Monday 30 January 2012

Boy with Camera

Perth Royal Show 1960 Sideshow Alley - and Stewart's famous boxing troupe. Everyone was watching, transfixed by the action. I was there as a sixteen year old, with my Hanimex C35, fixed 50mm lens camera loaded with film (probably Kodak Tri X)

There's only one thing worse than taking a  boring photograph - and that's taking no photograph at all.

You could submit your favourite old portrait to the Fremantle International Portrait Prize opening 5 May 2019 and r share in a prize pool of AU$20,000.

Entries open 5 May 2019
Click HERE for details.

Saturday 14 January 2012

Tulle - look Mum, no Photoshop

There are ten thousand gadgets and gizmos to produce FX, And there's a million and one Photoshop plug-ins to do this, that and the other.

How about trying something really boring - liking buying meter of tulle for $1  and holding it in front of your subject.

You either have to grow two extra hands or you ask your subject to hold it. You can use it for straining your mull wine as well.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Don't eat your food before you play with it

That's what the mother eagle said to her baby eaglet 'Don't eat your food before you play with it!'
I noticed a travel company made a comment about their new photography competition. They said 'Please don't send us any more photos of landscapes - we are overstocked with pin-sharp, perfectly exposed landscapes. Please send us shots of real people having fun'. Have you got the message ?? 50,000 pin sharp landscapes are downright boring. But we do them because we're too scared to try something different.
So here's a little travel tip. 'Don't eat your food until you photograph it' 
Choose a table with really good natural light from one side (easier to read the menu also). When the meal arrives (hopefully on a white plate!) rotate the plate until you achieve good design then shoot at about 45 degrees.
If the meal is fantastic ask if you can slip into the kitchen and photograph the chef as well. Write down the details, restaurant, dish title, chef's name. This is all hot stuff for getting your story published and score more brownie points with an editor than a landscape.
If the meal is lousy, forget about photographing the chef and the tip.
Of course, if you happen to get food poisoning you can show the medicos in emergency what you actually ate.
Bon Appetite!

PS Deserts & Coffee in Warung Enak in Ubud, Bali. 
Top: Mango tart with glaze
Bottom: mango with sticky black rice and coconut milk
These deserts are to die for (rather than die from)
Goes fabulously well with their own brewed coffee
You'll have a gay old time at Warung Enak

Thanks to my mate Clive Addison who sniffed out Warung Enak