Photo: New Zealand

My First Gig Photos & What I Love About Them

This photograph is from the first live gig I shot, just a few years in 2010. I love it, but it's a long way from perfect. The band performing is called 'Pat the Tom', there's two of them, one is named Pat, the other Tom. This gig was their ep launch, and Tom got very fired up and threw his shirt into the crowd. The next day Tom told me he wished he hadn't done that because 'he's overwhelmingly pale & pasty'. I had no idea what he was talking about, as far as I'm concerned it was an excellent bit of showmanship.

The evening I got an email from Tom after he'd seen this photograph, telling me he'd completely changed his mind and that it was awesome.

I was thrilled that in some small way a photograph that I had made had influenced someone positively about themselves.

Tom didn't look pasty or pale on stage, he looked passionate & intense.

That's one of my favourite things in photography, and on of my most important goals: to depict a person as accurately and completely as is possible.

On Feeling Like Your Works Sucks

"It seems that I drift in and out of creative ruts all the time, but in an interesting way, I don’t get into a rut and stop creating work. In fact, I work and shoot prolifically when I am in a rut, it’s just that I think that a lot of the work I create during these periods is utter crap. It’s times like these that I have to take a good long look at myself in the mirror and remind myself that sometimes I suck, and that sometimes it’s okay to suck." 

-Luke Copping

Sometimes your work will suck. Sometimes it will be so bad that it is ridiculous, but you know what?

That's ok.

We all have ruts in our work, creative or otherwise.

There appear to be two significant schools of thought on what action to take when in a rut. Some suggest that you keep working no matter what. That you accept the feeling and power through it.

An alternative view states the best way to deal with a creative rut is to leave it, to do something else. To take a walk, read a book or try something new.

There's no right answer, there's only what is most helpful to you.

I know what I find the most helpful for me, do you?

For 18 responses from working creatives on what to do in a creative rut head here.

NZ Bound

Today I'm heading to New Zealand with my father. We're doing a circuit around most of the south island, some places I've already been but I'm excited to see queenstown for the first time.

The above photograph was taken at New Zealand's own Frans Josef Glacier two years ago. It's a short hike to get there and well worth it.

New Zealand is an excellent place to travel, there's dramatic scenery regardless of where you're looking.

On Art & Compression

Why do we as a species create art?

There are many obvious benefits, and answers to the above questions, including entertainment, culture, history, expression, idea propagation and I'm sure many more. I don't find these answers satisfying, I believe the answer is art is integral to understanding the universe.

We can all agree the earth is large, and the universe is inconceivably larger. Too large, too vast and too detailed for any one person to understand in a single lifetime. If our brain is a computer, the universe is an infinitely large and complex amount of data. An amount of data that would take much more than a lifetime to process.

That's a problem. A world vastly too large and complicated to understand.

As humans do we found a solution, and we called it art.

To me art is about compression. It's the compression of all things into a format that we can understand.

Here are some examples of how mediums compress information for us.

Photography

• compresses space (3 dimensions into 2)
• compresses time into a single frame
• compresses stories and emotions into a single frame

Writing

• compresses time into a manageable format
• compresses personalities into digestible characters
• compresses sounds and sights into words

Music

• compresses experiences
• compresses emotions
• compresses stories

Visual Art

• compresses ideas
• compresses feelings
• compresses dimensions

 Art, to me at least, is a species wide attempt to aid us as individuals to comprehend the universe.

On R & D

From WIRED

This is brilliant. Excellent support for the theory that pure scientific research can result in a profitable business.

The same organisation that created Apple's now famous Siri is currently working on something to hunt malicious software and something to identify cancerous cells with lasers.

This is research at its best. It's contributing to the sum of all human knowledge while being profitable for those doing so.

This is how we save the world.

Mudgee in Infrared

Part of an ongoing series, infrared photographs in the natural environment.

Woodford Folk Festival 2011/12

Colin Hay, iPhone 4 

2011 was a good year. For me it was a year full of education, both personal and professional. 


I made about 8000 less photographs with a DSLR, but the ones I made are in my opinion significantly better. I did however make double the photos on my iphone, from 1500 up to 3000.


Business was significantly better (although still very modest) than in 2010 as I began to learn what I want to be doing and how I want to do it. 


As ever I brought the new year in with my lovely partner, Laura, at the Woodford folk festival. It didn't storm this year (despite predictions of flash flooding), instead it was sunny with light showers all week. Perfect festival weather. My highlight was 2 performances by Buffy Sainte Marie, and then two interviews. She's an incredible woman, she wrote "Up Where We Belong", has been in the music business for 50 years and an activist for much of that time. She's also 70 years old, and is more energetic and youthful than anyone I've ever seen. She's an inspiration, she made me ask myself what I want my life to stand for.


Thanks Buffy!

Photo

Emotional Bag Check

At it's heart Emotional bag check is a website about music, but it's so much more than that. You choose to either leave your emotional baggage, or pick up someone else's. Let's say you've had a tough day at work, feeling hopeless and not connecting with your partner, you then write what's getting you down (which encourages self-reflection). An anonymous and random someone then picks up your emotional baggage, reads what you've wrote and chooses what they believe to be the absolutely perfect song for the situation. Your song choice is sent to that person, with an optional message of support.

I found myself taking hours to choose what I believed to be the perfect song for the baggage I was given, and felt their struggles as if they were an old friend of mine. I scoured my itunes library, asked friends their opinions until i'd found what I thought I would most want to hear if I was in this anonymous persons situation.

It's a simple website, and it shows how the internet can bring us together in the small, subtle ways as well as the larger, grander ways.

Mudgee Brewing Co.

Ms. Brown

Portrait of a Photographer

This is my friend Tom.

Tom's a good man, and someone I look up to.

Tom's the first person I've photographed as part of a personal project. The project features people in my life that's I have gratitude for, people I look up to and people I owe thanks to.

It's a portrait of them as I see them, and ultimately it's a portrait of me.

Laura

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MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

You might've already seen the above video, it's an innovative idea, beautifully executed. Although you might not know it was commissioned by STA Travel Australia. Which, to me, makes it even more interesting. 

As it was commissioned I think it'd be safe to assume the film makers behind it weren't picking up the travel costs, which means the three people who made this video travelled all over the world on a corporate dime, which makes them very clever individuals. I'd be very interested to see how they got the job, because it's an absolute dream assignment.

These are the days we're living in, where there's potential for three guys to travel the world, produce something excellent, and be paid for the pleasure. Suddenly there's a lot more of us in the land of opportunity.

Todd Kashdan

Todd Kashdan | Speaker, Author, Researcher

This photograph is of Todd Kashdan, someone I consider a role model. He's an all round energising guy. We made this while he was in Brisbane, carrying 25kg of gear to this cave to get the shot (after a day of hiking for the fun of it).

New (Cheap) Equipment

1984 Leica M6 w/ Jupiter-8 50mm f/2 

Above you see the Leica M6, a camera used by many revered photographers in their time, and on it (I think) is a 1963 Russian-made Jupiter-8. It was $40 including shipping. The Jupiter-8 is a direct copy of the same era Carl Zeiss Sonnar, which is supposed to be a great lens. Those of you that are camera nerds will understand why I'm excited about this; but for those less interested in f/stops and ISO I'm excited about this lens primarily because:

It will let me play. It's my favourite focal length (50mm has the perspective roughly of the human eye), it could have any number of technical issues (giving it a sense of adventure and risk) and it's tiny (meaning that I'll take it everywhere).

Play (or experimentation) is important in any career, and if $40 has me trying things I haven't thought of before than I'd say it's money well spent. Experimenting with the resources available to you be they old, current or new is one of the fastest ways to learn. For me a cheap lens kick-starts my creativity, for you it might be revisiting an old book, going to an art gallery, sitting in a park or buying a sports car. Maybe not the sports car (unless you are a professional race driver?), but the rest are valid.

I'm excited to see what I learn from playing with this little piece of soviet history, what are you excited to experiment with?

Photo: Expired Film

Is it a particularly inspiring, interesting or masterful photograph? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. However it was a lot of fun to make.

Friends Should Always be There For You

Via Apeirogon

It's a silly little gif, but I find it heart warming and to some extent it reflects qualities that I think we all value in a friend. Qualities like support, compassion, sense of humour and loyalty.

'The Slow and Self-Obsessed'

 via A Photo Editor, via Some Clever Stuff, via Wick Was Here

Where did all the Young Creatives Go?

Whether or not you agree with the above statement (by English Graffiti Artist, Banksy), it is interesting.  

I personally agree with it on a few but not all counts. I think he's correct in saying there are plenty of slow and self-obsessed artists, and correct that a staggering stockpile of resources is used by a tiny amount of people to not really say anything, and I think he's clever to use the qualifier 'mainly' so as to acknowledge that he's not speaking about all modern artists. One thing jumps out at me: in my experience the advertising industry is home for some of our best and brightest. Never mind what this does to art, what does it do to advertising?

It makes it better. The above advertisement for Corona is one of my favourites. It evokes emotion artfully, stirring up feelings of nostalgia and longing (and with this a dissatisfaction for whatever or wherever we presently are). It insidiously makes the viewer feel as if what they are doing at that moment - keeping in mind that the imagery is probably  being viewed on a computer or television screen - is not good enough. Genius. Is an improvement in the quality of advertising a good thing for the individual? Probably not. 

The answer to this question don’t really matter. Either way, advertising exists and will continue to exist. Considering this fact, it becomes the responsibility of the viewer to differentiate between reality and a movie, and to be educated enough to know when and how they are being advertised to.

Identity Advertising

The above advertisement is likely as clever as the Corona one above, but for completely different reasons. It has a very specific audience (people who know that a sunset is F/8 at 1/250), manipulating this fact to make this audience feel like they're part of a select group. It's a funny advertisement (to those who 'get it'), and it's resonates because it's true. Here we're aware that we're being advertised to, we get a quick laugh, and it reinforces our identity. What if we push this idea of advertising that is meant to be enjoyed further?

Blurring the Line

As advertising becomes increasingly sophisticated a new mode has become prevalent: the opt-in. This commonly includes sponsored viral videos, advertorials, and even old fashioned advertising when done cleverly enough.

You're probably familiar with the above campaign. It debuted during the American Super Bowl, and has since been viewed over 35 million times voluntarily (on YouTube alone). As in people choosing to be advertised to. Permission marketing, to borrow a phrase from Chris Brogan (marketing, blog extraordinaire, and all round good guy). It's powerful for businesses (much more than marketing without permission for obvious reasons) and it encourages the creation of quality content. And this, I believe, is where the future is heading.

I don't know whether advertising has stolen people that would have otherwise made brilliant artists (although I suspect this is true). I do know that it's becoming increasingly clever and increasingly interesting. 

Caveat Emptor (Let the buyer beware).

Ferris Bueller's Day Off: An Independent Film

First, I'm a little embarrassed to say I would watch (and love) that version of the film.

Second, this is a great example of someone using someone else's work in a way that pays homage to it, remixes it and creates something new and interesting. However under current copyright laws, this is illegal.

Now whichever studio has the rights to the footage likely won't demand it to be pulled (unlike the Downfall meme videos). This is an example of copyright laws stifling content creation, rather than encouraging it. Copyright exists undoubtedly as a protection for people who create, but I'd argue it's antiquated in how it achieves this.

There's a paradox developing of creatives who want their work to be shared, experienced and available to be remixed while also desiring legal protection and control.

It's a complex issue, and it'll take much brighter minds than mine to find a solution to.

Scouting

Location Scouting, iPhone 4

What Really Matters

Family

It's easy to forget what really matters. It's easy to focus on how much money we make,  how many people follow us on twitter, how hard we work, how impressive we are, etc, etc but every once in a while you have to ask yourself what's really important to you.


Fifty years from now will you wish you spent more time at work? More time with the ones you love? More time working on your passion project? More time helping others? More time travelling? More time learning to cook, juggle or tap dance? Perhaps other questions.


I know a lot of people who work incredibly hard, and they're very impressive. They're high-achievers and they're tough as metal. 


I know a lot of people who do the bare minimum, they're relaxed and give themselves a lot of time to think. They're easy-going and they admire the high-achievers, but don't want to be them.


There's folly's and pitfalls on either extremity, depends which you'd prefer.

Charlie Mayfair Tell Her Tour 2011

I had the pleasure of working with local band (and all round great people) Charlie Mayfair on producing a promo video for their upcoming tour. It was something new, a lot of fun and a lot of hours.


If you're able to make it to one of their shows, I couldn't recommend it more.
Wed, Aug 31 @ Bar On The Hill, Newcastle University, NSW
*Midday Show*
Tix: Free Entry

Wed, Aug 31 @ Yours and Owls, Wollongong, NSW
Tix: Door only - $5
w/ Yetis + The Pennys

Thurs, Sep 1 @ The Vanguard, Sydney, NSW
Tix: Pre-sale $10+BF | www.thevanguard.com.au/
w/ Tigertown + Toucan

Fri, Sep 2 @ Empress Hotel, Melbourne, VIC
Tix: Pre-sale $8+BF | www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=48902&ref=moshtix&skin=
w/ Jimmy Hawk & the Endless Party + Kikuyu + James O'Brien (The Boat People)

Developing

Camden Markets, 2009

I developed my own rolls of black and white film a week ago, it was a disaster. I couldn't figure out how to pry the film out of the canister (ended up using a can opener, which was definitely the wrong tool for the job), the roll violently unfurled everywhere. I clumsily threaded the film onto the holder (scratching a few negatives in the process) and sealed them in the developing tank. 

My final mistake was not to mix the developer after diluting it, so when I poured the solution into the tank the developer compound stubbornly refused to leave the container it was mixed in. Through some twist of fate the negatives turned out brilliant.

Although not a particularly exciting story to read through, I'm sure, for me it's about the power of serendipity. Photography, particularly street photography, is about manufacturing serendipity. A time honoured technique is to find a spot where you think something interesting will happen at some point, and then wait. Possibly for hours. 

What is a Nerd?

This (funny) short film is a very mature and well considered exploration about what religion means to modern society.

Bonus points for the line 'It is NOT just a show' referring to Game of Thrones.

My Favourite Short Film

Nuit Blanche by Arev Manoukian

This is undeniably my favourite short film. The elements that make this film so successful apply to creating in general.

It's concise.
There's huge value in taking something complex and distilling it into something simple. This is what photographs do, they compress a story to a single frame. The ability to take a lot of information and compress it into the smallest possible package is highly valuable.

It's Relatable in a Broad Context
The tone and emotion set in this film is one that can be shared by anyone of any time period or cultural background. Everyone knows the feeling of wonder and awe at possibilities never taken, the film uses this to make us reflect on these feelings.

It's a Technical Masterpiece
Take a look at the Behind the Scenes video over at Wired to get an idea of how technically complex this film exactly is. A good concept or the ability to evoke emotion isn't worth much without a brilliant execution. Good work needs to be strong technically and conceptually.

Everything is a remix

Absolutely brilliant video series, it explores creativity in a very mature and modern way. It's a particularly interesting as a rebuttal to the idea that 'everything that can be done has already be done'. Create something new by remixing something old.

To watch the rest of the series head here.

Explore the Craft

Part of being a professional is exploring every aspect of the craft you can.

There's a lot of value in being an expert.

Open Seas

Open Seas, 2010

Camden Markets

Camden Markets, 2009 on Leica M6

Photo

Scan of a Negative

Inside the Arc

Photo

Rome, Italy

Photo

Photo

Whitwell, England

Paris

Walking in Paris

Through the window

Whitwell Woods

Whitwell Woods

Rome, Italy

Backalley

Rome, Italy

Colisio

Early Morning Work

Pantheon

Leaving Paris

Commuting

I'm grown extremely fond of Paris in the week I've been here, but tomorrow I say goodbye and set sail (not literally) for Rome.

Know Your Goals

I'm in Paris at the moment. I'm spending my time taking photographs and eating in cafe's (it's harder than it sounds, I promise).

Something I've been thinking about is what I want to achieve with my photographs while here. I could aim for all sorts of different photographic disciplines, stories and emotions or not aim at all and create assuming it will organise itself. I could take landscape photographs revelling in the natural and synthetic structures around me. I could do street photographs, portraying scenes of happenstance and wit, or I could do travel photographs; an outsiders interpretation of a native culture.

Sometimes it can be hard to achieve your goals if you don't spend time thinking about exactly what they are, and what they look like.

Once I decided what to focus on, I seemed to move towards it a lot faster.

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Out the window, iPhone 4

Flying to London today, taking lots and lots of iPhone photographs along the way. This one if my favourite so far.

What Can Four Successful Comedians Teach Me?

If you're anything like me you can give up on anything else for the next 30 minutes and watch part Two, Three & Four.

Turns out four people at the top of their field can teach me a lot about my own field.

1. Evolve your craft gradually. Always be building.

2. Your best work is the standard you should measure yourself by

3. You have to create for you, but play to the room

4. It's not enough for your work to be technically perfect.

5. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. The professional doesn't let either outcome slow them down.

6. You've got to have a style, that's distinguishable from your competition.

7. Business will go up, business will go down. If it's down try to avoid worrying and focus on innovating a new way to make business go up.

8. Content is king.

9. Fear is something to be managed, not eliminated.

10. If you can do something much better than most people, you can find a way to get paid.

via Garrett Murray (who is great by the way)

Updated Portfolio

Some of you might know that I'm leaving for Europe in five days time on a month long trip to London, Paris and Rome. In the lead up to that I've been working on improving my website and integrating it with my other platforms.

• A short list of updated features:
• Larger, faster loading photographs
• A more recent version of my portfolio
• Buttons on every page linking to twitter, facebook, instagram.
• Check out the about page
• A slideshow on the home page
• And a few others

It's been a fair amount of work but it's been valuable to spend a lot of time looking at my own images, I noticed things I liked and equally as importantly things I didn't like.

So by all means, I'd love for you to take a look around and if it suits you stop by (the newly created) facebook page or twitter to say hello.

It's important to make marketing efforts, and it's important to make them in a way that only you can.

Drill Sergeant: A Follow Up

I just read this post by the eerily superhuman Seth Godin. If you're not watching his every move by now, make that your top priority.

Seth makes a great point that the best drill sergeant is self-directed. I couldn't agree with him more, it's by far the most effective and efficient (under the right circumstances). However I'd posit that a self-directed drill sergeant has potential to be the worst kind of effort.

I'll use myself as an example, I know that sometimes I can push myself to do the work without needing external stimuli. I know that sometimes I can do the work without it being an effort.

I also know sometimes I'm going to tail-spin, I'm going to get myself in a position where I struggle to do the work, as a result I don't do it (because let's face it, I'm no superhuman). Then my feeling of fear (resistance/lizard brain) accumulates, making it harder to do the work the next day. This process creates a vicious cycle that's hard to break free from.

I could break free from the fear cycle on my own, it could take 10 minutes or 10 days. 10 days of losing to fear is a risk I'm not willing to take. Having someone who cares about me and my work to give me a little push gets me back where I want to be.

Part of being human is acknowledging that I'm going to fail, but having plans to combat it.

Jeremy Cowart: Portrait of Christ

A Portrait of Christ from Jeremy Cowart on Vimeo.

This is a great example of a photographer pushing himself out of his comfort zone. Making work not because he's financially obligated to, but because something in him says he has to.

Find A Drill Sergeant

My Drill Sergeant

We need mentors to teach us and role model for us.

We need spouses and family to encourage us and love what we're doing.

We need a drill sergeant as much as we need these people. A drill sergeants role is to notice when you're hesitating because of fear (or resistance, the lizard brain, apathy, etc...) and to put you back on the right track. Someone who holds you accountable for your progress.

We're all our own drill sergeants up to a point. However personally I find my abilities in this field wanting, so I look for something external to kick me in the butt and tell me to get back to work.

This person could be a friend, a business coach, an employer, a family member and sometimes a lover. Think about who helps you refocus when you need to, then thank them for it.