Light magic

I watched him for a couple of minutes, amused at the effort he was going to in order to create ………. something. I had a sense of what he was trying to achieve, but his chosen ‘photographer’ was struggling with his own understanding of the concept as well as the capabilities of his choice of photographic equipment.

To their credit, these young men were using an actual camera rather than the ever-present mobile phone, but it was only a camera of the point-and-shoot variety and the young man with the camera in his hand was not terribly confident in how to use it.

I couldn’t help myself. I had to ask what they were doing and offer my assistance.

Assistance? No….I took over!!! I had to. The afternoon light coming into the space was delicious. He was standing in the wrong place to take advantage of it and his friend with the camera was not only sitting, he was sitting in the wrong spot to see the magic in front of him.

For the briefest of moments they rebelled against my intrusion, but the ‘model’ came around to my directions very quickly. It might have been my bossy/efficient/ knowledgeable tone, but I think he realised that I understood what he was attempting to do.  🙂   The difference was that I knew how to create it!

And my first photo taken under my direction is the one above.

Even I gasped in delight at the magic created in the light.

 

So what if I’m in my car!!!

Before I get into the whys and wherefores of today’s blog, can anyone tell me why Flinders Lane is called Flinders Lane. Why doesn’t it follow the pattern of the other streets in the grid? It’s Collins Street then Little Collins, Bourke Street then Little Bourke. Shouldn’t it have started with Flinders Street then Little Flinders?

But I do digress.

The other day I was driving down Flinders Lane, heading out of my marvellous Melbourne after a full day of photography work…….

I’m going to digress again.

I can hardly say that I was driving down Flinders Lane because the traffic was moving so slowly I could have got out of my car and taken the above photo from a dozen different angles before leisurely returning to the driver’s seat and inching forward a few more metres.

Anyhoo………….

I was sitting patiently in my stationary vehicle when I happened to glance to my left and spot these two rough and ready buskers propped on milk crates on the footpath outside a cafe. There was so much activity around them, but they were oblivious to everything except their conversation and their instruments.

Fortunately for me, my camera bag was on the passenger seat beside me and all I had to do was whip out the camera, wind down the window and wait for the moment where I had inched forward enough in my car to get a shot that was as clear of the bicycles as possible.

So what if I was in my car. So what if I felt like I was some paparazzi. One does what one has to do to get the shot one wants.

That was fun.

This weekend in Melbourne was the Oz Kink Fetish Expo. I wasn’t going, but a number of my recent Facebook friends were and were very excited about their new outfits. One of these friends contacted me asking if I’d be interested in doing a little photo shoot of her in a new latex outfit.

Of course!!! No need to ask me twice. I didn’t really have anything planned other than watching a friend perform in a theatre production in the afternoon and then driving an hour to Mornington for an exhibition opening. Quiet Saturday really.

But in all honesty, I was delighted to be asked. It gave me a chance to work one-on-one with someone who knew what she was doing. I’m still so inexperience in shooting with a model, but this gave me the chance to work and play and experiment with postures and directions.

The conditions were quite varied as well and this has given me more insight into how best to shoot and what to look for when given harsh daylight and strong shadows. This has also allowed me to really experiment with different editing processes. So many options and variations for this shoot.

I’m really happy with what we managed to achieve. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of this little collaboration Kitty. xoxo

 

I want to share…………but they won’t let me. :-(

 

I am not happy with the ‘nipple police’.

I have some incredible photos that I want to share, but I am not allowed to because the so-called protectors of moral decency (aka: nipple police) would very quickly block both my Facebook and Instagram accounts. Why? Because I would be showing the nipple of a woman.

They have no problem at all with the male nipple. Just the female nipple.

Again …….. why?? Because the nipple police are perverted old men who still believe that the sight of a naked female nipple is pornographic.

I am a photographer (still can’t believe that I can actually call myself by this title, but there it is). I am an artist. (Me!! Artist??!! But there it is. Hold an exhibition and you’ve got to claim the moniker) I create images. I do not create pornography. I have done a photo shoot with a fabulous woman who happened to be unclothed during this exercise and I can’t show anyone any of the shots where you can see her bare nipple.

Bloody, frustratingly ridiculous!!

The nipple police don’t and won’t even raise an eyebrow at the photos that show her bare arse, but woe betide me if there is exposed nipple. “Hold out you hand Miss, there are 10 licks of the cane coming to you, not to mention the weeks of suspension.”

Where are honest, tasteful examples of the art nude genre permitted to be displayed? I need to know, because otherwise I’m going to feel as though taking these images and creating this art is a waste of my time.

“It’s a small world after all”

It’s a world of laughter,
A world of tears.
It’s a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There’s so much that we share,
That it’s time we’re aware,
It’s a small world after all.

There is just one moon
And one golden sun;
And a smile means
Friendship to everyone.
Though the mountains divide,
And the oceans are wide,
It’s a small world after all.

It’s a small world after all!
It’s a small world after all!
It’s a small world after all!
It’s a small, small world!

By
Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman

I had to post the lyrics, because as soon as I decided on the title of today’s blog I could hear the song being sung in my head by a roomful of obnoxious 8 year olds.

But the truth of the matter is that it IS a small world. And this world works in many incredible, magical and unexplained ways.

I’m going to tell you a little story. It’s a story about today. So make yourself a cup of tea, grab a chocolate biscuit and get comfortable.

Once upon a time (Thursday, to be exact) I received a message on Facebook from a photography friend inviting me to join her and a few other photographers on a ‘secret’ photo shoot the coming Sunday. (Today) Never one to knock back a great offer, I accepted and took myself off to the shoot this morning.

While we were setting up, I spied from the second storey window a wedding party at the Greek Orthodox Church directly across the road. As I had no clue about the whole lighting set-up stuff and there were people getting in each other’s way I grabbed the opportunity to shoot a bride. I raced out of the cafe, camera in hand, to whip across the street before the bride entered the church and I heard a comment of some kind, relating to being photographed, by a group of gentlemen seated at a table outside the cafe. I ignored them as I could see the bride was on the move and I needed to get to her and not be run over by a car as I hurriedly crossed the road.

I got my pics and headed back to the shoot, but me being me, I stopped to banter with these men about taking their photos. It turns out they were the wedding chauffeurs, killing time with a little something to eat and drink while they waited for the newlyweds.

During the conversation one of them asked what I was shooting with. He clearly knew his cameras. There was this ….thing……niggling away in the dark recesses of my brain. Something familiar about his personality.

Then I heard him referred to as Tom.

And suddenly………….. little pieces of information began to fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

I had to know this man’s surname, because it would be crazy to think that this was the person I thought it could be. I mean……..what are the chances? The fact that this person had popped up in my thoughts on numerous occasions over the last month or so was pure coincidence. It couldn’t possibly be…………….

So I came straight out with it and asked what his surname was, even though I already knew what the answer was going to be.

I laughed out loud at his answer, because OF COURSE he was!!

Tom.  My very own wedding photographer and post-wedding chauffeur from back in 1993. Chosen as our photographer because of his skills as a photographer and his incredible skills as a communicator. My one and only choice because of the rapport we had when I was a bridesmaid and he was a chauffeur/second shooter at a friend’s wedding.

And the best thing of all……he really hasn’t changed. Apart from being older, like myself, he still has that delightfully cheeky way about him that made the wedding photos so wonderful.

We are very similar. We can joke and flirt and put people at ease. That’s what I liked about his company. We’re both tarts. But in a good way.

It was Tom’s way with people that has probably influenced the way I interact with the strangers I meet and shoot. He definitely had an influence on me.

But OMG!!! To run into him, so randomly………..

When you add up all the ‘ifs’.

If I hadn’t been invited to the shoot.

If I hadn’t seen the bride.

If I hadn’t decided to go outside on a photography whim.

If I hadn’t stopped to chat with these men.

If I hadn’t heard his name mentioned.

If I hadn’t decided to go out on a limb and enquire as to his surname.

Gosh it was great to see you Tom. You’re looking well. And you still make me laugh.

 

The man in the top hat

There is a small element of the population who ‘own’ their look. They have made a decision to wear a style of clothing, cut and colour their hair or pierce or tattoo their body in a way that is theirs and theirs alone.

They are not following a trend or copying someone who is currently fashionable in the world’s media, what they are is themselves. And they absolutely own it. They are comfortable and confident in their uniqueness.

My marvellous Melbourne is a magnet for such people. With a plethora of events artistic, spiritual, sporting and musical as well as a general acceptance of individuality I am always delighted at the photography moments that walk into the range of my camera lens.

Sunday afternoon as I delighted in the Van Gog exhibition at the NGV there was a man I knew I had to shoot. Why? Because he was a young man wearing a top hat. As naturally as a sports fan wears a cap, this young man was resplendent in his top hat. Teamed with black jeans, black shoes and a black shirt and jacket, he was every inch the artistic type. Add to this his small, yet visible, neck tattoos and disarming Spanish accent………

I should have taken a sneaky shot of him as he wandered around the exhibition, but I was too busy imagining the best way to shoot him without the shadow of the hat rim hiding his eyes. He offered to let me shoot him as he left the NGV and played in the water wall. As it was all I could get, I agreed.

Damn and blast it!!! I just couldn’t get the shot I wanted with my D5100. Oh how I was missing my D750 and her speed and sharp focus.

 

Someone wants to see the photo of the dude on the tightrope

I have received a request. After mentioning that I was blessed with three unexpected photography gifts yesterday, one of my lovely readers/followers/fellow photographers has asked to see a photo of the previously mentioned young man on his tightrope.

I will happily share, but I need to tell you something first.

This young man was not the only unusual thing I have encountered recently at this lakeside gazebo that is no longer a gazebo because they removed the roof. (Maybe I should call it a platform. I’m not sure if there is a correct term for whatever it is now, or if there is, I’m too brain-foggy to figure it out.)

Last week (I think it was last week) there was a person cocooned in a hammock that had been strung between two diagonally opposite corners of this platform. This human was wrapped up, presumably having a nice little siesta, in their orange hammock in a public park.

As you do.

Now we have people practising their rope walking.

I wonder what I will discover next week. Best make sure the camera is ready and the battery charged.

Somebody in Council approved this.

 

I believe that I may have seen one of the world’s ugliest buildings tonight.

Standing defiantly on an Auckland corner in the restaurant district is this………….thing… that has absolutely no redeeming features. So revolting is it that it has become ‘residence’ for the lowest of the lower class of Auckland.

This is the lowest rung on the accommodation ladder. Barely one step above the streets. The residents are the alcoholics, the drug addicts and those with mental illness. As I walked past, a half naked man could be seen wandering around the lobby. It came as no surprise to see a strip club open just next to it, because a bottle shop and a TAB were not far away either.

What I find intriguing is that there was a paper trail of officials who approved the building of this ugly thing. Council planning departments saw the plans. Some architect actually designed it with pride and a sense of achievement.

But it’s hideous.

Presenting it to you in black and white is actually making it look 1000% better than it really is.

All this scenery and I shoot a ploughed field

Here I am, in one of the most picturesque countries on the planet, and my favourite photo of the day is of a tree and a paddock.

But isn’t it a stunning paddock? Magnificent deep furrows that will shortly be lush and green with new, growing crops.

I was on my return drive to Taupo after the incredible adrenaline rush of a Rapids Jet Boat ride and I spied this tree and paddock on my right. As I was on a narrow country road, I had to find a suitable place to make a u-turn and hope that there was somewhere I could safely pull over when I got back to the spot. There was!!

I’ll tell you something, but you must promise not to let the Aussie farmers know…….. the chain and latches on New Zealand farm gates are much easier to manoeuvre than the Australian ones I’ve encountered.

Good God……..what is it?

When I uploaded this picture I had to wonder what it was I was looking at.  What it is, is my darling dog Almond shot up close and very personal with the 10mm fish-eye.

One could say that it is not her most flattering image, however it is a view of her I see on a regular basis when she gets up close and very personal with me.

And the photo I took of my main man, Riley, reminds me of the cartoon pups with their over-sized noses.

I would like to try shooting the dogs again using the fish-eye, but it is very difficult getting them to stay put and needing to get up super close to achieve the look I know I would get. I may have to enlist an assistant with my next attempt.