Scheimpflug

It’s hard to believe that it’s March already and here I am still wishing people Happy New Year.  2011 seems to have kicked off at an almighty pace.  The start of January saw us up in Airlie Beach shooting the new Whisper Bay development for the Marriner Group. This job seemed like it was never going to happen with weather being pretty atrocious at the end of 2010.  We finally got a window of good weather at the start of January and managed these shots just before the cyclone hit.  This was a pretty intense 2 days of seaplanes, cranes and automobiles.  Many thanks to Deven for his unwavering assistance and great boom lift skills in intense heat. This place is a little piece of paradise.

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Our Airlie Beach trip was followed by another commission of aerial photography for the talented crew at Flood Slicer - http://www.floodslicer.com.au.  Here are some snaps taken during our transit from Melbourne to Lorne.  Thanks to Will our pilot for the tunes.  Think carefully before shooting on a functioning golf course, we were nearly wiped out by an enthusiastic, yet perhaps not so skilled golfer.

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Another of January’s projects, was a cafe shoot for Grenade at Little Mule cafe - http://www.thelittlemule.com/cafe/.  This one was cute and fun!  If you’re near Somerset Place check it out, it’s a little refuge from all the hustle and bustle.

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I was invited to contribute to  ’Artichoke - The making of a Design Magazine’ Exhibition at the Design Institute of Australia.  The exhibition runs from 23 February through to 10 March.  If you’re near Collins St,  check it out.  The 12 year history of the magazine is charted with the help of Artichoke Seat sculpture by Toby Horrocks, twelve contributors, a digital display and a selected Artichoke archive.

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Some people wish for world peace, others want to save the seals, some want to end global warming… these are big issues with complex solutions. All I want is a world without fluro!  Is this too much to ask?  It should have started and ended with Wham. Fluro vests and white vans are the bain of my existence.  Whether wandering through a shot or reflecting in glass, it seems without fail there is a person in fluro or worse, a person in fluro with a white van.  This fluro overload is reaching crisis point and I am encouraging you all to rebel against this phenomena.   I’m curious as to the momentum behind the fluro overload, has there been a study concluding that humans have lost their ability to caution unless there is some kind of fluro marker?  We must stop this before the world goes completely nuts….ooops too late! There is actually a MySpace ‘Fashion & Style group “dedicated to all lovely persons who want to smash fluro to an absolute pulp”.  Sounds a little aggressive, but hell sign me up!
O.K. enough whinging, that’s my rant to end off 2010. 

News Update - Emergency Architects Australia Architectural Photography Auction

I was recently invited to donate a print for the emergency architects australia architectural photography auction. It’s a great cause and proceeds from the auction will contribute to the rebuilding of the Timor Leste Red Cross headquarters in Dili, which was badly damaged during the secession from Indonesia in 1999 and has since remained in disrepair. See www.emergencyarchitects.org.au



Below is the print I contributed taken at the Guggenheim Museum in New York



News Update - Aerial Antics

We’ve had a big year of Aerial photography this year and finished off with the toughest assignment of all - the dusk aerial shot. Attached are some behind the scene’s i-phone snaps and the final result. Many thanks to Chris from the Helicopter Service for his patience and stable hovering.









News Update - Adelaide Fruit Toast

My wonderfully committed and fabulous assistant Jason would be terribly disappointed if I let this post go by without mention of our Adelaide fruit toast experience.  Visualise what you would expect to be served if you ordered fruit toast?  I’ll let the i-phone snap below explain the rest.  Thank you Adelaide for a new take on fruit toast.



It’s been a great year and we thank all our clients for the opportunity to photograph their amazing projects.

Many thanks also goes to my assistant Jason who makes it all happen so easily.  Jason  is friendly, patient and just an all round great guy.

Wishing everybody a very Merry Xmas and a wonderful 2011.

We were very excited this month to photograph the new Designed Blinds showroom in Richmond featuring large backlit material prints from my Cuba trip in October 2009.   A big thanks to Kevin for your on-going interest in my work.  Here’s some pics..

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Congrats to our clients who took out awards at the 2010 Victorian Architecture Awards.
Lyons Architects - Harold Desbrowne-Annear Award for Residential Architecture - Lyon House Museum.

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Cox Architects - Public Architecture Award - North Melbourne Station

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The ACMP has been producing a growing library of mini-documentaries featuring a number of professional photographers. It was fun to be invited to be featured as part of this initiative. You can view the videos at http://www.vimeo.com/channels/acmptv

Who didn’t love Tom Cruise in Top Gun?  Alright, alright, maybe all the girls with a bit of foresight!  Tis a shameful thing to admit these days given his antics of the last few years, but let’s not forget that he was once many a teenage girls dream boat!  This post is dedicated to the joy of flying. Well it’s no F14-A Tomcat and there were no multiple bogeys , but we did have some fun with the Grenade team and the Helicopter Service doing some aerial projects around Melbourne.  Here are some of the results and a couple of Maverick’s to boot!

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Congrats to Peter Rad from New York (www.peterrad.com) on his article in the UK Telegraph

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/melissawhitworth/100043753/how-were-those-bernie-madoff-prison-shots-created/ 

The article features a recent prison shoot of Peter’s and makes mention of another project run in NY Magazine where myself and my gorgeous friend Ali appear. Even though Peter claims that the only celebrity present was Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos, I think he must have been so overwhelmed by the celebrity of Ali and I that he forgot to mention us…. Yes that’s us on the far right of frame (o.k. we’re nearly cropped out!).

So how did this come about you ask?  On my visit to NYC  Ali wanted me to meet her good friend Peter Rad, we were meandering the streets of NYC when Ali gave Peter a call and he said he was shooting for NY Magazine but we could pop over.  I couldn’t hear Peter’s side of the conversation but Ali was professing our integrity and that we would not be groupies, then I heard the word ‘Soprano’s’ at which point I assured her we would indeed be happily groupies.  Upon arrival at the location, Ali insisted that we would not be standing around like  shag’s on a rock and in fact be featured in the spread. Alas, the rest is history!


©Photo by Peter Rad - www.peterrad.com

This blog is dedicated to generosity of spirit!

Over the past month our travels and assignments have introduced us to  some wonderfully generous people who have helped us and bestowed their hospitality upon us.

Firstly I must thank Bobbie Lederman who graciously invited us in to photograph her home.  Bobbie is one of those wonderfully amazing women who has an innate kindness about her.  Upon arriving at her home we were greeted with a parking permit to alleviate us of the hassle of having to move our car on the hour (pure bliss for us!).  Bobbie had her home in immaculate order so our job was made very easy.  Once we finished taking photographs Bobbie invited us to stay for afternoon tea that she had prepared in advance for us.   I think the i-phone snap below says it all.  We don’t often get too much down time on jobs and I think Jason’s (my assistant) smile is a good indication of Bobbie’s fabulous baking skills - Oh yes indeed! Did I mention that Bobbie baked a cake for afternoon tea?

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Another assignment saw us all the way out in Glenhope for a new job with JOH Architects. Twas a dawn shoot and a 1.5 hour drive, so for us one of those crazily early starts.  Upon arriving at Glenhope we introduced ourselves to Christian who had kindly met us on the freeway and guided us to the property to avoid us having to find the remote property in darkness.  Thanks Christian you’re a champ!  Upon arriving David (the owner) offered us coffee (glee to our ears) and then returned with coffee and jam on toast - we love you David!  Here’s some pic’s that confirm the early start was worth it. _

Thanks to Jane & Mat Martino for sharing their Easter Saturday and their gorgeous little boys with us and helping us create some lovely images that reflect the special touches they have made to their fabulous holiday rental ‘Comma Stables’ at Daylesford.  In addition to Matt’s abundant creative talents, he’s also a magnificent sandwich maker.  If the piccies below make you want to be there, you can book a stay at http://www.dayget.com.au -  just look for ‘Comma Stables’.

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Another assignment saw us out at Berwick.  Sometimes luck shifts in mysterious ways.  Upon our arrival in Berwick the weather was not being our friend.  We had decided with the client to cancel the shoot, but agreed to spend a bit of time checking out our options for a later shoot date.  During this time the clouds cleared and we couldn’t believe our luck.  This luck was short lived, just as we were about to do our shot a car crashed into a telegraph pole bringing it down and rendering the main st closed.  Traffic was abysmal.  We circumvented things a little and changed our perspective to get the shot and then realised that we could shoot in the middle of the road since it was closed off (see pic below).  What we hadn’t considered was that to the unsuspecting commuter stuck in a traffic jam it appeared as though the road was closed for us to take photographs.   A very frustrated lorry driver abandoned his vehicle amidst the jam to come and complain - funny!

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…. last but not least -  I was nominated in the Top Ten photographers  for Architectural Photography in  Capture magazines Australia’s Top Photographers competition.  To see some interesting work and talented photographers - see http://www.austtopphotographers.com.au/yaf-news/architecture

Each year photographers, creative directors and anyone with a vested interest in professional photography can nominate photographers for consideration for the awards.  After nominations close, the nominated photographers then vote for their peers. This is a fabulous opportunity for photographers to be acknowledged by their peers.  I encourage you to keep your eye out for 2011 and nominate those great photographers whom you admire.

It has been an absolute manic start to 2010 and a ridiculously long time since I attended to our blog.  So much has happened since our last post in November, so here’s hopefully a not too lengthy summary.

I was fortunate to be featured in Inside Magazines Issue 58 photographers profile.  Many thanks to the lovely Jan Henderson for a glowing review.

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• Another huge congrats to Hassell for taking out the IDEA Awards - Sustainable Project for Warry Street Studio in Brisbane.  It was great to shoot something fabulous on home turf.  Yes I have officially now acknowledged my Queensland roots.

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• We had the great pleasure of doing a wonderful project with the fantastic team at Grenade Design - http://www.grenade.com.au/- Here’s a few of the pic’s

• We have been absolutely crazily nuts shooting for the RAIA Awards entries.  A huge thanks must go to my assistant Kelly who has endured the nightmare of dusk after dawn after dusk … on and on for the past month.  I have wined before about summer and dusk but this was a particularly unrelenting year …. and it’s just begun. What we do celebrate today, apart from the fact that it is the awards entry deadline, is that dusk is getting earlier and earlier each week.  YEH!
• I promised myself that I would dedicate a blog to celebrate client relationships … and I will at some point cover this in more detail, but here I must make mention of some of the really rewarding client experiences from 2009 & the beginning of 2010:
  • Thanks to Lyons Architects who have entrusted, engaged, explained and let me grow as a photographer through their encouragement and support.  My work with you has been absolutely inspiring and enriching. It is refreshing to have these kind of committed relationships that evolve and produce, through collaboration, a fabulous visual record.
  • Thanks to Ryan Russell who keeps giving me amazing work to photograph.  Your work is AMAZING!
  • Thanks to Ben Buxton at Grenade for giving me the opportunity to shoot a wonderful and creative visual story.  It was a fabulous opportunity and a great experience…and it’s always fun working with your boys.
  • Thanks to Michael Yates for continuing to support me and let me be part of your exciting developments.  I feel like family!
  • Thanks to Cox Architects for all the Awards projects.  A special thanks to Rebecca Gaylor for producing the best photography briefs in the business and for just being so lovely to deal with.
  • Thanks to Rhiannon Slatter (another fabulous Architectural Photographer) who has become a wonderful friend and has been a great support in sharing thoughts, ideas and inspiration.  In what is generally a very disperate and coveted industry, it is great to have a collegue with whom to share knowledge.
• Last, but my no means least, we’ve finally launched our stock image website (www.snapestock.com.au) featuring work from Australia’s leading and emerging photographers.  We are excited by the interest and support of the photographers who have come on board and look forward to growing and evolving this site for the Australian creative market.  Happy 2010 here’s hoping good things for all!

I have sadly just bid farewell to Cuba and all the wonderful Artists and friends we met as part of our travels.  I am writing this post while sitting on the floor of Miami Airport with my laptop plugged into a column (this is cool!).  I am  contemplating the 35+ hours of transiting in order to make my way home (this is not cool!).  Whilst in Cuba, despite language barriers I  did  manage to translate my whinging to all and sundry as my return journey approached.  My Spanish was limited to say the least and their English minimal, yet in spite of this each and everyone I met could name my route home with a shake of the head and empathy for my journey….Havana.. Montego Bay… Miami… LA… Melbourne - very far.

As I sit propped against a column in Miami Airport wondering what frightful things the carpet I am sitting on has seen, I get to observe the angst as flights are continually delayed and overbooked.  The term ‘Stand-By’ seems like a hang over from 80’s airline travel to me, yet in the US it’s seems to be the main means by which the ticketing system operates.  Curiously, whether you have purchased a ticket or not, due to constant overbooking of flights you may very well find yourself on Stand-By.

My sister  Jennette (a Graphic Designer working in Amsterdam - www.dollyrogers.com) and I have just shared a wonderful 10 days together in Cuba. We had the good fortune to ingratiate ourselves into the life of some of Cuba’s emerging artists in Havana.  The people we met were inspiring, kind and extremely generous with their time and knowledge. Rolando Vazquez a teacher at the Havana Art School kindly invited us to visit the school. Jose Manuel one of Rolando’s students invited us into his home, guided us through the city and taught us to Salsa (well he tried!). Milton Diaz Perez a Cuban Architect now artist began our Havana journey and completed it.  To Rolando, Jose and Milton - Many thanks. Here are some images of the time we shared with the artists and their environments.                     

Travel is enlightenment when the mind, heart and soul connect with an unknown place and people.  It is a love story…

  
                             

John Gollings and I were invited to judge the 2009 Melbourne Open House photography competition.  We were very impressed with the response to the competition (in excess of 1500 entries) and the effort that many people took to explore these Melbourne treasures.  You can view winning entries at http://melbourneopenhouse.org/cms-focus-on-moh/photographer-competition-winners.phps 
  

Chadstone is all abuzz with the launch of 50 new stores.  We were commissioned to shoot the new Sportsgirl store featuring another amazing installation by Gloss Creative.  To see more fabulous work by Gloss Creative take a peek
at www.glosscreative.com.au 

    

I was excited to document the brainstorming workshop of a team bidding for the roll of creative director for the Australian Exhibition - 12th  Venice Architecture Biennale (2010).  The team comprises Cameron Bruhn (Editor of Landscape Architecture Australia), Bryon Cunningham (Director Cunningham Martyn Design), Cassandra Chilton (Hassell Architects), Callum Morton (Artist), Jen Wood, Emma Williamson (Architect CODA Perth) & Andy Sargent (SouthSouthWest).  We wish them well with their bid.

  



We were awarded Honorable Mentions in the International Photography Awards http://www.photoawards.com for the following entries:



 



We worked with Marcus O’Reilly to shoot his gorgeous organic table made from collected drift wood and featured in Fringe Furniture 2009 - see www.melbournefringe.com.au

 

It’s been a while between posts and am feeling a little catholic guilt for neglecting our blog.  Our biggest news is the purchase of our new Phase P45+, 39 Megapixel Digital Camera back and Cambo Camera.  I have sadly bid farewell to my faithful old Linhoff and embraced the new high end digital technology.  This is not our first foray into the high end digital arena, we previously purchased the Leaf Aptus 33 megapixel back which we have been very happy with.  Anyone whose privy to what is going on with Leaf at the moment will understand our reservation about committing to upgrades with this brand and hence the switch to Phase.  I feel a bit like the guy who bought a Ford Edsel! We have been holding off on our investment in a large format camera suitable for the high end digital back until the release of the 23mm Rodenstock lens.  This is an exquisite lens and makes the high end backs now much more appealing for architectural work.  These items are enormously expensive and are a testament to our commitment and investment in the production of the best quality work we can deliver for our clients. This by no means leaves our Canon 1DS Mark III redundant.  It really is about selecting the right equipment for the job. I look forward to sharing some of the pictures that we produce from our new technology.   We’ve been busy shooting some new interesting projects, here’s a glimpse of what we’ve been up to. Another beautiful fit out by Ryan Russell Architects:  We had fun with the Grenade team shooting their fabulously renovated studio in Prahan:  We have been working with the City of Melbourne to document the new Flagstaff Gardens Bowls Club - a true haven from the hustle and bustle of the city, nestled cosily amidst the gardens, you almost forget you are in an urban metropolis:On the studio front, we bid farewell to Markus who has been a fabulous contribution to our studio for the past 5 years. He has become a treasured friend and will be missed.   We wish him well in his new endeavours.  We welcome Kelly on board and we look forward to covering many great projects over the next 6 months.