Craig & Bri's engagement shoot, Part III

Not long to go now...here's the final series of photos before I get ready for the wedding later today!

The Adelaide Botanic Gardens has some beautiful backgrounds for photos, like this ivy-covered building.

There are also plenty of benches, this one lit with rays of golden sunshine streaming through the trees behind.

Several wedding shoots were taking place in the gardens during our engagement photo session, but we managed to quickly snap a few shots on this beautiful tree-lined path.

 We then found a patch of tall grass that was ablaze with sunlight.

Around the web today; November 19th, 2013.

An interesting post by Jeremy Cowart, comparing different levels and budgets for photography to selling cars:
 http://jeremycowart.com/2013/10/photographers-are-car-dealers/



A funky looking new retro-styled camera from Nikon:
http://daviddareparker.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/nikon-df-pure-photography-4/



There I was thinking that riding my bike on a 2 foot wide plank was brave:
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/the-red-bull-bikers-were-good-but-this.html



Loads of mouth-watering German machinery on display at the Porsche Club of Queensland's annual concourse day:
http://www.downshiftaus.com/2013/a-day-of-difficult-choices/



Ken Block's new gymkhana video; very cool stunts as usual, but I think I like the previous one better:
http://www.speed-industries.ch/wordpress/2013/11/13/ken-blocks-latest-gymkhana/



This is one mean looking Bug:
http://www.stanceworks.com/2013/11/rick-tolbooms-1959-volkswagen-beetle/



Some gut-wrenching stories from photographers about not taking action to help the people they were photographing:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jul/28/gutted-photographers-who-didnt-help

Around the web today; November 16th, 2011.

American photographer Evan Joseph's photo of the NYC skyline at sunset which features on the cover of his new book 400 Fifth Avenue: http://pdnphotooftheday.com/2013/11/23228

His portfolio site shows more of his impressive architectural work: http://www.evanjoseph.com/



A review of sorts by Joe McNally and another photographer, commenting on Gregory Heisler's stunning new book '50 Portraits.'

http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/2013/11/13/required-reading/

http://www.bobkiddphoto.com/blog/2013/11/50-portraits



Some extensive discussion about the shocking - but not surprising - step the Chicago Sun-Times took earlier this year; laying off its entire photo staff of 28 people, among them Pulitzer prize winner John H. White, replacing them with pictures from the iphones of reporters:

http://gawker.com/sun-times-lays-off-its-photographers-on-slow-crawl-to-i-510490745

http://gawker.com/a-sad-shot-of-sun-times-photojournalists-learning-they-510565175

Looking through the amazing gallery of images that John H. White has captured in his career, it's sad to see that his journey as a veteran newspaper photojournalist comes to an end with a piece of paper, his four decades of experience and prodigious talent replaced by reporters with an iphone, who have not been educated in any way about visual journalism.

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/May-2013/Black-Chicago-In-the-1970s-Through-the-Lens-of-John-H-White/#/0

Instead you get stuff like this: http://suntimesdarktimes.tumblr.com/post/61423785374/i-normally-stick-to-the-sun-times-main

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2013/05/31/how-to-insure-your-extinction-look-at-what-newspapers-are-doing/

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/215016/john-white-on-sun-times-layoffs-it-was-as-if-they-pushed-a-button-and-deleted-a-whole-culture/

http://buzzmachine.com/2013/05/31/to-the-dauntless-lensmen/

http://www.robbmontgomery.com/2013/05/chicago-sun-times-photo-gallery-tribute.html

Around the web today; November 15th, 2013.

$3 billion just isn't enough to buy instant photo messaging service snapchat:  http://petapixel.com/2013/11/13/snapchat-supposedly-turned-3-billion-acquisition-offer-facebook/

Things have come a long way since this time last year: http://petapixel.com/2012/12/13/temporary-photo-sharing-app-snapchat-raising-10m-valued-at-70m/



I've had the painful experience of a hard drive dying several times, taking valuable data and photos to their graves; here are some warning signs from a data recovery company that your hard drive is on its deathbed:
http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php



Some less than impressive photos of the Once Upon a Time TV series cast:  http://petapixel.com/2013/09/13/abc-pull-horrible-upon-time-promo-photos/



Something to ponder for photographers and smartphone users alike; when does image and video capturing get to the point where it detracts from the experience itself, such as a concert or wedding? I've certainly crossed that line more than a few times myself; being busy capturing the moment as oppose to living and enjoying it:  http://petapixel.com/2013/07/13/pictures-over-experience/



Many photographers receive 'offers' from companies to let them work for free, or in their words, 'exposure'. I've had these requests come in here and there over the years. Professional courtesy generally commands a polite reply, but this musician kind of went the other way, in response to an insulting offer to use his work for free from a TV producer from a large UK company. It's what most creative types wish they could say:  http://petapixel.com/2013/11/12/musicians-letter-becomes-template-telling-publishes-want-work-free/

http://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/1qdf6f/heres_your_standard_letter_for_companies_that_ask/

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2013/11/06/whitey?fb_action_ids=10152329515809942



Mike Johnston discusses the perception and definition of image quality:  http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2013/11/in-search-of-a-vocabulary-for-image-quality.html

A related column about image quality from full-frame digital SLR cameras: http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2013/11/do-you-really-need-ff.html



A breathtaking time-lapse video of Toronto at dawn: http://www.diyphotography.net/city-rising-shows-beauty-toronto-and-offers-some-thoughts-timelapsing



An interesting guest post on Chase Jarvis' blog about what one of his 30 year old friends would teach to his younger self given the chance: http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2013/11/10-best-lessons-id-teach-my-younger-self/

Around the web today; November 14th, 2013

A cool shot of an epic Christmas tree destined for the Capitol in Washington D.C., being hauled across the country from Washington state by a gleaming 2014 model Mack Pinnacle:  http://www.overdriveonline.com/photo-mack-pinnacle-loaded-with-the-capitol-christmas-tree/



A time-lapse video showing the construction of a Transformer robot based on a 1988 Ford Fiesta, the creator's first car:
 http://www.rides-mag.com/videos/2013/11/watch-ford-fiesta-transform-transformer/
http://www.psfk.com/2013/10/ford-transformer-car.html



Chicago Tribune photojournalist Alex Garcia discusses the pros and cons of professional photographers using an image editing program like Instagram for their work:  http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/assignment-chicago/2013/11/sitting-on-the-fence-with-instagram.html

Kenneth Jarecke offers a much less subtle critique here:  http://kennethjarecke.typepad.com/mostly_true/2012/10/instagram-the-devil-and-you.html



Photojournalist Pete Muller has shot a powerful series of images in Africa, focusing much of his efforts on the war-ravaged Eastern Congo: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/a-congolese-rebellion-routed-a-photographers-work-continues/



A surreal and somewhat amusing project from American photographer Nina Goldstein, showing her interpretation of what Disney princesses' lives might be like, following the 'happily ever after' endings of their respective fairy-tale stories: http://www.demilked.com/fallen-princesses-dina-goldstein/

The images are visually striking, ethereal and quite jarring, mostly because you're so used to seeing these characters in their sickly-sweet pretend Disney worlds. The photo of Rapunzel in particular is one that made me stop in my tracks. The picture shows her sitting on the side of a bed in hospital, bald, with her golden locks in a plait trailing from the bed and onto the floor, accompanied by an IV drip, implying she is having chemotherapy.



American photographer Chase Jarvis shows what happens on a commercial shoot for an Aspen ski resort's ad campaign: http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2013/10/exlusive-behind-the-scenes-aspen-campaign-photoshoot/

Around the web today; November 11th, 2013.

Some photos of very impressive sculptures made entirely of Gummy Bears, built by a number of different artists:  http://mentalfloss.com/article/53337/16-artworks-made-sweet-sweet-gummy-bears

You can see more sugary creations on the artists' websites and other pages:
http://www.jenicesgummyworld.com/
http://yayachou.com/
http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/sweet-art-the-gummy-bear-artworks-of-johannes-cortes.html
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/mcqueen-inspired-50000-gummy-bears-dress
http://www.instructables.com/id/Gummi-Bear-Surgery/?ALLSTEPS



I'm loving the look of this classic 911, with bonnet-mounted lights reminiscent of the rallying versions:  http://www.petrolicious.com/1978-porsche-911




A Koenigsegg Agera R goes head to head against a Bugatti Veyron: http://youtu.be/SywqgH7n-5g




A fascinating series of images showing the construction of a new section of the subway in New York city: http://fstoppers.com/nycs-largest-rail-project-in-a-century




A heart-warming gorilla bonding moment: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/assignment-chicago/2013/11/2-day-old-baby-girl-gorilla.html




An interesting article about camera gear and how it affects the creative process. It's always a temptation to pick up new gear every 6 months when new cameras are released, but would it really help you take better photos? http://fstoppers.com/you-dont-take-pictures-the-good-ones-happen-to-you




American photographer Andrew Link shooting some custom cars for a special Japan edition of Rides magazine, using an 80 megapixel Phase One medium format camera: http://youtu.be/quBR-2-hVtE



Just a few of the creations on display at SEMA: http://www.carthrottle.com/10-unhinged-sema-psycho-cars-you-need-to-know-about/

Around the web today; November 8th, 2013.

Chicago Tribune photojournalist Andy Garcia talks about photographing a famous local chef over the course of several years, who sadly passed away earlier this week. He sounds like a very nice guy, and a great subject to work with.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/assignment-chicago/2013/11/photographing-charlie-trotter-an-appreciation.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-charlie-trotter-obit-20131105,0,1530510,full.story


On a related note, I had a call last week from the son of a truck driver who I'd photographed about 4-5 years ago, at the Wingfield BP truck stop here in Adelaide. He was a great character, and we chatted for a little while as I took some pictures of him. I was saddened to hear that he passed away a couple of years ago, but it was tinged with a note of sweetness, as it meant a lot to the son to find these pictures of his father that he'd never seen before.



A collection of highly emotion-charged imagery from the past century or so. Some of them may cause distress given the content, so be warned; the one that actually hit me the hardest was a photo of a wall. But not just any wall; it's the wall of one the gas chambers at Auschwitz, covered with fingernail scratch-marks.  http://www.boredpanda.com/must-see-powerful-photos/

I'll run through some of my thoughts about the other pictures as well:  

The scene in photo #3 is one that's quite familiar to me; it was shot by legendary National Geographic magazine photojournalist James Stanfield, and has been featured in several photography books, as well as the magazine. He perfectly captured the feeling of what the mood would be like after a marathon open heart surgery; the doctor looking exhausted but satisfied, with his patient on the operating table alive due to the successful surgery, and his assistant passed out asleep in the back corner of the room. Looking at the tangle of wires and tubes attached to the patient, to say nothing of the surgery wounds you can't see, it's amazing what the human body can recover from.

#4 is a nice family album memory, showing a father and son walking hand in hand in the yard in 1949. On its own, the photo isn't anything particularly special for the casual observer, but it's accompanied by another photo, showing the same scene and people, but 60 years later in 2009. In the first photo it's clear that the father is taking care of and looking after his son, who looks to be around 6 or 7 when the photo was taken. In the updated version, it appears that the roles have been reversed; the father is elderly, looking a bit frail and walking with a cane, while his now grey-haired son towers over him alongside.

#6 certainly catches your eye, being such an unusual scene; a lone Russian solder with a machine gun slung over his back is playing a piano which looks to be sitting in the middle of a forest. It's a picture that makes you ask questions, like why the soldier is alone, who put the piano there, and does it actually work ok?

#9 is a bit of a cutesy one, showing a CFA volunteer firefighter giving a koala a drink of water while holding one of its paws, during the lethal 2009 Victorian 'Black Saturday' bushfires. In a time of destruction, death and suffering, a light-hearted picture like this helped to lift peoples' spirits in a way;

#14, while nothing special in a technical sense, is actually kind of depressing to look at and think about, captioned 'alcoholic father and his son'. A young boy of perhaps 4 or 5 is trying to pull his father up by his shirt, who is partially slumped sitting on a gravel road. If this is what the boy is used to doing already- helping his publicly drunk father walk - his home life must be difficult. It has a very different tone to the father-son photo #4.

#17 depicts a scene which would appall pretty much everyone; a five year old Gyspy boy holding a lighter while smoking a cigarette. It was taken in 2006, so not a long time ago, and is quite jarring given the health implications of a kid smoking at such a young age.

#23 shows just a tiny segment of the utter devastation caused to Japanese towns from the 2011 tsunamis. Mangled metal, trees, houses and furniture are piled in heaps from the foreground to the horizon, with a distraught woman sitting on the road in tears.


This is a similar series of images, but all different to the ones in the first post. Again, you may find a some of the photos distressing: //www.boredpanda.com/must-see-historic-moments/


Two pictures of Walter Yeo, the first person to undergo facial plastic surgery with a skin implant in 1917, following the loss of upper and lower eyelids while fighting on a ship in World War 1:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2636507/Pictures-of-first-person-to-undergo-plastic-surgery-released.html


In local news, the Shahin family company Peregrine has purchased the Tailem Bend Motorsport Park land, reportedly planning to spend $40 million on the site to turn it into a world-class motorsport facility in the next year or two. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/19731345/owners-share-plans-for-sa-motorsport-park/

It's quite far away from the city compared to the current drag racing facility at Adelaide International Raceway, meaning events would be harder to get to for many people, but it's certainly exciting to have something like this in the pipeline.

The driver of a stolen Nissan Murano in Chicago demonstrates appallingly poor car control after being confronted by the angry taxi driver he just rear-ended:

http://jalopnik.com/this-video-shows-what-not-to-do-when-you-hit-someones-1459678532

Out of my way, I'm a motorist! This Russian psychopath's driving is pretty shocking, driving up to people walking on the footpath and expecting them to scatter like pigeons before he runs them over:

http://www.carthrottle.com/this-crazy-russian-is-the-worlds-most-inconsiderate-impatient-and-immoral-driver/



A Toyota AE86 Corolla getting some serious angle drifting at Tsukuba circuit in Japan. Without a whole lot of power to work with, some enthusiastic Scandinavian flick entries are the order of the day, along with some clutch kicks to keep the wheels turning in 3rd gear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmpBtCwEuBk

A very lucky escape from serious injury for both these truck drivers, thanks to the quick thinking from the truck driver with the dashcam, who managed to only hit the front of the jack-knifing Kenworth with a glancing blow from his trailer, before navigating some pretty rough terrain and pulling up in time to avoid hitting a whole bunch of trees. Unfortunately, the accident pretty much put him out of business:
http://www.bigrigs.com.au/videos/truckies-quick-thinking-keeps-him-out-harms-way/20903/



Some very intimate and heartbreaking images of a woman's battle with cancer, with the journey documented every step of the way by her photographer husband: http://zengarage.com.au/2013/11/this-guys-wife-got-cancer-so-he-did-something-unforgettable/

This is a pretty badass pickup and boat combination; they even share the same 411 horsepower V8 motor:
http://jalopnik.com/now-your-boat-can-have-the-heart-of-a-ford-raptor-1459439357

Around the web today; November 7th, 2013.

Here's some very cool slow-motion footage, showing the amazing tire deformation of various drag cars while launching their way down the quarter mile. Much of it is shot at 300 frames per second, but about halfway through there's a Corvette Stingray launching shot at 600 frames per second, or 5% of normal speed. You can even see the firing order of the engine from the side pipes.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfJejgODr3E



A huge gallery of photos from SEMA 2013: http://www.gtspirit.com/2013/11/07/sema-2013-day-one-and-two-highlights/



Pirelli is currently negotiating with Formula 1 officials in regards to extending their contract to supply teams with tyres for the next few years: http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/new-pirelli-deal-to-be-for-three-years-only/

In related news, F1 head honcho Bernie Ecclestone had an awkward moment due to a revolving door and lots of cameras outside the High Court in London: http://jalopnik.com/bernie-ecclestone-is-so-rich-he-doesnt-know-how-to-ope-1459536635




A photographer's attempt to sue Australian newspaper 'The Age' for psychological damage, post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression, claimed to be a result of working on stories about the terrorist bombings in Bali just over a decade ago, has been declined. However, the court did declare that it was almost certain the claimant would never be able to work as a photographer again:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/age-trauma-leads-to-calls-for-industry-to-act-on-risks-of-reporting/story-e6frg996-1226733834070

In my line of work, which has mostly been focused around shooting trucks and cars for magazines, I've not witnessed even a small fraction of what a news photographer would over years of service. The difficult situations I've been presented with are minimal, generally traffic or racing accidents, but even those have had an impact on me, despite being fairly removed from the situation. Constantly working on the subject of terrorism, seeing and photographing terribly injured victims would have to be very difficult to deal with.



Some interesting runs between a ridiculously LSX V8 powered Willys Jeep and several others cars, including a ZO6 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, 996 Porsche 911 GT3 and CBR 600 motorbike; but doing it the dumb way on the street:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAoeyAJ6XXk



A brief teaser clip for American stunt driving master Ken Block's 'Gymkhana 6' video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxgzt6S_Qxo



The Atherton Police Department in Silicon Valley would like some Tesla police cars. Pretty please.
http://jalopnik.com/ludicrously-wealthy-silicon-valley-town-wants-tesla-pol-1459679199


Strong crosswinds and a semi-detachable home on a trailer aren't a good combination:  http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/1892582/semi-detached-half-a-home-falls-off-truck/?cs=2452

Around the web today; October 30th, 2013.

I've been busy and haven't had the chance to post anything for the past few days, so here's a whole bunch of links to make up for it:


A heavily modified Ford GT with 2000hp hits 278mph in only one mile, from a standing start:  http://www.carthrottle.com/witness-a-278mph-ford-gt-smash-the-texas-mile-record/



Car blogs and websites frequently post videos and pictures of exotic cars, usually of Italian descent, going up in flames. This time it's a video of a Ford Falcon ute, showing the tray engulfed in flames, which are quickly quelled with extinguishers by several other people nearby. He then continues his drive to work like nothing happened, which doesn't seem like the best idea:
 http://www.carthrottle.com/car-mechanics-ute-catches-fire-still-gets-to-work-on-time/



Some great footage of rally cars getting a whole lot of air on a jump in Switzerland. Competition level rally cars obviously have a lot of modifications to handle this kind of treatment, but I can't help but think that the brutal landings must have bent at least a few chassis out of shape upon landing:
http://jalopnik.com/this-is-a-jump-for-cars-on-the-side-of-a-cliff-1453411744



A 600hp Mitsubishi Lancer Evo ascending a treacherously wet and steep hill climb course in Switzerland. There are some pretty hairy moments when the car gets crossed up under power. I don't like the way Evos sound all that much in comparison to its most common rival, the Subaru WRX, but only in the sense that their engine and exhaust note tends to be rather flat and characterless. This particular example has a tough soundtrack though:
http://youtu.be/vdeW_VR8J9o



In stark contrast to the Evo's flat drone, this open-wheeler's 3 litre V8 emits a deliciously aggressive, high pitched howl as it blasts through the course, leaving a deafening roar reverberating around the hillsides in its wake. Turn your speakers up. Lots.  http://youtu.be/vdeW_VR8J9o


While your speakers are turned up, watch and listen to this one too; a great variety of cars, engines and noises. The Lancia Delta Integrale at 1:30 sounds particularly deranged:  http://youtu.be/mT2kNSOfXZ4



Some food for thought if you're not familiar with trucks and quite how much they cost to operate:  http://www.overdriveonline.com/5-more-things-members-of-the-general-public-dont-know-about-truckers/




This Tata Xenon 'Tuff Truck' is something a bit different. I like it. Looks tough, as its name suggests.
 http://www.themotorreport.com.au/57175/tata-reveals-australian-designed-tuff-truck-xenon-ute-concept




Well this is awkward. It would be embarrassing to stack your chopper anywhere, let alone in your own driveway, in front of your wife. At least it was a very minor incident compared to similar attempts I've seen:  http://blog.powerblocktv.com/husband-embarrasses-himself-doing-burnout-in-front-of-wife/




Red Bull is always coming up with cool ideas. Like racing a V8 Supercar against a plane on the beach in Queensland: http://blog.powerblocktv.com/v8-supercar-vs-airplane-race-on-an-australian-beach/




This certainly could have turned out a whole lot worse; a rally car barrel-rolling within arm's length of a crowd usually doesn't end well. The little hatchback rolls over so quickly it's almost impossible to count how many times it went over. The driver must have been awfully dizzy when the car finally came to rest:  http://jalopnik.com/watch-this-car-roll-over-about-47-times-and-somehow-not-1454270653




A dramatic and sobering gallery featuring images of the recent NSW bushfires taken by members of the Australian documentary photography collective Oculi: http://www.oculi.com.au/features/oculi-group-nsw-bushfires-october-2013-2/




Some ridiculously tight tandem drifting from two Nissan S13 Silvias in Japan:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M_mDbbIDlY




Some good advice from American photography guru Zack Arias about fear, in relation to both photography and life in general:  http://zarias.tumblr.com/post/65430999760/i-feel-paralyzed-by-fear-of-rejection-im-in-my-last



Some very scary footage of a Ducati high-siding and rolling before being hit by the following Yamaha R6 with helmet-cam, spraying fuel and bursting into flames during a race on a street circuit. Both riders were very lucky to escape with no injuries: http://www.epiccarnage.com/video-fiery-motorcycle-crash-footage/

Around the web today; October 23rd, 2013.

An interesting photographic comparison of what a weeks' worth of food for a family looks like around the world: http://fstoppers.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world



Some in-car footage from Beau Yates' AE86 Toyota of the big drift crash at WTAC:  http://youtu.be/ZH0xl8X4Ewk



A preview clip for what looks to be a very interesting documentary movie based around the history and drivers of Formula 1 racing: http://youtu.be/ZHlK2HCh12U



American photographer Carli Davidson has taken some cool and hilarious studio photos of dogs shaking themselves dry: http://www.diyphotography.net/photographer-carli-davidson-makes-epic-portraits-splashing-dogs

Her website features a heap of excellent photography of animals and wildlife, and well worth spending some time on: http://www.carlidavidsonphotography.com/Pets/thumbs/



A preview of Gregory Heisler's stunning '50 portraits' book: http://strobist.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/an-all-nighter-at-vista-greg-heislers.html  I've already spent far too much on photography books over the past ten years or so, but the content looks fascinating.

Around the web today; October 22nd, 2013.

Some images from the 2013 Wildlife Photographer of the Year: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/onlineGallery.do

The website of winning photographer Jasper Doest: http://www.doest-photography.com/



A very cool time-lapse video of locations where TV show Breaking Bad was filmed: http://roadtrippers.kinja.com/this-awesome-timelapse-takes-you-thru-the-best-breaking-1449639032

https://roadtrippers.com/trips/breaking-bad-road-trip/523b4a429d0782bf38000423



Mmm. Donuts. Nice pictures of donuts: http://cutestfood.com/category/donuts/



Some sad news about a terminally ill young girl, whose last wish was to ride in a pink Lamborghini with Richard Hammond, has passed away: http://jalopnik.com/little-girl-who-rode-with-richard-hammond-in-a-pink-lam-1449062454

http://jalopnik.com/i-wish-they-actually-kept-it-that-colour-and-instead-au-1441533538

http://thesupercarkids.com/lamborghini-aventador-turned-pink-for-a-girls-bucket-list/



The driver and co-driver of this E30 BMW M3 rally car were lucky to walk away from this shunt, as were a few spectators: http://jalopnik.com/this-bmw-e30-m3-rally-crash-is-sad-yet-also-hilarious-1449263244


Some coverage of the awesome hot rod & custom festival Chopped 2013:  http://crcooperphotography.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/chopped-2013/

Around the web today: October 16th, 2013.

Quite a few photographers have made the transition to shooting videos as well as photos in the past few years. Here are some good tips from a video editor's perspective, regarding everything from shooting b-roll footage to effectively creating a story from a bunch of clips: http://fstoppers.com/become-a-better-videographer-shoot-like-a-video-editor


A mud hole 4x4 recovery doesn't quite go as planned: http://blog.powerblocktv.com/mypowerblock-bumper-comes-off-truck-being-pulled-out-of-the-mud/


A little off topic, but a good read here about an Irish man living without money, a few years after completing a business and economics degree, managing a large food company and buying a yacht:  http://worldobserveronline.com/2013/10/04/man-lives-without-money/

ABC's Media Watch program ran a story last night on an issue that raised some ire among photographers when it was announced last month; Tennis Australia requesting job applications from sports photographers to shoot the Australian Open in Melbourne. Which doesn't sound bad in itself, but despite a long list of what they're looking for, including experience in photography, your own equipment, in-depth knowledge of tennis,  a strong portfolio of sports images, and what looks like dawn-to-dusk working hours for two weeks, the positions are those of unpaid volunteers:  http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3868825.htm

Here's a screen-cap of the actual ad on seek.com.au. Which is pretty ridiculous; any takers would be essentially paying to 'work' for Tennis Australia, a large corporation with revenue of roughly $200m a year.

On the other side of the coin, a post from a photographer ridiculing a model for wanting to charge for her time: http://zarias.tumblr.com/post/63957645975/models-rates-i-contacted-a-local-model-for-portfolio

Rohan Phillips Photography website

Hello and welcome to everyone visiting from the Chase Jarvis blog! It's still under construction, but you can check out more of my work on my official portfolio site here: http://rohanphillips.ccutter.com/home

To read more about my shooting and editing process with the Australian Truck Driver series, have a look at this blog post: http://carscameraschronicillness.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/editing-process-australian-truck.html

For a brief run-down of my cancer diagnosis, check out the post here:
http://carscameraschronicillness.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/so-six-weeks-before-i-get-married.html

I've detailed some of my experiences with gastroparesis here:
http://carscameraschronicillness.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/my-story-hospital-2010-1.html
http://carscameraschronicillness.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/my-jejunostomy-tube-swap-1-back-story.html

If you're interested in buying or licencing any of the images you see, or have any questions you would like to ask, feel free to contact me at email@rohanphillips.com, I would love to hear from you.

Hope you have a great day, and thanks for dropping by!

Cheers Rohan

                                         

Australian Institute of Professional Photography membership.

Just a quick post to share some good news. Since my health has picked up to the point where I'm able to start doing some shoots again, and my website isn't far off completion, I submitted a portfolio of my automotive and portrait images to the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP)

Your work is judged by a panel of experienced professional photographers, who review your images and decide whether your skills are consistently up to a professional standard. After a tense few days of waiting, I received an email notifying me that I had been approved to join the AIPP as a full accredited member!

So in addition to various benefits like industry seminars, professional photography magazine subscriptions and the Australian Professional Photography Awards book, I'm now able to use their logo in my promotional material, which is a clear indication to clients that your work is of a high standard and worth paying for.

Never work with children or animals...

Here's a brief behind the scenes video of National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore working on his epic project 'Rare'. His mission is to document as many of the 6,000 species of captive animals in American zoos as he can, in particular endangered breeds, and has so far photographed over 1,800 different species in zoos and aquariums across the United States of America.

As you will see, trying to take great photos of animals with complicated lighting setups is far from easy!

RARE: Behind the scenes video

To see some of the hundreds of photos he has taken so far, check out this link:
http://www.nationalgeographicstock.com/ngsimages/lightbox/share.jsf?l=MH5tolXTjyQ=&o

Some photography video links

 National Geographic contributor Joel Sartore talks about his biodiversity project; an epic personal mission to photograph all 6000 species of animals held in captivity in the USA.

http://ngstockblog.com/2012/04/joel-sartores-biodiversity-project-featured-on-carson-daly/


American photographer Ryan Schude breaks down the process for shooting and creating an incredibly complicated and perfectly lit scene at a diner:

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/04/06/composite-diner-photograph-shot-with-24-lights-over-12-hours/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PetaPixel+%28PetaPixel%29


A parody of some medication commercials for photography nerds:

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/04/05/fauxtographor-a-prescription-drug-commercial-parody/


Documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark shares a few of her thoughts on photography- how it's something that is relatively easy to make images at a competent level, but very difficult to excel at it:

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2012/04/02/mary-ellen-mark-to-be-ok-at-something-is-easy/

Behind bars and beginning to forget.

Just clicked through to this powerful photo essay by Todd Heisler on the New York Times Lens blog.

The story, which documents the lives of elderly prisoners suffering from various stages of dementia and their caretakers, shows a side of prison I'd never really thought about, in a very visually striking way.

Obviously most of the inmates have done some awful things, including murder, but thinking of these same people being a personal carer, feeding, showering and changing adult nappies for another mentally ill inmate is somewhat jarring.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/behind-bars-and-beginning-to-forget/

One of my grandparents has quite advanced dementia and has needed full-time care for a few years now. It's hard to know what level her understanding of the world is. On the odd occasion she has made what seems like a completely lucid comment out of the blue, but for the rest of the time she may barely even register that anyone else is in the room, let alone recognising who they are.

Visiting a nursing home full of people who have lost most or all of their mental capacity is quite confronting; I think partially because of the fear of ending up with a life where you have no control or understanding of anything that happens. Todd's 'Vanishing Mind' portfolio covers similar ground to this: http://toddheisler.com/#/Vanishing%20Mind/0/

It's hard to not feel pity for some of the poor souls in nursing homes, who may well spend their last years and days staring vacantly at a wall, with no control over their physical bodily functions, and no idea of who they are, where they are or why. But combining that pity with the revulsion for someone who has murdered another human being, or something similarly terrible, makes for a strangely conflicted feeling while viewing this series of images.

Be sure to check out more of Todd Heisler's work on his website here: www.toddheisler.com
 
He has an enormously diverse body of amazing work. His portfolios range from arresting depictions of the war in Iraq, to behind the scenes coverage of the popular American TV series Glee.

His 'Final Salute' series, showing a dead American soldier's return home and subsequent funeral, is particularly moving: http://toddheisler.com/#/FINAL%20SALUTE/0/

Todd has received well-deserved awards and accolades from numerous photography organisations and competitions, as described in the 'about' section on his site:

 "Todd Heisler has been a staff photographer for The New York Times since 2006.
While a staff photographer for the Rocky Mountain News, Heisler was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his images depicting the families of Marines killed in Iraq. The images also received top honors from the World Press Photo Contest, Pictures of the Year International , NPPA’s best of Photojournalism, The American Society of News Editors and at Visa Pour l’image. He was also part of the team which received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of wildfires in Colorado."

The editing process - Australian Truck Drivers

If you're a regular visitor to the blog (hi mum) you may have noticed things have been a little quiet the past few months.

The reason? Apart from my health improving to a point where I'm actually able to go out somewhere most days, I've been plowing through all the photos I've taken since I started shooting with digital SLRs in the middle of 2005, as well as some older work on film, trying to collect my best images together for an official photography portfolio site.

Sifting through thousands upon thousands of photos to pick out the best work has been a lengthy and somewhat arduous task at times, as the ratio of excellent quality portfolio level shots compared to shutter clicks is usually very small.

A couple of months ago I came across an extensive and extremely helpful blog post about portfolio editing, written by successful American photographer Zack Arias: http://zackarias.com/editorial-photography/editing-your-portfolio/

Website: http://zackarias.com/
Blog: http://zackarias.com/blog/

He's talking about making a hard copy portfolio book for the most part, but the basic principles are very similar, in terms of the way to do it, and the doubts, thoughts and emotions likely to run through your head when paring down photos to just your very best work.

I was relieved to read that I wasn't alone in having doubts, like why I was even bothering to put together a portfolio, as it can be disheartening wading through heaps of your own mediocre work, especially if you spent lots of time looking at awesome photography in heavily curated books, magazines and portfolio websites from hundreds of different professional shooters. Although I suspect his rejects are on a significantly different level to mine, that comes with lots of experience, experiments, failures, successes and a healthy body that doesn't completely cripple your ability to work for weeks, months and years at a time.

One thing that is pretty common for photographers is emotional attachment to certain pictures. They tend to be ones that you like on a personal level, worked hard at creating, or were difficult to get. Leading you to become biased towards these photos, when someone looking at them has no idea what went on behind the scenes, and therefore judges them along with the rest, maybe noticing that a few are 'almosts', in a manner of speaking, that should probably have been left in the rejects pile.

Once you get through the initial loose edit, maybe pulling 1000 photos from 100,000, the more painful process begins...gradually hacking away at the portfolios until you're down to the best of the best. As it says at the beginning of Zack's article, his friend's quote is a pretty good analogy for the final stages of the edit... “It’s like lining up your children and deciding which ones you’re going to shoot.” A little graphic, but it gets the point across.

Also worth reading is this partially tongue-in-cheek blog post by photojournalist Kenneth Jarecke, entitled 'Chances are you suck.' http://kennethjarecke.typepad.com/mostly_true/2012/02/chances-are-you-suck.html

In a nutshell, he talks about editing your work, and describes how the current level of common photographic interaction- clicking 'like' on someone's facebook page- can be harmful for your growth as a photographer. Regardless of how many likes and 'OMG amazing pic!!!' comments you might get with an HDR photo of a cute baby riding a fluffy kitten jumping over a rainbow at sunset in Hawaii.

At the same time, I think the level of editing, and how many photographs you end up showcasing, can depend a lot on what kind of photographer you are. Several of my favourite documentary photographers have very extensive portfolios on numerous subjects, showing their ability to shoot in a wide variety of situations and locations, and still presenting very strong work. Joachim Ladefoged is one such photographer: http://www.joachimladefoged.com/

While Joachim has hundreds of photos in over 30 seperate portfolios, a commercial or portrait photographer may well only have 20 photos altogether on their website as an example of their work, as it's being shown in a completely different context, and aimed at a very different target market compared to a photojournalist working overseas in war zones. For him to only show 20 photos each in 3 or 4 portfolios would be selling himself short, given his extensive experience over many years in dangerous locations worldwide.

It's almost mandatory for wedding photographers these days to have a blog running alongside their official portfolio website. Or in some cases the blog is their portfolio site, like Angelsmith Photography, who will be shooting my fiance Sally and I's wedding in a few months' time.

Here's a link to a recent post with photos from our engagement shoot at Camelot Castle in the Adelaide hills, a stunning location at sunset for portraits. http://www.angelsmithphotography.com.au/2012/01/sally-rohan-engagement-story/

It can be helpful for potential clients to see 20 or 30 photos from each wedding day, as it gives a much better indication of how the photographer works, as opposed to a portfolio of 20 shots from different weddings, where they could just be keepers from piles of wedding photos where the other images from the day weren't that great.

 After seeing the suggestion on Australian documentary photographer Sean Davey's website a couple of years back, I've found that printing out the portfolios on 6x4 inch photo paper, and then laying them all out is a much more effective way to sort out the wheat from the chaff, and also what sequencing of images looks the best. While you can flick back and forth on a computer screen to see individual frames and thumbnails, there's something more visceral and certain in having hard copies laid out in front of you, giving a selection you can move around, add to or remove prints from easily.

Sean goes a little further into the usefulness of this method here: http://www.pidgin.com.au/pages/7/The%20Edit/The%20Edit/

For instance, here is a digital vs analogue comparison for one of my portfolios, my portraits of Australian Truck Drivers. I'm still in the stages of finalising the photos and black and white conversions, so the folder contains all the portraits I've taken, seperated into sub-folders where I have the original RAW file, a colour jpg and B&W jpeg to work with. So at a glance, it's still too muddled to be able to to look at them all as a group at the same time.

 The prints are a selection I pruned for the Shutterbug photography competition a couple of years ago now, and are what I considered to be the strongest frames, with some help from my now-fiance Sally, my mum and a couple of other friends who were able to look at the photos more objectively than I could. They were more able to look and judge which were the best ones on their own merits, not how difficult they were for me to get, how interesting the driver was to talk to, or some technical photographic aspect I liked over others.

There was an option for the sizes of the portfolio submitted; between 20 and 40 images, all with one theme linking them together as a cohesive portolio project. Instead of getting caught up with a specific number, I decided that I would just keep cycling through, binning the weakest frames along the way, until I felt that all the remaining portraits were visually on the same level as one another. With some more tips and critiques from Sally, I cut the second edit from 100 photos, to 80, 60, 40...and finally settled on 37 images for the final portfolio submission.

While I didn't win, I managed to make the Top 10, which I was pretty chuffed with for a popular national contest.

This particular image, of 58 year old truck driver Neil Rayner, has been quite well received by judges in a few different competitions- he has one of the most interesting faces I've photographed so far, with equally fascinating life experiences living up to the story his weathered face already tells.

I submitted a much more tightly edited selection to professional photography magazine Capture in late 2007, only 6 or 10 images if I recall correctly. There were less to choose from at that point, but it wasn't too difficult in comparison to the extensive Shutterbug entry, choosing a small number of the most striking and visually different portraits I'd taken at that time. I sent my entry in two days before the deadline, but it managed to scrape through in time, and I was excited to receive a very pleasant phone call from the editor a short time later, letting me know I'd won that issue's Exposed Challenge.

 Early on I'd submitted two series of the portraits to Truckin' Life magazine, which were published a few months apart, over four pages each. Knowing the images they had to choose from, it was interesting to see their edit and layout of the photos; which were emphasised by being printed large, which were smaller, and others that were left out altogether.

I like the layout of the first two pages, with several of my favourites on the first page, as well as a full-page dedicated to another, probably due to the fact that it's one of very few portrait orientation pictures that show the whole truck, in addition to being a good portrait of the driver himself. I think the next two pages are a bit of a step down in impact, with only a couple of photos that I included in my 37 image submission to the Shutterbug contest, top and bottom in the middle of the spread. The other portraits are still good, but knowing what images I submitted for this particular piece, I thought they discarded several pictures that were stronger than the ones that ended up being printed.

Although the very first image isn't a big favourite compared to all of the others, I was much happier with the selection this time around, which included photos that I still consider to be some of my strongest work. All of the photos were taken with a Nikon D70s, using either the kit 18-70mm, 50mm f/1.8D or Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lenses. The main image of the driver with truck and cool clouds is fairly dramatic and different to the rest, so I think that was a good decision to have that as the highlight of the spread. The two portraits below both have a similar 'tough guy' feel to them which I think helps give the portraits a bit more depth, although in reality they were both nice friendly blokes I chatted to for a while.

The next two pages carry some of my best stuff to date, with a few of the group winning awards on their own or as part of a portfolio, as well as the most valuable portrait. The photo of Barry Crew, who is at the top right, was licenced by Mack Trucks to use in an advertising campaign, which you can see later in this post. It was interesting to think how far a whim can take you sometimes with a picture, and the events that can result from a simple decision.

The day I took his portrait, along with another truck driver who only identified himself as 'Cavie', I was actually frustrated after driving around Wingfield and Port Adelaide, and not really finding any interesting trucks or scenes to shoot. I was very unwell at that point (February 2007), still recovering from nearly a year of being too sick to even visit a friend's house, due to my stomach problems causing constant nausea at a horrific level for months on end.

I was just planning to head home, and decided to go past the old wool sheds at Port Adelaide, as it was fairly common for trucks to park near the warehouses and factories. So after making a few turns I drove down the main road running in between, and glancing down a side street, I spotted a couple of rigs parked on either side of the road, with a couple of truckies talking. I didn't get a good look as I was driving, but thought the scene had enough potential for me to go back and have a proper look.

So after rounding the block, I pulled up behind one of the trucks, and took a few photos of the first rig, a Freightliner Argosy, in the warm late afternoon sunlight.

 Walking closer to the Western Star parked over the other side of the road, I took a few photos of it glinting in the sun.



I then looked over to see the two drivers of the trucks, sitting along the wall on the pavement, having a good old yarn while waiting for a load.

Truck drivers tend to have more interesting faces than much of the population, due to being tough blokes working outside for decades, but my heart almost skipped a beat when I saw Barry. He has one of the most interesting faces I've ever laid eyes on, and looks as tough as nails, the epitome of the rough, hard-working Aussie truckie character and grit.

Cavie was quite an interesting character too, and I managed to convince him to let me take his picture in front of the truck. I'll be re-editing all the truckie photos for my website, looking back at the ones I posted a few years ago on flickr, the B&W conversions on a lot of them are a bit flat and lacking contrast. The Neil Rayner portrait in particular is more striking with deeper blacks from the increased contrast. Toning images is something that comes with a bit more experience and extensive viewing of lots of B&W documentary work from some of the world's best shooters. I probably shouldn't try to work out how much I've spent on photography books over the years.

 I'm usually not particularly insistent when truck drivers initially say 'no' to having their photos taken, but with Barry I wasn't going to take no for an answer. Not that I was rude ( I hope), but after a few more minutes of chatting and gentle persuasion, combined with some peer pressure from fellow truckie Cavie, he agreed to stand in front of his truck to allow me to snap some shots of him.

The photo is still interesting in colour, but I think the B&W version is much more powerful, allowing you to concentrate on all the lines and textures in his face, telling enough stories for several books on its own. After rattling off about 20 frames with different compositions and exposures, we settled back into chatting about trucks and photography for a while, before I headed off home. For such a random meeting on a day where I was frustrated about having taken crappy photos, this particular image ended up going a long way as I added it to my portfolio and began entering competitions.

One of the most beneficial edits was made by an advertising agency, working on a campaign for Mack Trucks Australia, who voted with their wallet for these two being the strongest images, or at least the most suitable for their theme and copy.

As you can see, Barry's rugged features really suit the light-hearted mood of their marketing for Mack's new range of engines and transmissions.



The other image they licenced was this shot, of New Zealand native Mark Wanakore. This one has a story behind it as well, but I'll save that for another day.

Once I've gone through my truckie images to date and made black and white conversions I'm happy with, I'm still left with several other portfolios to add to, build up, tear apart and agonise over; cars, trucks, people, architecture, suburbia, landscapes...which I should probably get back to working on, instead of procrastinating by writing flowery, self-involved blog posts and watching car videos on Youtube.

I think I'll use the same mindset as I did for the Shutterbug contest; not try and get each category down to exactly 20 images arbitrarily, but gradually whittle the selections down until I feel all the photos are on the same level, whether that's 15 photos or 40. And I'm sure I'll still have trouble stopping myself from including a few photos I'm emotionally attached to in some way.

Hmm, don't think I've seen that drift video before....