It’s been an interesting year. It started with all of us living at my parents’ house, then we spent a couple of months moving into our new home and finishing things off, I also got to apply for my own job (thankfully successfully), battle for 6 months with the local council about building a deck (a Pyrrhic victory at best) and discover that ‘no, it’s not just the light in here…I have some grey hairs!’
So to finish the year on a high note, I thought I’d select my favourite photos from this year and tell you why I like them.
So in no particular order…here are my favourite photos for the year (I’ll be honest, the photo functionality in this WordPress theme isn’t dazzling, so you can always just head here to my Flickr site to see the photos without the reasons why I chose them)
I had travelled past Victoria Park a couple of times on my way to work and thought ‘that would be a great place to take some early morning shots’. So I got up before sunrise and headed there on a cold winters morning. I really love the way they have made the park open to the public and made it a lot more inviting, while still maintaining some of the elements of the spiritual home of the Magpies…and this photo came the closest to capturing that.I took this one while I was on a lunch break from a course. I had set myself the challenge of only shooting on the 50mm and was trying to get shots to enter in the Age photo comp which had the theme ‘light’. I liked this shot…sadly the Age didn’t.
I was taking some photos after my interview with Geraldine Quinn, and I tend to put my lens cap in my mouth when I’m shooting (if I put it down I lose it and if I put it in my pocket I sit on it)…clearly Xavier thought this was what one does with a lens cap and I couldn’t resist getting this shotThis photo was taken just before we headed on to stage at an open mic night. I’d never sung on stage before…and may never do it again, so I took the opportunity to grab a shot.
Luke Vesty and I headed down to St Kilda pier to take some long exposure shots. It was a really good learning experience, and it was awesome to have someone else to shoot with. This photo was the pick of the evening.
On the night our choir (The Septemberists) were performing, I figured this was an excellent opportunity to get some experience shooting photos of bands on stage. I set myself the challenge of shooting everything manually (exposure, f-stop etc). It was a complete disaster…so out of desperation I took a shot of some worn out sneakers, on sticky carpet and with an amp in the background. It said pretty much everything I wanted to say about rock n roll
Admittedly this is more about the back story than the image…but I do love this shot. About 10 seconds after this shot, a woman walked along the beach in front of me with a child on her back. She had a hat that resembled a bright yellow turban, and it was unfurling in a golden wave behind her. With the white sand at her feet and the blue sea behind her, it would have made an amazing photo! But at the same time, Xavier was tottering towards the sea. I had to choose, the shot or the child?! I went for the child…but I still have a few regrets 😉This was taken on an excursion to Footscray. I’m not a massive fan of excessive HDR…but I reckon the balance is right in this one. I also had a weird moment where I had taken some shots down near the the river of a guy in a red hood looking towards the city. When I looked at this photo I saw someone in a red hood and thought ‘That guy was following me!’ But it was a different person…I think.Once a year we make a pilgrimage to my Uncle’s farm for a family get together. Under a tarp in a shed lives his beautiful Monaro. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard it tearing up a paddock…but I hope I get to hear that glorious v8 again.
So many of Mick’s songs are amazing stories, told with complete honesty. And I think I came close to capturing the same thing in this portrait. I got some nice ones of him smiling as well…but the eyes on this one catch me every time. I was also pretty nervous taking a photo of someone whose work I really respect, so it was great to get a few images that really worked.After a drive along a corrugated dirt road and a brief walk you end up at this lighthouse on the Gippsland coast down near Sandy Point. Obviously this shot would have been a lot better with some hefty ND filters and a long exposure…but I don’t have any ND filters and I do have 3 children who were running all over the place near the edge of a cliff. So this shot had to suffice, but it’s definitely a spot I will return to.It’s getting harder and harder to get the kids to sit for even 10 seconds for a photo…and even harder to get a shot where it doesn’t look like they’re posing. So I will treasure this photo for a long time as it truly captures Josh at his best.
I included this one as a reminder to always take your camera wherever you can…and that if you see a shot unfolding in front of you, take it! I was in a rehearsal studio surrounded by musos and empty Jim Beam bottles and feeling a little self conscious of being the guy with the camera. But I saw the singer from one band having a quick chat with the members of our group through the studio door and decided to take the shot. I’m really glad I did as I think it captured both a moment and a character…even though you can’t see her face.At age 3 Holly told me to ‘Take the camera off your face’…so it’s fair to say getting photos of her has been a challenge since then. She had her 5th birthday party at Fairy Fields and in one room the only light was coming through a skylight, I stood up on a chair and asked her to look up and before she could complain I took the shot. If I ever take a better shot of her, I will be a very happy man.
I love this photo for a number of reasons. The shot I wanted (of the wind turbine at Toora) was a disaster, and I was on my way home when I saw this. Actually stopping the car when you’re already late, getting out by the side of a road where cars are hurtling past at 100kms/h and waiting for a 30 second window where there isn’t any wind or cars to ruin the shot can seem overwhelmingly frustrating. But sometimes, it pays dividends.A storm had just come through and the light was amazing. Our deck had just been completed and Xavier was out playing in the residual rain. I got this shot set up while he was playing and then asked him to turn around and smile. He chose to walk off. If he had a speech bubble it would say ‘Yeah sure Dad, I’ll just stand here and smile while you take a photo. Idiot.’
Working for a Govt department that works with a lot of people in crisis, I spend a lot time trying to tell stories without identifying anyone. Clearly that is starting to flow into the photography of my own kids. But I just love Josh’s pose and Xavier’s clear exuberance at being allowed to roam free. Either that, or Toora’s criminal were about to face the wrath of a new superhero and his sidekick.
One of my goals was to shoot and edit some videos of local Melbourne people who I think reflect what a great city Melbourne is. On the plus side, I got three of these done…and I was really happy with them (Andy White, Mick Thomas, Geraldine Quinn). On the downside…I only got three of these done over the course of an entire year, it’s not like I’m creating episodes of Sherlock FFS!
But on the whole I think that this was a triumph for creativity…they pushed me out of my comfort zone in terms of asking relative strangers to come and do something for nothing…and definitely out of my technical comfort zone as I tried to be interviewer, sound guy, camera man, lighting dude and editor, all on very basic equipment. But if the essence of creativity is doing a whole lot of work and not getting paid anything for it, then this was an unparalleled success. Plus I got to have Andy, Mick and Geraldine just hangout for a coffee and chat in our kitchen…and that is freaking priceless.
Singing
Another goal was to get some singing lessons and possibly sing in public. This was also a success. I did singing lessons with the amazing Emily Hayes (if you’re in Melbourne and want to learn to sing I cannot recommend her highly enough) and that lead to joining a choir called the Septemberists (we sang an entire Decemberists album…in September). Getting to rehearse and then perform with a group was an amazing experience, and getting to sing with Katie Hull-Brown and Emily during my singing lessons was again a great opportunity to push myself well beyond my comfort zone. It also got me back to playing a bit of guitar. But most of all it made me realise that there are few sounds more captivating than voices singing in harmony.
Photography
I really wanted to push myself with my photography this year as well. One of my goals was to do a masterclass with Veeral Patel, but my moving house…and his heading off to shoot the Tour de France made it impossible to lock in a time that worked. But I will do this…oh yes, I will do this (or possibly hide myself in his luggage and head over for next year’s tour!) I did manage to do some long exposure photography that I was really happy with,
St Kilda pierA shack just outside of Foster
and took some portraits that I thought really captured the subject as a person rather than just an image.
Geraldine Quinn
I tend to put the lens cap in my mouth when I use the camera…Xavier clearly likes the look
But at the same time, I didn’t spend nearly enough time using the ‘manual’ setting on the camera…and relied on Lightroom to make the images really work, so there is still a lot of work to be done.
Also, 90% of taking a great photo is actually being there to take the shot…an average photographer who is actually there, has a much better chance of taking a great shot, than a brilliant photographer who isn’t there. So one of my big aims for this year was to get out and about to take more photos. But with three young kids and a house renovation to keep me busy, I only managed to head out for a dedicated photo session 3 times for the year. Which is pretty shitfull…but leaves a lot of room for improvement!
Surprising synergies
Not only was this the title of my highly unsuccessful 2002 business/management book, but it was also one of the big things that my year of creativity taught me; creativity in one area opens up creative options in others. If you go to a gig and ask if you can just stroll up on stage and take a photo, you will most likely be politely told to sod off. But if you’re there to sing…then you have full access to stage and can take shots like this with impunity.
And if you walk up to Mick Thomas and ask to take a quick portrait shot of him, he may explain that he has better things to do with his time…but if you’ve just filmed an interview with him, he might let you take a shot like this.
And if you shoot a video with Andy, you might be asked to ruin breakfasts around Melbourne by appearing as a page 3 boy in the Sunday Age.
So in conclusion…
While I certainly didn’t dedicate sufficient time to being creative, the benefits I got from the time I did put in were fantastic. My videos and photography for my day job came ahead in leaps and bounds, I got to meet and work with some people who I really admire and I had some experiences that I’ll remember and draw upon for the rest of my life. The challenge will be maintaining it next year when so much of my focus will be on getting physically ready for a tilt at the Melbourne Ironman in 2015…and of course not thinking to myself every time we visit someone out of Melbourne “I wonder if I could get any good photos there”.
