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29 05, 2013

my dream photography kit 2013

By |May 29th, 2013|personal, photographic equipment|0 Comments

I originally posted this on my other site, www.iteachphotographers.com but thought a good old cross post wouldn’t hurt at all :)

Imagination is key for creatives, and I like to think I have my share. So I thought I would shed some of it working up my dream photography kit. In this particular fantasy, money is no object. The goal is simply to put together a digital slr photography kit based on my own needs and interest that would have me drooling with joy. This of course would be my dream kit, not yours. I’m not going to go into medium format or anywhere else, just 35mm digital slr.  And I’m not simply just buying the most expensive gear out there (though it’s certainly not the cheapest); this would be the gear I would like to buy personally.
Cameras
Let’s start with cameras. I’m not going to be too greedy. I am going to […]

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24 04, 2013

Giselle, Colin and John.

By |April 24th, 2013|Photography, photography teaching, photoshoots|0 Comments

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27 02, 2013

How do I get a website?

By |February 27th, 2013|computers, internet, software discussion, web design|0 Comments

The Internet is a great tool for communication, freedom of speech and democracy (as well as commerce and entertainment of course). On the Internet, everyone is equal (at least in theory) and everyone can have a voice! Getting heard is another issue, but for now, let’s look at how we get our own little patch of turf on the net.
What’s involved in having a website?
There are three main elements in getting a web site up and running. Let’s take them one by one.
Domain Name Registration
The first is a domain name. An example of a domain name would be mywebsite.com. The first step then, towards a website, is registering a domain name. Fortunately this is very easy. There are many Licensed Registrars that sell domain names. Hosting companies often give away free domain names when you purchase a hosting package. And it can be a smart idea to register your […]

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30 01, 2013

High Speed Flash

By |January 30th, 2013|lighting, Photography|1 Comment

I started to look into the various possibilities of high speed flash, and what I thought was a relatively simple area of photography quickly expanded and my investigations seemed to find no end. So I thought I should blog my findings here, as I was a bit frustrated about the lack of resources on the subject myself.

So what is high speed flash? Well, it’s one way to make high speed photography. I make the distinction to separate the effects of shutter speed from the effects of flash. Both can freeze motion. What I’m interested in here is the role flash plays in freezing motion, and looking at the various types of equipment that might be used in high speed flash projects. This post may well be updated along the way, as it’s a pretty big topic…

 (all of the shots above taken with speedlights at low power – click to […]

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26 01, 2013

Scout Photo shoot

By |January 26th, 2013|personal, photoshoots|0 Comments

As a Sunshine Coast photographer, I love doing portraits, and even more so when It’s one of my kids. Here are a bunch of images I took of my beautiful daughter Scout last year in natural light on our balcony. I’ve just been going through my back catalogue and thought they’d make a good photo essay of an awesome young girl!

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20 01, 2013

The Politics of Public Photography

By |January 20th, 2013|Photography|0 Comments

It’s a weird world. It really is. The politics of public photography moves with the times of course, but right now it’s in a radical right wing phase. Over the course of the 30 years I’ve been putting a camera to my eye, the way people generally have responded to the act of photography has changed remarkably. In my teenage years, shooting random stuff on the streets in Sydney, people hardly blinked at me. I used to sit on a bench on a bus street and photograph whatever caught my interest. On private property I occasionally got asked to leave or stop shooting (climbing the Opera House on a Sunday afternoon does come to mind ;) ), but generally I could do whatever I wanted and no one seemed to mind. They instinctively realised I was just exercising my hobby.

Fast track 30 years, to the politics of public photography in this the age of Instagram. I was planning to take […]

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30 11, 2011

From the trenches

By |November 30th, 2011|Photography, photography teaching|0 Comments

From my perspective as a photography teacher, I see how aspirational professionals view photography, and I’m a part of how it’s taught. It’s a massively changing industry at the moment which makes it a moving target as far as teaching is concerned, but it keeps us on our toes.

At the end of the educational year, I thought I’d share a few perspectives on some trends I’ve noticed.

Quality: The tricky thing about quality is that it needs a frame of reference. If you’re 18 and you’ve never experienced film or the quality of a medium format image, and you’ve grown up with dodgy Photoshop techniques and jpgs, then how do you evaluate your work in regards quality? I push quality from day one, but I’m beginning to realise quality means very different things to people because of different frames of reference. I need to find a way to standardise everyone’s […]

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28 08, 2011

The Wind and the Sun

By |August 28th, 2011|asides, personal, philosophy|0 Comments

I came across this little story watching one of the best episodes of Mad Men I’ve ever seen (Series 4, Episode 8). It impressed me so much I’ve transcribed it, and printed it out and stuck it to my fridge.
Now a blog could be seen in some ways as a virtual fridge, so I’m gonna stick it here as well, since there’s not much activity on here at the moment.

I hope you appreciate the sentiment, and that it’s as much as an epiphany for you as it was for me.

The Wind & The Sun

“Aesop has a fable about the wind and the sun.
The wind and the sun had this competition to see if they could get a traveller’s coat off.
So the wind blows fiercely on him, but the traveller just pulls his coat tighter.
But the sun shines down on him, warmer and warmer, and the traveller just takes it […]

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30 04, 2011

Zack Arias @ Creative Live

By |April 30th, 2011|lighting, photography teaching, web sites|0 Comments

What are YOU doing this weekend?

If you like getting up at 3am, this is what I’d recommend….

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5 04, 2011

The acceleration of almost everything

By |April 5th, 2011|asides, personal, philosophy|0 Comments

I remember a book of the same name. I never read it, as I was too busy… (boom boom)
But I’m feeling the sentiment of late. There never seems to be enough time. Everything has to be done in a hurry. Or in my case, there is not enough time allocated (read money) for me to do the things I need to do. Hence the hurry. If I have 26 hours to do a job that takes 40, corners are going to be cut. Or I’m going to be working for free. Unfortunately, it tends to be the second one…

It extends to my kids. They don’t know how to relax. They are bored as soon as they are not being entertained. We work with this all the time, trying to get them to read, to play, to do anything other than tv and computers. Those two we limit, almost ruthlessly. […]

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