I felt extremely honoured to have an old friend Lars Wannop ask me to photograph him at the studio earlier this year. As an art director with a genuine curiosity for all things creative and beyond, he was such a pleasure to collaborate with in creating a portrait that would represent him best. He had sent me a reference of an image from my “Echo Chamber” series (on Instagram) and wanted to incorporate a “light playfulness”, with the idea incorporate subtle details to further prompt a curiosity about who he is. We actually ended up including some of the same flowers and some smoke as a throwback to the original reference.
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.
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!!!
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.
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.
I worked with the singing, songwriting genius that is Scott Spark again on the artwork and promotional photography for his new album Muscle Memory, which was just been released. Scott has a real knack for not only knowing, but also being able articulate what he wants to see in the photography that goes along side his music and at the same time was able to give me the trust and confidence for me do what I do best. It’s something I love about working with creative people and I think it shows in the photography and the fun gifs we created with my Nishika 3D lenticular camera.
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.
I have been following the work of Melbourne based magazine, Dumbo Feather for quite a while and have always dreamed of shooting for them. Their stories always feature the most inspiring of minds and their photography and layout is gorgeous. Earlier in the year, I reached out to them by sending through a mocked up Dumbo Feather magazine which used my own photos for the cover, contents page and also images from a story I had shot in Melbourne a few years earlier. They liked what they saw and got a chance to head in to their beautiful office space in St. Kilda for a meeting.
A few months later, an opportunity came up to photograph a story for them in Sydney. The subject was Jaron Lanier, a multi talented man with an amazing story, and the creator of virtual reality. I photographed Jaron at his Sydney hotel, right before he was to leave for a flight back to San Francisco under a pretty tight schedule (like, really really tight). It wasn’t quite the style I had initially intended on shooting for the magazine, but I couldn’t be happier with the images I captured and how they were used.
Here are a few shots of both my mocked up magazine and the final printed version of the story:
And here was my initial Dumbo Feather mock up cover and contents page:
Otillo is a keen photographer who I met through a good friend of mine. He’s been wanting to get a bit more experience as an assistant, so I brought him out on an editorial shoot at Melbourne’s Brighton Beach. After the shoot, I took this portrait of him and quite like the idea of starting a new series on my assistants. While I have quite a lot of photos of assistants “stand-ins” during test shots, I like the idea of shooting them in situ. So here’s the first of the series!
Keep an eye out for more from the series in the coming months in my Projects Section.
Michael is my former business coach and founder of Edgeware Entrepreneurship, an education and support system for ethical entrepreneurs. Through Edgeware, I’ve met the most inspiring of friends and through his coaching, have learned some invaluable lessons which I apply to both business and every day life. I wanted to tell a story of Michael’s humility and wisdom through these photographs and in his own words:
“I see in the diptych concept and the pictures you’ve chosen several layers, of framing and meaning. I like the recognition that people have kinda *distributed* identities. It reminds me of the conversation we had on what makes a photographer a photographer ;-)”
We spent the morning shooting a few studio and natural light set ups. Then walked out into a cold wintery morning to make the most of Melbourne’s beautiful light at Carlton Gardens.
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! 🙂