[photoblog]

A couple of weekends ago I dug up my Lomo LCA+ which I hadn’t used in ages and brought it with me on my various travels around the Paddington and Newtown areas. It’s the first time I’ve ever tried cross-processing 35mm slide film, so I was intrigued by the results – the look is so distinctive for this type of photography though, I think it’s definitely a challenge to try and come up with different, interesting-looking stuff.

Next sunday the 25th of May, the Museum of Contemporary Art in collaboration with the Sydney Writers’ Festival and the Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics (UNSW) will be hosting a Zine Fair. There’ll be artist talks, panel discussions & live music as well as 50 stalls full of zines. Lee Tran and I will be down there, flogging our zine Settling Scores On A See-Saw, a compilation of stories & photos from the blog. See you there.

1. Paddington Markets.

2. Vargabar, Newtown.

3. Good company.

Back in March, Dael, Chelle and I went to Centennial Park to shoot stills for a motion-graphics project we were working on for the Salvation Army.

PNAU hadn’t really been on my radar for ages and I hadn’t heard the new album – but this show completely blew me away. Not only were the tunes great, but the show itself with crazy dancers in enormous suits, huge numbers of balloons bouncing all over the place and a very happy, enthusiastic crowd made it a great experience. Also, uncharacteristically, I was allowed to shoot the entire show which is something I’ve never had the luxury of doing at the Enmore Theatre.

In October last year, I took photos on the set of the music video for the Muscles track ‘Ice Cream’. It was a one-day shoot set inside a disused ward of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, featuring crazy costumes and large hospital props. Unfortunately, despite being completed, the video ultimately ended up getting scrapped by Modular for undisclosed reasons and will not be released.

In November last year, I took some promotional photos for the team putting on the play Tiger Country, which played at the Stables Theatre in Kings Cross from the 29th of November until the 22nd of December. These were from one of the final dress rehearsals.

Back in September of last year, a few friends (Ro, Kat, Pez, Rosh) and I entered the photographic competition Snap-Shot-City. We were competing against other teams, walking the streets of Sydney’s CBD for an afternoon using interpretive categories as stimulus for street snaps. We ending up not doing that well with the competition itself, but it was a really fun afternoon. These are a few of the photos I took over the course of the day.

I love big cities, and I’m a huge fan of night-time cityscapes.

(warning: adult content)

In early December of last year, I shot an advertising meet ‘n greet event for Australian Penthouse magazine, featuring an appearance by the winner of their annual Pet of the Year competition at Minx. It was a unique experience for me in many ways, not to mention my first time shooting for a commercial publication. I saw the shoot as a challenge, to try and avoid the obvious type of photos that would most likely come out of the situation by using off-camera flash lighting & a slow shutter speed to make the images a bit more surreal. AP ended up publishing the second last image in the March 2008 issue with an article about Dutch efforts to rid their streets of pimps who blackmail the sex workers in the red light district.

For the last year or so, I’ve been snapping food in restaurants all around Sydney, mostly to support Lee Tran’s quest to share her love of fine dining with the world – I’ve held up proceedings, and annoyed my friends and restaurant staff alike by trying to take an appetising shot of whatever’s put in front of me. These are a few of the more memorable meals.

My good friends Skullsquadron (Dave, Anthony & Paul) are back in the studio, finishing up recording their first album. It’s due for release sometime in the second half of 2008.

I shot the Foo Fighters show at Acer Arena on friday night, but due to the strict contract I had to sign in order to shoot, all I can show is this view from the pit. It was the largest-capacity show I’ve ever taken photographs at – Acer Arena can hold approximately 20,000 people, and it looked like most of those seats were filled.

The camera is sitting in the middle of the runway that stretched out from the middle of the stage, which Dave Grohl spent the better part of the first three songs sprinting up and down. Both the sound and atmosphere were pretty incredible, I really wished I could have stayed for the entire show.

Photos will be in BRAG next week.

I’ve recently started taking photos for Popcorn Taxi at their regular film events, and last monday I went along to see new Australian film Cactus, featuring a post-film Q&A with veteran actor Bryan Brown and director Jasmine Yuen-Carrucan. Yuen-Carrucan is also a film-industry veteran, having worked in the camera department on many high-profile films including Kill Bill & Syriana, and this is her directorial debut. Bryan Brown played a small role in the film, and served as producer, helping to secure finance.