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 another beautiful summer day in Bondi. The beach is full of sunburnt backpackers and the coastal walk  is the busiest I’ve seen since Sculptures. But there’s one area that’s empty as it always is at this time of year – the boardwalk.

Yep, it’s been closed off to make way for the massive stage that will host the acts for Shore Thing, Bondi’s NYE party. The past few years have seen the likes of Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx, Bob Sinclar, Groove Armada and The Presets grace the beach. This year the Noughties will be played out by some of the biggest DJs from the last three decades – Carl Cox, Danny Tenaglia, and Roger Sanchez.

Security fences are also up along the length of Campbell Parade to ensure only the paid up ticket-holders get in (although expect quite a few backpackers to scale them/impale themselves on the night after having a few Stellas at the Bondi Hotel).

And tomorrow evening the beach will also be closed off as the sight of floating revellers the next morning is never a good way to start the year.

Nice clouds today though. Cirrus I believe.

Not nervous because of the large scale of the event; not because of the range of shots required of the guests, entertainers, band and location; and not because it was a well paid job. No, I was nervous because I work for OMD, their main competitor! Both agencies are powerhouses in Australia and regularly slug it out over pitches and bragging rights for largest billing figures. This year both agencies billed over $1 billion, ranking 1st and 2nd out of all Australian agencies.

And there was no hiding my allegiance either as several OMDers had moved to Mitchell’s and would recognise me straight away. And sure enough as the coaches arrived and the guests made their way into the venue, I was greeted with a range of comments about whether I had left OMD, whether I had joined Mitchell’s, or whether I was just plain spying on them!

But it was all in good humour and I was quickly over that hurdle and into my stride. The party went really well and so did the shoot. The crowd were up for a big night and very comfortable in front of the 5D2.  I filled a whole 8GB card with over 700 photos which were later distilled into a final cut of around 200. Here are just a few of them, starting with the venue:

The Crystal Palace

There was also an outdoor area which provided a range of excellent backdrops throughout the evening and into the night, including fairground rides and The Harbour Bridge

And of course there was action on and around the dancefloor!

At the end of the night the coaches returned and took us to the after party. And that’s when the camera went back in the bag!

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.

In Australia the Labour Day long weekend varies by state. In WA and Victoria it’s in March, while in Queensland it’s in May. In NSW and SA it falls quite neatly in early October, forming a bridge between the Queen’s Birthday in Jun and Christmas (yes, you’ve guessed it, in Dec).

Most people look forward to the long weekend as a chance to have a rest and perhaps get away from the city to enjoy the first days of spring at one of the many beautiful spots along the northern or southern NSW coastline.

I, on the other hand, was keeping busy with the camera as long weekends ultimately also lend themselves to special events. And I had two of them.

The first was on Sunday night. SpringRocks was a celebration of dance music at The Argyle, one of Sydney’s biggest bar/clubs located in the historic Rocks district of the CBD and a Speedlite’s effective range from the Harbour Bridge. SpringRocks was promoted by Paul Strange, who I do social photography for at both The Argyle and Favela in Kings Cross. It was a big event consisting of 9 hours of dance music DJs and bands performing in each of the 3 main rooms. I was down for a 5 hour shift during the peak hours of 9pm – 2am, and as if shooting moving targets in a dimly lit, busy environment while trying not to knock anyone’s drink out their hands wasn’t enough to manage, I decided to make things even more interesting by setting both the camera and Speedlite to manual. Well, I like a challenge!

Highlights of the night were Helena, one of the up and coming DJs from the UK who moved to Australia a year ago:

RadioInk, with their rock-infused dance pop:

Dirty Laundry, one of the most entertaining dance acts I’ve seen:

And headliner Dave from the Potbelleez, now one of the mainstream dance acts following their hit Don’t Hold Back:

I was really happy with the way the shots came out. The focussing of the 5D MkII in dark conditions was excellent and I achieved a nice balance of flash and ambient lighting by adjusting the settings manually. My full set of photos can be viewed here.

A few hours of sleep and I was back out for my friend Louise’s 30^th birthday party at her Bondi pad. Louise is a top girl with loads of great mates who all know how to party and can make any time a good time. Lou had asked if I would take some photos to record her historic day and of I course I said I would be delighted to (well, there was free beer as part of the deal!).

It was an awesome afternoon and I’m sure when her memory comes back Louise will have great recollections, but here are a few shots to remind her!

However, there was one young man who will never forget the day. Lewis, having only been in Sydney for a few weeks, suddenly found that he had accrued a whole load of new friends!

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