I'm doing another 365 Project. I've been away from photography for too long, working on some other things. I've missed my camera, I've missed Photoshop, I've missed the challenge of a daily photo. I've missed being able to call myself a photographer - I haven't felt like one for many months now. I've missed having a purpose; waking up each day and working on my craft. But I'm nervous about starting another 365. No, nervous isn't the right word. I'm terrified. Terrified of committing myself to another 365 days of pressure, stress, hell. Terrified of having to come up with another 365 ideas....


Continue Reading »

People search for weird things on the internet. I dug through my server logs to find some weird ways people have found me. "i like playing with myself" Get your mind out of the gutter. Here's the photo they clicked on. "what does handy andy do to your hair" This. Or this. Or in some cases, this. "can I drink handy andy while i'm pregnant" No. "andy has small fruit" Ahem. My fruit is quite large, thanks. "can a drop of handy andy makes you sleep" I'm aware Handy Andy is a brand of cleaning product. It scares me that people think it's a viable sleep-enhancer. Jesus.


Continue Reading »

A few months ago I completed a 365 Project, taking one photo every day for a year. It was a stressful, fun, crazy, time-consuming, fulfilling, hair-pulling, eye-opening, frustrating and joyful experience. And at the end of it, I was left with a super-beefy portfolio with tonnes of images I'm proud of. But more important than that beefed-up portfolio is what I learned along the way. Discipline Working on something every single day teaches you how to build habits - and how to never break them. You learn to keep the promises you've made to yourself no matter what. You learn that mood/emotions...


Continue Reading »

As I write this article, I have 5 half-finished articles sitting in my drafts folder. I have 244 ideas for photographs sitting in an Evernote notebook. 28 ideas for new blog posts. 23 half-finished photos on my hard drive. I'm fantastic at starting things. Not so great at finishing them. Part of it is being inspired by an idea and then the inspiration dying out a little as something new and oh so shiny pops into my head. But the bigger part is I'm so focused on perfection that I never get anything done. I spend too much time theorising, analysing, thinking... but not enough time doing. It...


Continue Reading »

I've always loved trying new things, enjoying new experiences, exploring new places. One of my favourite hobbies is going to places I've never been and seeing what's there. Sometimes I go to new parks. Sometimes new art galleries. Sometimes new towns. Sometimes I'll jump on a random train and see where it takes me. Sometimes I pull out a map and look for suburbs or streets with funny-sounding names and visit them. I do this almost every weekend, and I can't think of a single time I haven't had a blast. We humans have a wonderful ability to form habits and do things on autopilot. We tie our shoelaces...


Continue Reading »

You know, growing up I had this strange idea that people were born into things and their environment and personal development wouldn't have much of an impact on who they were or what talents they would possess. I was convinced you could only be intelligent, or creative, but not both. You could be a musician, but then you'd be terrible at maths. If you were athletic, you would be a failure in the classroom. If you were a nerd, you'd have no social skills. My thinking was very black and white. Perhaps it was a product of the niches formed in the average schoolyard. People clump together into groups....


Continue Reading »

Here's a behind the scenes for a recent photo I did, "Coming Undone". I started off by taking a handful of photos of my subject with her hands in different positions, covering different parts of her face. I almost always shoot with my camera on a tripod. This means all the images will line up almost perfectly when I pull them into Photoshop, saving me a lot of time later. The shot with the eyes covered looked the best, so I used that as well as a shot of her uncovered face: Pulling those two images into Photoshop, I made sure they lined up perfectly. Using a layer mask, I "erased"...


Continue Reading »

Final image:


Continue Reading »

Originally posted on F Stop Lounge ----- Need some creative ideas to inject a little spice into your photography? Here's 20 great ideas to get you started. 1. Play with bubbles (I use this cheap bubble machine and Bubble Mania liquid) 2. Shoot complete strangers; embark on your own 100 Strangers project 3. Stick coloured gels over your flashes to add vivid colour to your images 4. Do the exact opposite of what you normally do (landscape photographers: try portraits. Portrait shooters: get up at dawn and shoot nature) 5. Do something a little insane and take a photo to document...


Continue Reading »

Originally posted on F Stop Lounge. ----- Feel like being inspired and having your creative taste buds tingled? Here's 3 fantastic photographers/photomanipulators worthy of your love: Aaron is an absolute God when it comes to Photoshop. His images are crazy, elaborate, often hilarious, incredibly detailed and very surreal. He's a master at creating images that look real, yet clearly can't be. His awesome technical-skills are matched only by his wild creativity and goofy sense of humour. My reasons for including him here are also personal: Aaron's awesome tutorials over at Phlearn.com...


Continue Reading »