Studio Impressions Blog

It has been a very busy few weeks!  Three continents later, I’m now very happy to be back in Australia.

XXV, Portland USA

For me, the highlight of the trip was being in picturesque Portland with some of the finest portrait photographers from around the globe at the XXV Summit.  Society of XXV was started 20 years ago with a membership that is invitation only.  As a new member I found that XXV is a dynamic group of talented photographers with a passion to share, grow and improve their skills through learning from the experiences of each other.  In many ways it’s like having a mentor, except you have 25 of them.   The annual Summit also invites industry leaders from major photographic manufacturers, so it is a great opportunity to see the latest and greatest that the industry is offering at the moment and glimpse what is to come years from now.

It was an amazing 5 days.  I don’t think I have ever learnt, laughed and even cried, as much in my life.   A powerful experience would be an understatement. 

Thanks so much to the the incredible photographers from around the world that I met and shared with at XXV.  Some of whom included:  Vicki & Jed Taufer - USA, Curt Littlecott - USA, Indra Leonardi - Indonesia, Rod Evans - USA, Tim & Bev Walden - USA and Henk Van Kooten - Holland.  Check out their work - it is amazing!

London

The more I visit London the more I love this city.  I think it is one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world.  I found a wealth of subjects to photograph.  I met up with Art Photographer and fellow Adobe Lightroom Adventure Tasmanian photographer, Jackie King for an afternoon visiting the  Guy Bourdin exhibition at the Wapping projects.  Both the exhibition and the building the exhibition was housed in were exceptional.  The walk back to “Shaggwell” Station afterwards at dusk was interesting though, and was the only time I felt the possibility of being separated from my camera equipment on this entire trip.    The seminar in Hendon the day after was wonderful and was a great opportunity to met with fellow seminar speaker and UK photographer Kevin Wilson.     Kevin and I have been working with Asukanet on this seminar and they really do a great job.  Like their artbooks - the quality is spot on, no detail is overlooked, and everything runs smoothly and efficiently.    

Paris

Paris is legendary for photography.  It has always been quite intimidating for me to photograph this amazing city.  I think mainly because it is one of the most photographed cities in the world and because so many of the great photographers have captured some of the most widely known images in this city.  The home of Magnum, and the birthplace of Cartier-Bresson - it’s enough to make me feel like an amateur.

The seminars and workshop we did in Paris were amazing.  A really great turn out, passionate discussion, lots of questions and new ideas.  Already I have been invited back to talk early next year.  The attendees were just extraordinary photographers in their own right.  There is some beautiful wedding photography in Paris and it was an honour to be asked to provide input to the industry there.  I will be posting later this month some images from the shoot we did during the seminar.

Hong Kong and Macau

In the final days of my trip I headed to Macau for a photographic project.   I caught up with two of the best wedding photographers in this region CM Leung from Hong Kong and Louis Pang from Malaysia.  We where joined by fellow Brisbane photographer Vincent Swift.  It was a great couple of days of photographing and learning more from these guys, and I’m really happy that I got some of the images I was hoping for.

There are a wealth of images to post from the entire trip so keep an eye on the blog in coming weeks!

I had a great time, but it is wonderful to be home.

Jacqueline and Steven :  St Stephens Chapel and Montrachet.  Designer - Darb Couture

Kellie and Adam : Private Residence, Auchenflower.  Designer: Hilde Heim

Crystal and Phillip :  Broadway Chapel and Snug Harbour.

Carolyn and Benjamin :  Restaurant II. Designer - Darb Couture

Jade and Chris :  La Trobe Chapel and The Charles Ginn Art Gallery Paddington. Designer - MXM

Christine and David :  St Bernard’s Church and Customs House.

Danyelle and Dominic :  St Lucia Catholic Church and Watt Restaurant.

Celeste and Michael :  St Paul’s Church and The Gun Shop Cafe

Amanda and Nicholas :  Holy Trinity Church and Restaurant II.  Designer - Darb Couture

There are often times when I’m traveling or even photographing a wedding for that matter where some of the greatest experiences and images i capture is on route to the destination, rather than the destination itself.  So not to be deterred by another 6 hour delay and arriving in a city that was never on the schedule.  I knew that something great must come from this experience.

I was traveling to the XXV photography summit in Portland with the powerhouse children portrait photographer Susan Michals.  At the Avis counter at midnight with a two hour drive still ahead of us,  I noticed the sign “BRAND NEW CAMARO, NOW AVAILABLE”  Well a little voice that I never new existed piped up and I said “can we have a Camaro” Well it was a boy hood dream to drive an old American muscle car and flashing through my mind was remembering how my own boys faces would light up seeing a picture of a Camaro.

However because we wanted to leave the car at Jacksonville, the manager said we couldn’t have it.   Undeterred and with my best Australian accent, I told the manager behind the counter about my boyhood dreams and how cool three little boys at home some 20,000km away would see there dad driving a Camaro.   About 5 minutes latter we where off and I was living a dream.  Besides it was only $5 more than the Honda Civic that we suppose to drive away with.

I came across this house north of Portland and it truly felt it was straight out of a horror film.  There was certainly an uneasy feel to the place,  It was like being on a movie set.

It wasn’t til the next day running through the photographs with Jed Taufer of V Gallery that he recognized the house from the cover of a Stephen King novel.  I was also quick to learn that Stephen King was born in Portland and that he lived up the road in Bangor.

There should be an amazing legend to this house, however sadly the house has been left to ruin whilst the children of the house squabble over who truly owns the place.

For the last 5 years now I have been travelling to the USA on an annual basis, but it has really only been this year that I have made the time to visit some of the most spectacular places that the United States has to offer.   On an earlier trip this year I visited Zion National park and I loved every moment of being in that beautiful place.   On this trip I have had the chance to explore the coastline of Maine and I can say it is equally as impressive.  With so much history in this part of the world it has been really inspiring capturing some of the beauty that this region offers.

Air travel has certainly become interesting on this trip.  My luck has not improved since that first long delay as I left Brisbane.  This time, my connecting flight at Charlotte (for my flight between Jacksonville and Portland) was delayed 6 hours as the plane would not start.  The starter motor had to be replaced!  So, rather than be potetnially stranded in Charlotte I travelled to Boston and rented a car and drove the two hours to Portland instead.  At least I now have a whole new story to share -  “The $129 Camaro”.

The morning before I left Australia, I sat my three boys down and showed them on our world globe all the places I would be travelling.  It was the first time that I told my eldest son Jackson, now 5 years old, that I would be visiting a town called “Jacksonville”.  His twin brothers Evan and Rohan were sitting right next to him and he looked at me with a very concerned face and said “Daddy, are you going to be going to Rohansville and Evansville as well.”  It was the most beautiful thing that I have ever heard come out of his mouth.  He was so concerned about his brothers also enjoying a moment of my trip.  It was then I knew the next three weeks will be so hard to be so far apart from them.  I told Jackson that I didn’t think there was an Evansville or Rohansville, but I would ”look into it while I was away.” 

Today, here in Jacksonville, was a wonderful day, the seminar was terrific with such a great audience.  Afterwards I was treated to dinner at a local establishment next to one of the waterways and right beside an Alagator reserve with plenty of wild ‘gators.  A little scary, considering there was nothing between me and the alagators,  but beautiful all the same  (see some snaps below).

This wasn’t the best part though.  After conveying the story of my boys to some of the participants in today’s seminar, I was told “but there is an Evansville”, right here in the US in Indiana.   Now, all I need to do is find a “Rohansville”.

Hollywood Boulevard is a pretty interesting place to be at anytime of the day and when photographing after midnight, it has a life all of it’s own.

Joe and I ended the evening at the infamous “Rainbow” on Sunset Boulevard where our good friend Parker J Pfister coined the phrase “Shooting for the Soul” and even though Parker J wasn’t there with us in LA this time, his influence and inspiration certainly was.

George and Melissa moved to Los Angeles three months ago, so while there I took the opportunity to get a few images of them in their new home town.  The Walt Disney Concert Hall ended up being the perfect backdrop for a terrific portrait shoot.

Today is Memorial day in the USA, which meant the Pier at Santa Monica was full of people enjoying a day of remembrance and taking in the beautiful sun.

This month sees me head off again to do some more seminars and workshops in the US, UK and Europe.    My trip didn’t get off to a great start.  After a practice take-off followed by a 6 hour delay at the Brisbane airport I was off to Los Angeles.  The 24 hours I had planned to spend shooting in LA  before heading to Jacksonville was cut in half, thanks to a malfunctioning PA system on my Qantas flight.  Oh well, I suppose it is not how much time you have to photograph, but what you capture in the time you have.

In preparation for this trip I’ve spent the past three weeks putting together a new camera kit.  One of the additions to the kit is the new Lensbaby Composer, designed by Craig Strong.  It is .a fantastic piece of engineering that provides a unique perspective on subjects.  With a swag of new lenses I was ready to capture a city that I have travelled through many times but have never actually photographed. 

I was met at the airport by good friend and amazing photographer, Joe Photo, who lives in this great City - straight out of the OC (Orange County).  Here are some of the pics I took with Joe as we rediscovered LA through my new lens.

WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL

Portrait of Joe Photo (above).