Last weekend we ventured out to Manly beach, to see Australian Open in Surfing. I was planning to take some cool shots on my 200mm zoom lens of surfers doing jumps and stuff, but instead I got lens envy, standing among the big boys, with lenses 400mm+, so they can actually zoom in full frame on the surfers and capture the fine detail.
Damn, those things cost 10k a pop, and that’s just for the lens, add another 10k for the body, consider that each of the pros have two bodies and two different lenses in use, add other smaller accessories, that’s 50k worth of equipment standing there in the sand.
That would take me a lot of hours working in the media, but hey, as the saying goes, if your tool is not long enough, you just have to work harder, smarter and move it faster. So instead I was looking for creative angles and context, quite like this one.
Archive for the 'Photography' Category
Lens Envy
Published February 22, 2012 Photography 1 CommentTags: nikon, lens, beach, lens envy, camera, equipment, zoom, manly, surf
Jurrah @ Redfern
Published February 16, 2012 Life , Photography 1 CommentTags: 52 suburbs, Jurrah, photo project, sydney
Meet Jurrah, my latest model and participant in the 52 suburbs project. Jurrah is badass angel if there is such a thing. Judging from tattoos covering her body I assumed she’s as mean as my uncle, but once I met her in person (ok, actually as soon as I started to discuss the shoot details) it was clear that she’s anything but my uncle.
Jurrah loves to laugh and nibble so it was really hard to get a moment when she’s not doing at least one of those, but in the end we did get couple of the serious ones as well. We were shooting in her ‘office’, well more like uber-cool pad where people come together to co-create and have fun, play ping pong, sleep in hammocks, drive around bicycles and other random things, not your typical cubicle space. Thanks Jurrah for waking up nice and early on Sunday morning and keep rocking.
Waran @ Potts Point
Published January 12, 2012 Photography Leave a CommentTags: 52 suburbs, photo shoot, Photography, portrait, potts point, sydney, waran
Meet Waran, yoga instructor, writer, dancer, performer and all in all a very nice person. Originally from California, but living in Australia for quite a few years. I had the opportunity to work with him as part of my project for Sydney suburbs. We were shooting in Potts Point which is amazingly chilled area with spectacular views of Sydney CBD, only few steps away from gritty Kings Cross. Waran had access to roof terrace where we could see all of Sydney’s down town as the summer sun was slowly coming down, most pics in the set where shoot against this backdrop. We even got some curious visitors in form of parakeets and cockatoo looking for some snacks, looked like they’ve done it before, unfortunately we did not have any food at hand.
Photo shoot was retro themed as Waran had quite a few pieces of original clothing from early and mid 20th century such as this navy jacket and cap among other things. So here you go, again, another part of amazing city that is Sydney. Here is full set from the photo shoot.
Wedding @ Wolfies
Published December 20, 2011 Photography Leave a CommentTags: australia, Photography, sydney, wedding, wolfies
Last weekend I did something I have not done in a while, a photo shoot for wedding. It was last minute gig with not too much preparation and planning, but still lots of fun. Quite challenging settings, all indoors with limited natural lighting, continuous rain outside and venue at maximum capacity with not much room to juggle my camera and get the right angles, but think I managed to pull it off quite OK, you can be the judge. As always, for me the most exiting part is informal banter and emotions on the day, not the formal exchange of bows, but all has its place.
5 years of taking pictures
Published December 10, 2011 Photography 1 CommentTags: 5 years, hobby, Life, taking pictures
It’s been 5 years since I’ve been doing photography, not just taking travel snaps, but working with models, doing projects and assignments, a real deal so to say. Picture above is my first studio attempt I was really proud of, I got my then flatmate Mariola to pose for me. As it was my first time in photo studio on my own and it was her first time as a model, we decided to share a bottle of wine in the process, and 10 minutes in, wine became the focus point of the shoot, not sure what on earth we were thinking, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.
Also, since there’s nothing like a bit of statistics, I thought I’d share some numbers. In last 5 years I have:
- worked with more than 100 models
- spent more than one full year of travelling (and taking pictures)
- taken 56,000 pictures, on average I keep 5% or 1/20 pictures that I take, so in last five years I have taken 2824*20=56480 pictures, not bad.
- spent $10k plus on photo gear. Photography is expensive hobby. In last 5 years, I have gone through 3 Nikon cameras (D50, D80 and now D7000) and 10 lenses, whilst I still own 5 of them: Nikon 18-200mm VR, Nikon 50mm f1.8, Nikon 24-70mm f2.8, Tamron 70-200mm f2.8, Tamron 90mm f1.8, plus flashes, tripods, stands, umbrellas and other collateral
And of course, it’s all nicely cataloged in my Flickr photo stream, have a look at the sets to travel back in time.
Roller skating round Marrickville
Published December 1, 2011 Photography Leave a CommentTags: 52 suburbs, living in Sydney, Marrickville, photo project, roller skating, shay, sydney
On Tuesday I was roller skating with Shay. Well, more precisely, Shay was roller skating and I was taking pictures, especially trying to capture the awkward moments like falling, which she refused to do, so we had to fake it to make it.
Marrickville is one of my favourite Sydney suburbs as it has so much character. Like a safer and cleaner version of Hackney in London, but just as cool. If I could afford a photo studio it would be here. It’s mostly industrial, with lots of warehouses that serve small businesses during a day and throw a mad party during night.
My model for the day was Shay, who took me up on bringing something weird to the shoot, so out came the roller skates. That is something I’m always on the look out for, but rarely rely on. It only happens by chance and planning a roller skate shoot is like planning chameleon shoot. A year ago I posted on all kinds of pet forums for weeks to find owner with Chameleon who would allow me to shoot his friend, but no luck. So from that day on, I take the opportunity when it presents itself, but do not count or pre-arranging something random like that, as it never works.
Full set of pics.
Bondi surf in black and white
Published November 8, 2011 Photography 1 CommentTags: 52 suburbs, bondi beach, living in Sydney, photo project, surf girl
Hello peeps, this week I have a nice surf shoot gallery in black and white, check it out here. Bondi beach at 7 am on Saturday morning was spectacular, hazy horizon as a backdrop, summery 25 degrees, not too busy, all in all, perfect conditions for some surf action. Too bad come 10am all the backpackers wake up and Bondi becomes living hell, so do what you can whilst others sleep, then get the hell out of there, before you get stuck in hour long traffic jam.
I also have to thank Naomi for rocking up nice and early for the 7am shoot and giving tips on good coffee places in the hood.
This shoot reminded me how effective simple black and white pics can be, you can really focus on the story and the message with no distractions, note to myself, should do it more.
Hope your week has started well, live your dream.
look mum no hands!
Published November 2, 2011 Photography 1 CommentTags: 52 suburbs, anastasia, look mum no hands, Photography, project, sydney, waterloo
What started as improbable gymnastics around old pipes in Waterloo, ended up with bike ride around balcony. Anastasia is my Waterloo model from 52 suburbs project. She’s originally from Ukraine, with 2 masters degrees, 10+ years of modelling experience and body of 18 year old. She’s fitness fanatic, that can bend her body in all kinds of random positions, 5 minutes into the shoot, Anastasia was like “I can pull my leg backwards up to my head, you want to see?” I had no time to answer, just keep on snapping.
All in all good times and a great session, besides the obligatory Waterloo landmarks and old water pipes, we also managed to squeeze in dress change and get some bored housewife looks, bike ride, and kiddie swing shot, all in about hour and a half, not bad.
Full set of pictures from the shoot can be found here.
p.s. there actually is amazing bike cum coffee shop in east London, called ‘look mum no hands!’, now every time I take a pic of someone on the bike, that is the first phrase coming to my mind, the power of branding.
You don’t want to f*** with me
Published September 25, 2011 Photography Leave a CommentTags: 52 suburbs, firemen, marc, parramatta, personal trainer, sydney
Marc, not me that is. If the pic is not self explanatory, here’s top line detail. Marc is a fireman, search and rescue in his day job plus personal trainer on the side. He’ll get you in shape in no time, Mark probably has 0.5% body fat, just plain muscle. And the best thing, despite what the looks might suggest, he’s actually a really nice guy, polite, no bullshit type. We did some action shots around lake reserve and also semi abandoned mental hospital, amazing finds showing that Parramatta has a lot more to offer than shopping at Westfields.
Mark represents Parramatta in my 52 suburbs project. Here’s full set of pics from the shoot.
Ami @ Kirribilli
Published September 20, 2011 Photography 1 CommentTags: 52 suburbs, actress, ami, kirribilli, Photography, project, sydney
It’s great when you share a house with an actress. Ami was kind enough to be my Kirribilli girl for the 52 suburbs project. Got the obligatory Opera House backdrop shot, but also a few quirky ones, I’m especially found of movement shots, as it brings lots of energy to the image.
Here’s the full set of pictures from this shoot.
