'Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.'
Much of my inspiration lives on the shoreline and at the horizon.
The shoreline is my base - it is where I wander when I need to feel home. The horizon is where I gaze when leaving home becomes a plan for discovery and adventure.
The visual link between the shoreline and the horizon is obvious - the closest leads to the distant other. However, though connected, they serve different roles in my creative process.
The shoreline is busier - I need to be aware of waves and tides. Timing is everything. Photographing the horizon, on the other hand, is a slower process. The longer exposures give me time to gaze out and dream - which is just fine by me.
Visualise a region’s essence, personality and vibe.
Just over 12 months ago I began promoting the Photographer in Residence (PiR) project. The initial interest was encouraging and I looked forward to further explaining and discussing the concept.
However, before I could progress it, I was engaged to shoot a long term assignment which had me travelling around Victoria for a good part of 2015. The open ended time frame meant I had to put PiR on the back burner.
After this delay I am pleased to begin shooting the first PiR next week.
Photographer in Residence is adaptable and modular - customisation is a key feature. It creates material and social media interest encouraging visitors to explore regional destinations and stick around a little longer.
PiR embeds creativity, experience and skill to tell the story of a place. It establishes an ongoing visual record of essence, personality and vibe.
PiR is my solution to many of the challenges in photographing regional Australia. It enables me to catch moments, light and expressions that defy the scripting of a time limited shot list. Of course, there is also a detailed briefed component to cover branding and specific activities or events.
The program utilises social media and educational photo walks to engage with enthusiast photographers. Tapping into this omniscient interest in making and sharing photographs is a key component of PiR. It is set up to encourage new, longer and return visits.
Another important feature are the workshops I conduct for local business operators. First developed for then Tourism NSW, they teach operators how to effectively use contemporary digital photography. The topics covered are specific to the attendees of each workshop. I provide practical lighting and styling hints for real world photographic scenarios. Attendees also learn what is achievable by themselves and when and how to engage a professional
Other important components include:
A fine art photographic collection. Tell a region's story through local galleries, capital/sister cities, trade missions and embassies.
Online photo competition. Encourage visitors and locals to enter and win prizes (eg local accomodation, meals etc)
Where to tips for the best photo locations.
The residency is for 15 days but can run in shorter blocks across seasons and/or to include different events. As mentioned, PiR is very modular and designed to adapt to local requirements.
There are still two of the original promotional packages left and I would be very happy to send a detailed proposal to any interested parties. The introductory fee for a 15 day project is $9000.00 plus GST. It includes perpetual, flexible usage rights.
I made these pictures in the 2 minutes and 26 seconds after 3.38pm. I had been walking along W53rd Street when I noticed how the sun, shining down 5th Avenue, was being bounced around by the high-rises and shop fronts. It was not the first time I had found backlighting with beautiful front fill light on the streets of New York City.
Street photography requires a photographer to be ready for the moment. I like to shoot on either manual or shutter priority so I make sure to adjust exposure whenever I move into different light. The first few frames were shot at a high shutter speed (1/2000th of a second) which narrowed the depth of field. I quickly changed down to 1/250th to increase the range of focus. I set the exposure compensation to -2/3rd of a stop and framed the picture to include the lit part of the street corner while levelling the camera as best as I could. I wanted to avoid creating distracting convergence angles on the buildings, which happens when a camera is tilted too far, as well as to give a sense of the streets of New York.
I photographed during a single lights change, standing still, as shoppers, tourists and business people walked past me heading downtown. I didn’t really concentrate on any particular face - it was all happening so quickly.I did notice, however, that some people were looking down 53rd with very interesting expressions as they came up to me. I wondered what it was they were looking at but knew if I turned to see I would miss shots. The light could disappear at any moment so I kept shooting before turning to cross the street just as the red hand flashed. I never did work out what they had been looking at.I often walk the street looking for pictures with my large professional camera - the Canon 1Dx. I’ve tried compact cameras but have never been happy with the images made with the smaller sensors. I can’t afford a Leica and, while I am hearing good things about Fuji cameras, at this stage I am sticking with the full frame sensor.
In the somewhat vain hope that I can make the 1Dx more discreet I use Canon’s very compact 40mm ‘pancake’ lens to lessen the apparent bulk of the camera. This is not always a success as the tiny lens looks so out of scale on the body it often causes photography enthusiasts to ask me about it. I’m always happy to talk photography and very happy to rave about this small, simple lens. It is one of the cheapest that Canon manufacture and, from my testing and use, one of the sharpest.
During my transition to digital I noticed that I was seeing less and less in black and white while out photographing personal work. It eventually got to the stage that I was only really seeing the potential for a black and white print while I scanned through the files after loading them onto the computer. This didn’t seem a problem whenever I was commissioned to provide B&W for a corporate client - I guess my professional eye would just work to the brief.
For a while I wasn't sure why I was seeing less B&W scenes until I went back over how I learnt much of my photography. For many years I only shot 4"x5" or medium format, often exposing a polaroid first. I would have the (almost) instant gratification of seeing a print of the scene in either B&W or colour. I think this is what helped train my photographic eye to almost instinctively assess a scene in terms of it's colour saturation or monochromatic tonal range.
Like most photographers I left my LCD screen to display in colour - even when making black and white images. To help reignite my black and white imagination I began wandering around on self assignments determined to only photograph scenes that would suit a fine art black and white print. So, to re-capture the old process of shooting a B&W polaroid, I set the camera's LCD to display a monochrome image and tested my ability to ‘see’ in black and white.
Once I had found what I considered a suitable scene then thoughtfully set the framing and exposure, I would open the shutter and check my visualisation against the LCD. Whether using a tripod or hand held I slowed the whole process down to better appreciate the nuances of light, shade and tone.
I even used the mindset I operated under in my learning days: polaroids and large format film were very expensive so I would look carefully at every scene, fine tune the composition and make a lot of spot metering measurements before I made an exposure. Quite often during this process I would decide not to take a picture at all! I know how ridiculous that sounds in these times of free pixels.
So, I think the slowness of my money pinching mindset is also part of the process. As I only ever capture Raw files and even though the camera is making a B&W jpeg to show me on the LCD, I still have all of the information I need to make a fine art print.
This is, in effect, the digital age workflow of how I would make many of my black and white pictures all those years ago. Back then Polaroid made a beautiful Pos Neg film (Type55 I think) which allowed me to get a polaroid print and an excellent negative in the same exposure. The only drawback being the requirement to carry around a small bucket of solution to wash the negatives. Not quite as convenient as checking an LCD - especially when trekking around the bush!
From time to time I revisit older pictures and apply new techniques and knowledge to the original RAW files. Sometimes the changes / re-workings are minor, other times I see the original completely different to how I saw it at the time of capture. While I would do this back in my B&W darkroom days as well, the immediacy and accuracy of these digital times makes such revisiting original files an important part of my personal photography practise today.
As my digital black and white conversion skills improve and with the help of the technique I have adapted from the 'old days' I am again ‘seeing’ in B&W. The gallery here has some comparison pictures to show how my interpretations can change with time and skill. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
The pics in this slide show are my holiday snaps. Not the usual vistas, sunsets or tourism icons just pictures I found around the corner one hot summers day.
Over the New Year break I spent some time in Melbourne, Australia with friends. Chris and Marie live in the historical suburb of Williamstown with its beautiful colonial architecture and pre Federation houses. Chris is a builder who specialises in restoring such homes and any walk around his neighbourhood is dotted with many fine examples of his skill and devotion to authentic quality. Marie is also an artisan but one I have more in common with. She's a skilled chocolatier. I eat chocolate.
Please click on the pictures to purchase as fine art prints or stock
Apart from spending time with my friends I had the intention of taking lots of personal photographs. Unfortunately Chris and Marie are too good at hosting and while I did drag my DSLR around, they filled my days with dining, wining and talk while we wandered around Melbourne and it's surrounds.
Soaking up the atmosphere of places like Yarraville, Fitzroy, St Kilda and the city's famous laneways was a real delight and I found myself enjoying it for real and not through a viewfinder. For a photographer such enjoyment is sacrilege!
This hiatus lasted a few days until a major professional cycling event passed by the Williamstown foreshore. I was still very ensconced in holiday mode and somewhat surprised to find myself meandering down there with a camera slung over each shoulder - as if they had invited themselves! As we neared the foreshore the noise of the crowd and race commentary quickly roused the photography in my veins and I was glad to feel the straps on my shoulders.
This part of Williamstown looks across the bay to the Melbourne skyline. There is a tree filled park beside the water with many yachts moored alongside wooden piers. Large merchant vessels glide past as they head into the port or off to the ocean.
The historical town centre with it's cafes, restaurants and yesteryear appeal is separated from the park by a wide esplanade. It was here that the main straight, finish line and two strategic corners of the 2012 Jayco Bay Cycling Classic were situated.
The closer we got to the foreshore I knew I needed a plan of attack to make the most of the many photo ops that would lay just around the corner. A practical benefit of shooting digital is that a photographer can make decisions about the look of the final picture after the shoot. However, the best pictures are made when a photographer's idea is realised. That 'idea' can be involved or simple - it may just be a starting point or it could be a plan with every variable accounted for. My holiday brain was quickly switching to picture mode with every step.
My 'plan' was formulated soon after I rounded the corner to see a group of riders (led by a photographer's motorbike) lean around the first turn of the course. The mass of individual athletes had become an organism of tension, sweat and competition. Though each strained to win, this corner required co-operation, skill and agility if the pack were to survive it. I wanted to photograph that.
This was a hot January day with hard overhead light, areas of deep shade, an abundance of orange, crowd control mesh and a vibrant discord of advertising signs. So, despite the colour overload that defines professional cycling, my imagination saw black and white.
A tonal but contrasty approach would suit the gritty strain and determination on the faces of the athletes. The tension and jostle as they rounded tight corners or rose to sprint towards the finish line would have had me reaching for Tri-X film in the days before digital.
Cycling is a great sport to photograph and this event featured the best of Australia's professional cyclists including the new Australian GreenEdge team. The sport is fast and strenuous with lots of movement, colour and tension. There are often many opportunities to get close to the action with a wide-angle or to stand back and create those compressed, montage-like views of the peloton and crowds with a telephoto.
Even a simple idea like shooting for black and white will improve the pictures you make. It helped me define my compositions and framing. Because I could imagine what different parts of the scenes would look like in black and white I chose my angles, backgrounds and exposures to suit. When the action passed by me I was ready.
Of course the same cacophony of colour that made me see in B&W could be the inspiration for another photographer wanting to show the full gamut of bright, wild energy. Whatever the decision it's best to have a plan - even an unplanned one!
The fantastic auto focus modes found on all brands of quality DSLRs these days are perfect for these tight, fast situations. Canon call theirs AI Servo while Nikon uses Continuous/AF-C. Both will follow focus a moving subject while ever you keep the shutter button half pressed. By using a single focus point to the side of the field of view I was able to select which riders were in focus as well as create strong, dynamic compositions.
Using the wide-angle lens was a different matter. As it was manual focus I had to preset the focus and wait for the riders to pass by. I sometimes held this camera over my head and pointed down to get a different angle. Some of these shots were made by panning with the subject using a slow shutter speed.
The event was actually a series of races held on a set course so it helped that riders would pass by the same spot several times. It gave me time to assess my shots while I waited for the next lap. It also meant I could move around the course to capture different views and actions.
For the technically minded I used a Canon 1Ds Mark3 with a 70-200mm f2.8 lens and a Canon 5D Mark2 with a 17mm f4 T/S lens. The files were made in the RAW format and processed in Lightroom 3.
Finding pictures is the theme of my next workshop being held in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens in February, March and April. You can find more information here.
In this digital, online world it is always great to see your work on paper, be it a fine art print or as a double page spread in a well printed magazine. The world of magazines and newspapers moves further from paper towards pixels each day and I was pleasantly surprised when a real magazine showing one of my pictures arrived in my post box recently.
In September I wrote about the 'See Change' panorama shoot I undertook for Newcastle City Council. The usage agreement allows for the client to get a lot of mileage from this picture so I was very happy to see it used across two pages in OUTthere magazine's 'Windowseat' section.
click on the photograph to purchase your own fine art print
OutThere is the national in-flight magazine for Australia's largest regional airlines, Regional Express (REX), as well as New South Wales' AeroPelican Air. 'Windowseat' highlights a different facet of Australia each month and on this occasion celebrated Newcastle's listing in Lonely Planet's 2011 Worlds Top Ten Cities.
Many thanks to Guy Pendlebury and Edge Custom Media for the high design and reproduction values they insist on for their work. The surfers at sunrise picture looked beautiful!
For those of us who like to hold real paper photographs and/or display them in our homes please visit the new Collectable Photography website. The prints are personally made by me and limited to editions of 25 or less. For stock photography please visit Lightmoods
