Something new from yesterday and someone new from today. It is my aim to photograph a new portrait every day this week. I have two people lined up for tomorrow. We'll see if I can keep up the pace.

Carrie #3

Roland #1

Portraits

A couple of today's portraits. Many thanks to Carrie who volunteered to have water sprayed in her face while being subjected to the cameras scrutiny. A truly lovely person, I've known Carrie for a few years now and can't ever see enough of her.

Thanks also to Clare also subjected to the water torture albeit from behind the glass.

Would love all feedback as I am to submit three portraits by the end of the week, one of which will hang at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG)

Carrie #1

Carrie #2

Night Drive

Clare

Blue Sky Mining

If you have a look at the links attached to this blog, you'll see Richard Avedon's name. After the stunning images he made it's difficult to think of myself as a portrait photographer. And if you've followed this blog at all you'll know that I am more interested in the flotsam and jetsam of life than anything more conspicuous.

As I prepare to embark on the portrait challenge I have involved myself in, I will allow myself this small indulgence. An image from I trip I did last January coming home from northern NSW. Nambucca Heads. A small south-east coastal town in NSW. On this overnight stop I walked and walked. Camera in hand I found much to enjoy.

Xmas Day - Portrait Prize

Well then, the image in the previous post was entered a couple of days ago into the 1233 Portrait Prize. Run by the ABC and the Maitland Regional Art Gallery. I've been fortunate enough to have been selected as one of the Ten Finalists.

From here we final ten have been awarded a workshop with SMH Photographer Quentin Jones. Following the workshop we create another portrait image for judging, with the winner receiving a trip for two to the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. All ten finalist will have their work shown at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery. This is the prize for me.

Congratulations to the other nine finalists.
Below is one of the other images I submitted into the Prize.

Xmas Day

This is an image of my dad taken last xmas day at the family gathering. I used the lens baby on my nikon. Didn't touch the images until two nights ago. I photographed everyone who came to lunch, up against the wall. Surprised they all agreed. Much grimacing and nervous grins. My dad toughed it out for the crowd. Nervous, and who isn't with a camera shoved close to their face, but still relaxed enough to let the feeling of happiness he carried within to escape through his eyes. He's a happy man and it's good to see.

Head On Photo Festival

Sydney’s Head On Photo Festival features over 180 events and includes exhibitions of Australian and international work by established and emerging photographers.

This year I have some images in the Head On photo Festival at the Leichhardt Library Exhibition Space.


Opening on Thursday 3 May


I'm sharing the space with two other photographers


It's an interesting show and a great, great event so support your local image makers and artists and go enjoy their images

Just a Sunday night at the computer. An image I played with a few weeks ago and liked. I came back to it again tonight to have another go. I love the composition and texture of this image.

It's just so incredibly simple, and at the same time so complex...

SkyLine

A trip to Melbourne last year delivered these images. Grateful for the overcast days, my G12 lapped up the silvery slivers between the buildings as I dashed from department store awning to tram shelter and back again through the drizzle. The light glorious and shimmering. The buildings clinging joyously to the sky and watching each other shine.

 

 

  

To be or not to be...

Patterns and shapes fill my world. Watching Mr Elvis Costello interview My James Taylor last night. Some great songs and words. James Taylor said that his songwriting over the years has produced many individual songs but that the themes in his work were few. He continued to return to those ideas that were important to him and write something new from his current position. Perhaps he sang it a little more elegantly. (and what a beautiful voice)

I realise when I review my image making over the years that I also have been returning to the same themes and subjects over and over. The surface, shape, texture, angle, and line within my composition that underpin my thoughts are regular reminders of past images. The materials and subjects within my photographs return with regularity. When I'm out taking photographs I don't take a lot of time framing each image, but I do take a lot of care. I know when the composition is right and when it is not, and there is always the choice of whether to open the shutter or move on.

That particular subjects can represent feelings, thoughts and ideas is very intriguing. Why this angle or that piece of rusty corrugated iron. I sometimes shoot blind random images of textured or patterned surfaces. The choice there comes in the editing. The images I keep and those I delete fit into the familiar. I freely acknowledge the influence of other photographers and other images I have seen. The images I like are those that touch me deep below the surface of the subject. The intrinsic nature of certain images has the power to reach out and connect in a powerful way.

Many years ago a friend of mine and I sat in a bar in Gijon, Spain. My friend sat, feet resting on a second chair. A table between us. We sat and talked and every so often he would look across to a painted cast iron column reaching up to the ceiling. I've always liked that column he said with his eyes fixed. Why, I inquired. I don't know he said, I just do.

Red Beans and Roses

Have been doing a fair bit of imaging of late. The camera always at hand, that sort of thing. Trouble is, you end up with an almighty filing and storage problem with images that range from a passing tattoo to decaying flowers or architectural oddities to a dead lizard on the footpath.
Storage is obviously on the computer, but if your not careful naming and archiving the images how in Bill Brandt's name do you find it again.

So I ended up with some random images of frying beans and of a bunch of roses all in the same folder. The beans were my attempt to make refried beans to go with Tacos one night. Only I happen to like refried beans at home so I thought I'd make my own on this occasion. After the frying (and they were really only fried once) I had to get the potato masher out to work them over and into a state that looked a little similar to the genuine article. They didn't ever look the same, or taste the same. I'll leave it at that.

The roses, a gift. Photographed here while still young and vibrant are, as I write quietly maturing in the bedroom. If ever two subjects were made for each other it is Red Beans and Roses. There is a visual magic between these two unlikely companions. And in a way do they not represent all that we need from the world. Sustenance, companionship and beauty. There is a reason they ended up snuggling close, the way only digital files can, together... in a folder... on my computer.