bushfire trees

i thought i'd take the time to write a little blog post of all the photos i took that i never got a chance to post, as well as the in-between photos that i take in daily life and let you all know what i've been up to these past couple of months. life has been a sweeping adventure so far this year. sometimes i will sit and think about everything and sometimes i will be firing the shutter, one photo after another and nothing else exists. some of these were taken with my camera and others with my iphone.

driving through the bushfire trees of autumn. roadtrips to nowhere.

hanging out with the boys from scarlet chase.

working with my talented team again for black milk clothing.

i went on a massive roadtrip long ago with the band say it forever. we were running through rivers with our clothes on, and had a watergun fight as the day was ending. after a two hour drive back home, this is half of the band curled up on my driveway.

taking photos in a park with overgrown grass of my lovely friend katie and her lover austin.

dan and i on a drive for no reason.

we dropped off friends at the airport during the week. this year my best friend moved to live in adelaide.

soft acoustic music being played at a wedding i documented with ashley.

more empty stretches of road, it's sort of calming after spending a whole day surrounded by people - to have your hair thrown around by the wind, watching the sun turn black and listen to soft music loudly.

i shot some beautiful weddings far and near; in sydney, berry, wollongong, mittagong.

i had coffee with my sister and family in wollongong. dan was driving us home and i was sleepily taking pictures in the passenger seat.

more rehearsals and staying up til 5am. dreaming of our tour around america, always driving, playing music, taking photos, meeting all of you.

dan and i going to watch live music in the city.

an editorial and lookbook i shot with a cute puppy.

last but not least i wanted to share with you some beautiful behind the scenes film photos oh deer boutique snapped at our last shoot:

 i hope you've all been wonderful. i told myself that i need to take my camera with me everywhere i go, and that's exactly what i've been trying to do. if you don't mind, i may make a few more blog posts like this - of just life and the little things that happen here and there.

also, one more thing. i've been so busy lately shooting and editing and going to meetings that i haven't had a chance to do free curve friday for a while - and i'm sorry! someone on formspring a while ago gave me a lovely suggestion though, to make a curve that looks like a fairytale, soft and pretty. so instead, for the next few weeks i will be releasing a series of fairytale curves, starting with alice in wonderland:

you can download the free curve "alice in wonderland" here. instructions on how to install your curves can be found here.

this curve works best on photos shot on an overcast day, or photos with lots of shadows. it adds a lovely purple tone like the caterpillar's smoke 'who r u...?'.

hopefully this little surprise + a few more will make up for my silence :)

illawarra folk festival: bulli 2012

to sum it up short and sweet: this folk festival was amazing.

day one. 

i walked into the festival by myself. i explored the massive grounds and started taking pictures of strangers. there was anyone you could imagine; teenage girls with flowers in their hair, hippy adults wearing rainbow clothing, musicians walking around with piles of instruments, dreadlocked hair and screaming children. there was also music wherever i went, it never stopped playing.

while i was shooting, a blue-eyed man tapped me on the shoulder and introduced himself as the woohoo revue's band manager, dan. he let me know that their band was playing on the main stage later that night and asked me nicely if i could take photos of them. i eventually also bumped into my high school music teacher and her nephew and the three of us walked around looking at all the little markets and tents propped up selling scented candles and free-spirited clothes.

after hours of sitting and walking around, watching people dance and sing, we headed off to the main stage to watch the woohoo revue perform. the tent was packed with dancing youth, as their gypsy music filled up the night, they were amazing. after the show we hung out til the early hours of the morning, sharing stories of road trips, music and everything in between. even though the stage music ended, musicians and punters alike formed little circles and jammed on their ukeleles, acoustic guitars and harmonicas in the late night.

day two. 

everyone camped in the torrential rain while i was cosy in bed. i got back to the festival and the entire ground was muddy and filled with puddles. today was the day my favourite shooting-boots were destroyed! it didn't stop anyone though, the soft acoustic music kept playing loud, strangers danced barefoot in the mud. everything i saw was a picture waiting to happen. 

accordions for sale.

the tantric turtle cafe, oh so lovelily decorated.

always.

i asked this man to spin around for me in the rain so i could take photos with his wonderful jacket.

 

a lovely three piece group that filled the room up with soft music.

the woohoo revue.

morning mud.

living room under the sun.

the bearded gypsy band - another of my favourites who played at the festival.

my new friends, hungover.

smiling youth and muddy feet.

leaving town.

sleepy-eyed spiderman.

a marching band marching through the entire festival.

the woohoo revue playing on the second day.

pyramid rock festival

in the new year, i was sent by the au review to shoot pyramid rock festival in phillip island, melbourne. the day after we got to melbourne & our ten hour drive, we woke up early and set off for another two hours to phillip island. the day was hot and the roads were long, but we listened to music loudly in the car, put together snacks and drinks for the festival and drank way too much coffee until we finally got there.

we drove through the grounds, passing hundreds of tents and roaming teenagers already drunk at one in the afternoon and got around to the back where we were lucky enough to have vip camping by the sea. i picked up my photo pass and dan and i went off in the heat to watch some music. 

at night, the air was polar and we would crawl back to the car and sit in complete happy-tiredness. the bands would sit in groups outside and play soft music, talk into the early mornings and it felt like i was in the movie almost famous. i felt at home. constant music in the background somewhere and anywhere, sun in the middle of nowhere and taking photos.

french horn rebellion, they were like monkeys running up on stage - completely awesome!

spiderbait

masculine spiderbait crowd haha

the vasco error

the herd

view from our camping ground

dan and i. i loooved the grass at the island, which seems like a silly thing to say, but it was some nice grass.

guy on a wheelchair being held up to the sky in the middle of the mosh pit

sparkadia

photographer taking photos of the crowd

gotye

gotee, goti-yeah, gote-yer

cloud control

the living end headlined the first day, they were probably my favourite act of the whole two days. they are absolutely amazing live.

second day of the festival:

calling all cars

grace woodroofe, who thought everyone who was at the festival lived on the island.

illy, they had the most energetic and crazy crowd

peeking over the fence from the vip bar

the getaway plan

graveyard train. i totally recommend listening to these guys!

drapht

taking a break in the middle of the heatwave day

boy and bear

the panics

bluejuice

last but not least, scissor sisters who played through midnight and welcomed us into the new year.

you can see

all

 the edited photos i took on the day on the au review website:

day one.

day two.

tim rogers @ annandale's 11th birthday

tim rogers, a drunken pirate stumbled up on stage, took his place on his stool and played an amazing show that still gives me chills thinking about it weeks after. leena is the lovely girl with the floral dress and acoustic guitar and the people before her are strangers waiting around in the packed out annandale hotel, the first day of their 11th birthday week.

against me at the metro

last night i had the pleasure to shoot against me playing a gig at the metro in sydney, australia for the au review. they were absolutely amazing.. and to my surprise i was the only photographer! i have no idea why, but i felt pretty special haha. after my three songs i quickly ran and left my camera bag in the cloakroom and joined dan and matt at the front of the mosh pit right in front of tom gabel for the rest of the gig. seriously one of the best shows i've been to in a lonnnnngg time!! i was so happy i was able to document the whole night.

this is the first support band that played, grand fatal:

off with their heads were next:

and against me with a killer set (possibly literally with the amount of people flying around the venue towards the end of the gig):

all my muscles are aching but i can't wait to see and shoot them again.

fin.

midnight juggernauts @ the forum

i was reminded of this shoot when i received an email the other day if i could send some highres images so they could possibly be printed as part of the au review's 2010 yearbook of live music photography. i had this strange feeling that i never actually blogged these photos, so i went through my blog archive and aha! i was right.

now, there was actually a reason as to why i never blogged these photos. whenever i go out to shoot a band, i never really think twice about "what if i don't get any photos" i simply put all my camera gear into my bag, head out, arrive at the venue, have a quick look at the stage i'll be shooting and just wait for the support bands to start. well, this midnight juggernauts gig was one of those shows that whacks you in face and reminds you that you need to be on your feet at all times with photography.

at the time i didn't have my 85mm f1.2 (which is amazing to shoot live gigs, and is so so great in low light). all i had was my 50mm f1.4 which at the time i though was a pretty good lens, and my 24-70mm f2.8. when i had a quick look at the stage before any bands got on i thought the 50mm wouldn't be such a great lens to shoot with since the stage was quite big, all the photos would look a little bit far away. i decided on my zoom.

the first support band got on and he was great to watch, listen to and shoot. the second support band, dappled cities (who i really really love) got on and they were also fine. at this point, the photographer's pit was also very sparse, there was only me and a couple of other shooters, and we got the usual three songs to shoot and we're out, which was fine.

as we're waiting at the side of the pit for midnight juggernauts to get on stage, more and more photographers turn up. i think there was at least about ten of us, which i thought was a little bit ridiculous, usually there's only about six. anyway, midnight juggernauts get on, the stage is pitch black for the entire first song they play. there was barely any room to move around to get a good shot and we only had two songs left to shoot. the next two songs were a little more bareable, there was a small amount of light, it didn't change much so you couldn't get a variety of photos, but hey, at least the stage wasn't pitch black anymore!

there was nothing i could do, i had to crank up my iso to be able to get a properly exposed image and just forget about the grain. you had to make the little amount of light be as interesting as possible in your photos and not care if you get in the way of any other photographers as you're all trying to get the same shot in the small amount of time we had left. and because of my lens, i could only get my aperture down to 2.8 - see how hand my 85 would have been at this point!

regardless of all this, i managed to get some good photos, which at the end of the day, you need to do no matter the conditions. i managed to meet a lovely photographer by the name of ian whom i've told you guys about before and got into the mosh pit afterwards with my cousin to enjoy the rest of the show - which was awesome!

some more live photos to come soon :)

mh rehearsal @ l.a. studios

one night i went to watch and photograph midnight horizon at their rehearsal studio. you can find links to

 their music here: www.midnighthorizonmusic.com

im hoping we'll be working on a video clip soon to one of their awesome new songs *hint hint* :) also 

on their blog are more photos dan & matt took on film that i don't think i posted here.

rehearsal

i got some 35mm film developed and every time i look at the pictures it makes me so so happy. i don't

know, there is just something about film that can never ever be recreated with digital.

some more posts to come soon! this is from one of the midnight horizon rehearsals in the studio, a few

months ago now i think. dan scanned them in for me :)