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?

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?

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.

Obviously younger people are at a different life stage and are maybe less conscious of the contributions of their elders. But I reckon if you ask any person of any age to study a portrait of an old person for just 2 minutes, they’ll start to see the memories that lie in the grooves of those deep wrinkles, and feel the character that keeps the sparkle in those deep set eyes.

Besides we all love our grandparents right? And Santa Claus? And Richard Attenborough from Jurassic Park? And of course there’s our favourite 900 year old, green, pint sized Jedi master Yoda.

If at this point you’re detecting a hint of sobriety about my demeanour you’re right. I had news from the UK today that my granduncle Robert passed away after a fine innings. He was a good man and bizarrely enough he always used to remind me of Yoda. Not that he was green and handy with a lightsabre, but he was wise (he used to be a magistrate) and of small build. And he always seemed to construct his sentences backwards.

So back to those buildings. Yes, they’re old. And run down. And they’ve seen better days. But isn’t that what makes them fascinating? Just as old people were once our age, had real lives (and even had sex apparently!), likewise those old derelict buildings were once hives of activity, forming an important part of the local community and society in general. I love spending time wandering around them and peering through the broken windows. And I bet if you can spare just a couple of minutes looking at one of them, you’ll see those memories lingering within their brickwork wrinkles.

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!

A quick change and I was down on Bondi Beach for a few more shots.

I couldn’t believe that people were working out as usual in the middle of a dust storm! And then I had a pot/kettle moment and realised I could well be ruining a very expensive piece of kit. Oh well, too late so I grabbed the bus and headed to the CBD

and Pyrmont, where I took a few more shots before the sky finally started to lighten up and clear. And my hangover finally kicked in.

]]> http://www.sparkography.com/sydney-dust-storm/feed/ 5 http://www.sparkography.com/disco-condo/ http://www.sparkography.com/disco-condo/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:07:04 +0000 Milts http://www.sparkography.com/?p=38

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.