Portrait Processing

I've just been exploring the new tools that the latest version of Picasa 3.9 has made available - and also the Portrait Professional Studio Suite... Some nice effects while revisiting some of my images from a portrait session in the studio of multi-media artists Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman.

Back to the Future: Upgrading my eBrain

This week I got a new eBrain (computer), thus boot-strapping myself in to the 2nd decade of the 21st Century. It's been a steep learning curve - the virtual 'G-force' has had me pressed back against my office-chair on more than one occasion as I try to get my head around mulitple upgrades of software platforms and operating systems. But these technological advances really are powerful, and allows for a lot of creativity and playfulness. More memory (16 gig of ram) lets me move smoothly between Adobe CS5, Lightroom 3.4, Picasa 3.9 and Portrait Professional, each of which have unique 'flavours' and capabilities. Here's a revisit of an image from 2009, using all three programs to create a 'painterly' effect.

Innocent Eyes

Future Jazz Genius - Mark My Words!

Stop and Smell the Roses... Family Xmas Photoshoot.

Boudhanath Stupa, Kathmandu

Durbar Square, Kathmandu

Solstice Siren Song

Up before dawn on the Sunday before Winter Solstice to meet for a 6.00 AM call, I made this image with my new Olympus XZ-1 while assisting on a photoshoot with my friend Richard Alma. It was a stunning morning, with the eastern winter sun rising over the seaside cliffs at Clovelly in the photographer's Golden Hour of divine light in which these mermaid/sirens could bask.

Australia Day 2011

An early swim at Clovelly Beach and then off to Lakemba to eat Lebanese food with Vietnamese friends - what better way to spend Australia day?

Portrait Practice

Jeremy and Fon came over today and we had a mini-masterclass, swapping ideas, cameras, lights and lenses, practicing our portrait skills.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Mother / Daughter

Kundalini Yoga

Lots of fun was had by all during this warm-hearted photoshoot for two Kundalini Yoga Teachers. The studio is a lovely, bright, open space, with abundant natural light coming from a huge glass-wall on one side and the other white walls and sloping ceiling being perfect for bouncing the two SB900 flashes to give a clean, even light.

Critical Path

My friend Richard James Allen invited me to document a dance performance he had choreographed and was performing in as part of a month-long residency at Critical Path, a dance research studio in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. The residency involved a collaboration amongst a group of choreographers and dancers with some German esoteric lighting and sound installation artists. The dance space of the performance was set with a series of fluorescent tubes suspended from the ceiling in a 6 x 6 grid. The whole lot was then rigged up to infra-red sensors that fed into a synthesiser and computer system so that sounds and light were triggered by people moving closer and further from the tubes. Both the audience and the performers were able to trigger the effects, and the audience was encouraged to move around the space while the dancers were performing, to increase the serendipity of the effects.