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.
I just got back from a short trip to Melbourne and surrounds where I’ll soon be making my new home. I’ve put together a few images from the trip, in chronological order. Taken on both my DSLR and iPhone, this is what I saw.
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 had the honor of photographing Mark Visser for an editorial piece for United Airlines’ inflight magazine, Hemispheres. Mark is an Australian big wave Surfer, most notably known for successfully riding at the infamous ‘Jaws’ break in Maui… at night. It was truly inspiring to meet and work with such a highly motivated athlete. The assignment was to capture a range of images documenting Mark’s intense training regimen, which I could barely keep up with, with a camera! This was then followed by a range of portraits both in the water and on the beach to cover a good range of options to use in the editorial. Here are a few of the images from the shoot as well as some of the magazine itself.
Here is some footage of Mark Visser riding a big wave at night:
Many thanks to Cody Austin, who generously sent me copies of the mag, all the way from Texas. Thanks so much! 
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.
You can also see some of my photos from the first Melbourne Finders Keepers. Or see the full set of images on the Finders Keepers Facebook page.
It’s been a busy, but fun few months with a lot of travel, exhibiting and exciting new jobs. One of my recent highlights was working with The Famous Group to shoot this summer campaign for Foot Locker. The shots are now up in-store promoting Foot Locker’s latest summer collection.
Art Direction and Post Production: The Famous Group
Hair and Makeup: Rokstar
It was great to see the posters up in-store the other day
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
On Facebook
Earlier in the year, I worked with the inspiring team at Spur Projects to shoot a video for their latest campaign, “Better If You’re Around“. The video takes a look at the life choices of a young man with the hope to encourage young people to take the first step in talking about depression. It was an honour to work with such a solid and motivated team, shooting over just two days in locations all over Brisbane. I’m so pleased to see that the video has making the rounds online and was even played on Channel 10 News last night. I’m humbled to have been able to be a part of it. Please take the time to watch and share this video as well as support the campaign through Pozible. For more information on taking the first steps towards starting that “tough conversation” visit: www.softenthefckup.com
Crew:
Producer – Lee Crockford
Director – Leah Sanderson
Assistant Director – Chrissie Nowland
Cinematographer – Mark Lobo
Lighting – Hamish Clift
Hair and Makeup – Gemma Elaine
Cast:
Rick Mitchell
Alex Valentine
James Gauci
Finn Foulds-Cook
Mia Carey
Music:
When Will – The Trouble with Templeton
Special Thanks – Damon Klotz, Ehon Chan, Sabrina, Angela and Michael Foulds-Cook, Melinda Carey, & the pensioners whose names we never learnt…
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!)
Earlier in the month, I photographed friend and freelance journalist, Andrew McMillen with his seven year long, well nurtured head of dreadlocks. I did a simple portrait of him in the lead up to shaving them off in support of the Leukaemia Foundation and I also photographed him after a very close cutthroat razor shave for a “before and after” series. Here are a few images from the shoot. I can hardly recognise him anymore.
You can read his thoughts on his experience with dreads and hair as a social object, here.