivers a very dynamic (and almost dizzying)  feel. A nice event to end the year with! Read more about Mitchell’s Christmas Party.

So that’s my top 10 of 2009. Would love to know which one was your favourite?

Likewise in fashion it’s a hard road to the top, especially if you’re trying to bypass the hard graft of assisting that most of the top professionals did for many thankless years.

As you may know I joined ModelMayhem.com to build up my experience of photographing models and collaborating with the other members of the photoshoot tool kit: the wardrobe stylist, make up artist, hair stylist, designers etc. The fallout of this massive online community (coupled with the accessibility and affordability of DSLR cameras) is that there’s a huge amount of wannabe fashion photogs snapping any model that will give them 5 mins so they can build up their portfolio. Likewise there are girls galore believing that their 32Cs will propel them to supermodel status if they can show them off in as many skimpy swimsuits shots as possible and post them to Zoo, Ralph and FHM. In summary: chaos, and a harder job for photogs and models who are seriously trying to develop their skills.

Ron Davis

Shawna Rencher

Enter Ron Davis and Shawna Rencher. Ron is a successful studio photographer and Shawna a model, actress and film director. They are both active on ModelMayhem and based in Houston, Texas and their regular collaborating led them in a new direction – to create a podcast aimed at amateur photographers and models who are trying to break into the fashion and beauty industry. The result is The Photographer & Model Podcast.

Each week they interview a guest photographer or a model for around 30 mins, virtually all of whom are active on ModelMayhem. The interviews are very chatty, open and lighthearted and so make for easy listening. Content covers a range of topics including the guest’s background, current activity and future ambitions; what they think makes a good photographer and model (from turning up on time to being prepared to step outside comfort zones); horror stories and moments of controversy (some great “Guy With Camera” situations!); and their personal definitions of industry terms such as art, beauty, glamour, erotica and fetish. Plus there are insights into each guest’s particular field of interest e.g. fine art photography, pin-up photography, conceptual art, use of Photoshop etc.

It’s a format that is simple and very effective as each week brings a slice of life of fellow photographers and models who are on ModelMayhem to do essentially the same thing as me but with their own particular slant or objective. I love the fact that if I listen to someone that sounds interesting, I can then check out their profile and portfolio on ModelMayhem, send them a message and add them as a friend. It brings the site to life, giving it a much more human dimension than just a collection of avatars and faceless profiles. After all we’re people not numbers right?

The podcast is available on iTunes and on the photographerandmodel.com website. I encourage you to subscribe even if you’re not interested in fashion and beauty photography as the interviews, stories and insights make great listening!

Introducing TiltShift Generator. TiltWho What you say? Ok, think of those really cool, fun shots of cities, stadiums and cars where they’ve been manipulated to look like miniatures, like in these examples:

This effect is called “shifting” and works by applying selective focus to a particular part of the image and throwing the rest of it into a blur causing an extremely shallow depth of field. In other words your eyes and brain overload and you think JetStar have dropped you off in Lilliput instead of Brisbane.

Shifting has actually been around for a long time and is  traditionally produced straight from the camera by using a special tilt-shift lens such as the beautiful TS-E 17mm below from Canon. These very technical lenses can be adjusted to “tilt” or, yes, “shift” to varying degrees, thus manipulating the focal planes and causing outrageous results. The tilt function of the lens is mainly used by architectural photographers to relieve the common problem of sloping building syndrome. It does this by correcting the converging verticals of the building, making it look straight. Just as your eyes would see it. Anyway, back to that lens!

The Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L

If you’ve read my post on Objects Of Desire #1 then you’ll know how much I’d love to have one of these red-ringed charms. But as I don’t have $3,000 spare, imagine how overjoyed I was to find an iPhone app which produced the shift effect for just $1.19! That’s only 0.04% of the cost of the Canon lens!

That app is TiltShiftGenerator and I implore you to buy it as it is guaranteed to make taking photos with your iPhone more fun than you can imagine!

It’s really simple to use and self-contained from start to finish. The camera can be launched from within the app and when you take a photo the selective focus is automatically applied to it. The focal point can be dragged around on the screen and resized with your fingers, and then you also have the option to apply saturation, brightness, contrast and vignetting. Once you’re happy, save the finished shot to your iPhone album or export it to email or Twitter. Simple! Personally, I like to save to my iPhone then frame it in BestCamera.

If you’re doing a photo Project 365 as I am then this app is essential! When you’ve challenged yourself to take a photo every day for a year there will inevitably be days when there isn’t much around to excite you. But this handy app opens up a whole world of possibilities. Try it – you won’t be disappointed! Just to inspire you, here are some of my results from TiltShift Generator from my daily walk to work which are featured in my Project 365:

14th Jan: King Street Wharf Jnr

18th Jan: ferry cross the bathtub

And as a special treat, check out these awesome tilt-shift time-lapse videos!

Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Many of you will know of Chase and his famous philosophy that the best camera is the one that’s with you. And you’ll probably also know that while Chase is a world famous advertising photographer, he LOVES his iPhone and uses it every day to capture hundreds of shots of virtually everything he sees!

What you might not have realised though is that he recently launched his own iPhone App “Best Camera“. This brilliant app allows you to apply, stack and create a “recipe” of effects to any iPhone pic including high/low saturation, contrast, mono, retro, cropping and framing etc. The resulting pic can then be uploaded to the Best Camera website – a real time photo wall of iPhone photos as they are created and uploaded from Best Camera apps all over the world. Or you can upload your shots to any of your social networks such as Twitter and facebook.

I’ve started using it on my iPhone and it really is fantastic! Incredibly simple to use with stunning results, and really makes the most of the iPhone’s very underwhelming 2MP camera that has no settings and only one button to press!

Here’s a great vid from Chase explaining his philosophy and app in his own words:

I covered one last week at Sydney’s Luna Park for Mitchell Communications Group – Australia’s biggest media agency. It was a great night and I’ll be posting on that soon, but at the end of an exhausting night of shooting (and partying with them!) I had the task of reviewing around 700 photos and culling them down to a final cut of around 200.

If you’re an event photographer you’ll know how time consuming, tiring and (let’s face it) monotonous this can be. But today I found an amazing alternative solution courtesy of  legendary photog Chase Jarvis. He hosted his own company’s birthday party recently in his studio, and rather than rove around with a camera to shoot his staff, clients and guests, he stuck a 32GB card in a Nikon D3, set it on timelapse and just got everyone to have fun in front of it. Genius!

In just under 5 hours the camera took an incredible 21,112 photos! That’s around 1.5 shots every second!

And the result? A 12 min timelapse video of a great party requiring no sorting, no culling, and no editing! Ok, so DSLRs are capable of shooting HD video these days and he could have just used that facility, but there’s something about timelapse videos that makes them a hell of a lot more interesting and artistic. I think it could be the way forward for capturing events! Check it out:

And read Chase Jarvis’ own blog post.

It’s silly season once again and I’ve been busy shooting events and Christmas debauchery parties, so apologies for the brief hiatus.

I’m also lining up more model shoots to increase my work in the air-kissed and air-brushed walk-in wardrobe of fashion – although I must stress that I don’t use Photoshop and have quite strong reservations about entering the whole multi-layered realm of post-production. Well, until now.

You see, I’ve always positioned myself as something of a purist; wanting to get the perfect shot straight out of the camera with very little editing in Aperture 2 apart from the “accepted” level adjustments to contrast, exposure, brightness and saturation, and a bit of cropping here and there. I like to know I’ve used my knowledge and experience to get the best from the camera rather than relying on software to save me. Photographers the world over argue and protest the pros and cons and rights and wrongs of post-production. Should a photo be as the eye sees it or as the photographer perceives it? Is it documentary or art? And with the amount of modes and variable settings available via a digital camera’s menus, is that not a form of pre-post-production? The debates rage on and everyone gets their rolls of film in a twist (well the purists do – digital photogs overheat their memory cards).

Anyway, yesterday was the first Sunday of summer in Australia and it was a scorcher. Bondi Beach was packed (and so was the Beach Road Hotel for the Miss Bondi competition) and I felt the need to avoid all of it and make use of the weather for a stroll with the 5D2.

But where to go? It was midday and the sky was blue and clear so completely the wrong time for a dramatic landscape, the beach was packed so seascapes were out, spring blooms were wilting in the heat so flora was a no-go, plus I couldn’t think of anywhere local I hadn’t been to recently. I really needed some inspiration.

And then I had an idea. I’ve been seeing a lot of photos taken with the cheap but chic Lomo plastic cameras from Russia, such as the popular Holga model. The randomness of the results you get from their somewhat haphazard construction has become uber cool and now demand has driven quite a revival. Sales of Lomos are going through the roof and there are now several iPhone apps available that will reproduce the same retro, vignetted, saturated quality associated with these essentially toy cameras. I’ve been thinking about buying a Lomo and have had a few looks at the Lomography website to check out the quite vast range of models available.

But did I need to buy one or could I replicate the look with Aperture? Ooh controversial! Did I really think that? Did I not want a Lomo for the joy of playing about with a cheap film camera and waiting excitedly to see what comes back from the darkroom? Well, yes, but I didn’t have a Lomo yet to play with and I wanted to get out in the sun so Aperture was going to have to do.

So off I went for a few hours of visualising everything with retro eyes. It was actually quite fun and did make me look at very familiar locations in a new light. This old car in front of a house would not have made me bat an eyelid if I was looking for “normal” images but it screamed out to me as vintage Australiana, so I took the shot and pushed a few sliders to the limit in post-production. What do you think?

I also found the great petrol pump that is featured as the opening image.

I’m happy with this little project I gave myself and look forward to taking more shots with a view to manipulating them. Will this turn me into a Photoshop fiend? Well, I’m still to be totally convinced I need that much post-processing power, but with a fashion career in the back of my mind sometimes you have to look to the future. Or is that the past?

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.

At the end of the session we combined flash with a fast shutter speed and low ISO to create a moody low light effect:

In the afternoon we moved over to Sydney’s inner west for an “on location” style fashion shoot with the delightful and effervescent Zoe. As before we were using just natural lighting, but out in the open the sunlight was a lot harsher than the diffused light in the gym so we used reflectors and sheets to soften the light and counter the shadows.

Then as the sun started to set we employed the flash technique we’d learnt in the morning to create the impression of nighttime.

The workshop ended with a workflow demonstration back at Daniel’s studio as he uploaded shots from the day and we drank large glasses of red wine! Overall we had a thoroughly enjoyable day and I would highly recommend the course to anyone who is comfortable shooting in manual and wants to perfect their techniques.

To find out more check out the SPW website or follow them on Twitter @_SPW_

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!

However, it was something else that made me rethink Bondi. One of my mates at work forwarded me an email newsletter called Aquabumps. It was a simple looking page written by some dude called Uge, which basically relayed the Bondi surf report for that day. But it also included 5 amazing photographs that Uge had taken of the sunrise, beach and surfers from that morning. The colours were incredible and the surf shots better than any I’d seen in magazines.

I literally saw Bondi in a different light and decided I needed to give beach lifestyle serious consideration. So I signed up for the daily Aquabumps newsletters to see if Bondi looked consistently stunning, and started investigating the Bondi rental market. Well the photos didn’t get any less mind-blowing and I soon found myself anxiously checking my inbox each day for my daily fix of sunrises, surfers and spray. I was hooked, and within a couple of weeks I was inspecting the central-Bondi apartment where I’m writing this entry three years later.

From the time I moved in I absolutely loved Bondi and regretted ever thinking anything bad about the place. Yes it’s overrun by backpackers during the summer who party every night like it’s Saturday and spoil your sleep. But the off season is peaceful, it has a great community feel, and most of my friends live within walking distance. And yes the beach does fill up with tourists who don’t speak English and can’t spot a rip – but without them we wouldn’t have Bondi Rescue!

However, it’s those Aquabumps emails which still do it for me. I’ve spent many early mornings down on the beach waiting for the glow of the pre-dawn sun to light up the clouds in hues of pink and orange, in the hope that I might capture images to rival those that Uge takes on a daily basis and sells in his fantastic gallery. I’m getting there. We both use Canon 5D Mk IIs (I had mine first!) and we often pass each other, chasing the best positions to catch the sunrise, so I must be doing something right.

But I’d like to pay tribute here to Uge and point you in the direction of the Aquabumps website so you can sign up for his awesome newsletters and browse his gallery of breathtaking photos. Just like the one on this page.