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.
Archive for the 'Photography' Category
Bondi surf in black and white
Published November 8, 2011 Photography 1 CommentTags: 52 suburbs, bondi beach, living in Sydney, photo project, surf girl
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.
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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.
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Tammy @ Punchbowl
Published September 7, 2011 Life , Photography Leave a CommentTags: 52 suburbs, photo project, punchbowl, sydney, tammy
There is nothing in Punchbowl, no places of interest, nada, just a line of chicken shops near the station, now I know. But the people are lovely, area is so much more diverse than some of the inner city burbs.
This weekend shoot was with Tammy, from New Zealand but growing up in Australia, with Bengali ethnic background, how cool is that. The main struggle was finding something to shoot against in Punchbowl, as it really is just a residential area. We ended up raiding local tennis court, construction site and a random building, to get clean background tones. Tammy does some Bollywood and hip hop dancing so I got her to rock some moves, there’s nothing like a silent disco.
In between we stopped by her place, where her mother greeted me with the cold stare and 60kg Rottweiler was very keen to play with me, life is good, love all this random stuff.
Here are more pics from the day.
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Those things in the background
Published August 22, 2011 Photography Leave a CommentTags: 52 suburbs, Photography, sydney, things in the background
Often, when you shoot in public places, unexpected things happen, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Swimmer pops his head next to a model (forgive the lack of focus, I got overexcited).
Dog runs in front of the model.
Or seagull might be flying really low.
That’s the beauty of photography, trying to capture magic of that moment, a point in time when things align and create a unique experience that might not ever repeat itself again, it was there and then its gone. These moments remind me why I love photography so much.
Kate @ Mosman
Published August 15, 2011 Photography Leave a CommentTags: 52 suburbs, kate, luxury house, mosman, photoshoot, pool, sydney
Meet Kate, 1st out of 52, my 1st Sydney suburb girl. She’s from Mosman, a lovely Northern suburb, with quiet roads and expensive homes. We had an opportunity to shoot in lovely 3! story house with amazing garden area and a pool, yep, with a pool.
Besides me having a property drool, we actually packed a neat shoot with several locations around the house, some pool action, more classy evening dress shots and of course not missing out on using original Eames lounge chair.
Full set can be viewed here. Have had 3 more shoots already for this project so stay tuned.
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Always Pepsi Pepsi
Published July 19, 2011 Photography 1 CommentTags: 52 suburbs, coca cola, coke, pepsi
Doing things differently is never easy, this monkey probably went through a lot of peer pressure for choosing Pepsi over Coke.
Similar thing happened to me, moving from more standard fashiony shoots to project around 52 suburbs, changes the engagement from people and who’s interested, you get a lot more characters and lot less typical models, but that’s fine. Obviously I’ve been over optimistic on kick starting it so quickly as schedules and Sydney winter weather have not been on my side. But fear not, there are some shoots lined up, so I will get back to shooting people instead of fish I catch on Saturday mornings very soon.
Try Pepsi now and then, it puts things in perspective.
52 suburbs
Published July 10, 2011 Life , Photography 1 CommentTags: 52 suburbs, fishing, harbour, new project, sydney
I have a new project, and, before you ask, its not professional fishing in Sydney harbour, although it appears I’m getting quite good at it, just look at this weekend’s catch in the pic above, a sinkful.
The new project is called 52 suburbs, it starts now (well, new pics next week) and will run for a year. Inspired by Louise Hawson, a Sydney photographer, who explored Sydney’s suburbs for a year, every week a different one, talking to people, getting to know the neighbourhood and taking amazing pictures along the way. There is no point doing exactly the same thing over again, but I am very keen to explore city beyond Bondi beach or CBD, so what I’ve come up with is interpretation of 52 suburbs, but instead each week shooting with one new model, in his/her neighbourhood, using whatever local backdrops there are in the area, it would be candid mixed with posed portraiture, inspired by 52 suburbs. One model, one new suburb, every weekend, if I miss it, next week will do two, it’s that simple. And it will be called, drums please, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, no, just kidding, it will be called 52 suburbs, of course.
Do not park here
Published June 26, 2011 Life , Photography Leave a CommentTags: fashion, female, german, ivonne, model, Photography, photoshoot, sydney, urban
Whoop whoop, another great weekend in Sydney, sun is shining and models keep on coming, a bit like in Axe commercial, OK, almost. This weekend I had a great little shoot in Surrey Hills, with Ivonne, a model from Germany, we played with retro theme and used amazing variety of colourful and textured backdrops in the area, I’m a sucker for colours and Surrey Hills has plenty of them. Love it when a good plan comes together, despite 4am finish on Saturday night out (very unusual for me myself and I).
Ough, I also went out to explore local comedy club scene and have to say that it is live and kicking, everyone got abuse, if you’re fat, ugly, old, foreign or just too normal, you got it, no words spared, I forgot how raw the live comedy material can be, somewhere between jokes about Olympic gymnast with dead Siamese corpse attached and ode to the boobies, that is.
