Taking photos of Snoop Dogg
'Are you able to take photos and video of Snoop Dogg tomorrow?' As a public servant, this is a question I get asked a lot.
For context, some students at Warringa Park (a school for students with a disability) had recorded a song at their studio and invited Snoop Dogg to come to the studio and record a verse. In a move that I don't think anyone expected, Snoop agreed and asked that the event not have any media, so that it could just be for the students and teachers. So, as the in-house creative team for the Department of Education, my team was asked to document the event.
This was right up there with a request in 2011 to drive to Kerang to take photos of actual royalty, in the form of Prince William who was there to survey the flood damage.
Now admittedly, these requests are few and far between. But requests to 'quickly grab a few shots at the launch' or 'get a photo of *insert senior person in organisation* at *insert event where person will be standing at lectern in front of very bright Powerpoint presentation*' or the dreaded 'Just grab a few photos for socials' are everywhere now that we all have cameras that can also make phone calls in our pockets.
So I thought it might be worth passing on some tips and tricks for taking photos at events like this...and yes, what to do if you get called up to take a photo of a legit superstar.
Clean that lens
I genuinely want to run a workshop called 'How to take better photos with your phone' and just say 'Give the lens a quick wipe before you take a photo.' Then thank everyone for their time and wish them well.
It seems so simple, but if you're ever wondering why your photos look 'flat' or 'muddy', have a quick look at the glass on the lens and see if there are any finger prints/sunscreen/sweat on them. If you're anything like me, there will be...but they can be gone with a 2 second wipe.
On the bikepacking trip I did earlier this year I made a conscious effort to wipe the lens each time I went to take a photo, and the results were glorious.
Tell a story
I know that this is tricky, especially if there isn’t a story that’s immediately apparent. But so many photos I see from events seem to say ‘A thing happened. Here’s proof’. This is great if your sole objective is ‘have proof we did something’. But if you’re looking to engage with an audience who has an entire social media feed of super interesting content. You’re going to have to work a little harder.
If you’re taking photos at an annual event, you want something that makes people think 'I have to go next year'. If it’s a one-off event, you want people to think ‘Wow, I wish I had been there!’, if it’s just to document something that happened (a visit by someone important/ a workshop/ a conference), then you want people to think ‘I wonder what it was like to be there’.
It's also worth remembering that 99% of your audience are people who would be attending your event, not presenting at it, so make sure you get photos of people enjoying/engaging with the event (no one at the events I've taken photos at has signed a consent form saying 'it's OK for Chris to use this on his own personal blog', so I don't have any examples to show...but rest assured, I take them at every event).
In short, you want people to engage with the pictures and create a story in their minds.
People love stories, and our brains love finding connections, so try to take a few photos that tell a story and that allow people to make connections between.
In this picture you can see; Snoop Dogg is there, he’s at a school, and the kids are excited he’s there. Also, the number of people who made reference to what’s written on the board when they saw the photo was staggering. Why did they like it? Because they were able to make the connection between ‘teachers writing a message for students on a white board’ and that message including ‘fo shizzle’ which is something that Snoop would say. You let their mind make the connection, and they got a little dopamine hit for doing it. Everyone wins!!
Three’s a crowd
We’re all susceptible to a bit of FOMO. So when you’re taking a photo of something you want to make people say ‘Oh, I wish I was there!’, then frame the photo between people who are there. On a purely liminal level, it puts the viewer into a situation as if they were actually there (unless you’re right at the front in the VIP seats, you’re probably going to have people in front of you) and it makes for a more interesting shot. On a subliminal level it says ‘there were so many people at this thing, the photographer had to take the shot through a crowd of people. Why weren’t you there?!’
Best of all, if there aren't heaps of people at the event, you only need 2 people to make it look like there were!
Unfortunately I don’t have consent forms to cover me using the photos I take at work events, so can’t show you an actual example…but it works just as well at music gigs.
Get to the part about Snoop Dogg!!
Ok, I’ve buried the lede long enough. What do you do if the stars align, the Gods smile upon you, and you’re suddenly called upon to take photos of someone BIG?
Have a plan
I am genuinely amazed at the number of times people assume that because you have a camera in your hands you know what should be happening. And believe me, if you say something like ‘I don’t know…just…you know…act natural’, you are in for a selection of the most awkward photos you’ve ever taken.
So with Snoop, I had a series of questions I was ready to ask if the students got too nervous to talk, or if Snoop was looking like he needed some direction. I also had five shots in mind that I wanted to get, so I knew I could ask people to do those if there were any awkward lulls. For the record, both he and the students were so good, I needn't have worried.
Take a LOT of photos
We are not shooting on film, with just 12 exposures…and you have the rest of your life to delete the photos you don’t want. So take a lot of photos. I know professional photographers will sneer and call this a ‘spray and pray’ approach. But at the Prince William event I mentioned at the start of this blog, I missed a photo of one of our key staff shaking hands with the Prince. It still haunts me, and I would have happily deleted photos for hours rather than have to send him the email admitting I’d missed the shot.
At the Snoop shoot, I took over 500 photos in under an hour. I reckon there will be about 20 that I’m really happy with, and probably 3 that I’m stoked with. But every person there got a photo with Snoop where they both look good, and that’s worth its weight in gold.
Be confident…or at least fake it convincingly
If you look like you know what you’re doing and you’re happy to be there, you will get great responses from the people you’re taking photos of. If you look stressed or overwhelmed, people will ‘tighten up’ in front of the camera. Now this truly sucks, because internally you ARE going to be freaking out, and your mind will be running at 1,000 thoughts per second, and it would be GREAT if people knew that and all said ‘Oh you poor thing, this must be so stressful for you.’ But you know what doesn’t make a great photo…people looking at you with an ‘Oh you poor thing’ expression on their face. So take a deep breath, put on a big smile and get used to saying ‘That looks awesome! OK, just one more, looking here. Perfect!’
At the Snoop shoot I think I was a picture of positivity, but at the end I helpfully got a message from my watch saying ‘This has been a stressful period, make sure you balance this with some relaxation or meditation’.
Not now, watch…not now.
But stress aside, this was a genuinely amazing experience. There was an amazing sense of joy and excitement in the room, and I like to think I captured some of that. So if you're not afraid to take a photo, then put your hand up to take some photos for your work events...and if the opportunity to work with Snoop Dogg presents itself, then I highly recommend you take it!
Bike-packing the Tassie Trail
I didn't set a whole lot of KPI's when I started my parenting journey, but I think it's fair to say that if you'd told me back then that in the same year I turned 50, my 19yo son would want to go on a 7 day bike-packing trip across Tassie, and that what's more, I'd still be physically capable of doing it, I reckon I would have been pretty happy.
So I'm very happy to report that I have smashed those non-existent KPIs by riding the 480km Tasmanian Trail from Devonport to Dover.
I'm probably more happy that I'm not still doing the ride, as it was genuinely one of the toughest things I've done, and instead of providing a travelogue of the journey, I think I'll focus on what I learnt while I was doing it.
Plans are awesome, as you watch them fly out the window
I had never gone bikepacking before. So I had no idea how much of a difference carrying sleeping bags, a tent, clothes, a camping stove, etc. would make to how fast we would ride.
I also failed to realize how steep some of the climbs were going to be, or that some of them would be up rocky hills that were impossible to ride up.
So as we planned the trip, I was thinking, 'Well, I can normally average 30 kph, so if we assume with all the gear we're carrying we can only average 20 kph, we should be able to comfortably do 80 kms per day. So if we get on the road by 8 am, we can be at our next stop by just after lunch... then we can swan around whatever town we're in, and I can take photos. What an amazing and relaxing way to see Tasmania!'
Cut to a scene where Josh and I are riding in the cold and dark on day one, with only one decent front light, hoping to make it to our accommodation before their kitchen closes for the night.
If I take a few steps back, we had started later than 8 am because our flight didn't land until 10 am.
By the time we had taken the bikes out of their boxes and assembled them (or more accurately, Josh assembled them and I found places to put the packing materials), it was 11:30 am, then it was a 10 km ride from the airport to the start of the trail.
So by the time we'd had something to eat, it was already 1 PM. But using the patented 'Chris Riordan travel estimator,' we would still be arriving around 6 PM, which was fine. In fact, everything was so fine that we found time to stop and take photos. This was exactly how I had hoped this trip would be: lunch in little country towns, pleasant riding through beautiful countryside, stopping for photos... what a time to be alive!
But then the country roads and pleasant paths gave way to gravel roads and stony trails, the midday sun turned to early dusk, and we were taking off our shoes in order to push our bikes across a river.
By the time we got to our second river crossing, the light had almost gone, and so we had to push on through windy single-track trails with only a few meters in front of us illuminated by our lights.
Then we came to a serious climb. It was so serious I had to get off and walk for some of it. By the time I got to the top, we were still at least 10 km from Deloraine, it was cold, it was dark, we were hungry, and suddenly this did not feel like such a great time.
Thankfully we had mobile reception, and so we were able to use Maps to plot a course that kept us off the highway as much as possible, and cut a few km off our trip. But seeing as I had the brightest light, I had to sit in front of Josh for the rest of the trip...which is a bit like putting a Clydesdale in front of a racehorse.
We pulled into our Deloraine accommodation just before 8:30 pm...our '4 hr ride' had taken over 8 hours, we were cooked...and it was only day 1.
Plans are great!
Serendipity
As I came to discover, one of the cool things about the Tassie Trail is that you will encounter climbs where you wonder, 'Should I have bought a smaller chainring at the front... or just some rock-climbing gear?'
Our second day had two of these climbs. The first one was non-negotiable, but the second one could be avoided if you took a longer route through a town called Poatina. The trail guidebook said that the steeper climb 'was not advised for horses or bikers', but Josh was very keen for the adventure, and I just figured that if I had to walk the bike up some of the climb, then so be it.
We stopped just before the start of the climb to have a banana and some lollies to fuel up for the push up the hill and then onwards to a campsite about 20 km after the top the climb. You access the climb via the driveway on someone's property, and as we were standing there, a lady drove out of the driveway. We got chatting, and she explained that her parents owned the property, and that while it would be really difficult to ride up the trail, it was really great...and that also, there was a cave about 2/3 of the way up that we could camp in if we wanted. We thanked her for the info, but knew that we were aiming to camp on the other side of the climb...things would have to be going pretty badly for us to be camping 2/3 of the way up this climb.
We started the climb, and after about 200m things started to go pretty badly. It was really steep, but more importantly, it was pretty much just rocks, and so some pretty impressive mountain bike skills were required just to ride over them...skills I did not possess. So I had to start walking pretty much straight away. Of course, it's not just walking; it's walking while pushing a 30kg bike, and sometimes that meant pushing the bike in front of you, locking the brakes to hold it in place, then taking a few steps, then pushing the bike in front of you, locking the brakes, taking a few steps, then repeating this for half an hour.
Once again, the light was starting to fade, and we weren't even halfway up. There was no way we were going to make it to the top, then ride for another 2 hours to get to our campsite. But we could make it to the cave. I was able to text Josh to wait for me at the cave, and by the time I got there, we had just enough time to set up the tent and get a fire going before darkness descended like a weight.
It was incredible. Just the two of us, in the middle of nowhere, two-thirds of the way up a mountain and completely protected from the elements. It was exactly the sort of adventure I had hoped we would find on this ride, and it would never have happened if we hadn't bumped into that lady at the base of the climb. One of the beauties of being willing to take on a challenge like this is that serendipity tends to follow you.
Highway from the comfort zone
I am a great believer that true growth comes when you're out of your comfort zone, and this trip really showed me that while I may believe this, I'm not so great at putting it into action. That's not to say that I don't do a lot of things that I tell myself are putting myself out of my comfort zone. For example, every Sunday I have my long run. Up until this trip, I would have said 'I'm pushing myself for 1.5-2 hrs, so I'm really getting out of my comfort zone!' But, at best, I'm pushing myself a little out of my physical comfort zone. Mentally, I'm super comfortable. I know how far I'm running, I know where I'm going, I know when the hard bits are, and if everything goes to hell in a handbasket, I can call someone to give me a lift home.
In fact, I think my comfort zone probably is where I can maintain an impression of discomfort while maintaining complete control.
This trip pushed me to my mental limits, often for hours at a time. I haven't had to push my bike up a hill since I was about 16...but I was having to do this on a daily basis. I HATED not knowing how hard the next climb was going to be. I was furious every time we climbed up a hill for an hour, only to find there was a short descent before the next hour-long climb. I took it very personally every time a descent was so technical that I couldn't enjoy it, and probably had to expend more mental energy on the way down than up. I. HATED. NOT. HAVING. CONTROL.
But you can't control everything, and acknowledging that but still continuing was the comfort zone I had to get myself out of.
On day 6 we had our last big day, 80kms from New Norfolk to Geeveston. The day started with 4 hours of climbing, and much like descending into the '9 circles of hell', this climb presented multiple levels of torture. Really rocky paths gave way to a 4wd track that was full of enormous puddles and tyre-width wide ridges between them that you were meant to somehow balance your fully laden bike across without losing momentum... then the ridges disappeared and you just had to work out how to get your bike across 6ft puddles of indeterminate depth... then the path just became large rocks and boulders you had to push/carry your bike over.
It's fair to say I got a little bit 'sweary' at this point, not the least because I knew that if the descent was the same as the climb, I was going to have to walk that as well, and it was going to be a loooooong day.
For better or worse, the descent was not as bad. It was still full of decently sized rocks or slippery clay or some winning combo of both...but with enough patience and forearm strength (as you pumped the brakes to try and keep yourself from flying down the hill) it was doable. My whole rationale was 'If I just fly down the hill, I may save myself 10 minutes, but if I come off, I will ruin the whole trip. So just grip those brakes and play it safe.'
But then we came to a section (you can see it looks like a vertical drop on the profile) that was insanely steep. It was so steep that I had to stop because my forearms were getting exhausted from holding the brakes so tight. It was so steep that when I started again, I almost went over the handlebars trying to clip my feet into the pedals. It was so steep (and the trail was just tennis ball-sized rocks) that I realized that even with my brakes on full lock, I was still hurtling down the hill; it's just that with the brakes on full lock, I was much more likely to wipe out on a section of deeper rocks. I could see the end of the section, and I could see Josh waiting for me, and so I just let go of the brakes. It's three weeks later and I can still remember the feeling. I was flying. I was bouncing over the rocks. If I came off, it was hospital for sure. There was no sound, just the bike bucking wildly underneath me, just trying desperately to keep it upright, and knowing that I was completely out of control, it was down to luck and my reflexes, and I had never been so far from my comfort zone.
Then it was done, and I was slowing down on a slight ascent; then I was chatting to Josh about how much he had loved it. The memory is so visceral that I know my mind has had to do a lot to process it, and hopefully, it's grown because of it—new pathways, new possibilities. But if you asked me to do it again...I'd probably say 'no'...there's no way I could get that lucky twice.
Capitulation or perserverance
I have always enjoyed sports, but never excelled. From about my 30s onwards, I discovered that while I could never win a race, I could always grind out a decent finish. Capitulation was never an option.
On one of the days when I was walking the bike up a muddy cliff-face somewhere, I had to come to two knee-high boulders that I had to squeeze the bike through. The only way to do it was to put the bike on its back wheel and push it through vertically. It worked, and to celebrate my logistical prowess, I promptly walked my knee straight into one of the rocks. It hurt at the time, but over the next few days it got worse and worse.
On day 5, we were riding 80kms from Ouse to New Norfolk. We had decided to stop in the town of Ellendale to get an early lunch, but when we arrived there, the one shop in town was closed. It had been a tough day already, and my knee was really hurting, to the point where I was basically free-wheeling any slight downhill (and I think I was driving Josh insane with how slow we were going). So to arrive at what we had hoped would be our lunch spot, where we could get something warm to eat and ideally a coffee... and instead be eating the cold packet of beans and rice we had intended to have for dinner that night, and to know that we were about to embark on some hefty climbs on very rough tracks. Well, it was rough, and my mindset was not good. I had a look at Maps on my phone and realized that there was a roadhouse about 12kms away that served food; I also realized that the trail took a 20km detour through the hills before arriving at the same roadhouse. So I decided that I would just ride along the road for this section and meet Josh at the roadhouse after he had enjoyed the highs and lows of the trail.
I had expected to feel guilt and regret as I rode along by myself. But suddenly, being able to ride at my own pace, I found my mindset getting better. After a short climb, I found myself on a long sweeping descent. The sort of descent where you can just stop pedaling and enjoy the ride, the sort of descent I'd been praying for after each climb over the last few days. I knew that at the bottom I would need to start climbing again... but instead, like some wonderful apparition, at the bottom of the hill was a raspberry farm that had a coffee machine and homemade ice cream. While in Melbourne it can be hard to walk for more than 5 minutes in any direction without tripping over a barista... it's fair to say that if you spend 90% of your time riding on fire trails and weird horse-tracks through the hills, you very rarely stumble across anyone offering a decent coffee. So I asked if they could make an affogato, and they happily poured a shot of coffee over a scoop of homemade ice cream... I think I may have been the happiest I had been in days. So happy, I took a photo of it to show Josh later.
Then I pushed on to the roadhouse, ordered myself some food and was about to text the photo to Josh, but decided to just see how far away he was first. His response came back that he had noticed a puncture about 5 mins after we separated (this was our only puncture for the whole trip!), and while trying to fix that, his pump had broken, and when it had broken, it had cut his hand. So he was still out in the middle of nowhere, on a tire that wasn't properly inflated and with a cut hand.
I decided that now was not the time to send the photo of the affogato.
With some judicious use of Panadol, my knee was fine for the rest of the ride. I have no idea what would have happened if I'd just decided to be a 'completist' and stuck to the trail... but I think that the simple act of kindness I had offered myself to take the easier option got me across the line. If nothing else, it gave me the first 'non-sachet' coffee I'd had in days!
The end of the trail
When talking about the US Space program, JFK famously said, 'We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.' Unfortunately, I lack both JFK's brevity and work ethic, because I think mine is more along the lines of 'I do these things not because they're easy, but because I thought they would be easy, but then they proved to be a lot harder than expected. At the same time, I'd already committed a lot of time and effort to them, and so I guess I may as well finish them.'
So on day 7, we rode triumphantly into Dover. In a true metaphor for the ride as a whole, we rode up a really long and punishing hill before descending on some sketchy trails that became shingly paths that became a dirt road, before finally becoming a paved road that descended all the way down to the beach. As we rolled down the hill, we had our arms out wide, soaking up the feeling of accomplishment and feeling like we were flying. Then at the bottom of the hill, we realized that it wasn't the actual end of the ride, and that we had to turn left and ride up one last super steep hill on a double-lined road with an impatient truck behind us.
So we did.
Will I ever go bikepacking again? Absolutely.
Will I travel with Josh again? If he'll have me, without a doubt. He was the perfect travel companion.
Are there things I would do differently? Most definitely, but that’s for another blog.
Is one of those things not carrying a camera in a backpack the entire way? Nah... 'cause it let me get this photo... and you can see all of the other photos from the trip here
Best photos for 2023
It's that time of the year when I'm on leave and archiving off all of my photos from last year onto external hard-drives, so it's time to dive into my favourite 23 photos from last year.
These are in no particular order, as I'm far too lazy to rank them.
The smiling assassin
I was out for an early evening stroll at Wilson's Prom when I rounded a corner to see this handsome devil on the path ahead.
Instead of heading towards them (and potentially scaring them off), I took a punt on where they were heading next and got myself set up. Lo and behold, they headed in my direction, and came up so close that they briefly looked like they were going to take a chomp out of my lens.
Did I ask for the shy smile? No. Am I taking full credit for it? Yes...yes I am.
Right leg kick-through
There is nothing better than discovering a subculture. Last year I started doing 'Animal Flow', which is basically a series of moves based on different animals. If you imagine a group of gymnasts, and a group of Cross-fit types meeting at a zoo and trying to torture each other...then you're not far off.
On this day, Alisha Smith was down in Melbourne to test some instructors and run some classes. Given the choice between doing the class...and taking photos of people doing the class, I chose taking photos.
One of the upsides to having done some of the classes was knowing when the best moments were going to be to take a shot...and then having someone with such perfect technique to make it look easy.
Cycling in Vietnam
In what I think will be a bit of theme in this year's photos...we went to Vietnam! As part of it we rode for 4 days through rice paddies and rocky outcrops. We also rode through about 3.98 days of rain, so I love that this photo captures both the beautiful vistas we were travelling through, as well as the constant spray of mud up the back our jackets!
Shooting on a GoPro while riding does involve a degree of taking a photo and hoping for the best...and with the lens so wide, you really need to be pedalling hard to keep the person in front of you as the focus, but this sort of scenery can make up for a what you've missed in the foreground.
The Bridal Waltz
Going to a wedding of your friends in your 20's can be a slightly tense experience. There is a LOT of pressure to not screw anything up (this is the BEST day of their lives after all), and so people are often too nervous to actually be themselves.
But weddings of people in their 40's are usually a lot more relaxed. It's often a second go at a wedding for those involved...and so they're there to have fun. This may mean that what looked liked a speech, devolves into the bridal party swarming onto the dancefloor to recreate the zombie dance sequence from 'Thriller', and then whisking the bride away.
A good photographer will be able to capture that moment (and may even be brave enough to drag the shutter to capture the movement as well). A bad photographer won't know what's happening as the Bridal party swarms towards them and very nearly gets in the way of a choreographed dance sequence.
I will do both.
On the buses
We were on a bus in Vietnam driving over a mountain range. The fog outside was so heavy that we could hardly see more the 5 metres in front of us...but it did make for some amzing diffused light. Just as I was taking a photo of the bus, Xav turned around in front of me, and I snapped this pic.
I know that if I had tried to pose this, it would never have worked, but sometimes the photography gods smile on you.
The farmer is strong in him
Every year we head to my Uncle Pat's farm for an early Christmas get together. We've been there in drought and in windy heat, but this year everything was green and growing. On the traditional post-lunch walk I snapped this pic of one of my cousin's sons. His dad is a farmer...and the stance, and look of wary concern is clearly genetic.
Hanoi streets
I know what you're thinking...'Chris, it's been an entire photo since you've shown-off about being in Vietnam!' Well fear not...we're back.
I think I really like this photo because it shows me that I'm learning. This street corner in Hanoi was definitely photogenic. But I chose to wait until some people walked into the shot (to give it an extra element of interest), I got down low to change the perspective, and when I did that I remembered not cut off that light in the top left of the image (that's the sort of thing I would have missed in the past, and been furious with myself later).
On the way to Fairy Cove
While I may have had my nice Fuji for the photo of the wombat...I definitely wasn't lugging it along for this hike to Fairy Cove. Which I thought I was going to regret, as the early morning light revealed this vista of the Derby River.
Thankfully, the iPhone is a pretty impressive beast, and this was the result.
Post race
Many moons ago there was a photographer taking super-shallow, close up portraits of cyclists after the big 1-day races in Europe. I really liked them as there was invariably one happy person...and a LOT of very broken and exhausted people.
This photo was taken after a loooong morning of riding in a combination of the rain and the Vietnamese countryside. We had just arrived at the spot where a bus was picking us up to drive to the next location...and the bus driver was making it clear that our filth was not a great addition to his clean bus. So while negotiations raged between him and our tour guide, I snapped this photo of Josh.
As a complete aside, our guide had told us the night before our first day of riding that he was preparing some special 'lamb juice' for us. He insisted that this was always very popular with cycling tours, and had a lot of salt and other minerals added to it.
It's fair to say that up until that point I had not seen a single sheep in Vietnam...and was certainly not sure how 'lamb juice' was going to help our cycling. But maybe it was some form of 'bone broth'? Either way, it's a testament to Aussie politeness, that at our first drink stop when he showed us a water cooler full of 'lamb juice', quite a few of us were willing to give it a shot.
It turned out to be 'lime juice'...and was indeed delicious.
Street portrait
As the negotiations between the tour guide and the bus driver continued loudly in a tiny town on the way to Ninh Binh, this guy arrived on his scooter. The sight of a group of mud-spattered Australians standing around a bus was clearly the best thing he'd seen all day. I did my best to ask if I could take his photo in Vietnamese, but his laughter implied that I had not done this. Through a lot of laughs he said 3-4 words in English, and I think one of them was 'lunch'...so I realised that charades was going to be the winner again. I pointed at my camera and then pointed at him with my face doing it's best to convey that this was a question. He laughed again and nodded, and so I snapped a few shots. The colours, especially with the flag in the background, were great, but the black and white was my fave.
I won't lie, my first instict was to just snap off a few surreptitious shots without him noticing. But I think a really important part of taking photos is connecting with people, and you won't do that snapping off photos of people when they're unaware. Plus, watching each other destroy the other person's language was a great bonding experience for the two of us.
Early evening swim
As a family we have always had a pretty clear beach schedule; the mornings hold an optional walk or surf (if the waves are good), then lunch, then an early arvo beach session, then a cup of tea, then dinner, then the News and eventually bed. At no stage was a post-dinner dip in the ocean an option.
Then my wildcard wife Katie threw it in as an option, and it is now a family favourite. Now clearly, after hours swimming means you're there without any lifeguards, so there is a presumption that you only swim when it's safe to do so. But the rewards are pretty epic. The wind has normally died down, so the waves are clean. Any warmth from the day is still in the water, and the setting sun looks amazing through the cresting waves. All you need now is a GoPro to capture a few shots!
Vietnamese landscapes
I imagine that if I had grown up in Vietnam and I saw someone get off their bike (and therefore consign themselves to at least 20 minutes of furious pedalling to catch back up to the group) to take a photo of the landscape, I may well have said 'What on earth are you doing? It's just a misty mountain range, with some rice paddies in the mid-ground and a yellow road winding towards them in the foreground!! Why are you wasting your time, when you've grown up with the majesty of Bell Street in your life? How can this even compare?!'
But that's just the joy of being a tourist, everything is new and interesting. Either way, I'm really glad I did jump off the bike to take this photo. Interestingly I took this photo and then thought 'I bet the composition would be even better if the road was in the centre leading away from the viewer'...it was not.
Fiddler in the spotlight
My daughter had a role in a local theatre production of Fiddler on the Roof. As part of the show, Tevye was walking through the audience behind the fiddler with just a single spotlight on them. I would love to say I planned this composition, and the downcast look from Tevye, but I really just got lucky.
Ha Long Bay
As part of our trip in Vietnam we spent a night on a ship in Ha Long Bay and did some activities out there. For some reason, I thought this activity was going to involve us going somewhere in kayaks, so I just packed the GoPro. But it turns out we were going for a hike through some incredible caves, and then emerging to this stunning view of the bay. 'Oh excellent!' I thought 'I'm absolutely delighted that I've brought the camera that is pretty much designed to be strapped to the chest of someone hurtling down a mountain on a bike, or skiis, or Grizzly Bear. Instead of...say...the camera back on the boat with all of the lenses.'
But sometimes you just have to play the hand you've dealt yourself, and so I took this photo on the GoPro, and it's actually a LOT wider than I would have taken normally, but works really well.
Black and white and prog-rock all over
I really love photography, and I really love live music, and I really love teaching people about photography. So last year I did a photo workshop where I talked about the fundamentals of live music photography, and then headed to a gig where Psi-Phi were playing to put the theory into practice.
This is one shot that I took that I was super happy with. I love the glow being cast by the overhead lights, and the way it looks like it's those lights that are illuminating Ryan's face.
Pretty sure that's a can of Heaps Normal in the centre of the frame...so I'm also very happy for this to be used in some form of advertising campaign.
I'm on the nightrain.
In a beautiful homage to 1980's era Guns n Roses, we caught the nightrain from Hanoi to Da Nang. This photo was taken on the morning we were arriving at Da Nang. We were snaking our way through green forests, with sea visible down below. I was trying to replicate photos I've seen where outside is a blur while inside is a still-life. But you had to hold the windows down as they were springloaded to close, so trying to co-ordinate a long exposure while also holding down the window, while also making sure you didn't fall victim to some sort of errant pole or sign or tunnel as you stuck your elbow out of the train and looked in the opposite direction, was tricky.
So I got Xav to hold down the window and act as my 'here comes a tunnel' warning system, and snapped this shot.
On an unrelated note, every now and then a cascade of water would come off the roof of the train and down into the open windows. It wasn't raining...and we were close to the toilets...I really hope the dots I joined were incorrect.
Let there be Rock!
I think I can pretty much divide my selections for this year into two categories; Vietnam, and Live Music...and to be honest, I'm pretty comfortable with that.
This shot was taken at Doggerell's album launch at Shotkickers in Thornbury. Now live music photography can be tricky, but if you've got someone with the stage presence of Keir (on the Dobro here) and the lighting of Rosie at Shotkickers, then you're job is pretty much just waiting for the moment to happen and then capturing it.
As part of my 'Yeah, but how did photographers with just 12 shots on a roll of film ever actually survive' series, I can assure you that the 5 photos before this, and the 6 after were magnificent examples of me 'not capturing it'...but it doesn't matter, because I got this one!
Self portrait...of someone else.
In our last night in Hoi An, Josh and I went out to take some photos. Outside where we were staying there was a bus-stop style illuminated ad that was throwing out a lot of light. So Josh and I took turns standing in front of it and using it to illuminate ourselves, without losing the lights of the town behind.
I love the colours in this, and look of metal on the camera...I also love that it looks like some modern version of a Vivian Maier self-portrait in a mirror or shop window.
He's not terrifying, he's my son.
We were spending a family weekend at Point Lonsdale, and I dragged our youngest out to take some photos of the lighthouse there. Lighthouses (or 'Lightheese', as I believe is the correct way to say the plural), can look bloody amazing...or they can look 'kinda fine...I guess', and this photoshoot was falling very much into the second category, so we headed down onto a nearby pier. While we were there, there was another photographer taking photos looking out to sea. I looked out there, but couldn't for the life of me see what he was taking photos of. Then he said 'Have you seen the Aurora?' and showed me the screen on his camera. Lo and behold, there it was, the Aurora Australis! It wasn't visible to the naked eye, but with a few seconds of exposure it suddenly appeared.
I took a number of photos, and they were all pretty good...then I took this photo of Xavier looking like something that was going to haunt my dreams...and I preferred it to all of the photos of the Aurora. Photography is a funny game sometimes.
Beer goggles
I've had the pleasure of taking photos of Danny Ross on numerous occasions. One of the many upsides to this is that I'm now pretty comfortable trying new things when I take photos of him performing.
This shot was taken with an empty beer glass being held in front of the lens to distort the image. I know that this could have just as easily been done in Photoshop, and I could probably have done it in AI and never even left my house...but I got to see a great gig, drink a beer, and then take this photo. So I reckon I won this one.
Quintessence
Any time you take a portrait of a person, you ultimately want to capture an image that conveys the essence of that person. When you give them posing suggestions, it can usually go one of two ways; you make them do something that is so disengenous that you lose any chance of getting a natural shot, or the very act of trying something different unlocks a moment where they forget they're being photographed.
I love this shot, because it's how I see Holly; happy, confident and enigmatic.
Give the drummer some more
There have been numerous occasions where I've had to explain to a drummer after a gig, that while I got some great shots of the singer and guitarist, my photos of them pretty much suck. This isn't entirely my fault. Drummers invariably hang out at the back of the stage where the lighting is crap, and they surround themselves with things that make it super tricky to get a clean shot.
So when I got the chance to take photos for ZOJ at their Melbourne Recital Centre gig, I was super pumped to take photos during their rehearsal, where I had free-rein to get as close to Brian (the drummer) as I wanted, without becoming a distraction to him or the audience.
It's worth noting that I don't even know what he's using as a drumstick in his right hand, but his left hand is playing some bells on a string. In another shot he has a singing bowl in one hand and is moving a marble inside to get a resonating ring...and he's only half the band!
The Prom
I won't lie. When I decided to do 23 photos for this post...I kinda forgot that I was going to have write about each one. So this has taken a LOT LONGER than I was anticipating.
With that in mind, I chose this one because I think that if someone else had shown it to me I would have said 'I wish I'd taken that shot, it's really atmospheric'.
But I did take it, so now we can all stop reading and writing and get back to whatever it was that we were meant to be doing before I embarked on a 23 photojournalism saga.
See you again for 2024!
Best photos of 2022
I'm on holidays, so it's time to compile my favourite photos from last year. It's a wonderful time for me to reflect on the year that's just past, reminisce about good times...and in the wake of COVID, say 'Wait...was that last year? I thought that was two years ago...or 6 months in the future!'
As per usual these aren't in any particular order other than 'let's not have all of the beach/band/black and white photos next to each other'. But if there's a theme to this year's selection it's probably 'trying something new'. Quite a few of these leapt out at me as I was going through my '4&5 star' rated photos in Lightroom, because I remembered trying something new to achieve them.
So if you're on holiday, sit back and have a read...and if you're back at work, pretend you're doing research, either way, enjoy!
GoPro through sunglasses
On the beach at Warrnambool on a stinking hot day I was noticing how much better everything looked through my sunglasses. So I thought I'd put the GoPro behind my sunglasses lens and see how it looked. 'Chaotic' is probably the answer. The colours are all over the place, the light is baffling, and I have NO IDEA why there is that weird shadowing around the the arms. BUT, if I had achieved this result on purpose, I would have been super proud of myself, so the next best thing is to claim a mistake as a success...then hope that no-one asks me to replicate it!
Spontaneous surf selfie
If there are two things I usually avoid, it's selfies and spontaneity. So the fact that this is one of my favourite photos from last year, really does speak volumes. We were down at Sandy Point in late January and after dinner, made an impromptu decision to go for a surf. The sun was sitting low on the horizon, the light was incredible, the surf was great, and for one quick second we were all in the same place at the same time and I took this shot.
If you've ever taken a photo of someone, you know how hard it can be to get a genuine smile...and if you've ever worked as a photographer, you'll know how hard it is to get a photo where everyone looks happy at the same time. So as a photographer, this is a great keepsake...and as a parent, it's everything!
When in Rone
I do genuinely think that this is an objectively good photo. It's someone in a great outfit, striking a great pose, in a great setting.
But for it to happen, visual artist RONE had to have created this incredible installation above Flinders Street Station, and I had to have taken the unusual step of booking Katie and I in for a social event (a trip into the city to see RONE's work), and while we waited in the queue to be let in, Katie had to have started up a chat with Helen and her son and said that I would take a photo of her inside, and I would have to have a GFX100S in my hands because Fuji had loaned it to me for another project, and while we were walking the around the installation I would have to see Helen and compose this shot, and then with such a great subject, in such an aesthetically engaging environment and with a very expensive camera, I would have to not stuff up the photo. If any one of these elements hadn't coalesced, this photo would never have happened.
But they did...and I love it!
Trainspotting meets Bladerunner
From memory it was raining for most of November, and repeated trips past Coburg station in various forms of precipitation had left me with the thought that there were some good photo opportunities there.
All it would require was; me leaving the comfort of the house on a rainy night, me taking the time to actually set up a good photo, and of course me being willing to be 'that creepy guy taking photos of a train station at night'.
Needless to say, the chances of this actually happening were very slim. So I was very proud of myself for actually heading out and taking the photos, and really happy with how they came out.
But the real joy was posting it online and hearing from people who had worked on the redevelopment of the station, or had designed the lighting for the station, or were just proud Coburgers/Coburgians/Coburinians?
You just never know what is going to connect with people...so get out there and take those shots!
Rock and/or Roll
One of my big photographic focuses for 2022 was to shoot more live gigs, with a view to getting proper accreditation to do it 'for realz'. So when I saw that Body Type were playing at The Brunswick Ballroom, I pulled what strings I could (aka got in contact with Cecil the drummer, who I used to work with) and got myself on the door to take photos.
Having shot photos of John Flanagan a few weeks earlier in the same venue, I was confident I could get a few good shots. And when Cecil told me 'This could get pretty loose tonight!', I knew I was in for a great night.
Body Type are a freaking amazing live band, and there was a LOT of energy in the room.
This photo is the one I keep coming back to. It's definitely not one that jumps straight out at you, but I just love the pose. I had set myself up so I was shooting between to people (that's why there is so much black around her...that's actually the people right in front of me blocking out the rest of the picture), and I certainly didn't plan for the lights to turn red just as she did this pose...but I'm very glad they did!
Black, white and live
If I could spend the rest of my days taking photos like this, I would be incredibly happy. Obviously I love black and white shots, and I love taking photos of musicians...but in this case, I had also worked with the band in rehearsals and developed a rapport. Because of this I was able to be on stage to take the photo them as they performed...and so suddenly it wasn't all just 'up the nose of the lead singer' shots, and I was able to bide my time and wait for the shot.
John is a contemplative performer...and his decision to book the Brunswick Ballroom for the gig (and play with a 6 piece band!) was a big swing after two years of no live gigs as a result of COVID restrictions. So to not only see him in his element, in front of an appreciative crowd, but to also be able to capture it, was a real privilege.
Silhouettes and sunsets
One of my favourite jobs for the year was shooting some portraits of the wonderful Sue Johnson. Now clearly the vast majority of the photos were ones where you could actually see Sue...but this one, where we had headed to the slightly flooded grasslands of Coburg, was the one that as soon as I set up the shot, I knew was going to be a keeper!
The late afternoon Winter sun just peeking through, the blue sky and the movement of her hand *chef's kiss*!
Comfort zone
It's probably a testament to my lack of skill as a videographer, that the whole time I was setting up for this video interview, my main thought was 'This would make a great photo!'
I love taking photos of people in their homes (and to clarify, I love doing this when I am in their homes with them for the purpose of taking photos...not just lurking outside with a long lens!) I get to see the place with a fresh eye and see the things you miss when you've lived in a place for more than 3 months...and they get to sit in a space where they're in control.
I think there's a fair bit of relief that the video interview was over in his face...and bemusement that a complete stranger was asking him to stare out a window. If there was a thought bubble it would say 'If I just do this...then he will leave'.
He was of course wrong...I overstayed my welcome by at least another 3 hours!
Maps and chats
This one was taken as part of the same project as the photo of Phil, where I was trying to capture the essence of Carol's relationship with her parents. One of Lyn's favourite memories was a trip she and Carol took to Italy, so I looked to capture that idea of both planning for, and reminiscing about, that trip.
I love the way the maps and travel books tell a story, and I'm so glad I used the vase with the Irises to frame Carol...but it's the way the smiles look so relaxed, comfortable, and authentic that makes me the happiest.
Can I get a light check?
I had a very specific idea for a portrait I wanted to shoot, and had borrowed a friend's light to shoot it. So I spent an hour or so doing a practice run, and roped my daughter and niece into posing for me.
I cannot begin to describe how much this was exactly the light I was going for...and how far away I was when I took the actual shot with the actual people. So I'm keeping this photo as a reminder that I can get the light that I want...just not necessarily when I want it.
Also, if this isn't the album cover for their debut EP, I will be furious.
Splashdown
On this day Josh had ridden just over 200kms from Preston to Sandy Point...and this was him getting into the surf for a cool-down. On a metaphorical level, this was a teenager who loves exercise and the outdoors who had just come up for air after 2 years of lockdowns.
To me this is a perfect portrait of relief and renewal.
Flinder's Street Station
I've lived in Melbourne all of my 47 years... but I reckon I've been in to the city to take photos 3 times in my life. If I'm staying in any other city I will religiously take my camera and get some photos. But for some reason I have a blind spot with my home city...probably because it's always there, so there's never any urgency to make a trip in.
In December I was due to return the GFX I'd borrowed from Fuji, and so I thought it was probably high time I headed in to the CBD and get some photos.
After about two hours of taking a series of photos that were very nearly good...but were just lacking something. I decided to just embrace my inner tourist and take a photo of the iconic Flinder's Street Station.
As soon as turned the corner of Swanston St I saw this incredible purple dusk sky. I rested the camera on a the edge of a bench so that I could drag the shutter a little and then waited for a tram to trundle through and give me a snapshot of Melbourne...this city loves me so much, it gave me two!
Thanks for indulging this trip down memory land. Now it's time to relax, and make some plans for 2023!
Self portr-AI-t
Why I'm dabbling in AI
One of the hardest parts of working in the creative arts is being able to make the jump when technology changes. Sometimes it's a change of software; Final Cut to Premiere or Quark to InDesign. Sometimes it's hardware; from film to digital, or from big cameras to DSLR's to phones. Sometimes it's a change in what audiences want; from website videos to Tik Tok.
The challenge of course is that you never know what is going to be the next leap forward, and what is going to be a jump into obsolesence. Have you learnt to how to make great vertical videos...or are you now the proud owner of a $10K steadicam rig that lies dormant while other people use a $300 gimbal.
These choices are amplified as you get older, as you normally have a number of existing responsibilities, and so following one of these new ideas isn't so much 'a chance to learn for the sake of learning' as it is something that you're going to have to make sacrifices in another area of life in order to accomodate this new interest.
Listening to Chris Marquardt on his 'Tips From The Top Floor' photography podcast got me thinking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in photography...and wondering if this could be the next big leap.
So what is AI photography?
Ever wondered what an angry avacodo on a skateboard in Paris would look like? Well AI can create multiple versions of that. And if you also want to see what that would look like if Rembrandt had painted it...or if it was in a White Stripes video clip, or if H R Giger had created it while using Ketamine and drinking Pink Rabbits...AI can create that as well.
It basically takes a massive number of images and uses machine learning to create artwork based on whatever prompts you put it.
Clearly the success of this is based on:
a) the images the machine learning has access to,
b) the ability of the user to create prompts that the machine learning understands, and,
c) the processing power and intelligence of the machine learning to create something that is actually what the user is after.
Parts a) and c) are clearly the domain of the AI tool that you're using...but the ability to write prompts that it can use, is a skill you can learn...and so that's what I set about doing.
Using Astria.ai
The platform I went with was Astria.ai as it was one of the more user friendly options for those of us who can't code.
I uploaded about 15 photos of me from my phone, from a variety of angles and in a variety of environments, and then let the tool use some of its default prompts to create some images of me.
I think it's fair to say my expectations were pretty low, most of the examples I had seen to this point were on social media, and were very much of the 'Ermagerd! What is even happening with this?!' variety. So I was genuinely surprised when at least three of the images made me think 'I wish I'd taken that photo!'
Now, was this because they made me look about 15 years younger and with cheekbones you could juice an orange on? Yes...that certainly didn't hurt.
But ultimately, I actually really liked the way they looked, and I have to stress, this wasn't a case of just taking one of my images and putting it in a different context...none of these images of my face existed before, let alone the feathers and accouterments that accompanied them!
But what does this mean for photography?
Once I got past the 'Machine learning does the darnedest things!' stage, I started to think about what it meant for one part of photography that I love - portraiture.
At its most base form, when I take a portrait of someone, I bring together a range of elements (the person, the environment, the lighting), capture them with a machine (a digital camera), and then use software to bring that photo to life (adjust the contrast, make it black and white, add a vignette, etc).
Is that really so different from what this AI tool had just done?
What would happen if I entered one of these photos in a portrait competition?
What it the line between 'digitally enhanced' and 'artificially created'?
I didn't actually know...but it did give me a great idea for a portrait!!
The portrait
Any time I look at the work of great portrait photographer (Simon Schluter...I'm looking at you!) I'm always really impressed by the way they can build an image from the ground up in order to tell a story.
I'm very comfortable just capturing an image of someone and hoping it tells a story, but actually setting out from the get go to tell a specific story with a photo, and building everything around it...that's really not a strength I have.
But I suddenly had a vision of an image where I was surrounded by the AI portraits of me, as a reflection of what I was wondering about what the future held as a photographer. When I came up with the idea of the title 'Self portrAIt'...I knew I had to make this happen.
The first step was to get a selection of the AI portraits printed in a way that I could use for a photo. I went with canvas prints with a wooden frame so that I could stand them up, or hang them from something.
Next step was to work out a background. In my dreams it was a big, austere room with the photos suspended around me...given the complete absence of large austere rooms available with a budget of $0, I settled for a white sheet suspended behind me in our backyard, with the photos suspended from the monkey bars the kids used to play on.
Artistically, I was going to shoot with my trusty softbox so that I could make it look dramatic by just picking me and the photos up with the flash, while everything else fell off to black/grey.
Technically, I was going to shoot it on the GFX 100S I had on loan from Fuji for another project...and the GF32-64mmF4 lens (equivalent to a wide angle lens on a full frame camera).
Cool plan...so how did it go?
As you would expect...badly. First of all, screwing little hooks through canvas into wooden frames is about as much fun as it sounds...but perhaps more importantly, securing these frames to monkey-bars via fishing line is a freaking nightmare, and the fishing line just cuts through masking tape, and was slipping through the electrical tape we had. It is only through the patience of Josh (my eldest son) and the wonders of gaffer tape that were were able to suspend them where we wanted them.
The next weird problem was that the wide-angled lens that I had thought would be perfect...was actually too wide, and was showing a lot more of the monkey bars and sheet than I had hoped. Fortunately I also had the GF80mm F1.7 lens to work with...and it was a freaking revelation!
Last but not least, having waited for the sun to go down sufficiently so that the white sheet background didn't have any bright spots on it, and my flash wasn't having to work overtime trying to knock out too much ambient light. My flash decided now would be the perfect time to ignore my wireless triggers, and not fire when I pressed the shutter.
* Insert gif from Brooklyn 99 of Peralta saying 'Cool...cool, cool, cool' *
So we reset the camera to work with the natural light, and Josh diligently took multiple photos while tried a variety of poses and facial expressions.
It's a testament to my inability to self-direct facial expressions, and the frankly dazzling file sizes on the GFX100S that we managed to fill a 128GB card with photos that were roughly 5% different from each other!
The result
After going through hundreds of photos that felt like they were exactly the same photo...I came down to these as my faves.
Huge props go to Katie for getting me to actually interact with the pictures in that first one. Where most of my photoshop attempts look like bad photos...thanks to the fishing line, this photo was suddenly looking a bad photoshop. But actually getting my hands on them, showed that there weren't just digitally inserted.
So now the million dollar question -Which is your favourite and why?
Backstage pass - Part 3: The gig
So I'd had my idea, and I'd done my rehearsal...but now it was time to bring it all together for the gig.
So on a chilly Melbourne evening I headed along to the Brunswick Ballroom as John and his band were getting ready.
There were so many questions running through my head:
Was having access to the band going to make for better photos?
Were they still going to talk to me after seeing the photos I took?
What's it like to stay up past 10.30pm on a weeknight?
There was only one way to answer these questions - with a blog!...written about 2 months after the gig...because life got really busy...and The National STILL haven't called!
The gear
I was very selective with the gear that I took...in that I selected every bit of gear that I had, and took it.
So this meant I carried:
- X-T1 body
- X-T4 body
- 16mm f1.4
- 10-24mm f4
- 35mm f1.4
- 50-140mm f2.8
- 56mm f1.2
I did 'um' and 'ah' about taking the 10-24mm and the 50-140mm ...but my decision to take them was 100% vindicated by the 0 photos I took with the 10-24mm and the 2 photos I took with the 50-140mm. On the bright side, my shoulders were stoked with carrying the extra weight all night for no apparent reason.
My big lesson from the night was that I should have just taken my prime lenses and shot on those. I would almost have said that I could have gone with just the 16mm and the 56mm...but three of my favourite shots from the night were taken on the 35mm.
As Zack Arias says 'There's just a bit of magic in that lens!'
The support
Now admittedly we all have busy schedules, and after 2 years of lockdowns, some of us are still trying to limit the amount of time we spend in crowds. But it is 100% worth your while to get there early enough to take photos of the support act. It's a great trial run to see what is going to work when the main act comes on stage, and no up-and-coming muso is ever going to say 'Nah, I'm good for photos' if you send them the shots you took. In fact you may be the person they contact as their career starts to take off!
Of course, John didn't have an 'up-and-comer' as his support...he had the incredibly talented Maggie Rigby. So I was always going to have someone who was giving an incredible performance. But I'm still really happy with the shots I got...especially as some of them worked incredibly well with a single perfomer, but failed dismally when John and his band were on stage.
Shoot early, shoot often
I think a lot of people taking photos of gigs dream of taking iconic photos like the ones of Iggy, or Kurt, or Patti that they had seen growing up. And yes, these were all probably taken by someone who had two rolls of film that allowed them to take 24 photos for the night. And yes, 'you should never spray and pray', 'you should always take the time to compose the shot and shoot it once', and 'it's no good just filling up hard-drives with useless shots'.
But if I need to shoot a whole lot of shots to get the one I'm after...then so be it. It's not like I'm demanding that people look through all of my shots.
No.
I'm just taking multiple photos of a very similar shot, then cursing myself when I get home to find that I've taken over 550 photos...and no one even got married! Then I'm spending an inordinate time switching between two versions of the shot and saying 'I really like the singer's hair in this one...but the bass player's eyes are open in this one...I think I'll just keep them both!'
BUT, so much of what I'm trying to achieve with my photos is to capture a moment that encapsulates the energy of the performance...and sometimes, that moment is there and gone before you can even take the shot.
This is one of my favourite shots from the gig, as it really captures John's energy and committment. But I can tell you that the photos taken 1 second before and after, just don't have the same energy. So if I have to delete 50 photos out of Lightroom just to get this one...then no amount of 'photographer snobbery' is going to stop me!
Hiring gear
My wide lens is the 10-24mm f4. For non-photographers, this means the lens goes from 10mm (which is very wide and great for photos of urban landscapes or sports like BMX and skating where you're trying to get a lot into a shot) to 24mm (great for landscape shots and group photos), and at f4, it's great in full-light, but starts to struggle in low-light.
Most live venues are 'low light', and so if you're trying to capture a moment with minimal blur you're probably shooting about 1/125...and really ramping up the ISO. As a result, I only use this lens if I'm trying to capture the whole band on stage, and very rarely for action shots.
I knew I had permission to get as close to the band as I liked, and I really wanted to get some up-close action shots...and so I fell down a rabbit-hole of YouTube videos on the 16mm f1.4 lens.
In the end I decided that this lens was exactly what I needed. But at about $1,000, it would be insane to buy it just to take band photos. The smart and pragmatic thing to do would be to hire the lens for $50 every time I needed it. That way, I could do 20 gigs before I had incurred the same cost as buying it outright! It's this kind of considered and emotionally constrained thinking that makes me such a great businessman.
So I hired the lens for the night, loved it so much that I went out and bought one the next week.
Take that pragmatism!!!
*sigh*
Tell a story
John had given me access to the band before the gig, I'd spent time with them so they knew who I was, I could get as close to the band on stage as I wanted. So, how could I use all of this to not just take photos of the show...but tell the story of the night? The short answer was, 'take the photos of the little moments'. In a social media landscape that rewards the big and flashy moment...it can be hard to take the time to capture the little moments, that make up the big story.
Post-script
Thankfully every photo that I take is perfect and needs absolutely no work in Lightroom...but if I were the sort of person who spends a LOT of time deciding on which black and white preset to use, then I would say I lent very heavily on Chris Orwig's presets for these shots.
His 'BW strong v1' and 'Add snap' presets are usually my 'go-tos'...but for this show, some of his film simulations 'Film Classic Warm Plus' and 'Film Cross processed' really made the shots pop, and gave them an almost 70's Rock vibe.
So was it worth it?
I honestly don't think I could be happier with how it all went.
I got to work with some incredible local musicians, and take a peek behind the curtain to see how it all works.
I got to challenge myself creatively, and learn a hell of a lot that I would never have known if I hadn't taken the risk.
I captured some great photos on the night (click on the image below for the full shotlist): 
and I got other gigs after shooting this one (again, click the image to see the gallery: 
AND I now have a portfolio of shots to use for future photo accreditation: https://www.twodegrees.com.au/live-music
But best of all, I got to see an artist at the top of his game, breathing musical life back into the city I love!
Backstage pass - Part 2: The rehearsal
On a recent project for work I was interviewing teachers who had been working for 40, 50 and 55 years. One of the things that really stuck with me was a teacher saying that they got to the end of each year thinking they were getting the hang of it...but that they spent their entire careers with that feeling because they 'Didn't know what they didn't know'. So at the end of each year they knew that they knew more...but that had shown them what they didn't know and needed to learn.
Shooting this rehearsal was VERY much the same thing for me!
So having told you about the idea behind this project, let me take you through the rehearsal.
What I knew I knew
Shooting in low light environments is never fun. Admittedly, most venues where you shoot live music are low light environments...but they make up for this by at least having lights on the performers. Rehearsal studios on the other hand give exactly zero shits about the insane ISO levels you're going to have to use to get your photos.
BRACE YOURSELF FOR A PARAGRAPH OF RANDOM COMBINATIONS OF NUMBERS, LETTERS AND PHOTO JARGON!
My wide angle is a 10-24mm f4 lens. I normally find that to make sure every shot of a moving musician isn't blurry, my minumum frame rate is 1/125...but with f4, I was having to go to 1/30 and hope the IBIS did its job.
I shot on all my lenses (50-140mm f2.8, 35mm f1.4 and 56mm f1.2), and when I went back through the photos, it was the 35mm and the 56mm that did the best work. But even then the ISO was often around 2,000 which saw me going to black and white quite a bit to hide the noise.
For the non-photographers reading this, a lens with a lower f number, means it lets in more light. In my case, the 56mm F1.2 lens, which is considered a 'portait lens', was the lens that let in the most light.
I can't say this often enough, the 56mm is amazing for low-light photography!
Politeness vs photography - If you're one of those people who can walk up to a complete stranger in the street and just take a photo of them, then this next para isn't for you.
But if you're someone with even a little humanity, it can be really hard to find that balance between getting the shot you want, and not encroaching on the space of the person you're photographing. After all, if John had to choose between me getting a good shot, and one of his band members nailing their part...I'm quietly confident my artistic aspirations were going to come a distant second.
So I spent the first hour or so just getting wider shots or shooting on my zoom lens. Then as it got less weird to have someone in the room taking photos, I moved in closer and took some portraits.
Musicians are great to photograph - I have no confidence in my ability to get people to pose for a photo...but I do trust myself to capture a moment if they give me one, and musicians always give me one...no...wait...that came out wrong!
Look, all I'm trying to say is that musicians give you shots like this:
What I didn't know I didn't know
Trombonists are hard to photograph - If you're tight enough to get their face, then you're going to lose the slide...but if you get all of the slide, then it's a really wide shot.
Plus if you get it on the wrong angle the bell covers their face.
I guess I should just be happy that I'm not taking photos of the 76 trombones in the big parade.
It's the notes that aren't played that make good photos - I got into the habit of putting down the camera each time the band would stop playing. But that meant I missed a lot of the collaboration and discussion between the band members. At the end of the day, photos of people dressed casually, playing their instruments in a room with terrible lighting...are going to be, at best, poor versions of the photos I was hoping to get at the live show.
So I had to make sure I got some of the shots that showed the process of the rehearsal as a document of the day.
The end result
I was super happy with the photos I got. I probably could have got up closer to the musicians and really taken advantage of the opportunity of being in the room with them...but at the same time, I was there to take photos at their rehearsal. They weren't there to play instruments in my photoshoot.
I also wish there wasn't so much ISO noise in the photos, but outside of setting off a flash at regular intervals or bringing in a light, I don't think I was going to avoid this.
You can see the full gallery here:
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzS4tB
Best of all, John was really happy with them...and the rest of the band all still spoke to me at the gig! Which gig? Well that's what I'll be talking about in the next post.
Backstage pass - Part 1: The idea
I think it's fair to say that I've always been a vicarious musician. The harsh truth of not having any musical ability has not stopped me from occupying as many music adjacent roles as possible.
I've done radio, driven DJ's to gigs, managed perfomers, made video clips...I've even done a University degree in Music Industry. If the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame was to open a 'Person who has done the most music related things without ever playing a note' category, I would be in with a STRONG chance of being inducted.
So why do I love working with musicians? Is it partially because I hope that some of their talent will rub off on me, and suddenly I'll be playing to sold-out arenas? Yes, of course. But also, they act as a constant reminder that there is an alternative to the 9-5 world I inhabit. A world where you start work when other people are going to bed, a world where writing passionately about things that piss you off is seen as genius and not a potential HR issue, and of course a world where each time you finish part of your job, people are obliged to applaud.
But of course, it's also a world where your livelihood is reliant on cramming as many people as possible into a confined space and getting them to yell and scream. Which is not ideal during a pandemic of an airborne virus.
The sad reality is that musicians have been doing it incredibly tough over the last two years. Live gigs have only just started again in earnest, the 2c per track they get from streaming services isn't really the same as selling a $10 CD at show, and Bo Burnham's 'Inside' on Netflix showed that whether you're a musician, videographer or stand-up comedian...he's better at it than you.
Plus the government made it PRETTY clear, that when it comes to showing support for people doing it tough, artists can pretty much get stuffed...they chose this lifestyle anyway!!
So I was keen to come up with a way to support local musicians. A quick review of my finances revealed that I could not bankroll a series of concerts...but I could take some photos of musicians, that they could then use to promote their shows.
When I saw that local singer/songwriter John Flanagan was putting on a show where he was hiring the Brunswick Ballroom and putting together a 7-piece band, I knew that this was exactly the sort of endeavour I wanted to support.
Altruism?
Wow Chris! You sure are generous! Looking to help musicians, without getting anything for yourself!! Children should be studying you in school!!!
Um, yeah...about that. This was definitely not pure altruism. Having been invited to shoot a few gigs for friends, I had to tried to get a photo pass to shoot the HoldSteady at the Croxton Hotel...and couldn't even get a response from the promoter. In short, without a magazine or website saying 'He's shooting for us!' I couldn't even shoot the show for free! And without a decent portfolio of shots, I couldn't really expect The National to call and say 'Chris! These shots you took on your phone from the crowd have convinced us that YOU are the one we want documenting our next tour!!'
So when I reached out to John to see if I could shoot his show, one of the first things I asked was whether I could have backstage access to get some shots before the show, and could I get some shots from on the stage?
Basically, I wanted the chance to get shots that the audience couldn't. I wanted to be able to tell the story of the show, and that meant shooting from both the audience's perspective and from the band's perspective...and did I dream of getting a shot of the band, with the lights flooding onto them and crowd mesmerised by the performance? Yes...yes I did.
Reaching out
I really should take a step back, because 'when I reached out to John' really does make it seem like this was easy. But rest assured that sending a DM via Instagram to someone you've never actually met and saying 'can I come and take photos of you?' is NOT easy.
But I had a few things working in my favour;
- while I had never met John...Katie (my wife) knew him, so I wasn't going in totally cold.
- one of my regular dog walks actually went right past his house, so if he said 'no', I could train our dog to crap on his lawn.
- he's a folk musician, and these really are the Canadians of the music world...so he would be too polite to say 'no'.
- I genuinely felt that this was mutually beneficial. I've done jobs where I've felt that I had got the better side of the deal...and I've done jobs where I felt like I had been exploited. This one felt like a happy medium where we were both going to benefit.
Thankfully John agreed. Not only did John agree to me shooting the gig, he also invited me along to a rehearsal the band were doing...and that will be the focus of the next blog.
Live music photography tips
Now I know that at the moment the idea of talking about photography at a live venue with a group of people all crammed in together in a non-ventilated space where they can yell and scream...may seem a tad far-fetched. Who knows, by the end of this year all pubs and band rooms may just have wisened old hipsters looking into the middle-distance and saying 'Live music? We ain't see no live music since...well shoot...not since Omicron!'
But I'm an optimist...and I think I'm also now at the stage where I have shot enough gigs to have learnt from my mistakes, but I'm still sufficiently new at the game to remember all of the things I wanted to know when I started.
So I think it's the perfect time to give some tips on shooting photos at live gigs.
Get out there
A remarkably important part of taking photos at live gigs...is actually being at those live gigs to take photos. So while I have waited remarkably patiently for The National to call and say 'Chris, we want YOU to follow us around the world and take photos at our shows', I have also hustled to find performers to take photos of.
Now, admittedly, having the drummer from The Cat Empire as my brother-in-law has opened quite a few doors. But if you haven't made the strategic decision to marry into the Hull-Browns...then that's on you.
But in all seriousness, I'm yet to come across a musician who has said 'Nah, I'm all good for free photos that I could use on my numerous social channels, and I certainly don't need a new shot that I can send to potential venues, and the venues I am playing at really hate it it when I bring along an extra person who buys a few drinks.'
This is a win-win for you and the artists, so see if you can find a friend/cousin/friend of your kid/local parent/open mic night participant who is doing a gig and get photographing!
Spot focus
Ok...this is going to get a bit technical, but I promise the payoff is worth it! If you've ever been at a gig, or a kids concert, or anywhere where the person on stage is in the spotlight and taken a photo of it on your phone...you've probably ended up with a photo where that person is very bright, and the background behind them is kinda murky. This is because your phone (and you camera will do the same), has taken in all of the light from what is in the photo and found a place where on average everything has the right amount of light. So the person in the very bright spotlight and the background which is very dark...have been evened out. The dark bits are a bit lighter and the bright bits are a bit darker. In a normal daylight shot, this is great...and you will say 'Thanks phone/camera for doing all of that thinking for me!' But in a darkened room with with a performer in the spotlight you will be saying 'Stuping phone/camera! That looks like balls!!'
Fortunately the answer is pretty straight forward. You can tell your camera to just focus on one part of the photo and get that bit exposed correctly...and then base everything else off of that. So in the case of someone in a spotlight, you set your 'metering mode' to 'spot' and that will make sure that the very bright person is exposed correctly and everything else will become dark. There are other modes you can choose that will vary from camera to camera...but basically the options will be for your camera to see the whole image and balance out the exposure, or take a section of the image (usally the middle of the image) and balance the rest of the picture based on that, or take a specific part of the picture and balance the rest of the image based on that.
A really good example is this shot I took of Danny Ross at the Wesley Anne. It was early evening the and the setting sun was coming through a gap in the curtains and hitting the stage. It was so bright, it was even brighter than the lights in the venue, which made taking photos REALLY tricky.
But then also gave some opportunities that I could never hope to replicate without a LOT of time.
Get wide, get tight, get outside!
This is my advice for pretty much every photography job...but it's particularly true for live music, DON'T SETTLE FOR MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF THE SAME SHOT!
Absolutely get the standard photos from as close as you can, and if there are multiple people in the band, make sure you have a good standard shot of each of them. But then...get creative!
Go in as tight as you can
Get as wide as you dare
Take photos of their shoes
Shoot from the back of the room
Shoot from outside the venue
I can safely say that they will not all be good shots...but I can also guarantee that one of these shots will be your favourite shot from the gig, because you made it happen!
Signage
I once presented at a conference and there was a screen outside the room with my name on it...I took a photo of it. Why? Because in one image it showed that I had been at conference, and I had presented...and no-one had escorted me off the premises saying 'Sir, you have no place being here'.
I think most performers want the same validation.
It's time to move away from 'auto'
The 'auto' settings on your camera are a far better photographer than I will ever be. They can do calculations that will result in the best combination of f-stop, shutter speed and ISO in milliseconds. BUT they are not set-up to provide the best shot in a darkened room, with a subject who keeps on moving and who has something sitting just in front of their face.
In fact, leaving your settings to auto will almost certainly lead to a slightly blurry photo of the performer (as they were moving when you took the shot), but that doesn't matter, because the autofocus will have focused on the microphone instead of the singer
So you're going to have to get comfortable manually setting some of your parameters.
Shutter speed - If you have a guitarist/singer then you're probably looking at a minimum of 1/125. If they're just sitting on a stool and singing you could probably go lower, if you're trying to capture the drummer, you will have to go higher...and if you're capturing a punk band, I wish you the best of luck.
f-stop - If your shutter is only staying open for 1/125 of second, then you're going to have to let your aperture do a LOT of the heavy lifting in terms of letting light in. So go the lowest you can go. I have a beautiful 56mm f1.2 portrait lens that is hands down my favourite lens at a live gig as it just lets so much light in. Whereas my wide angle is only f4 and that needs a steady-hand, or a LOT of noise-reduction in post.
ISO - Modern cameras are remarkably good at taking great photos at ISO levels that would have been considered laughable in the past. So don't be afraid to let it get as high as 5,000. There's a reason a lot of my live music photos are black and white, and that's becuase it's easier to hide noise reduction (a setting in Lightroom that 'smoothes out' the crunchiness of a shot with high ISO).
If you're in a venue with a lot of different lights, then I would leave the ISO on auto, because if a bright light suddenly comes on just before you take the shot, the camera will adjust before you've even pressed the button...you probably wont.
Focus - If you have your camera on autofocus, then it will focus on the thing closest to the camera in the auto-focus zone. So if the performer has a microphone in front of their face, and you're focussing on their face...then it's going to focus on the microphone. So be brave and try a bit of manual focus!
Drummers are people too
Look, I get it. When your choice is between the charasmatic lead singer, striking a rock-star pose, with the lights shining on them at the front of the stage...and the person at the back of the stage, moving frenetically, with no lighting and a car-crash of cymbals and drums surrounding them. You're going to take the photo of the lead-singer everytime!
Just try to get a least one decent shot of the drummer...and the bass player (they'll be hiding next to a speaker somewhere).
Something in the way
Part of the joy of any live gig is the people around you. You very rarely get an unencumbered view of a performance, so don't be afraid to capture this with your photos.
Get down a bit lower and shoot between people's heads.
Or 'dirty up' a clean picture by shooting through something (in this case it was an ornate hand rail that was about 3cms in front of the lens...but with the focal length set for the stage, actually created some nice shadows and deliniation between the performers)
Next level stupidity
Looking for something a bit different? Then why not hold your phone under your lens to create a mirror effect?
Or take a photo through another lens?
Or zoom your lens while taking your photo
If they work, then you're a creative genius...and if they don't...the internet never has to see your mistakes (unless you publish them in a blog...as above!)
No flash photography
The standard rules for taking photos at a gig if you're actually there on business is 'First three songs, and no flash'. I will never understand why you can only take photos for the first three songs, as I think it's like the venue selling a recording of the gig, but only including all of the between song banter and tuning of guitars...you know, all of the stuff that happens BEFORE the band actually hits its straps?!
But the 'no flash' thing makes perfect sense. No one wants to see their favourite singer stagger off stage having been blinded by some muppet unleashing a flash in their face...and no unseasoned performer wants a constant visual reminder that someone is capturing everything that they're doing.
Also, if you're shooting on your phone, just remember that the flash is designed for people about a meter away...so if you're 15 rows back pinging of shots of a band...you're really just taking stunning portraits of the backs of the heads of the few rows in front of of you.
Share the love
If you're taking photos at a gig and you see another photographer...just remember, they're not the enemy or the competition!
Realistically they are the only other person in the room who is facing the same challenges as you, and most likely the only other person you can learn anything from. So don't be afraid to strike up a conversation, and like their photos on Instagram the next day. If you're feeling really generous, why not grab a quick photo of them in action and send it through to them. Just as chef's are less likely to be invited around for dinner (as people feel increased pressure to make an amazing meal), I can pretty much guaranteed that most photographers have very few photos of them in action (in fact I think the only photo I have of me in action, is me giving a photographer friend the finger while taking photos at a wedding!)
At the Corner Hotel gig I got chatting to one of the other photographers (the remarkably awesome Samantha Meuleman ) and during the next music shot grabbed this shot of her.
Is it the greatest photo? No. Was 'here's a photo I took of you while you were at work!' an awkward conversation starter? Yes. But do I have any regrets? No!
So there you go...some of the lessons I've learned on my journey so far. If you've got any tips you'd like to throw my way, I'm always keen to hear them.
Best photos of 2021
It's perhaps a good indication of the sort of year that 2021 was, that when I looked at some photos from January, I genuinely didn't believe they had been in the last year.
'A photo of Uncle Jack Charles?! Wasn't that 2 years ago!?'
'A family camping trip to Wilson's Prom? Didn't we got to Narnia this year?'
Time and reality were at best 'fluid' for 2021, and at worst...well...2021. A LOT of time within 5kms of the house, and VERY little time feeling relaxed and inspired enough to get creative.
But there were still photos to be had and moments to be captured, so without further ado and in no particular order, here are my top 10 photos of 2021!
Uncle Jack Charles
Admittedly it's statistically impossible to take a bad photo of Uncle Jack...it's still awesome when you do. If nothing else, it means you've had the chance for him to tell you a story about how being able to read and write offered him protection in Pentridge...or his first ever play at the Pram Factory...or about being a cat burglar.
He's a genuine source of light, enthusiasm and warmth, and I think this shot captured that.
The Prom
The focus for this trip to Wilson's Prom was our first ever overnight hike...and so I decided to leave my camera gear at home and live or die by the iPhone.
This meant that on one day I was returning from a walk, when Katie and the kids were heading off in the kayaks. The sun was setting over the hills in the background, the kids were my mid-ground...and Katie was the foreground. The moment was only going last a few seconds, but that's all it takes to take your phone out and take the shot!
Shantilly clad
If you're a 'proper' photographer taking photos at a gig, you're normally only allowed to take shots for the first three songs (don't ask my why...I don't make up the rules). Which usually means you're frantically trying to get as many shots as you can for those three songs. But if you're taking photos at a venue like the Wesley Anne, you can actually take the time to experiment and get something different!
In this case it was the old 'hold a lens in front of your camera and take a shot through it' trick.
Also this is a band called 'Shantilly Clad' who sing sea shanties...I had to make sure they made the top 10, purely for their name.
Preston fog
We have the level crossing removal work going on in Preston at the moment (for people outside of Melbourne, we have things called 'level crossings' that basically stop traffic to allow trains to go through...and we're getting rid of them by elevating the train lines so that the trains can travel unimpeded...and cars can be stuck in traffic caused by other cars, rather than by trains). On one night had some really heavy fog, and I had borrowed a friends 12mm Samyang lens...and so I thought I'd put on my 'street photographer' hat and get some shots.
I was having some issues working out how to get the lens to focus when about 10 metres in front of me, this guy walked out of his front gate in a long coat and golf-cap. With his collar turned up and the thick fog, he looked like something from a le Carre spy novel and I tried desperately to get a shot. But by the time I'd sorted the focus, he was already too far away and so I took this shot as I walked after him.
I knew the shot I wanted to get, and this wasn't it...but when I looked back at the photo a few days later...I really liked it.
Seagulls on the Portland pier
With the exponential improvements in camera technology, the ability to take a great photo has never been easier. So a lot of the challenge is now being there to take the photo...and having the patience to wait for the moment to play out.
I had originally been trying some long exposure shots, until I realised that the whole pier actually moved with the waves, and so getting a non-blurry long exposure was going to be impossible. I saw a few seagulls at the end of the pier under the light, and so I sauntered over to compose my shot, then waited for more to arrive. When enough had arrived I thought I had my shot...but then a few took off and I realised that was the shot I wanted. So I waited a bit longer until this moment.
It's something that I've learnt from years of doing video work, sometimes you have to set up a shot, and then wait for someone or something to populate it. If this means you have to sit on a cold pier for an extra 10 minutes while local teens chuckle at the guy on all fours looking at seagulls...then this is the sacrifice you have to make for your art!
Strike a pose
After years of taking photos, I would say I am very confident in my ability to capture a candid moment. An unscripted, spontaneous moment. But ask me to create that moment...and my confidence evaporates.
Getting people to pose in a way that makes them look good, is really hard!
So I watched an instructional video from Lindsay Adle and dragged Holly out in front of the camera...and this was one of the shots that I got.
There were a number of shots that didn't work, and it was really interesting to see how a comfortable pose can make for an unflattering photo, while poses that felt terribly contrived looked great in the final product.
Sunset over sea
It's fair to say that the wind blows strong at Sandy Point...and usually onshore. So any day where the wind is down and the swell is up has to be taken advantage of. On this day we had arrived just after lunch and spent the arvo in the surf. After dinner I went down to the beach to take some photos and the surf looked so good, I ran back to the house, put the still damp boardshorts back on and charged back to the surf with Josh.
It was magic! The waves were being held up by a slight offshore breeze and the sun was setting through them just before they broke. It was a constant battle between catching the waves and capturing them.
This shot was taken on the GoPro as the last light from sun set over a softening sea.
Lisa Mitchell at the Corner Hotel
As someone who has attended quite a few gigs at the Corner Hotel in Richmond, it was pretty exciting to get to take some photos there. I demonstrated just how excited I was by taking about 15,000 photos.
I really love this shot because it shows some of the things I've learnt over the last 5 years.
- When an opportunity presents itself...take it! Up until about 10 minutes before this gig I was still trying to sort out a problem for a job the next day, and nothing would have been easier than saying 'no' to travelling to Richmond on Thursday night to take some unpaid photos.
- Try not to take the same photo again and again. Get low, get wide, get tight, look for reflections or interesting framing. I know I missed a few shots changing to get onto the wide-angle lens...but it was worth it!
- Compostion counts - I was in 'the pit' (the fenced off section between the stage and the crowd) with two other photographers, and I had to work to get this position right in front of Lisa and then frame her between the foldback speakers
Danny Ross
I've been lucky enough to have Danny Ross ask me to take photos of a few of his gigs. In a year when live music has taken such a pounding, getting to see Danny play live was a constant reminder of just how important live music is.
Up until this gig, I'd never taken shots of Danny with a proper lighting rig..and the way so much of this shot is blown out and faded but Danny's face is still exposed properly...lets me know that I made the most of the opportunity.
After the storm
One of my COVID-19 habits has been to walk almost every day past 'The Tannery' skate park in Preston. It's basically an abandoned lot that some local skaters have converted into a skate park.
I was on one of these walks just after a storm had passed the through and decided to duck in and see if there were any photo opportunities. The setting sunlight was diffused by all of the moisture in the air and the in the calm after the storm there was water on the ground and no wind in the air, making for the perfect conditions for a 'reflection' shot.
It was then just a question of getting down low and getting the framing right, setting the iPhone to RAW, convincing the dog to stop walking through shot...and then taking the photo.
So there you go. 2021 in 10 photos. Three photos of live music, two photos on the phone, one on the GoPro, one on a $10K camera I borrowed from Fuji, and one on a lens borrowed from a friend. Pretty reflective of a year where it was hard to plan for anything, you had to take your opportunities where you found them, and where family and music were the most important things!
iPhone photograpy ...the follow up edition
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about using my iPhone on an overnight hike. Regrettably this did not result in Apple swiftly getting in touch and insisting that I take up a role with them as their official photographer. In fact all it did yield was some people asking me how I actually got the shots to look like they did.
Now clearly, only an idiot would give away their trade secrets...so here I go.
It's not about the technology...no wait...it is!
Earlier this year I upgraded from an iPhone 6 to an iPhone 12 Pro. Now I can promise you that if you have an older phone, then the tips I'm going to give you will help you get better photos...but I also know that if I had taken these photos on my old phone, they wouldn't have looked anywhere near as good. And besides, the battery would only have lasted for the first 35 minutes of the hike.
Composition and technique help...but so does millions of dollars of Research and Development! So as with most things in photography, the more money you throw at your equipment, the more people say 'How did you get that photo?!'
But telling people you can take better photos by dropping $1,200 on a phone seems like the sort of advice that inevitably leads to a global financial crisis (albeit one that is beautifully captured in photos on Instagram), so here are some tips that won't cost you a cent!
Light bro
We've all had that experience of incredible light. Whether it's the last fading light of a summer's day, or the first golden rays in the morning, or that incredible light that comes after a big rain storm. You can take pretty much any photo in that light and it will look amazing. Why? Because the light is being diffused. Whether it's because the sun is just rising or setting and so is only hitting you with about 10% of its light...or because the light is being reflected around by moisture in the air. The result is beautiful soft light.
The antihesis of this is pretty much any photo taken in Australia from 10am - 5pm, where the brutal sun just a makes everything look flat and unispired.
So the first step to getting a great shot on your phone is to get up nice and early when that light is at its subtle best.
Setting the exposure
If you have your phone with you...bwah ha ha! Just kidding. Of course you have your phone with you! So seeing as you have your phone with you, load up the camera and find a shot where there is something bright (a window or light), and something dark (perhaps an open cupboard or shaded area), and then put your finger on either of these spots. When you put your finger on the bright part, you should see everything else get a little darker...and when you put your finger on the darker part, you should see that the everything gets brighter (to the point where the bright part gets really bright).
I know what you're thinking 'Cool story Chris...but how does this help me?'
Well, the reason this is happening is because normally your phone is looking at a scene and trying to find the right balance so that the bright parts aren't too bright and the dark bits aren't too dark. It's a bit like making a decision by committee, you don't come up with the best result...just the one that people hate the least. When you put your finger on the screen you are telling your camera 'This is the part that I want you to get right...and everything else can just work around it!' So for example with this shot, it's the colour in the sky that draws you in.
But if I had just taken this photo as the phone wanted to take it, it would have tried to capture the detail in the shadows on the log in front, or the hills, and so would have added a lot of light...and in doing so, would have made the sky a white mess. So I put my finger on the sky, told the phone that this is what I want it to get right, and this is the result.
Tragically I have missed out on highlighting the beauty of the birdshit on the log...but these are the sacrifices you have to make as a photographer.
Similarly if you're ever at a gig or a concert and someone is up on stage with a spotlight on them, press on the screen where their face is so that the phone knows to expose for that and it will make the background really dark, but have them perfectly lit.
There was a distinct lack of spotlights on the hike we did...but there some burnt out tree stumps...so exposing for the person's face in the full light, made the blackened stump fall away to a perfect black background.
Composition
I think we've all had the experience of walking into an incredible natural scene, being overwhelmed and taking a photo...then thinking "Wait...that looks a lot more shit than I remember!" I call this the 'Every phone photo ever taken of the moon' phenomenon.
My non-scientific belief is that the experience you have is of feeling humbled by all that you're taking in, but your phone can't replicate that feeling (an iPhone 12 makes you feel many things...but 'humble' is not one of them).
My photographic approach to dealing with this is wonderfully contradictory!
First and foremost you need something in the foreground to give the grandeur behind it some perspective.
At the same time...going for the 'Pano' approach allows you to take in a larger portion of the scene, while getting rid of a lot of the sky and ground (I think as humans we can see a bit of sky and a bit of the ground and imagine how the rest of the sky and ground looked). Unless the sky or the ground is the part that's interesting, focus the viewer's eyes on what you want them to be looking at.
Also, speaking as someone who once had to 'stitch' 3 photos together in Photoshop (before this was an automated process)...the fact that you can just wave your camera around a scene and your phone will turn it into something comprehensible, is as much a modern-miracle as any life-saving drug!
Get low
We spend most of our lives walking around and looking at things from between 5-6 ft high. So if you want your photo to get people's attention, try shooting from a different height. In particular...get low...especially if there's water around for a reflection!
Getting high can also help your photography...but that feels like a different blog.
Post-production
This may come as a shock...but I didn't buy a special edition iPhone to take my black and white shots...I actually converted them to black and white in post-production! Similarly, I will almost always adjust the contrast, or pull back the exposure, or raise the shadows, or add a vignette to a photo before I publish them.
The person looking at the photo doesn't get to smell what I was smelling or hear what I was hearing...so I'll be damned if I don't try my best to engage them visually!
All of these options built into your phone, and you can 'undo' any change you don't like. So start experimenting and see what you can do!
If you have access to something like Adobe's 'Lightroom', then you can have even more fun working on your photos...just try to get past the 'add heaps of 'clarity' to everything' stage as quickly as possible. Like 'instant noodles' and 'undercut' haircuts, we all have to go through that stage...but it's nothing to be proud of.
So there you go...some free tips on how to raise your phone photography game...for everything else, just drop a distressing amount of money on a new phone!
The best camera is the phone you have with you.
There's an old photography adage that 'the best camera you have, is the camera you have with you'. In other words, it's no use bemoaning the fact that you don't have your $5,000 camera as a Yeti rides past on a Segway...you need to use whatever you have at your disposal to capture this moment!
For the last 10 years this 'camera you have with you' has been a phone camera, and over the last 10 years the phone camera has evolved from 'if you squint you can kinda see what I was trying to capture' to 'this is only half as bad as I would have done with my proper camera'. But last weekend I went for an overnight hike with my family at Wilson's Prom, and my iPhone got promoted to 'this is the only camera I need!'
So I thought I'd write a quick blog post about how it felt to take my proper camera gear with me...and never take it out of its case.
'So I just push this button?'
There is a very specific feeling of dread that happens when someone offers to take a photo with your camera. Invariably this will be when you're taking a group shot, and someone will say 'Hey, do you want me to take the photo?' Sadly, societal norms mean that you can't respond by saying 'That depends...are you going to f*&# this up?' So instead you will switch all your settings to 'auto' and say 'Just press this button. No, not that button...this button'. Then they will hold the camera at arm's length as if it's a feral cat that's trying to maul them to death...will press a button other than the one that you told them to...will frame the photo so that it's only your upper-bodies and 3kms of sky above you...and when you look at the photo, while everyone else is smiling, you have a look of 'WTAF are you doing?!' on your face.
But put a phone in their hands, and people will happily snap a series of in focus, nicely framed images where you are actually smiling...like this one!
'OK guys...just hang on a second, Dad's just going to take a photo'
You had best believe that any time this sentence is uttered...the response is a series of groans.
Worst of all, these groans are 100% justified. Because the translation of the sentence is actually 'Hang on for five minutes while Dad breaks any momentum that we'd generated so that he can unpack his camera, then decide he needs to change lenses, then get increasinly angry as no-one is able to re-create the happy scene that had inspired him to take out his camera five minutes ago'. But with a phone, you can simply take out the camera as you walk and get the shot.
Yes, but Chris, I'm an artist!!
Of course you are! And you will not be able to take epic landscape shots that you can blow up and print for your wall...or take tack-sharp portraits...but DAMN you can get pretty close!!!
Photos on the run
There may be times when I decide that it's worth carrying the extra weight of my proper camera on a hike or bike ride...but there is NO chance I'm carrying a camera when I'm out for a run. Because I simply don't need to make that any harder than it already is. But at the same time, I tend to do most of my running in the early morning as the sun comes up, and there have been many times that I'd wished I had a decent camera with me. Now I've got the best of both worlds. Now I can carry my phone, listen to podcasts, and if hypothetically speaking, there were an incredible sunrise...or a wallaby...or I see that the rest of family are about to paddle of up a river...I can take a shot!
So there you go. I don't intend this to be an advertorial for any phone in particular...nor am I about to sell my Fuji gear. But what a time to be alive when I can get these sorts of photos out of the same device that I can also ignore your phone calls on!
My top photos of 2020
As I count down the hours until I have to return to work for 2021, I thought I should enjoy my annual trip down memory lane by putting up my top 10 photos for 2020.
Now I know that in the past I've done my top 18 in 2018, and my top 17 in 2017...but there is simply no way I can be bothered doing 20 photos for 2020. I tore the tendons in my ankle, Ruth Bader Ginsberg died...and I'm pretty sure there was something else that happened that wasn't good. So in no particular order, here are my top 10, and you can just assume the other 10 are screenshots from Zoom meetings where I'm saying 'You're on mute'.
National Photographic Portrait Prize
Impressed with how many times I can work the fact that I was a finalist in the National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP) last year into conversation? Well you should be...and you should be glad I now have to devote equal gloating time to this and the Ironman I did in 2015.
This is a photo that acts as proof that it actually did happen. I actually did get to go to Canberra, and see my photo hanging in a gallery, and get a lanyard with that photo so that people could decide if they wanted to come over and talk to me about it, and that the event where it was all going to be announced had to be scaled back drastically because of COVID restrictions...and I thought that this was DEFINITELY THE WORST THING THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME AS A RESULT OF THE PANDEMIC!!!
Good times...good times.
Horsing around
The day after the NPPP, we took my daughter and niece to The Saddle Club where they learnt how to groom, feed, saddle, and ride horses. In my head this was going to be an amazing place to get some photos...in reality, it was bushland that was recovering from recent bushfires and was in full sun that made everything look 'meh'.
But at the end of the day, one of the instructors was walking along a corridor inside the house and I saw this photo opportunity. So all hopped on the confidence that being a finalist in the NPPP (and also an Ironman) brings, I asked if I could take a quick portrait, and this was the result.
I love the colours, and the light, and the fact that Grace was rocking a hat that I could never dream of wearing.
Opportunities and bees
The last couple of times I've driven to Warrnambool, Google Maps has taken me via Camperdown and past this abandoned house/shed. Each time I've seen it I've thought "That would be a great photo!" But each time I've also thought "I'm already late for whatever it is we're filming in Warrnambool so I can't stop!"
But late last year I was heading home from a job (there's nothing better than driving to Warrnambool, doing a days work and then driving home at the end of it!) and I saw the shed, and I saw the wheat, and I saw the skies, and I realised I had to pull over and get the shot or I would never forgive myself.
So I found a spot where I could park, and waded my way through the waste-high wheat, keeping a keen eye out for snakes. When I got to the shed I could see a small swarm of bees by the door. I'm not particularly worried about bees, and have a strong belief in 'If you don't bother them, they won't bother you'. So I took a few shot in and around the shed. But the whole time, there were a few bees flying around my head...then they started landing in my hair, then they started stinging my head, then I started flailing my arms wildly and running at high speed through the wheat back to the car, all the while trying not to drop my camera or get bitten by a snake (although I did wonder if I got bitten by a snake AND a bee at the same time, would I get super-powers?)
Mid-scamper back to the car I looked back at the shed hoping I wouldn't see a plague of bees coming my way...instead I saw this shot. I took one shot standing up, and then another crouching down to make the wheat the foreground.
I was really happy with the result...and it nearly made up for the long drive home with bee-stings in my forehead.
Just a test
If there were a theme to the portrait shots that I'm really happy with, it would be 'people not smiling, but not unhappy, in black and white'. This is a case in point.
On the last day that I had the GFX (Fuji's Medium format camera) I spent the whole day taking portraits with my softbox. Dad was the first cab off the rank and so this shot was literally a test shot to dial in my settings. The shot was badly over overexposed, but the incredible amount of data in the medium format images meant I was able to pull it back in post-production, and it's one of favourite photos from the day.
It's also a fitting tribute to Dad's 'Lockdown beard'.
They shoot piers don't they?
As mentioned in the previous photo, I was lucky enough to borrow an eye-wateringly expensive camera from Fuji and play with it for a couple of weeks. During that time we went to Lorne and one morning Josh and I got up super-early to take some photos down on the Lorne Pier. I got some really nice landscapey photos of the pier...but I always much prefer to have a human element in my shots. We were just about to go when this old guy in a bright yellow jacket started walking down the pier, I took a few snaps...and this one with the bird just above him just really clicked with me. I liked to imagine that he was such a wily fisherman that he always got the fish, and the birds knew it...that's why they were circling him.
Outfoxed
In that wonderful time in between lockdown 1 and lockdown 2, we were lucky enough to get to Bright. The place we were staying had a billabong, and so I got up to get some 'sunrise over water' shots. I knew that these were going to be purely landscape shots, so I put my wide-angle 10-24mm lens on and trotted down to the billabong. As I stood there trying to work out the best shot, I heard a noise behind me. I assumed it was one of the kids coming to see what I was doing, but when I turned around I saw this fox. Now I know that foxes are pests and eat native animals...and so I shouldn't have been so stoked to see it. But in my defence...check out that tail!
The problem was, I was stuck on my wide angle lens, so unless I could get really close to the fox, it was going to be a very small part of a larger picture. I walked to a different part of the billabong, and noticed that it followed me the whole way. It always kept a safe distance...but was clearly interested in what I was doing. So I just settled into one spot and waited. Sure enough, it came in a bit closer, and then a bit closer still. If I moved the camera in front of my face it moved back, so this was taken from the hip and with a lot of faith in autofocus.
To be honest I just wanted a memento to prove that this really did happen...I didn't need to hear 'Dad's seeing foxes again' from my kids.
'Bones'
At the very start of the year, Holly and Josh got surfing lessons from 'Bones'. He's an incredible character who has been part of Sandy Point for as long as we've been going there.
I was out of surfing action as I had done my ankle and was still in a brace. But after the lesson I asked Bones if I could take a few photos. I was so relieved when he said 'yes' that I really rushed through the photos as I was paranoid about taking too much of his time. As a result, the photos were OK...but I didn't think I'd really captured him as I see him.
Fast forward 11 months and Josh and I are heading out for a surf and Bones is walking in front of us. I had the GoPro with me to take some shots in the surf...so I grabbed this shot. I love the clouds, the green and blue and the leading lines of the fences...but most of all, I had finally captured Bones as I saw him.
Advanced photography in the surf
A good photographer should be able to see the shot they want, compose for it and then nail the execution. What they should NOT be doing, is setting their GoPro for burst mode and taking 10 shots in 3 seconds and simply pointing their camera in the general direction of their subject.
So for the record, I knew that if I took this photo at this exact moment, then I would frame Josh inside the breaking wave as it crashed over me. Furthermore, I was not joyfully surprised when I looked back at the dozens one single photo and saw this.
Caught by the rising tide
I know that for someone who spent a LOT of 2020 not being able to travel more than 5kms from my home...I sure do have a LOT of photos from the beach! Actually the majority of these photos were taken during that brief window between lockdowns. At the time it seemed insane to be travelling from Sandy Point for one weekend, then Lorne the next...after all, we had the rest of the year to travel!
Bwah ha ha! Bwah ha ha! Bwah ha ha ha!
I can't begin to desribe the number of times Katie and I thanked our lucky stars that we travelled while we had the chance!
Anyway, this weekend at Sandy Point was meant to be the starting point of me borrowing the Fuji GFX. But in a magical example of the world mocking my best laid plans, the GFX body arrived in time...but the lenses didn't.
So I was down on the beach, during an incredible sunset, cursing the fact that I had a $10K camera...but no lenses that would fit on it, when these two guys got caught out by a wave that came up a lot higher than its predecessors and I took this shot.
I was a bit filthy that I didn't have the big medium format camera to get this photo, as the colours were so amazing...but in reality, this was such an instinctive shot, that I think I would still have been messing with the settings of the GFX as this unfolded before me.
As they say, 'the best camera, is the one you have with you.'
2020 in a shot
2020 was a year of many things for our family. A lot of time inside, a lot time feeling that people outside were having fun and that we couldn't be part of it, a lot of time walking 'all of Brighton'...and a LOT of time being super grateful to have our Beagle 'Marnie' in the house.
I hope that after the front-line workers get their hard-earned thanks...the pets of Melbourne get some sort of acknowledgment for the work they did keeping us all together during COVID times.
So here's to the dogs!
Uncle Jack & the iPhone
5 years ago I was lucky enough to work on a video shoot with Uncle Jack Charles. It was for an organisation called Malpa who are working to address the vast inequality in health between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. My job was basically to find a suitable location for the shoot (Malpa are based in Sydney, so they needed some local Melbourne knowledge). Never one to pass up an opportunity, I also bought along my camera to grab some stills during the shoot. I got some shots that I was really happy with...but this one haunts me to this day:
This was taken literally as Uncle Jack was heading out through the house we were filming in. There was a light that just illuminated his face as we were walking and I quickly grabbed the shot. It wasn't until I got it into Lightroom that I could see that I had hit the focus on his forehead instead of his eyes...I think I could have retired from photography knowing that I had peaked if I'd just got those eyes in focus!!!
Thankfully that sort of thing doesn't stick in my head, or keep me awake at night, or re-surface any time I look back at these photos. So when Malpa got in contact again and explained that they needed to film Uncle Jack for a TVC, and that due to the ever changing COVID situation they didn't think they could travel down for it, and so would like me to do it...I jumped at the chance.
I mean, had I Directed a TVC before? No.
Did I have a camera that could shoot 4K? Also, no.
Even if I could get a camera that shoots 4K, could I be trusted to shoot pictures and record audio at a quality that was acceptable for TV broadcast? No...again.
But, did this provide me with my best opportunity to get an in focus portrait of Uncle Jack Charles? Yes! So I took the gig.
Here's how it went.
Location, location, location!
Malpa had said that they wanted a 'grungy, Melbourne laneway' for the location...but with $0 budget, there was no way I was going to find a cool laneway that we could section off for our use, and any other laneway that we tried to just rock up and shoot in ran the risk of traffic noise, people in their backyards, and of course if it was raining on the day, then we were stuffed. I also had some concerns about getting a man in his late 70s to walk along uneven cobblestones while looking to the camera delivering lines (the thought of the headline 'Man who took out-of-focus photo of Uncle Jack Charles 5 years ago, now forces him to have a knee reconstruction after laneway mishap' really didn't appeal). But I found a few options near our house that had potential.
Then on my morning run one day, I found a location that offered both 'native bush' and some graffitied walls that could offer 'urban grunge'...and more importantly 'place to film if it's raining'. I pitched the idea to Malpa and they were happy with it. So I now had two locations...this was going to be great!
As part of my rigourous pre-production, I headed back to the location in the mid-arvo, as this was when we were likely to be filming, to see if the light was ok. It turned out that there a significant difference in light between 8am when I had taken the photos...and 3pm when we returned. It was almost as if the sun had moved and become brighter over the course of the day...weird.
Unfortunately this meant that the graffiti just near the bush location was out of action as it was in full-shadow and was too dark. But if we just headed over the bridge (about 200m) and down to underpass on the other side, there were some great options.
We had two locations again...this was going to be great!
Timing's everything
I got in contact with Uncle Jack to sort out a date for filming. Unfortunately, the first day that was an option for him was when I was going to be down at Warrnambool with the family, so I proposed a few dates in between when we got back from Warrnambool and when we headed to Sandy Point, but neither of these worked for him. Malpa were hoping to have the TVC's ready for broadcast from Australia/Invasion Day, so our timelines were getting a bit tight. So I decided that if push came to shove, I could head back to Melbourne from Sandy Point to do the filming, and the return to Sandy the next day. The only day that didn't work was Tuesday as that was when Josh and I were going to Tooraddin airfield for flying lessons, so I said to Uncle Jack "I can do any day after Tuesday"...and he said "Tuesday is great! Lock it in!"...and I thought 'I think he's messing with me!...but he's somebody who has served time in Pentridge with Chopper...AND has worked with Hugh Jackman...I'm not going to risk it!'
So it was agreed that Josh and I would drive from Sandy Point to Tooraddin, have our flying lessons, then drive to Melbourne to film in the late arvo. I wasn't going to be doing the edit, so I could just upload the footage overnight and we could head back to Sandy the next day.
Josh had been at the shoot 5 years ago...and I was keen for him to help out on this one as well.
Fuji comes through
I figured I was probably never going to get another chance to take some photos of Uncle Jack, and so decided to roll the dice and get in contact with Fujifilm Australia to see if I could borrow one of their Medium Format GFX cameras again. Against all the odds, and indeed against their better judgment, the magnificent Neil at Fujifilm made it happen! So I now had a confirmed time and location with an Australian National Treasure, a graffitied location that was going to make for an epic portrait, AND a medum format camera to take it with!
This was going to be great!!!
Can we shoot this on an iPhone?
Unfortunately the date I'd locked in with Uncle Jack didn't work for the DOP (Director of Photography...cameraperson) that I had hoped to work with. This meant that I would have to shoot the video, and seeing as I didn't have a camera that shot 4K (one of the requirements for the final product), I was going to have to hire a camera.
Now I CAN shoot on professional cameras, but in much the same way as I CAN eat an entire Tiramisu. Just because I can...doesn't mean I should ( while both will lead to an amazing story to tell after the event...in reality, they will also lead to very high blood pressure, and no sleep).
If you've ever seen a film crew, you may ask yourself 'What are ALL those people doing? Surely they don't need all of them!' And 90% of the time that's true...but it's in those critical 10% of times where you need a dedicated professional to get the best camera shot, or realise that that there was a background noise that ruined the take, or someone to say 'you missed a line of dialogue here', or to realise that the shot was a little out of focus...that can make a difference between the success and failure of your entire project.
With this in mind, I was a little wary of being the DOP, Director, Script supervisor, and sound recordist...especially if I was using a camera I didn't know. So I asked to hire a friend's camera that shot 4K and that I had shot on before...but promptly managed to miss this by a day.
So I suddenly had a script, an amazing actor, locations, a fancy stills camera...but no video camera that could shoot 4K!
Unless of course, I looked to use my new iPhone. After all, it shot 4K, did 10 bit colour, and had amazing autofocus & stabilisation. If I put my non-existent budget towards hiring some audio gear, and promoted Josh from 'general dogsbody' to 'audio recordist'...and roped Katie into doing the clapper-board so that we could sync the audio, and using a reflector to bounce in light...then we might be able to make this work!
At the same time, who the hell turns up to a TVC shoot with a renowned Australian actor and says 'Look, I'm a trained professional who clearly knows what he's doing...now if you could just look at my phone and deliver your lines, that would be great!'?
So I did a LOT of YouTube research and eventually convinced myself that I could get the quality that I needed out of the iPhone...and acknowledged that one thing I do bring to a video or photo shoot is the ability to get people to relax and just be themselves. Could I do that while I was also trying work out f-stops and shutter speeds, and make sure I was in focus, and ensure I wasn't moving the camera too much? Probably not.
Plus, if everything went to shit, I would at least have my phone handy to call my DOP and blame them for everything that had happened...or use Google maps to find the nearest deep hole I could throw myself into.
The shoot
Josh and I left Sandy Point at about 9.30am and arrived at Tooraddin airfield in time for our flights. Any day where flying a plane for the first time is the second most scary thing you will be doing that day, certainly makes for an interesting life.
We then drove back to Melbourne, picked up the audio gear, learnt how to use it, waited for Katie to finish work, then drove to the location. On the way there I saw someone driving a scooter with grey hair billowing from under the helmet...as we drew alongside, I realised that it was Uncle Jack. The man knows how to make an entrance!
Once we are all at the location, we did a full run through of the script with a static camera...then did a variation with some camera moves, and took some stills.
We didn't really have enough to make a strong TVC with, but we still had our hero location under the bridge to do, so everything was going to plan.
But as we were walking to the next location, I realised that 78 year old men don't walk as fast 45 year old men who are running on adrenaline and anticipation. By the time we had passed the midway point between location one and two (the bridge between the two locations), I was starting to realise just how insane my idea of getting a shot from the top of nearby hill was. By the time we had crossed the bridge and I had explained that we just had to walk down the hill to the underside of the bridge...Uncle Jack said that he didn't think he could make it down there.
So what could I do?! Explain to a man who had fought against great injustice and who had overcome greater barriers than I could ever understand, yet was still willing to donate his time for a charity...that it was really important to my sense of artistic closure that he should suck it up and press on? Or come up with an alternative location and realise that it's not all about me?
So we improvised a second location...and it looked like balls...and then we filmed on the bridge as another option, but there was too much wind, and if we looked one way we had too much sun behind Uncle Jack...and if we faced the other way, we could see a housing development, that sort of ruined the vibe. But we got it done, and when the video came back from the editor, you'd never know there was a problem in the first place. Why? Because Uncle Jack Charles is a freaking genius, and the level of energy he brought to his performance could have carried any TVC...and because I wasn't a jerk and insist he worked an Olympic distance cross-country event into a video shoot, he still returns my emails!
So what have I learnt?
- Always take on projects that challenge (and scare) you
- Plan meticulously...but make sure you can improvise if you have to
- Trust the technology and play to your strengths
- Fujifilm Australia really do support their photographers
- Katie and Josh are the best video crew you could hope for
- Uncle Jack Charles is a genuinely amazing person, and I'm incredibly lucky to have had the chance to work with him
The TVC will be on SBS from today...and here are some stills from the day:
Fuji GFX
Someone who shouldn't be given access to a very expensive camera, gets to use one anyway.
Have you ever seen an older gentleman in a hideously expensive sports car and thought 'That machine is capable of so much more than you could ever ask of it. That is such a waste of potential!!!' Well me using Fuji's Medium Format GFX is pretty much the photographic equivalent. But that didn't stop me from borrowing one from Fuji try it out. Here's how it went.
The camera
If you've come to this blog knowing a bit about photography, you will already know what a Medium Format camera is...and if you've come to this blog not knowing much about photography you really won't care about pixel counts and sensor sizes. So I won't waste any time throwing numbers at you.
In short, the camera I normally shoot on (the Fuji x-T1) has a sensor about the size of a postage stamp, and the GFX has a sensor about the size of a tea-bag.
Do I think for a second that Fuji want me making this comparison? No.
Do I think it's very helpful for people trying to picture this in their mind? Also, no.
But it basically means that each photo has a lot more pixels and therefore a lot more information and detail. When I had my photo (taken on the x-T1) in the NPPP I had it printed as large as I could without it losing any detail...and when I saw it compared to the other photos, my first thought was 'Why is my photo so small?!' Part of the answer may have been that the other photos were taken with cameras with a bigger sensor.
So part of me wanted to see just what was possible with a camera with a bigger sensor...the other part of me knew that I had purchased my entire Fuji kit (camera body and 4 x lenses) for $5K, and $5K wasn't even going to get me the camera body of a GFX, let alone lenses. So were my photos going to be 4 times better with $20K worth of camera gear? Let's find out! (Narrator's voice - 'They weren't")
The lenses
I was lucky enough to be sent 4 lenses; a 45mm, 63mm, 120mm and 250mm. Instead of banging on about them, here's a snapshot of each:
The 45mm
The 63mm
The 120mm
The 250mm
So what's it actually like?
You 100% feel like a Pro with this camera in your hands. It feels solid and purpose built, the sound of the shutter is brilliant and it has the same functionality as my x-T1 so everything I needed was at my fingertips. The file sizes are enormous! I'm used to having my RAW files as 20mb files on the x-T1, whereas the jpegs that come out of the GFX are 20mb...the RAW files over 100mb! So on my first day of shooting I went to a skate park where I was shooting RAW+Jpeg on burst mode, and just about filled my entire 32GB card! There are a lot of reviews of this camera where people say 'It really made me slow down and consider my composition' which I had thought was a comment on just how much you can fit onto the sensor...but I now realise it was just code for 'I can't afford to buy another hard-drive to store these files!'
I loved the amazing detail in the photos. I loved being able to shoot at f32 for a long exposure and not have to worry about ND filters.
I loved that even shots that were brutally over-exposed could be made to look amazing!
I loved the results I got when using a soft-box or off-camera flash.
But most of all I loved the motivation it gave me to get out and take photos 'You've got $20K worth of camera equipment for a short period of time' is a VERY strong motivator to get out and shoot!
But would I buy one?
Well first and foremost I would like to thank Fuji Australia for allowing me to borrow the camera. Outside of some bizarre 'You've seen this camera in the hands of the best...now see it in the hands of the rest?' angle, there really was no reason for them to take a chance on me. I can't imagine there is a huge demographic of my readership with $20K burning a hole in their pocket just looking for a camera to spend it on. So I can't imagine sales are going to skyrocket after me writing about it. But to Fuji, and in particular Neil, thank you so much for this. You were fantastic to work with, and I really appreciated this once in a lifetime opportunity.
But would I buy one? No. If I had the money would I buy one? Yes. Would I hire one to shoot a wedding or a proper photoshoot? Yes. Is Fuji likely to loan me gear again after saying this? Probably not.
But this is not a reflection on the camera, it's a reflection on where I am with my photography. When I was training for the Ironman and the 3-Peaks, I could never justify buying a new super-fast bike, or super-light wheels to get myself some 'free' speed, until I knew that I had done everything in my power to make myself as fast as possible (train more, lose weight, race smart etc). Not surprisingly I never bought a new bike...because I never got to the spot where the only thing holding me back was my gear. Similarly, there are still SO many things that I can improve with my technique, my discipline, my willingness to approach complete strangers etc that will result in better photographs. I need to get them sorted before I can look to better gear to raise my game.
I have also had my x-T1 for nearly 5 years now. I've shot a documentary on it, multiple videos, weddings, award nominated portraits and even a photo where 9 children are all doing what I wanted them to at exactly the same time!
If, in the process of trying to get an epic shot, my camera got hit by an errant skateboard, or fell into the ocean, or was eaten by a surprisingly fast and aggressive turtle...I could live with it. I certainly wouldn't be happy about it, but I could live with it. And that gives me a level of freedom that simply doesn't come with holding a camera worth more than a family holiday to somewhere NICE.
Plus, if I take a photo with my x-T1 and the 35mm lens and it's an abject failure, people think 'Well, he only has that little camera that looks like it's from the 1970s...what did you expect?!' But if I take a great shot, suddenly I'm a genius who may get upwards of 7 or 8 likes on Instagram! Follow me a @sumo_21 ;-) But if I take a great photo on the GFX people will think 'Well yes OF COURSE he took an amazing photo...he has that amazing camera.' Worse still, if someone sees one the of MANY crap photos I took with it, they'll think 'Why does he have such a fancy camera, when his photos are so average?!'
I. DON'T. NEED. THAT. SORT. OF. PRESSURE!!!
Plus, every photographer knows about Gear Acquisition Syndrome, you always need something to aim for, and if I had a GFX 50, what could I possibly have to look forward to after that?! It's not as if Fuji are going to do a GFX 100 that has a 100 megapixel sensor...I mean that would be insane, and...what? They have made one?!
Oh.
Excuse me...I have to change the entire tone of this blog...and then make a grovelling call to Fuji!
My National Photographic Portrait Prize photo
A behind the scenes peek at how I shot my National Photographic Portraiture Prize photo.
This year I was fortunate enough to be a finalist in the National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP), and I thought I might let you all take a peek behind the curtains at how the photo came to be.
Now clearly I'm setting myself up to fail a bit here, if you've come to this blog because you're interested in the NPPP, then you're probably relatively au fait with photography, and so will be pulling your hair out when I'm explaining why I went with a 56mm f1.2 lens...and for people who are regular readers of my blog, you'll probably be saying 'I don't even know what f1.2 means, and I care even less about why you went with f5.6 for this photo. Just tell me how I can take a similar photo!!!'
But you're all stuck at home and looking for distractions, and I managed to get an entry into a nationwide portrait competition using a 6yo APS-C camera, so you can all shut your pie-holes and read on...then complain bitterly in the comments section.
Background
Now clearly, what I would love to say is 'I had a clear vision for this photo. I wanted the rabbit to represent new life / innocence / modern cuisine, and I spent hours on the lighting setup at the studio I hired. Then I said to the model (who was was incredibly excited to be working with a photographer of my calibre) "Give me a look that is simultaneously; strong, vulnerable, stoic, protective and beguiling." Then I nailed it in one shot, and my team of assistants packed away the gear while I lay on a chaise-lounge contemplating my brilliance'.
But the truth of the matter is that Katie (my wife) wanted a few headshots for a conference she was presenting at, so I set up my soft-box in the kitchen, and when I had finished I asked if the kids would pose for a few photos. Holly (my daughter) asked if she could go and get 'Pebbles' (her rabbit) and I thought that could be fun. So I took some photos of the two of them.
The tech stuff
The light - About 7 years ago I bought some second-hand flash gear. This included; an Alien B strobe, a soft-box, beauty dish, ring light and stands. I think I have probably used the beauty dish and ring light about 4 times in total since then...mainly because I just don't seem to be able to make people look good with them.
But the soft-box I love! It always makes people look great, and I've found a setup that allows me to use a blank wall in our kitchen as the background.
The lens - When I made the move to Fuji four years ago, I used one of Zack Arias' guides as to what to buy. In the end I went with; the 35mm f1.4 as my carry around lens and proxy 'nifty-fifty', the 50-140mm f2.8 to give me some zoom if I'm shooting weddings or anything I can't get up and close and personal with, and the 10-24mm f4 for anything wide. These three lenses pretty much covered off every eventuality and would get me into and out of as much trouble as I could hope for as a photographer.
So the fact that I also purchased the 56mm f1.2, is very hard to justify! With enough light I'm never really going to need f1.2, and the 85mm focal distance is covered by the 50-140mm. So this really was a vanity purchase. I have always loved taking photos of people, and to have a lens that is almost exclusively designed for this purpose was too great a temptation. Plus, as a 40th birthday present to myself, it seemed a lot cheaper than the Porsche 911 I was also hankering for.
So any time I get to use this lens, there is a degree of 'See?! I told you I needed it!'
The setup - I basically try to get the light as close to the subject as possible. Given that I'm shooting in my kitchen, and I can't move the bench that people are sitting at, or the wall behind them, I find that getting the light as close as possible to them gives me the softest light on them, and the best fall-off of the light on the wall behind them. A better photographer would be able to quantify and explain this...but I did NOT win the yr 10 drama prize by being good at STEM!
The light is above and the left of the subject (from my perspective and is on about 60 degree angle. This is due to the hypotenuse of a triangle being relative to Gould's Law of thermodynamics, and...nah...just kidding, I just like it being there.
Settings - f5.6 (because anything lower and it gets overexposed...and in this case, it also meant I got both Holly's eyes and the rabbits eye nice and sharp!), ISO200 (because that's as low as I can get it on X-T1 in RAW) and 1/180 because that's as fast as I can go and still sync with the flash.
The pose
Having seen all of the finalists in this year's NPPP I realise how lucky I was to make the cut. I get the distinct feeling that about 90% of them would have been great photos no matter what their subject had done. They have put time and effort into the story-telling part of their photo, and the subject is just completing it. Whereas my entire photo hangs off Holly's expression. I do pride myself on being able to get people comfortable in front of the camera so that I can catch those candid little moments. But as I said earlier, this was not part of a grander plan, and I can only thank Holly for being such an amazing person to photograph.
The post-production
Any time I'm doing a workshop, or working with people who are new to photography, I see how blown away they are by what a little post-production can do. I'm also regularly dazzled by people who think that any sort of post-production is 'cheating'.
So if you're from the 'post-production is cheating...in the olden days they just relied on what came out of the camera, blah, blah, blah' school. Then rest assured that I shot this on some Agfa Scala 200x film and then spent time in my dark-room sniffing chemicals and adjusting my exposure times.
If you're comfortable with a digital world, then I'll tell you that I used a VSCO emulation of the Agfa scala 200x film in Lightroom and then played around with the colour temp, exposure, clarity etc
What's next?
Now that I've supped from the NPPP cup and felt the thrill of having someone who isn't directly related to you saying that they like one of your photos...I want more...MORE!
So I'm already planning a few more extravagant portraits shoots, and would definitely like to have a play with a camera with a bigger sensor to see what difference that really makes.
But with the current restrictions on travel and meeting people outside of my immediate household...it may be time to bust out the soft-box and demand the kids stand in front of it again!
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020
My experience as a National Photographic Portraiture Prize finalist.
In what was described by some people as 'an affront to a once-great institution' and others as 'that's nice dear', I was a finalist in this year's National Photographic Portrait Prize (NPPP).
Before you become too invested in this, I will warn you that I did not win. But it was still an amazing experience that I would love to share with you.
The lead up
A lifetime of New Year's Eves has taught me not build events up too much. If you go in with minimal investment, and even less expectation, at worst you will get exactly what you anticipated. But I was really excited about this! I had no delusions of winning, but just getting the chance to see one of my photos in the National Portrait Gallery and getting to swan around with actual, bona fide photographers, seemed like a pretty good way to spend a night.
So Katie and I hatched a plan. I would take three days off work, and we would do a family road-trip up to Canberra. We could stop at Illabo on the way and stay with some friends there, and I could use the time to get some great photos along the way. A road-trip so often throws up photo opportunities that haste to get your destination, or a back-seat full of surly children, ensure never become actual photos. So I was really excited about having an excuse to make photography a feature of the trip...after all, it was photography that made the whole trip possible!
Then I got to thinking, if I'm going to be taking such amazing photos, I really should see if Fuji would be willing to lend me a GFX for the trip in exchange for some photos and social content. I could shoot with a camera that I could never afford, and they would get some free publicity!
Everyone wins!
This was going to be great!
A family road-trip, an epic camera I had always wanted to try shooting with, and a night where I get to extort information out of some amazing photographers!
But then of course, the Gods looked down and said 'Chris looks so happy! Look at his contented face...and look at how he has dreams and aspirations! Let's throw a veritable shit-storm at him!'
And so we found out that Holly had her School Photos on the Friday of the event (these would be her photos from her first year of High School and so she really wanted to be there), then Xavier had an excursion for school on the Thursday and Josh had a basketball semi-final on the Saturday and his first night of Air Cadets on the Friday night, and Katie got work on the Wednesday and a gig on the Sunday arvo, and Holly got invited to a horse-riding birthday party on the Sunday, and Holly's brass band got a slot at the Preston Market, and Fuji explained that they didn't have a GFX I could borrow...and, well...I started to feel that perhaps this was not going to be the epic experience I had hoped for.
So, to cut a long story marginally less long, I ended up driving to Canberra with Xavier on the Thursday, Katie and Holly flew up on the Friday to arrive just in time for the big event at the Portrait Gallery, and Josh stayed home. We would stay with my sister and niece at their place, and my Mum and Dad would travel up and stay in a nearby hotel.
The big event
So having spent all of Thursday driving, and listening to an audiobook that told the story of what happened on Tattooine between the time Obi Wan Kenobe landed there with a baby Luke Skywalker, and when Luke came and found him as an adult (I shit you not...this is what I listened to). It's fair to say that my excitement for the event on Friday night had been tempered a tad. But all of this was turned around on Friday morning when the National Portrait Gallery called my mobile!
Now I have been involved in enough events to know that the winner is usually given a bit of heads up so that they can plan a speech, or at the very least, ensure they will be wearing pants at the award ceremony. And here was the Portrait Gallery calling me on the morning of the event! This could mean only one thing...I had won the National Photographic Portrait Prize!!! $50K worth of prizes and a lifetime of bragging rights! This was amazing! This was UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
Indeed it was unbelievable, because the first thing Sheridan from the Gallery told me was that the reason that she was calling me was because the event that night had been cancelled because of the Corona Virus.
So that was cool.
On the bright side, I now had all of the time I would have spent writing a speech and putting on pants, to go and take some photos around Canberra. Plus there was still going to be an event where all the photographers got to see their artwork in the gallery, and where the National Portrait Gallery would announce the winner...and they had organised for the artists to have a dinner in the restaurant of the hotel where a lot of people were staying. So while there wasn't going to be a big event and an after party, there was still going to be an event with the finalists, and a free dinner with a guest of my choice!
Take that Gods!
The event itself was pretty awesome. We all were given a lanyard that had our photo on it which was great as it made it easier for me to stalk those photographers whose work I really liked.
If nothing else, walking around looking at all of the other photos made me realise just how tough it is to be a judge in a competition like this. There were so many amazing photos, so many brilliant stories and so many totally different approaches. But if there was a correct decision...then I think that the judges made it. All three winners (the overall winner, the highly commended and the 'Packer's prize') were all outstanding, and you can see them here https://www.portrait.gov.au/exhibitions/national-photographic-portrait-prize-2020
A huge note of thanks to the judges and the National Portrait Gallery for selecting me as a finalist, and to the NPPP staff who did such an amazing job of still making the event a night to remember, in spite of everything else. And to the staff at the Midnight Hotel who were able to provide meals for all of us at remarkably short notice.
A big thank-you to my sister and niece for putting us up in Canberra, to my parents for travelling all the way up to Canberra, to Katie for pulling out all the stops to get from Melbourne to the gallery in time to see the portrait, to Xavier for being such a great road-trip companion, and last but by no means least, the biggest thanks to Holly (and to a lesser extent Pebbles) for giving me such an amazing portrait!
And of course if you want to vote for the portrait in the 'People's Choice' category...you are more than welcome to here https://www.portrait.gov.au/npppphoto/94441/
Being a finalist in the NPPP
About a month ago, I was working with one of my videographers on the pre-production of a tricky video we were shooting the next day, when my mobile rang. The number came up as 'Unknown' and the location was Canberra, and so I assumed it was a telemarketer. This impression was in no way diminished when my videographer looked at my phone and said 'Oooh, someone's about to save some money on their electricity bill!'
So I think it's fair to say that my tone when answering the phone was dripping with 'You're wasting my very important and valuable time...please sod off!' But then the person at the other end of the line said 'Hi this is Tara from the National Portrait Gallery, and I just wanted to say congratulations, you're a finalist in this year's National Photographic Portrait Prize!'
If you've ever seen a Hollywood car chase where the driver is flying along in reverse and then does an epic skid while spinning the car around and changing into a forward gear, then speeding off in one fluid move.
I was now attempting to do the conversational equivalent of this, as I tried to desperately go from 'Go away telemarketer!' to 'Oh my God this amazing, thank you so much!!!' with the additional degree of difficulty offered by trying to do this while walking swiftly through an open-plan office trying to find an empty meeting room.
I think my response of 'Oh...that is good', really nailed it in terms of conveying how excited I was to have been selected as a finalist, and in no way sounded like I was an underwhelmed jerk who was learning English through an iPhone app.
Thankfully, responding to good news like a human being wasn't one of the pre-requisites for the NPPP, and so I'm still a finalist. Seeing as this isn't a position I ever expected to be in, I thought I'd take you through how I got here.
BUT SPOILER ALERT - I can't post the photo that made it to the final 48. So it isn't in this post!!!
In it to win it
I never buy a Tattslotto ticket on the basis that I have basically the same chance of winning whether I buy one or not. My approach to entering photo competitions has been pretty similar. That's not to say that I haven't had friends and family say things like 'Oh you should enter that in a competition!' or just send me links to photo competitions via Messenger saying 'That photo you took of *insert thing here* would be perfect for this!'.
But these same people say things like 'No of course the haircut looks great!' and 'This is delicious...you can hardly taste that it's burnt'...so their opinion only carries so much weight.
Plus, have you seen the photos that are being submitted? They're really freaking good! Who the hell am I to enter a competition and nominate myself as being in their league?
Not to mention you have to spend more money on an entry fee than a lotto ticket...and you have to spend a LOT more time filling in the entry form on a photo competition than you do on a lotto ticket.
But this year I made a commitment to actually enter a few more photo competitions, because 'Oh but everyone else is so good!' is just another way of saying 'I'm too scared to enter, but I want to sound magnanimous about it!' If there's one thing I wish I'd learnt earlier, it's that opportunities don't fall into the laps of the lazy and introspective...they go to the people who actually take a risk and put themselves out there.
It's also actually a pretty good reality check. In Lightroom I normally rate my photos from 1-5 stars. Any 1-2 stars are deleted, 3 stars are given another look, and if they don't get bumped up to a four they're deleted. I think it's fair to say that my social media feed is pretty much all my four star photos, and I get about a dozen 5 star photos per year. But for a photo competition you need to go through those 5 stars and hope that someone else sees the same things that you see in it.
The cull
I managed to cull my favourite portraits for 2018-19 down to 20 photos, and this was quite a fun process. You get to sit down and go through all of your photos for the year and pick out ones you really like. The next step is not so much fun, you have to start eliminating photos that you really like, and this is even less fun when you have to start getting rid of photos of family members, or choosing between photos of your kids, or getting rid of photos that you know took a lot of effort to take.
I managed to get the list down to 12, and then took it to my family for feedback. They were of course politely brutal and got it down to 7. I then sent this list of 7 to my Graphic Design, Social Media and Video teams at work and asked them for their top three. Herein lies the challenge inherent in asking people to judge artistic endeavour...people like different things. So seven different people came back with 6 different top threes, which was not super helpful. But all 7 had the same photo in their top 3, which was VERY helpful.
A smart person would have just entered that photo, but because I like to make more work for myself, so I entered three photos (but for the record, the one that everyone chose, is also the one that the judges chose!)
The photo
I know most of you are probably just reading this and saying 'stop talking about your bloody culling process and talk about the photo!' Well the simple truth of the matter is that the photo that was chosen as a finalist is actually embargoed until the winner is announced in March (so I will be adding it to this blog then...but not before), but I think that I can safely say it was a photo of one of my kids (about 80% of my photos are of the kids, so I don't think that's giving too much away).
It was taken on my Fuji Xt1 with the 56mm f1.2 lens, and as much as I would love to claim otherwise, it was not pre-conceived or meticulously planned. I had set up my soft-box to take a different photo, and when this opportunity presented itself, I took it.
I would never claim to have the technical skill to manufacture a great portrait, but I do feel I have the personality required to create an environment where a great portrait can happen.
Consent
As part of the submission you have to have the consent of the person in the photo (one of the reasons I never entered this photo of Uncle Jack Charles is because even though he was happy for me to take his photo, I've never been able to get onto him to explicitly say he was happy for me to enter it into a competition!)
It can be really easy to just say, well they're my child, so I'm sure they're happy for me to use the photo. But just as I always ask my kids before I post an image of them on social media, I'd asked my kids if they were happy for me to enter the photos.
I won't lie, it does feel weird asking your kids for permission to do something. But I think it's really important for kids to have control over how they are portrayed to the world, I would have hated to have had numerous moments of my life documented and sent out into the world to live on forever without my permission. It's also a good opportunity to show how a single photo can suddenly take on another life outside of your control once it's in other people's hands.
So parents, get your kids consent before you post that next photo of them on Instagram, they're the ones who are going to have to live with it.
So now what?
Well now I have to get the photo printed and mounted ready for exhibition. And book a trip with the family to Canberra for the big event at the National Portrait Gallery. And spend a LOT of time working out how I can weave the terms 'serendipity' and 'lyricism' into my descriptions of my own photo. And retrospectively charging friends and family for any photos I may have taken of them (it's only fair, and I'm sure they'll understand).
But most of all I'm going to celebrate the fact that one of my photos is going to be hanging in the National Portrait Gallery, and then going on tour around Australia.
And that's pretty amazing!!!
My top photos of 2018
If there's one thing that 2018 taught me, it's that starting a new job REALLY diminishes your photography! I took about 75% fewer photos this year, but I'm not willing to let this stop my annual list of favourite photos. So here in no particular order are my top 18 of 2018, and as a special bonus I've included a music reference in every title...anyone who can guess them all wins a prize!
Sunset studies
I know that a good photographer can manufacture almost any scene...but for the rest of us, we have to just celebrate those moments that you're in the right place at the right time, and you've got your camera...and you get the shot!
You've gotta fight, for ya right...to PARTY!
There's a lot to worry about when your kid's having a party. Will the other kids come? Will they care that there are just basic party games, rather than a unicorn petting zoo or jumping castle filled with Lemurs, or whatever it is that people are paying for now? Katie and I spent the days leading up to this party wondering how we would deal with no-one turning up. This photo let me know that it was all going to be OK.
Dogs are the best people
The big addition to our family this year was this fine looking hound, our rescue Beagle 'Marnie'. You can read about our journey to get her here but given the Beagle propensity to escape, I wanted to get a good photo we could use for the 'Missing Dog' posters.
Uncle John's lament
My Mum comes from a family of 10 kids and at her Brother's recent 80th birthday party she asked me to shoot some portraits of the siblings...I love this one because it's somewhere between Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles and 'The Thinker'. I also know how hard it was to get a serious pose from him when all of his siblings were looking on and mocking from the sidelines.
The last splash
We had told the kids they could have one last splash in the waves at Sandy Point before we headed back for Melbourne. I was trying to get some photos of the Pacific Gulls flying low over the shallows when I saw Xavier running towards the waves. No time to compose the shot, just swing the camera, shoot and hope...and this was the result!
Binalong time
I had gone exploring during a stop at Binalong Bay in Tassie, and decided I would only take my 35mm, as I didn't want to lug my whole camera bag around. When I saw this I cursed myself for not bringing a wider lens. But I did have my GoPro, and so I took the photo on that. The best camera is the one you have in your hands...not the one sitting in the boot of the car!
Treat your Mother right
I have photos of my Mum blowing out the candles on a birthday cake with my kids, and photos of Mum at family events, and even a photo of Mum dressed as Ace Frehley from KISS. But I've never had a shot that I think actually did her justice...and now I do.
Tasmanian still life
Metaphors for life people...metaphors for life. Don't just be part of the dull background! You can stand strong, be vibrant and shine a light in the darkness. But just be aware, that as you do, your mate is vomiting up a gooey yellow mess in the background.I was really proud of this photo when I took it...but now I can't help but feel like it's two daffodils re-enacting drunk people at the Melbourne Cup.
Put the kids upfront
There are thousands of photos of this view, so how do you make yours different? Put a kid in the foreground and let them do whatever they want. Kids don't take direction well, but they do 'whatever they want' remarkably well...and you can't fake authenticity.
Architecture in Tasmania
Sooo, that thing about putting a kid in the foreground of a shot that you really like...that works really well for architectural shots as well, especially if you're at MONA.Of course putting a child in MONA does come with its own consequences. One of the first things you see as you walk into MONA is a wall of plaster-cast vulvas. Our 7yo who was listening to the audio tour looked up at me and innocently said 'This one's called 'C*nts and conversations' Dad...what's a conversation?'Yet another parenting highlight.
It's a soft-box life
It's always a bit of an effort to drag the soft-box and strobe out of the shed, but it does mean that the kids are 23% more willing to let me take their photo. It's always worth it, plus I get to pretend I'm Zack Arias or David Hobby.
There are angels, in your angles
On the final night of our Tassie trip we went out for dinner at a pub in Evandale. There was an enormous sculpture of the word 'RELAX'. This is Josh with his head in the A-hole...and no, I do not intend to reword that.
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment...
I always love getting a shot that captures an experience. Here 'All the way home' were playing a gig in their living room, to an appreciative audience and having a great time.
If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.
As we pulled into Deloraine, the sun was setting through the blossom and a large family all dressed in some sort of religious clothes were walking together next to the lake. I had dreams of taking a photo of them as it was an amazing scene, but by the time we had done an elaborate U-turn and retrieved the camera from where it was packed, the moment had passed. So I settled for this.
This one goes out to the one I love
The stress of shooting a wedding is nothing compared with taking a photo of the person you love. They've heard all your jokes, they know all your tricks, and they will make life VERY difficult if you mess this up. There is also the challenge of breaking through 16 years of marriage, 3 kids, numerous ups and downs, and then capturing the person as you see them. So I love this shot.
My top photos of 2017
There's nothing like scrolling through all of your photos for a year to make you realise how much has happened in 12 months; 40th birthdays, 66th birthdays, weddings, first days of school, international travel, trips to the beach, rain, sunshine, surf, posed portraits, spontaneous moments, and best of all...photos that make you sit back and think 'Man, I'm really happy with that shot!'So of the 3,447 photos that made it through the culling process of this year, and the 192 that were given the coveted '5 star rating' in Lightroom, here are my 20 favourite photos of 2017.
Josh does his Felix Baumgartner impersonation
There is a decent period after you've bought new camera gear, when you are absolutely terrified of getting it wet/dusty/cold/hot. So you miss shots because you're not willing to take a risk. Then at the other end of the spectrum is when you've had a camera for so long that you'll wade into the ocean and takes shots not caring what happens to it...but also knowing, that its best days are behind it, so you may not get the shot you want.But there is also a wonderful mid-point where you a camera will take the photo you want, and that you're willing to hang over your shoulder as you jump from one rock to another over waste deep water and then scramble up a rock tower to take a photo of your 11yo son jump from a feet-tingling height. I'm at that point with my Fuji XT-1...and it's a very happy place.I was also really happy with this shot, as the tide was coming in and if we stayed much longer in that spot we were going to get stranded, and so I knew I only really had one chance to get it. So no pressure...no pressure at all.
Danny Ross at the 303 Bar
My brother in law, Will, was playing drums with Danny Ross for a show at the 303 Bar in Northcote. I will never pass up an opportunity to take photos of a band, because there are always moments in a live performance that give you an insight into who the musician really is, and if you can capture them...they usually make great images. Also, guitars are cool.Over the course of the night I shot, wide, I shot tight, and shot from up high and down low, from outside and inside (no really I did), but it was this shot that I took between two people that really worked. The two shoulders provide a perfect shadowy frame for Danny, plus the light is hitting him enough to illuminate his face under that distinctive hat...and he has an ever so slight rock n roll sneer on his face.In truth, this photo is a mess in colour...but black and white really provides some focus!
Walkerville cave portrait
If you're new to photography and want to try to create a quick and easy 'arty' portrait, get someone to stand somewhere where it's dark but there is a single source of light (a recessed doorway, open garage door, or in this a cave with a hole in the roof), get them to look towards the light, and then expose your shot for their face (or just set your autofocus point for their face) and the resulting shot will knock out the background enough for you to make to their face really pop...but with just enough ambience to give some context.Of course you do still have to convince someone to crawl into a dark cave that smells of rotting sea-weed...but that's why you have kids!!A440 (there is a prize to the first person who can explain this photo title...it's GENIUS!)
If you have ever tried to take a photo of someone giving a speech, you will know that what looks perfectly normal in real-life can look mortifying as a still image. The blink of an eye, the movement of someones mouth, or a gesture with their hand can make them look drunk, psychotic, lecherous or constipated. The same can be said for singers, although to a lesser extent because they tend to hold facial expressions and emotions a bit longer as they hit certain notes...and because they usually want to be singing, whereas people who are making a speech would usually rather be anywhere else doing anything else. So taking a photo of a singer is easier...but then when you add another singer, the difficulty increases exponentially...now you need to capture a moment where two people look great...then you add another person...and then another...and one of them is your wife...and it's her 40th birthday party.No pressure...no pressure. Just capture an image in which all four people look great...and DO NOT STUFF THIS UP!
Fire twirling in North Melbourne
You know that feeling when you're at your best mate's 40.5th birthday and someone dressed in Polynesian attire starts doing tricks with two flaming balls...and you think to yourself 'How am I going to get a good shot of this?' Sure you do. It's a predicament as old as time itself. Just go for 1/6 second, at f1.4 on a 35mm.If you're still saying 'Wait. WTF is a 40.5th birthday!' Then I think you and I can be friends.
Can you just sit there while I test the flash?
Any time I set up the flash for a portrait I ask one of the kids to sit in so that I can make sure it's going to work, my brief is always 'Just sit there, you don't even have to look at the camera'. The combo of a photographer who isn't telling someone what to do, and a subject who isn't trying to be anything but themselves...invariably leads to some of my favourite photos.
Channeling Alain Laboile
I shamelessly stole this from Alain Laboile's 'Reflexion autour du bassin' series where he took photos of the reflection in a pool of water, and then turned them upside down so that the photo looked like a distorted version of the real world. After a hefty downpour here in Melbourne, the lane out the back had some massive puddles...and the kids were dressed in rain jackets and gumboots. So I got may chance to create my own 'Reflection around the puddle' series.
Turin Brakes
While I'm really happy with this photo, this one made the cut because I only got it by having the chutzpah to call a festival promoter and ask for a press pass so that I could shoot it. So I got to spend the first three songs right at the front taking photos of one of my favourite bands...and this shot further assuaged my guilt about buying the Fuji 56mm f1.2 lens.
In the surf with Josh
There are few places I love being more than in the surf. But with young kids, going to the beach becomes more of a 'let's build sandcastles and wade in the knee-deep water' than 'let's head out the back and try to catch some decent waves' experience.But the body-boarding bug has bitten Josh, and he's now strong enough to venture out into the surf with me. In this shot we had made the decision to paddle furiously over a wave, rather then trying to duck under it after it had broken. It had been a close run thing, and we very nearly had the wave break right on top of us, but we'd made it and we were both very happy with ourselves...and the GoPro captured it.
Kids, France and trampolines
It took about 30 hours to get from Melbourne to Paris, and then a terrifying drive for 2 hours in the dark to get to our accom in Normandy. But when we woke up the next morning the kids discovered that there was a trampoline and took to it immediately. So this was among the first photos I took for our trip...and it was probably my favourite! Even though you can't really see either of their faces...you just know they're smiling from ear to ear. Because...well...tramampoline!
Normandy beaches
I would love to claim that I saw this scene and said "Holly, quickly go over there and climb that ladder and then hang off the handle at the top as if you're in a musical from the 1960's!" But in truth, I was pretty much waiting for her to get down so that I could take a landscape shot...and stop worrying about her falling off!But as is so often the case, a landscape looks a whole lot better with a person in it, especially someone who can inadvertently strike a pose like this.
Tuba flamethrower
It's a man in a top hat, playing the tuba, with flames coming out of the top, in London...of course it made my top 20!
The test shot
The plan was to get Katie to walk towards me and I would get the shot just as she came through the doorway, so I was just doing a test shot to make sure my focus was going to be right...and it turned out to be a much better photo than the one I had planned.
Mont St Michel
It's pretty hard to get a shot of Mont St Michel that hasn't been taken a thousand times, so here's one that hopefully only been taken 995 times. A friend of mine showed me this trick of holding a lens in front of the the camera and then taking a shot of what the lens can see.
A bird and an old man
We all got up early and made our way to the Old Man of Storr. When we got there we were one of 3 cars in the car park, so we knew we wouldn't be fighting off the crowds. We were however fighting one 6yo who wanted to make it very clear, that he didn't want to be there. The weather was also ranging wildly from foggy, to drizzling, to raining and all points in between. I only have one weather-proof lens and that's the 50-140mm, and I was having to stop pretty regularly to explain to the angry 6yo that 'No, this wasn't a stupid idea. No, I'm not stupid. No, everyone isn't stupid. No, we can't turn around and head back. No, that's not stupid.'So this is a long way of saying that my photo options were limited...but when I saw this burn circling in the mist, I had a vision of a Tolkienesque image and was really happy with how it came up.
Highland coo
I love these cows. The look like the bovine version of the guitarist from a 90's shoe-gazer band. One of my goals for our trip up to the North of Scotland was to get a shot of one these fine beasts. But our drive from Glasgow to Skye, while offering some amazing potential cow action, was so fraught with traffic issues that the opportunity to just pull over and take a photo just didn't present itself. Having done a lap of the Isle of Skye and still not got a photo of a Highland Cow, I had pretty much given up all hope. Then on our way to our final stop on the Isle of Skye we came across this fine specimen just next to the road. So I hopped out and grabbed this shot, and all was right with the world.
Steam punk
There is something magical about trains, and I can see why they fascinate people young and old (by which I mean, very young and very old). From a photography perspective they are a dream. Everything is on a massive scale, there is polished metal, steam, light & shade, history, and some amazing faces. This is my attempt at capturing all of that in one shot.
The headless bass player of York
After pouncing on the first coffee place we found at 9am in the morning, we had been traipsing around York all day and by 4pm we were pretty keen on finding another coffee emporium. But despite having seen quite a few in the preceding hours, suddenly there were none to be found. As we left the market in the centre of town we could hear a band playing the opening bars of Franz Ferdinand's 'Take me out'. It's a testament to how good these guys were that I actually chose taking photos of them, over getting a coffee (and people who know me, will know that I very rarely choose anything over coffee...least of all complete strangers). But with that late afternoon sun acting as a backlight, and their energy & enthusiasm, I knew I would get something memorable.
The Mae Trio
The Mae Trio's 'Take care, take cover' was my favourite album for 2017...and that's really saying something when this year saw new albums from The War on Drugs, The National and Iron and Wine. So I was pretty excited about snapping some shots of them when they played at the Wesley Anne in Northcote. Sadly the gig was actually a farewell for one of the band (Anita) and so there was a mix of celebration and melancholy on the night. I feel that this shot captured that. I also know that I manually set the focus and waited for a long time to capture capture Maggie looking up and getting that little bit of light in her eyes.I got some photos from the night that I was really happy with, and deep down hoped that they might see them and feel so inspired by them that they immediately wrote a modern-day folk anthem called 'Chris the remarkably good photographer'...but this hasn't happened...yet...probably because 'photographer' is a really hard word to rhyme with.So there we go. I've travelled the world, but taken some of my favourite photos really close to home. I've shot a fair bit of music, and clearly love converting them to black and white. I've tried new things, and refined some other things. I've shot three weddings, and quite a few corporate jobs. I've left my day job of 11 years, gone back to working 5-days a week in a new job, and started a podcast project.So it's been a big year, and I'd like to thank you all for your support...rest assured, I'll be back in 2018.