Check out some of my recent work, and my essays on Photographing The Arts!
Our latest collection of essays is up at the Kage Collective site, including one from me called Proof Of Life, which takes a look at recent events here in Sydney where a woman was found to have died in her home, after being unnoticed for eight years...
Read MoreIn a previous post, I talked about photographing a show that is unknown to its audience; my point was that the best publicity images are ones that leave an air of mystery - that pique the viewer's interest, and make them want to know more. But what about a show where the story is well known already - like a panto?
I was working recently with Bonnie Lythgoe Productions on their winter show, Cinderella, at the State Theatre in Sydney - and that's what made me really start looking at this question again.
Because really - the story is a given. So what you want to show in a still image is twofold - what's different about this production, and at the same time, what's familiar about it? How can you show off both the uniqueness of this version, and also capture the feeling of a story that's been told again and again, for over a hundred years?
Read MoreIt's the middle of the month, so once again the Kage Collective has put together a collection of essays from our various points on the globe, including a new essay from me, captured at Sydney's Vivid Festival of light recently.
This month we decided to limit ourselves as a group to a single lens - the equivalent of the old standard 50mm, so 35mm on our Fuji cameras - and only photograph at night, which turned out to be much easier here in winter than it was for some of my friends at the higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere summer...
Read MoreI've been working with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra a bit recently, and this weekend was their David Bowie: Nothing Has Changed tribute concert at the Sydney Opera House concert hall.
I'd been in a couple of weeks ago for rehearsals and to meet some of the production crew and performers, which was great - but they'd come a long way since that first day, including incorporating the orchestral musicians, which we didn't have there at the time!
Read MoreThe April issue at the Kage Collective came out recently, with a series of essays from around the world from members Patrick La Roque, Flemming Bo Jensen, Vincent Baldensperger, Bert Stephani, Derek Clark, Charlene Winfred, Kevin Mullins and myself - but I realise I've been slightly remiss in not mentioning this in February and March as well, when we had equally impressive collections of images from everyone!
Read MoreOne of the longest & proudest associations I've had as a photographer - and as a person, really - is my work over fifteen years with the New Zealand International Arts Festival. I moved to Wellington in 1997, working as a box office manager at the time, in part lured by the fact that the venue I'd be working on was the primary ticketing agency for the Festival, and moreover that Wellington would be the last place ever to see Robert Lepage's Seven Streams Of The River Ota in 1998...
Read MoreIn early February, I spent the day with some great young classical musicians, making portraits of them individually and as a group for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship programme. These are the best of the best, young Australian talent who have been chosen to spend a year in the company of the country's top orchestra, working together as a chamber group, attending masterclasses - and, of course, playing with the orchestra as well.
Read MoreMusical theatre fans in Australia got a bit of a treat over the weekend - some would probably say it was the equivalent of a visit from the Pope, or the Queen; or possibly both at the same time.
Composer Stephen Schwartz was in town for Defying Gravity, a concert tribute to his career, featuring stars from around the globe - all here specially for the event.
We had double Tony winner Sutton Foster, film and stage star Aaron Tveit, global performer Joanna Ampil, and top Australian artists David Harris and Helen Dallimore - but the biggest coup had to be the amazing Betty Buckley, 'The Voice Of Broadway', whose work with Schwartz goes back as far as Pippin in the early Seventies.
Read MoreI was working on a new production of Thomas Murray and the Upside Down River at Griffin Theatre here in Sydney recently, and chatting with the lighting designer before the dress rehearsal, he told me a couple of useful things. Having been there not long ago for The Dapto Chaser, I knew the stage was...let's call it unique. It's a wedge, between two seating blocks - not quite traverse, but certainly not a proscenium, either!
On that show, I'd found myself photographing much of it from the point of the triangle, rather than from the seating blocks; not least because you can see the other seating block in the back of the photos, if you're looking across the stage. But this was a different show, and of course, different designers.
"I've mostly lit the show from either end of the stage," he said, "so you might not want to photograph it from there."
Read MoreI mentioned in my last post that there was something new coming from the Kage Collective I'm a member of - and today's the day!
But it's especially exciting this month, because not only do we have a range of stories & images from my friends in the group, but no less than five of us have been testing Fuji's hot new camera, the X-Pro 2, which is being unveiled in Tokyo as I post this.
Read MoreI mentioned recently that the photography group I'm part of, the Kage Collective, were giving away our latest e-book publication. (Yes, free!)
Hundreds of people from all around the globe have grabbed a copy already - and, hopefully, enjoyed it - which made me think I should also mention our Flipboard magazine, which is where we post articles & images we've been reading lately, as much for our own interest amongst the group as to share with other photographers and interested folks...
Read MoreJust wanted to wish all my friends & clients a happy new year, and all the best for 2016 - hope it's a great one!
Read MoreI've been part of the Kage Collective since the beginning, and we've always wanted to find ways to work together on something, in spite of our being so far apart physically. Well, this is our first collaborative project - Under A Vagrant Sun, an e-book of our work on the past two solstices, released today on the most recent one...
Read MoreI was really pleased to see that the announcement of the Sydney Theatre Awards this afternoon included The Dapto Chaser no less than three times - Best Independent Production, Glyn Nicholas for Best Direction, and Daryl Wallis for Best Score / Sound Design...
Read MoreI was working recently with actor Andre de Vanny on a promotional image for a show he's working on, Swansong, which opens tonight at the Old Fitz Theatre here in Sydney - and it got me thinking about something that isn't talked about so much in photography, the use of white balance as a creative tool, to control or alter colour in an image.
Sure, there are a number of settings on pretty much any camera bigger than your phone (and even some apps) that let you choose the 'correct' colour that best matches your situation, from daylight to tungsten or fluorescent balance. But of course, lots of times there are many sources in an image - so how do you know which is the the one true white balance for your image?
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