Just 6 months after attending Do Lectures USA and less than a year since my first Do Lectures Australia, I think it’s safe to say that I’m totally hooked on what a fellow Do’er simply referred to as “TEDx, but bush”. A 7 hour drive from Melbourne, Do Lectures Australia once again took place in the beautiful Victorian high country in Glen Valley at Payne’s Hut. It’s a land without phone reception or internet access, and a sky with seemingly more stars than negative space. I couldn’t have been happier being back in the thick it all to photograph for another 6 days of incredible people, great conversation and a good community. This is what I saw.
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.
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!
…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!!!
7 hours from Melbourne in Victoria’s remote North East is where you’ll find Payne’s Hut, a beautiful getaway for city dwellers and tourists all year round. Over the long weekend, Payne’s Hut hosted Australia’s first ever Do Lectures, a one of a kind gathering of like minded individuals, ranging from passionate change makers to social entrepreneurs. With just 70 attendees and 20 speakers spending 3 days together, camping and attending talks and workshops, it’s well described as “a microcosmic community that eat, sing, meet, learn but most importantly, get inspired.” I couldn’t help but draw parallels between Do Lecturers and the “Edgeware” community I was involved with in Brisbane, who even held a conference called “DO Well”. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the DO community and be inspired by some brilliant minds. This is what I saw:
And of course, you can’t have a Do Lectures without using every last bit of energy sending everyone off with full body waves:
Semi Permanent in Melbourne had me on my feet for two crazy big days, photographing the event and also shooting some video. A constant highlight was no doubt hearing inspiring, creative speakers like Jessica Hische, Glendyn Ivin and Seb Lester, to name a few, but also to be able to photograph them back stage. It was an inspiring weekend.
Wow. I’m amazed at how fast this year has gone by. I moved to the beautiful, vibrant and creative city of Melbourne, made new friends, watched a billion comedy shows and worked with some incredible new clients. Here is my annual wrap up of my top 13 from 2013.
Michael Doneman – One of my favourite portraits of the year was of Michael, a friend and former business coach.
Bay of Fires – I worked on some editorial photography for a story on “Walks of Australia” One of the most beautiful walks we did was the Bay of Fires, in Tasmania. It was stunning.
Banana shoot – My new business cards will have “Fruit Balancing Expert” written on them. I worked on a few playful food photography images for a personal project.
Chrissie Swan – I worked with the beautiful Chrissie Swan for some imagery to promote her new book. I also worked with her on a different shoot, but more on that in the new year! 🙂
A New Von Vintage Print – A few old negatives were unboxed, scanned and I finally released another print for my film photography project, Von Vintage.
Semi Permanent Melbourne – Semi Permanent in Melbourne had me on my feet for two crazy big days, photographing the event and also shooting video. I saw some great speakers and came away totally inspired. This is a portrait of fellow photographer and speaker, Magdalena Wosinska.
Dare Iced coffee – On a caffeine high, I photographed some product and lifestyle shots of Dare Iced Coffee’s new cold pressed coffee range at St. Ali in South Melbourne.
Dicko – I had the honour of photographing Dicko, in creating a set of imagery to be used for Watercooler Talent and Media, a company which he co-founded.
iPhone Photography Awards – In the cold of winter, I received a few honourable mentions for some of my Instagram photos submitted into the iPhone Photography Awards. This was taken during a Melbourne heatwave, and had me wishing all year for that warm weather to come back around again. Still waiting, Melbourne!
Otway Harvest – Travelling with a group of international journalists, I worked on capturing the food culture of Melbourne and surrounds. The highlight was shooting at Otway Harvest, the beautiful ocean side truffle farm of chef, Steve Earl. I’ll put together photo essay of this trip once the story is published in the new year!
The White House – I photographed a fewbusinesses at their amazing shared work space known as “The White House” for Est Magazine, home to extraordinary ethical businesses like Small Giants, Dumbo Feather and Tom Organic. It was such a beautiful space to shoot in, I want to live there.
Earlier in the year I photographed Field Trip Melbourne, a creative conference primarily for artists, illustrators and designers, brought to fruition as a collaboration between Australian Infront and The Jacky Winter Group. What I loved about it was the strong focus on practical demonstrations, rather than just slideshows and presentations that you usually get at most creative conferences. It was one of those days that left me totally inspired and had me constantly distracted by what the speakers were actually creating on stage. We heard from the ever inspiring Jacky Winter artists: Ben Sanders, Eamon Donnelly, Luke Lucas, Madeleine Stamer, Mimi Leung and Oslo Davis. With the next Field Trip event coming up at the end of the month in Sydney, I thought I’d share a few of my favourite photographs from Melbourne.
Field Trippers got some nice goodies from the sponsors. I love my Mail Chimp shirt. It’s so soft.
A long time inspiration of mine, Eamon Donnelly was one of the speakers. I shot this candid portrait of him during an interview with Saxall. It’s probably my favourite from the day:
I met Jeffrey Phillips, at the after party at Strange Wolf. He had drawn a bunch of people he came across that day, including one of the speakers, Madeleine Stamer:
If you’re in Sydney, you can check out the line up and get tickets to the next event on 30th August, here!
I’ve been a big fan of Creative Mornings talks since seeing the inspiring Laura Miner, founder of Phoot Camp, speak on the topic of “Why We Work“. Last week I was asked to capture the Melbourne event, featuring Beci Orpin, who spoke about happiness and running her own race. Here are a few of my favourite moments from the event. You can check out the full set on flickr, 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’ve been photographing the Finders Keepers Markets since they first came to Brisbane in 2009. It’s always fun to spend a day walking around checking out what people have been creating and saying “hi” to a lot of familiar faces. Earlier this month, I flew down to Melbourne to photograph their Spring markets in the very impressive Royal Exhibition Building. Here are a few of my favourite shots from the weekend.
A good friend of mine, Lani recently came across a beautiful vintage hire shop and analog art gallery in Newcastle called, “Strip of a Lifetime“. She instantly thought of my Von Vintage project and urged me to get in touch. I checked them out and fell in love. The shop is home to an original coin operated 1960’s photo-booth and their tagline is, “Dedicated to the preservation of the Vintage Photography Experience”, one of the driving forces behind the Von Vintage project.
The space itself is supported by Renew Newcastle which aims to provide unused spaces to artists, cultural projects and community groups. I couldn’t think of a more like minded endeavor to get Von Vintage involved with. So after exchanging a few emails with owner, Paula Birch, I’ll be road tripping down to Newcastle to exhibit my work on the 27th of September! Opening night will be a part of the Renew Newcastle’s Spring City Walk, which I am very excited to be a part of. And I couldn’t have asked for a better time to be in Newcastle, the exhibition also coincides with the This Is Not Art festival!
Please help spread the word, or drop in if you are in, or able to get to Newcastle! Hope to see you there!
The details:
When: Thursday, 27 September 2012, 4- 7pm
Where: Strip of a Lifetime – Analog Art Gallery
Shop 20, Food Court Level, Market Square, 119 Hunter Street Mall, Newcastle, Australia
Over two years ago, I found an old Brownie box camera which sparked the idea to create an ongoing series of work. I decided that I wanted to preserve inspiring vintage design and aesthetics by shooting a timeless series, all shot on vintage film cameras. Since then, I’ve spent hours keeping an eye out for beautiful, once loved keepsakes to capture forever. A countless number of rolls of film ran through cameras that barely worked, and film got fogged in X-ray machines, but I eventually landed with my true vintage camera love, the Hasselblad, which I used to shoot this series. Finally, this weekend I’m putting the Von Vintage series up on the walls of Urban Grind, a great coffee shop that also hosted my previous BNE project series. The coffee is the best, and so is the company so head in there and check out the prints! I’ll be heading in there a few times throughout the next few weeks so if you are keen for a coffee and a chat, just email me and we’ll tee it up!
The Details:
Urban Grind, 121 Latrobe Terrace, Paddington November 27th until December 23rd 2011
One of the biggest highlights of last year was no doubt the opportunity to head over to Los Angeles to meet and hang out with some inspiring, creative minds at Phootcamp. This year, I’m doing it all again in Marfa, Texas! As part of the application process, we had to shoot a self portrait (see last year’s here). The portrait was inspired by everything I learned at last year’s camp and included a few recurring themes from otherpeople’sphotos! The shirt I’m wearing is inspired by this “Nate Bolt!” shirt by Steph Goralnick. The portrait has also been featured along with the many other talented Phoot Camp attendees here on Pictory, an always beautiful and inspiring website created by Phootcamp founder, Laura Miner. I can’t wait to meet all the new faces and really dig deep into getting creative with such an awesome bunch of people!
Here’s a timelapse video of the creation of the shot! It was all shot with speedlights, for a higher sync speed and water resistance! Thanks to Elleni, Toby and Michael for all their help!
Here are a few of my shots from Phoot Camp last year:
I was in Melbourne on the weekend as the photographer for the Finders Keepers Markets, a rapidly growing bi-annual event held in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. It was the first Finders Keepers held in Melbourne and was probably their biggest yet. I think it’s says a lot about the creative community in Melbourne. Here are a few of my favourite shots:
I’m currently expanding to base myself out of both Brisbane and Melbourne so don’t hesitate to get in contact for any portrait, commercial or wedding photography in the area!
Brisbane’s creative community can feel like one big happy family at times, so shooting for Finders Keepers this weekend was lots of fun. An event originating in Sydney, the Finders Keepers markets supports local designers and artists through a two day independent market. I spent most of the day strolling around, listening to music and chatting to stall owners about their creations and the ideas behind them. It’s really left me feeling re-inspired to focus a bit more on my side projects like VonVintage, and the BNE project, to bring more to a photograph than just a print on a wall or an image online. Here are some of my favourite stalls and shots from the day. More images can be found in the Finders Keepers gallery.
