Sometimes you just have to choose......

When we take digital photographs we always end up with a dilemma, Black and White or Colour?

Is there anything wrong with either? Well no, but sometimes a photograph can 'feel' like a black and white image yet not really make it. 

This is the same image (yes i know the crop is slightly different) with the same RAW processing. Even though it's the same image, do we get a different emotional response from the colour to the black and white? Do they feel exactly the same, but one is aesthetically more pleasing to look at thank the other?

These seem pretty important questions to most photographers. Sometimes the work just doesn't have the 'punch' to go black and white, and as a colour image has a touch of the 'ABD' (Already Been Done). I know I only took this image yesterday, but I have been slowly picking it apart critically  for most of the night and this morning and have come to the same conclusion as I did when I took it which is it's a pretty good image, but lacks punch. Something is missing from this image in both versions, and I can't think what it might be. They are both just kind, well boring to be honest. I love my work most of the time and really enjoy the act of taking photos, but in this case I think the image in my head has missed the image shown in the camera.

Just ever so slightly.

Back to the streets.....

Finally been back on the street hitting the shutter button again. Can't explain how much fun it is, but you could probably guess.

I will endeavour over the next few weeks to catch up a little in not only my posting, but share a bit more of my work.

Photobook Making day at Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive

I was lucky enough to get my first real photo book made and it was also critiqued and shown at Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive. The lovely Linsey Gosper from Strange Neighbour and Jason McQuoid from Edmund Pearce Gallery took some time to look through all the photobooks on the day and offer some wonderful feedback.

I was a book I have based on my Semester one folio idea of the recurring fear we have that can still haunt and upset us in our adult life. We know these things can never hurt us, they are only toys, but we have a unusual irrational fear of them.

Do I plan on doing a proper book of them later on.. Yeah I might. I do keep my eye out for crazy old toys every time I walk past a second hand store, so I do think this will be a very long and open ended project for me.

Still Life..

Sometimes a Still Life image needs to be something a little more off putting..

Passion.. Creativity.. Originality..

There would have to be a few ways to describe what this is about and how to look at it.

I would suggest if you asked Doctor Daks it's about not being a copy cat DICK and you will never fake it till you make it.

Doing anything takes hard work and persistence. You gotta try and try and try till you either love it or leave it. It's about passion, late nights, and busting your ass over every job or advantage that might come your way.

Art is hard, don't ever think it's easy, and to be even more direct photography is fucking hard. Everything you do as a photographer is held up to a light that started in the 1800's and the only thing to really change has been the technology. The amount of pressure put on your shoulders to 'Be Original' is so hard to hear, that the words bounce around in your mind till they mean nothing.

To be original, you have to work HARD!! To work HARD you have to have PASSION!! Then with HARD WORK and PASSION, you will find ORIGINALITY!!

When things need to change..

When we make decisions about the work, sometimes we need to let go of the idea. Then again sometimes the idea will change without us even knowing. Watching this Alec Soth video reminds me I need to be very open minded and remember that the work is allowed to change, even though I don't want it.

Herald Sun Tour 2014

Herald Sun Tour 2014, a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I am going to try and get to a couple more of the stages this year. See how I go. The Herald Sun Tour is a great race, and well loved by Melburians.