In late 2014, I joined a group of photographers out in Joshua Tree, California to attend Phoot Camp. Excited by the inspiration that surrounded us, our inability to sleep resulted in this small series under the desert stars, featuring William Wilkinson, Lisa Weatherbee and Justin Betmann. See them larger, here.
This year brought a number of exiting new experiences, both professionally and personally. I walked 100km, photographed under the stars of the Californian desert and surpassed my record for the most number of shoots in a year! It felt so fast though, and I’m still struggling to understand how I managed to pack it all into a year. Here is my top 14 from 2014 in photographs:
Graze – There were a few new additions to my playful food photography series, including some hot potatoes.
Foliolio – I created a photographic service for designers who want their work photographed well.
Shotkit – I was asked to photograph and talk about some of the gear I use, organised neatly, so I put together a little timelapse video of the process:
360 – Melbourne Hip Hop artist 360, was the subject of an “Ink not Mink” campaign which I photographed for PETA.
Do Lectures Australia and USA – I photographed Do Lectures Australia and also made my way to Do Lectures USA where I met some great minds. I came back inspired and ready to make some big changes.
Oxfam Trailwalker – A painful and exhausting experience, but a truly rewarding and memorable one was training with a group of friends to walk 100km in 34 hours, to raise money for Oxfam Australia, and we did it! Registrations for Trailwalker 2015 is closing soon, get in quick!
Scott Spark – Scott Spark released his new album, muscle memory, which I had photographed the album artwork and promotional photography for. I had taken some playful photographs on a Nishika 3D lenticular film camera during our shoot, which I scanned and turned into this gif:
Peter Berner – I worked with Australian comedian and TV personality Peter Berner, on some new promotional imagery and finally got to use the yellow backdrop that I had been wanting to use for months!
Phoot Camp Selfie – I photographed the most ambitions selfie I’ve ever attempted as my application to get into Phoot Camp 2014.
…And I got in! I photographed this night portrait of William Wilkinson, late at night in the desert at Phoot Camp.
PDN Cover – One of the most incredible things that came out of the Phoot Camp experience was this collaboration with Nate Bolt, who flew his drone across the desert as we captured it’s light painting. We ended up getting the cover of the January 2015 issue of PDN!
Travel things – I tacked on a few extra things to my US trip, which included attending Do Lectures USA, a Creative Mornings summit in New York, catching up with colleagues, friends and family and going to Sleep No More (if you’re ever in NYC, it’s a MUST). This is a summary of the experience in one photo:
Squam Lake – Between events, I spent a day out at Squam Lake, New Hampshire. Exactly what I needed to see me off on the last leg of my journey to New York. I also put a photo essay up on Exposure, which you can see here.
Handy Series – Although still in it’s early days, what started out as a series on gang signs, soon turned into a series on creatives and the work they do with their hands. I’ve got a bunch of people lined up to take part in this project so stay tuned for an update!
And for a special bonus 15th, I wanted to share my favourite gif with a bunch of new friends from different Creative Mornings chapters, getting down and attempting to moonwalk at the Summit After party (photo by smilebooth):
Have a great holiday season everyone and all the best for 2015!!!
I’m so grateful to be going back to Phoot Camp this year. I’ll be heading to Joshua Tree to be reunited with friends new and old, and I can’t wait to see what photographic goodness we can create. This was my self portrait application which I couldn’t have done without the help of some good friends. The idea behind the photo was to accompany my written application, which talked about giving without expectation and referenced a time when fellow Phooter, Ryan Schude stood under an icy cold waterfall, shivering while I took long exposures, all the while saying “I can do another one, I can do another one.” I wanted to tell the story of trying something over and over in order to make something great. See it larger, here.
You can check out the full set of Phoot Camp 2014 attendee portraits at www.phootcamp.com/phoot-2014
I’ve also put together a short video of how I did all the jumps. At one stage I was attempting it with a crutch! Not a safe idea… well the whole thing wasn’t very safe.
You can see some photos from some other Phoot Camps that I’ve attended, here.
It’s been such an incredible year, with fun new projects, exhibitions, new friends, travel and amazing new clients. I’ve put together a wrap up of my top 12 from 2012. And of course, I had to post it on 12.12.12 at 12:12.
Matt Tucker – I helped Matt Tucker document his beautiful tattoos by renowned Japanese tattoo artist, Horiyasu. The final product was an incredible large framed print on metallic paper. It was truly rewarding to work on this passion project with Matt and produce something that he truly loved.
New Zealand – My birthday weekend was spent in Auckland, New Zealand, taking photos and playing tourist in such an incredibly photogenic country.
Phoot Camp 2012 – I caught up with old friends and made many new ones at Phoot Camp 2012 followed by an exhibition in New York. It was truly one of the highlights of the year, with a trip to San Francisco, Chicago and Boston thrown in! The trip also inspired a new personal series of mine, titled “In their shoes“.
Darren Lockyer – Rugby league legend Darren Lockyer sat for his portrait for an editorial piece I photographed for WISH magazine. It was inspiring to work with someone so accomplished, yet so humble and authentic in character.
Finders Keepers Melbourne – I’ve started to focus on working out of both Melbourne and Brisbane. The Finders Keepers Markets, which I also shot in Melbourne a few years back was impressive in scale, as was the beautiful light that hit everything inside the venue.
IPPA award – My obsession with capturing moments on my phone actually paid off (well, slightly), with two of my Instagram photos getting two honourable mentions in the 6th annual iPhone photography awards.
Mark Visser – Sand filled my camera gear as I spent a morning on the beach photographing big wave surfer Mark Visser, most notably known for his death cheating big wave ride at night, which earned him the nick name “Night Rider”.
Von Vintage – I took my Von Vintage work on a road trip to exhibit at analogue gallery, Strip of a Lifetime, in Newcastle. This is a video from opening night.
Go Health – Billboards around the city started to fill up with my work with Go Health Gyms and Big Fish. Seeing work appearing larger than life always invokes an odd, giddy feeling of excitement in me that never gets old.
Foot Locker – I worked on a few Footlocker campaigns in Melbourne and Brisbane with the Famous Group. I ws thrilled to see this Summer campaign finally hit the stores and I can’t wait to see the results from the other shoots.
Sofitel – I worked with Sofitel and Underbrand to create imagery for their new magazine, Enchanté. I shot some delicious looking food photography and got some great city views.
Seven with Another – I teamed up with talented “Maker”, Adam Head, to collaborate on a project for art exhibition, Seven With Another. We created a large spinning cube that would fill the room with light when triggered by the flash of a camera. I’m working on a side project with this piece, which I’ll share soon.
Stay safe and have a great holiday season everyone! I’m looking forward to an even better 2013!
I was truly thrilled to be welcomed back to Phoot Camp 2012, a photographic retreat held in a new location every year and sponsored by the always awesome VIRB. I met some incredible new faces and was reunited with a fun group of creative photographers, all of whom I have come to call dear friends. This year, Phoot Camp was held in upstate New York at Ashokan, and was followed by an exhibition in New York City as a part of Photoville.
I started out with few very loose ideas to shoot, but I consciously decided not to solidify them until I got there. I really wanted to take on a different personal approach to finding the inspiration for my normal style of portrait work. It wasn’t until the last day of camp that I realised that I wanted to shoot a series of portraits of “In-Between” moments. Moments of distraction that get captured before, during and after the “main” photographs have been taken. I called this series “In Their Shoes” and hope to continue to work on it, in the years to come. Here are a few of my favourite shots from both the series and camp itself:
While I didn’t manage to do quite as much photo documentation as I had hoped, I was given a Lomokino camera from Lomography to play with, which I feel really captured the “Summer Camp” atmosphere pretty well. This was shot over 5 rolls of 35mm film during some pretty fun times at Phoot Camp:
And another fun video of the camp from Garrett Cornelison:
And finally, I’d like to thank the most incredible Laura and Brad, our camp councellors, who made this year’s camp such an incredible one.
If you’re in New York City, come and check out some of the work that myself and a group of 35 incredible photographers from Phoot Camp have put together. The show is a part of “Photoville” and will include over 30 shipping containers, housing work from around the world. Head over to Pier 3 at Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo to see the amazing work that came out of this weekend of 35 photographers taking over a summer camp, but stay for the rest of Photoville: a beer garden, dog run, shipping container-sized camera obscura, and exhibits from our heroes like The New York Times and Magnum.
Try to make it on the 22nd when most of us will be there, but if not, stop by anytime before July 1st to see the show.
(Big thanks to Lisa Weatherbee for designing the flyer!)
I’m excited to say that I’ll be heading back to Phoot Camp 2012, a photographic creative retreat held in a different location every year. This time it’s being held in upstate New York! The image above was shot for my self portrait application. Here are all the beautiful faces of the other photographers that I’ll be joining:
pictorymag.com/showcases/phoot-camp-2012-roster/
Last year, I was lucky enough to be invited back to join 30 incredibly talented photographers at Phoot Camp. Taking place in Marfa, Texas, the road trip there was an amazing part of the journey and spending time with an RV full of keen photographers was definitely a highlight. Check out the story of Phoot Camp 2011 here:
pictorymag.com/showcases/close-encounters-phoot-kind/
I’ve put together a few of my favourite shots from last year below, and you can see more here:
And finally, one of my favourite videos from Paul Octavious, the faces of Phoot Camp 2011: