foto Priority

Small Worlds – Preview. from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Last week Daniel and I attended a talk on social media put on by the people at the ACMP. One of the speakers was Keith Loutit, a Sydney based photographer and filmmaker. His recent bathtub series of short films using tilt-shift / time-lapse techniques have attracted a huge amount of interest over the internet, especially on vimeo and youtube where the films have attached 1000’s of viewers. Take a look at some of his videos, I’m sure they’ll blow you away as they did to us!

Keith is holding an exhibition of his work at Customs House Circular Quay in Sydney. Details are below.

Small Worlds: Stills & film from the ‘Bathtub’ &’Small Worlds’ series of short films by Keith Loutit.

Location: Media wall, ground floor customs house & level two library, Customs House 31 Alfred St Sydney NSW 2000

Exhibition dates:  27 April, 2010 to 7 July 2010.

I’m very excited about working with Steven from InkedupTV on the creation of a new promo clip for SPW so keep an eye out, it’s coming soon.Without doubt Steven is one creative dude!

Browsing through some of his most recent work I came across this clip which he had just completed. Enjoy!!

NEW EDGAR “OSOK” HOILL VIDEO!!! Steven catches up with leading photographer of Lowrider Magazine! Without a doubt Edgar Hoill has a natural talent of capturing the raw essence of his subjects. “All my stuff is street, so all my stuff is real. And everything that I shoot is either people I know real close or that I work close with or just stuff I see on the streets.”He also has a sick ass collection of tattoos done by some of the best around the world. Jack Rudy, Horiyoshi III, Ben Grillo, Tattoo Tony just to name a few

Courtesy of Steven Guzman at InkedupTV

A huge congratulations to our very own SPW tutor Michael Good who recently entered a work in the Thirroul Seaside Art Festival.  Competing against over 300 other invited artworks and judged by the curator of Wollongong University Art Collection, Michael won the overall, Anita Commelli Prize .

Upon seeing the work I was immediately intrigued by the process that led to it’s creation. As it turns out the process was a collaboration of two great talents and is an alternate slant on the CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) process that seems to dominate today’s photography. I asked Michael to pen a few words about his latest collaborative project.

© Michel Good

“A little over a year ago I had a chance meeting with an amazing artist Arthur Apanski, when I was commissioned to photograph his house being put up for sale.  I found it very difficult to control my enthusiasm, as every wall in this little cottage was filled with a number of Arthur’s amazing artworks.  Of course being the curious type I talked with Arthur for quite some time about his works and what he had in mind for the future.  This led to us coming up with a new challenge that Arthur believes hadn’t been done before.  I was to get some of my landscape photos printed on to large format canvas and then hand it over to Arthur for him to perform his own piece of magic on the works.

To set the context of my trepidation I provide you with two images which easily show Arthur's amazing and very intimidating talent.

Our first projects consisted of two commissioned works.  One of which was for a local builder who wanted a classic Arthur signature piece to hang on his wall.  Not being able to afford one of Arthur’s original works we offered to create an artwork especially for him.  This meant photographing his favourite landscape (East Corrimal Beach) and then handing over to Arthur for his interpretation.  East Corrimal beach is a very classic long sandy beach with small sand dunes.  A very cliche kind of landscape.

Being the first work I was going to produce for Arthur I had little idea as to how it should be photographed.  To add to the mystery I hadn’t met nor spoken with the client.  This gave me free reign over how I chose to photograph the landscape.  Having gone to the location more than a dozen times in varying lighting conditions I felt that I had a good selection to present to Arthur.  I had photographed from many varied angles emphasising many different aspects form large landforms to small detailed driftwoods.  In the end I need not have worried too much as the point of the project was that I would give my own impression of the landscape.  Arthur would then add to it without comment or input from myself.  We wanted to see how the project could work without collaboration.  i.e. I was not to produce works to suit Arthur nor would he try to enhance or compliment the landscape presented.  He would simply interpret the scene and paint accordingly.

Here is the end result of the first commissioned work. Arthur's belief is that Wollongong will be inhabited by great lizards and crocodiles in 50 years due to global warming.

The second commissioned work was for a client who had inherited the family home which would be demolished in the near future and so the theme was to show the existing house being carried away much the same way as the sand dunes come and go…

Our second commission

We have since moved on to our main project which are my selected landscape works to be exhibited in the Wollongong City Gallery in 2011. So far we have produced 8 art works, some of which you can see here. This experience so far has really made me look at landscape and people photography in a whole new light.  Not being content with cliche images the project has forced me to think in a more artistic way and really consider all the elements including composition, colour and textures and of course considered lighting and atmosphere.  This will help my future photography grow to greater heights no doubt.  Being my first exhibited work I’ve now gained a desire to enter more competitions.

© Michael Good

© Michael Good

© Michael Good

© Michael Good

© Michael Good

Canon Australia and New Zealand today officially announced the EOS Masters.

The below information is from Canons recent media release: Canon unveils EOS Masters

Showcasing the talent and leadership of six of Australia and New Zealand’s leading professional photographers, the Canon EOS Masters aim to inspire and challenge photographers of all experience levels to grow their creative photography capability.

“The Canon EOS Masters represent some of the most gifted and awarded photographers in their respective fields,” said Cathy Hattersley, Brand Manager – EOS Professional.  “We hope photographers of all experience levels and interests will find inspiration through the Masters to get out there, experiment with their photography, develop their expertise, and have fun trying something new.”

The Canon EOS Masters are already playing a role in inspiring and developing the skills of photographers with their individual monthly photographic challenges on EOS 1Wall In coming months, keen photographers can also look forward to hearing the pros’ top tips for taking the perfect shot.

Introducing the EOS Masters

Graham Monro – Wedding and Portrait

Photographer Graham Monro is the founder of one of Australia’s leading wedding and portrait studios, GM Photographics. A prolific photographer, Graham’s work has been published extensively throughout Australia, and internationally. Graham’s passion for photography was born out of a hobby which grew into a successful career in fashion and advertising, and most recently portraiture and wedding photography for clients in New York, Sydney and Singapore. Graham is a Double Master of Photography with the AIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photographers), a Fellow of the NZIPP (New Zealand Institute of Professional Photographers) and recipient of numerous industry accolades. He has been a Canon user from the start.

Mark Horsburgh – Sports

Mark Horsburgh is regarded as one of the world’s leading sports photographers and specialises in the high-speed world of motorsport, where he boasts such prominent manufacturers as Ford, Holden, Porsche, BMW, Audi, Mini and Volvo as valuable clients. Mark’s core business is as the series photographer for the V8 Supercar Series, and also provides action imagery from Formula One, Le Mans, Moto GP and IndyCar events to major international agencies. In recent years Mark has built his business, Edge Photographics, into an industry leader.

Urs Buhlman – Commercial/Advertising

Urs has been a professional photographer for 28 years and still loves it. Urs spent his early career travelling around Australia, shooting commissioned annual reports, before moving into specialist automotive work both in Australia and abroad. The passionate Urs “lives and breathes” photography and is recognised as one of the region’s leading Advertising and Commercial Photographers. Urs was awarded the Canon AIPP Australian Photographer of the Year 2006, voted Top Advertising Photographer in 2008 and 2009 and also has a couple of D&AD (British Design and Art Direction) gongs under his belt.

Yervant – Wedding and Portrait

Yervant was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1958 as the son of royal photographer Hagop Zanazanian. Yervant won his very first award in photography at age 11 with an African landscape image that he had photographed.
Yervant was the first ‘Wedding’ photographer to win the ‘Digital Image Maker of the Year’ award in 1996, a category never before attempted, let alone won, by a wedding photographer. In 1998 Yervant became the youngest Fellow of AIPP in recognition of his significant influence in refashioning traditional wedding photography to what is now a standard mode within Australia and moreover overseas. Since then, Yervant has continued to receive international recognition and awards including being listed as one of the ‘Most influential photographers of the decade’ in January this year. Yervant also received the WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) Lifetime Achievement Award 2010 in March this year – the only Australian and one of the youngest in WPPI’s 30 year history.

Mike Langford – Commercial/Landscape/Education

Mike Langford is a Master and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) and a Fellow and Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP).
He has been a professional photographer for 30 years and an International Awards judge for 20 years. With a raft of awards to his name, Mike has been awarded Australian Geographic Photographer of the Year, Korean International Photographer of the Year, NSW Photographer of the Year, twice Australian Institute of Professional Photography Landscape Photographer of the Year and the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography Photographer of the Year, Corporate/Industrial Photographer of the Year and Landscape Photographer of the Year. He is co-director of the Queenstown Centre for Creative Photography with his wife Jackie Ranken.

Jackie Ranken– Illustrative/Landscape/Education

Jackie Ranken has been a photographer since she was sixteen and lives in New Zealand with husband and fellow photographer Mike Langford. Jackie has been awarded Master Photographer status multiple times in New Zealand and Australia. Her list of awards is long and includes, since 2002, eight category wins from the AIPP and NZIPP and a 2nd place title in the Nature and Environment series section of the Canon World Press Photo Awards. What matters to her most is that she is out there exploring who she is and expressing herself through her photography. She considers her ‘art’ to be classic black and white landscape photography. Her main career is pursuing her personal photographic practice and running the Creative Photography Workshops as part of Queenstown Centre for Creative Photography. Her main commercial work is editorial in content. She is the current NZIPP Illustrative/editorial Photographer of the Year.

Have you ever tried to sell your images online? Not sure what websites to use? Or which images attract the most attention from buyers out there? Well, hopefully I can cover some of your burning questions.

I spoke with Phill Danze who has experienced some great success selling images online. Phill is also a long time student of Sydney photo Workshops and has had one on one tuition with Daniel Linnet to try and perfect his craft. Phill shares with me some insider knowledge about what keeps him inspired to keep selling and promoting himself as a photographer.

Trying to decide which photos in your collection would sell the best, or attract the most attention could be a difficult task.  Which images are you having success with?
“In stock my best selling pictures are those that are a series of rocks with inspirational words on them and shots with a recycling or environment theme.”

Then there’s choosing the correct website.  There are many out there that allow you to sell your work.
“I mainly use two agencies for stock and have found most sales success with iStock, not enough to give up my day job but over time it has enabled me to upgrade my equipment and get the satisfaction of seeing my work used in the market place.”

© Phillip Danze

“I also use two online platforms for fine art and of the two, Redbubble is the one I get the occasional sale from. Fine art you need to market yourself, the platform is just that, the means to show your work and provide a place for people to buy it – it is up to you to drive traffic to your work.”

Phill has been lucky in that his “regular” job has allowed him to travel and keep him motivated “I’ve travelled a lot internationally with my job so I bought a digital SLR and took some courses on how to use it plus learn the basics of composition and lighting.”

Remaining inspired about photography is a challenge for all photographers; from amateurs to professionals. We often have t0 find new avenues of inspiration to keep us motivated and on top of the game. “I stay inspired by reading photography magazines, websites, liaising with fellow photographers and seeing their work, plus doing courses and workshops.”

Phill has been fortunate enough to travel to some pretty magical destinations. I asked Phill to describe some of the most interesting places he has photographed around the world, “There would be two, Macquarie Island and Antarctica. The wildlife was stunning and the remoteness and minimal human presence in these places added to the experience and pressure of getting the shot the first time. I also learned a lot about photography in either damp and drizzly conditions, or in freezing, high wind conditions.”

“I owe the success of my shots to some practice before leaving Australia and some tuition with Daniel Linnet”

When it comes to advice about selling images online, Phill offers some final tips and tricks of the trade “Think about what you want to sell and who your market is. There are plenty of sites where you can sell your own work and I recommend you only put your very best work out there as if someone looks at an average shot, they may not look at your other work. Think of themes or concepts to create a collection of shots. Market your work and leverage events or celebrations to promote sales of your work. Stock on the other hand requires you to use an agency and they will inspect your files before accepting them into their database of pictures. They require very high quality files and in my experience do not tolerate poorly composed pictures, artifacting, chromatic aberrations, or over processed work (i.e. keep the post camera processing to a minimum). Finally, be patient, there are a lot of budding photographers out there (not to mention professional photographers) and it could take a while to get your first sale. Most of the enjoyment I get from selling online is that is challenges me to be a better photographer and to think about what I am doing and trying to convey when taking a picture.

Check out Phills images at Red Bubble and istockphoto

Oculi Home

oculus oc·u·lus (ŏk’yə-ləs)
n. pl. oc·u·li (-lī’) – Eye.

I have often argued that for such a small nation Australia has some of the best photographic talent in the world. In all genres, if you look carefully at the who’s who of the influential photographers of our time, there’s bound to be an Australian or two in there, kicking butt on the world stage.

In the field of Documentary / Reportage photography the Australian collective ‘Oculi’ has fast become the go to destination for current local based (and International) content. Featuring the work of 10 local photographers each with their own slant on local events and culture, the Oculi site offers an inspirational narrative on current events as seen through the eyes of our great photographic artists.

Definitely worth a look.

Visit Oculi

A few weeks ago we posted a story about the EOS Photo5 competition , by now those of you who registered should have received your little brown box and your mind is working overtime trying to come up with the winning image.

Well, meet Simon Harsent, Simon is one of the 5 judges chosen for this years EOS Photo5 competition.

With more awards than you can poke a stick at and a client list longer than a 600 f4, Simon discusses what keeps him inspired and who are his personal inspirations. He also shares some valuable hints and tips to set you on your way to create that winning image.

Simon’s work can be viewed at http://www.simonharsent.com/

Melt - ©Simon Harsent

Simon Harsent has won numerous national and international advertising awards including Cannes Lions, One Show, Clio, D&AD, London International, and Australia’s first Cannes Grand Prix.

As one of the world’s most awarded photographers Simons’s work has also been featured in many national and international publications and is also included in the permanent collection at the Queensland Art Gallery and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Simon was awarded Photographer of the year in 2008 at the Hall of Fame Awards in Singapore for his work on Levis.

In 2009 Simon completed his latest project Melt: Portrait of an iceberg, a study of Icebergs photographed off the coasts of both Newfoundland and Greenland.

Melt media release

“This portfolio begins with images of the massive icebergs as they enter Greenland’s Disco Bay from the Ilulissat Icefjord; it ends with the icebergs off the East Coast of Newfoundland, by which time they have travelled hundreds of miles, and have been so battered and broken down that they are little more than ghosts of what they once were” – Simon Harsent

I found his iceberg images absolutely amazing, the light, textures and sheer size of them are mind blowing.

Simons personal website
Portrait of an iceberg

By Jose Fernandez

Welcome to the wonderful world of the plastic camera. If you like surprises and an unusual look to your photos, the Holga may be a great addition to your kit.

So, what is a Holga? It’s a medium format camera that happens to be all plastic. Yes, even the lens is plastic. They are a very basic camera with one shutter speed of approximately 1/125 and bulb, two f/stops of approximately f/8 and 11, a 60mm PLASTIC lens with adjustable focusing, Built-in flash and uses 120 colour or black and white film.

You never know what you’re going to get with your Holga and no two Holga’s are the same. It’s a great camera to experiment with.

After trawling many Holga websites for the best deal, as well as checking out as many holga “fanatics” websites I could find, I finally ordered my first little toy, in fact is was the first film camera I had ever owned.

As soon as it arrived in the post, I ripped opened the box, loaded some film and grabbed some black tape, yes black tape and started sealing all the joins and cracks, anywhere where light could get in.

This camera is about fun, the unexpected, and the unusual. What you get is a look you can’t really achieve any other way and it is always a surprise to see your images when you get the prints or files back from the lab

It’s now been a couple of years since I first opened the box to my shiny (ok the plastic isn’t really that shiny) new Holga 120s, I haven’t used it in a while, but after writing this post, I think I have just inspired myself to roll on some Kodak 120 ultra colour 400 UC!

Oh and one word of advice – DON’T FORGET TO REMOVE THE LENS CAP!

Well known wedding photographer Graham Monro from GM Photographics has been known on occasion to pull out his holga, giving his clients the choice of something different.

Graham has a shiny new website where you can view all his fine art images, some of them using the plastic fantastic camera!

Checkout Grahams website for yourself at GM Photographics

For more information on the holga and an endless amount of reading and inspiration check out these websites dedicated to this little gem.
lomography
holgamods
Flickr
Holga Inspire

Jose

Fishy, Fishy - Chuck Bradley

Some think that still life photography is easy. Plonk an object on a tabletop and away you go. Personally, I feel that it couldn’t be further from the truth. Still Life photography requires a tonne of patience, an incredible understanding of light, a bucket full of finesse and a vision that goes way beyond the ordinary.

Blue Moon Jelly - Chuck Bradley

Chuck Bradley is a master at extracting beauty from simplicity. From a simple wine bottle to crushed and corroded found objects, I always find his work intriguing.  More recently with his Fishy, Fishy and Blue Moon Jelly series, Chuck has vivified the still life, bringing his usual tenacity and flair to moving objects. For a little while now I have been quietly drawing inspiration from his effortless compositions which are definitely worth a look.

by Daniel Linnet

Check out more of Chuck Bradley’s work