33/52 AUTUMN

Went to Toowoomba last weekend, and there was a magnificent wall covered in vines. In Brisbane, Autumn means a chill in the air and dreary days, yet just a few hours away the leaves shed brilliant colours. I love it when Autumn looks like Autumn.

You can follow my 52 week project here or on my flickr.

Song of the day:

PRINT GIVEAWAY

So tonight I hit 500 likes on my Facebook page and am doing a print giveaway!
To say thank-you, I'll be giving away an 8"x 10" print (or square equivalent) of a photo of your choice to the winner, and 2 smaller prints to runners up. You must like my Facebook page and share this picture to win.

This feels like an appropriate time to say the biggest of thank-yous. When high school finished, my dad purchased me an ABN in hopes I would start my own business. I was sceptical but worked hard at improving my skills and doing as much as I possibly could. The last couple of years have been so busy and just as rewarding. I've had countless amazing opportunities, started a 52 week project, and met the most quality people. I sometimes literally sit down and smile, overwhelmed in the joy of chasing my dreams and actually achieving them. Flickr has played a massive part in this too. Thank you to the 500+ people that follow my work over there on a worldwide community. Your comments and favourites are a constant encouragement.

I've put my heart into my work. Photography is a very personal thing and that's why it matters that you've supported me. People have said a couple of times that my work makes them happy. I can't ask for more than that. Really, thank you.

Song of the day:

32/52 CLIPPINGS

Model is Adam Thomas from the Brisbane Photographer Meetup.

You can follow my 52 week project here or on my flickr.

Song of the day:

OVULE

Remember that day -
in the time in the afternoon where
the sun sets fire to the leaves
and sets aglow your hair -
You leant over the brick fence
and plucked the white rose?
Whilst I kept a lookout
so no one else could know.
Do you remember?
From Miss. Lainy's front yard?
We ran to the next street
and you pulled it apart.
You counted each petal
and placed them down
you spaced an even circle
and laid them on the ground.
You started with the leaves
towards the base of the rose
you said 'these are called the sepal,'
because you always seem to know.
Next were the petals,
pick, place, repeat.
You counted twenty-two
I counted twenty-three.
The filaments, the anthers,
they took place in your line
The stigmas and the styles,
part of your design.

You made a pattern
from the outside in.
You made beauty
from a broken thing.
You took the centre;
laid it down - the final part.
'And lastly the 'ovule''
paused,
then:
'that's the broken heart.'

I wrote the above poem inspired by Fong Qi Wei's 'Petal by Petal' project. Still feels weird posting poetry online but whatever trevor. I saw this image a little while ago and thought it was such a beautiful, neat and minimalistic image:

FLOATING RIPPLE VASES BY OODESIGN

Japan-based design company, oodesign has designed these floating ripple vases. The vases are made from PET resin, and sit on the top of the water to create an illusion of the flowers floating in their own ripple. Unfortunately they currently ship only in Japan, but I know I'll be ordering some of these as soon as possible!

Song of the day:

BRISBANE PHOTOGRAPHER MEET-UP

Saturday was our meet-up. I organised about 8 of us to take photos in the forest. We met at the entry to the forest, and walked a couple of kilometers together to Secret Forest. We lugged our gear there in the blazing hot sun, but it was worth it. It was great to get amongst nature and to see the different photographs people are producing from the day. Here are the final photos for the day. I'll post one more for my photo next week too!

Below is a before and after of the photo of Gen. I love it when photographers I like show this side of their photography, so thought I'd do the same. This was a quick edit, taking 15-20 minutes total. It involved:
- Adding extra butterflies
- A little cropping to centre her in the photograph
- Several adjustments including curves, levels, saturation, brightness and contrast
- Adding blue and pink filters on the left
- Adding colour definition into Gen's lips, cheeks and eyeliner
- Adding light and minor adjustments to her hair
- Sharpening and brightening the face
- Darkening the sky to get a little definition


You can check out some of the others work at these links - they're all talented people with different styles: Yaseera, Gen, Chris, Lesley and Adam.

Thanks so much for modelling and coming along everyone!

Song of the day:
While Gen and I were driving to the location, we were listening to a mix I made in 2010, which featured this song. As it's called Shutterbug, we thought it was appropriate for the day and pumped it!

APRIL 2013 MIXTAPE

Made a mixtape of my favourite tracks at the moment. Hit play above or listen here.

Paint - The Paper Kites (My favourite song by them. The story behind this track is beautiful.)

Retrograde - James Blake

Riptide - Vance Joy

Royals - Lorde (This lady is only 16!)

Life's for the living - Passenger

Otherside - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

The day you went away - The Rubens

Fred Astaire - San Cisco

Needle - Born Ruffians

& It was you - How to Dress Well
No Control - Holland