One Photographer's Art is Another's Cliché

May 21, 2020

A unique piece of photographic art or the popular choice: what do you prefer?We all want our photographs to be appreciated, loved, even just ‘liked’ - so we need them to stand out, be noticed, be different. We all have a choice - whether it’s about what art we put up on our walls, or what photographs we take. Do we go for something popular, the safe choice? Or find something unique, something a bit different - and run the risk of someone criticising our choice?One ...

Read More

Art Photography may be the only way to preserve delicate artworks!

Mar 19, 2020

I find myself lucky to be up close and personal with amazing paintings, drawings and other flat artworks created by truly talented people - and there are so many around the Geelong region.  But art also includes three-dimensional works - sculptures, textiles, etc.  This week I had the pleasure of photographing ikebana pieces in my studio.  Ikebana is the Japanese art of floral arrangement. This work is by Christopher James, a master Ikebana practitioner of the Sogetsu school ...

Read More

Is That Really a Photograph?

Mar 05, 2020

"Is that a photograph?...Nah, can't be... Wait..What is it?"I love to hear questions like that when people see my wall art photographs.  It means I've achieved my aim of creating something that makes people stop, look and engage with the work. In this era of quick flicking through social media images, it takes something different to cause someone to stop and actively engage with the art. And if people engage and like what they see, well, they may buy it or ask me to teach them how to ...

Read More

Is there a best shape for photographs?

Feb 20, 2020

All our modern digital cameras have a pre-set format, i.e.. shape, for the photos they take: usually either 3:2 or 4:3 ratio.  For the non-mathematical, that can mean something like 4800 x 3600 pixels, or 6000 x 4000 pixels, or something else, depending on your camera’s sensor.  What’s interesting is that even though there are often alternatives in the camera menus (like 16:9, 1:1, 4:5, etc)  the default shape becomes built in to our thinking when we take photos.One ...

Read More

Photo Inspiration: Great Ocean Evening

Feb 05, 2020

One of the joys of photographing in low light is that you never quite know what you will end up with when you press the shutter. A long exposure will allow the camera to capture colour and movement in a way that the human eye just can't see. I took plenty of shots at that location but I chose this one because I particularly liked how the long exposure showed the shape of the waves breaking around the cliff and along the shore, the gorgeous light across the water and the deepening sky just ...

Read More