An internal quest.

After a day of shooting, it's time to edit and process. Yet every time I do this I discover a recurring problem, but the routine process begins anyway... Favourite iTunes playlist- check, blinds open- check, memory card- check, lightroom- check, okay lets do this. 


But now I find myself in this repeating pickle. Black and white or colour...??? I often spend hours processing my photos and I will always come back to them a few months later to do the same thing but just the opposite and I can never seem to beat this double sided beast inside of me. Black and White is a drug to me and Colour is reality, some times I know I have to come back to reality but black and white is to tempting, it's to sweet. And I know it comes down to what your subject is but I always seem to find my self in the black and white realm. So I have combined some images for comparison, trying to decide once and for all to be more 50/50 with my choices or is this my thing.. But when reality Michael left the room for a second the black and white junkie snuck in and I have some how tricked myself into uploading more black and whites..


Model- The beautiful Amber Kelly

Brisbane Floods 2011--

As the devastating event that has struck Northern Queensland for the past week and a half has set its claws onto Sth East Queensland, Brisbane has come into the firing line of a devastating flood. 

Living 25 mins south of Brisbane I have been surveying the area and watching it unfold. On the night on the 11th January I ventured into South Brisbane and watched the river become a massive torrent of powerful rapids. 

Myself and Alex Ormerod (Gold Coast photographer/ Army reservist) orgainised to get stuck in the next day and document this rare event. We started off in the CBD, helping sandbag restaurants and surveying how bad this could become in the next 24 hrs. We decided to head to Brisbane's inner suburbs and we found our selfs in the suburb of Milton. 

We drove and drove trying to find people to help. We came across a street with atleast 100 people in it evacuating. Strangers coming from all over to help people they've never met or seen before. Before we knew it we were chest deep in the murky brown stink water that was rising quickly.

We put our camera equipment down and helped evacuate houses and sandbag property's. Here is a view from in the water, amongst the people being affected.

Here is 29 Photos and also 29 reasons why YOU should donate your MONEY or TIME!!

Alex Ormerod's Blog

NOW THAT YOU'VE SEEN HOW PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED!!! DONATE MONEY OR YOUR TIME TO HELP THESE PEOPLE!!!


Donations- http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html
Your Time and efforts- http://www.emergencyvolunteering.com.au/

Light. The Reason Why--

Light is the reason we can see.. light is the reason photography exists.. light is the reason why everything on our planet is unique and special and at some point in time becomes amazing... to be there when these things we photograph become amazing is hard but here i will show you some light.

As I was exploring through a national park I looked up and saw these dead trees creating this grim finger looking structure.. I thought to myself thats cool.. I kept walking.. hours later this thin band of cloud came over and the light changed.. it was bizzare.. I came back to this spot and looked up again and went yep.. click. Unique light.

Driving around my area this bright orange light searing across the sky and I thought of this place in Mt Cotton that could be high enough to get some of this light action. From the brightest yellow to the warming orange to a cool blue.. Light doing its thing in a late afternoon. Again not an amazing photo but a unique light.

Man made light. With Brisbane's river fire doing it's thing, man made light made to entertain and awe. 

Exploring Brisbane and finding things fun to photograph can be hard. But on an adventure driving around Fortitude valley I took a wrong turn and kept driving.. looked down a driveway to find a small church in the middle of The Valley with virgin mary praying out the front.. ha.. cool.. as I approached the statue thinking how would I go about making this look unique.. again.. thin cloud cover helped the moons light create a halo look behind Mary.. any other night and the moon would be in a different position or the clouds would be thicker or not existent. Moon light helping create.

As I set about finding people to photograph for my assessment I was driving down Coronation drive looking around, I looked to the river and saw on the other side a small explosion of fire.. I kept watching.. rings of fire started spiralling in a formed way. Yesss a fire twirler! I had to back track 5kms to get to him. In a very dark park on the rivers edge he was practising. With no other light around it was a slow shutter but boom. a creation from the dark. With only his face and hands lit I don't think I could have asked for anything more to help me.

A sad situation--

I think it's bad that anyone is to be home-less, i could not even comprehend what it would be like. Not knowing where your next meal might come from, having people constantly ignore you as they walk past. People not wanting to even make eye contact with you in case you give them home-less-ness-ism. For this man I bought him dinner. All this human wanted was a tuna sub and a bottle of coke. Something alot of non-home-less people take for granted. He was more stoked that I just wanted to talk to him...

Good Genes--

A little something from a fun shoot with the two beautiful sisters Amber and Eden. Two very unique girls. I could go on all day about how awesome these girls are. But heres just a little teaser. 

People of the night--

For a class assessment we were to compile a group of images based on a specific subject - (Photo essay) I choose to adventure out and try and find people at night and what they were doing. I ran short of time and wished I had found more. But here's a clip of what i found. I will definitely be expanding on this.. stay tuned. 
Sorry if its abit small and when enlarged not good quality, this site compressed the clip to much.

New Zealand 2010--

 Some where over the pacific

 Nuhaka, Just one of many random general stores.

 My first snow experience

 Coromandel- Moonlight

 Gisborne- Howling offshores, now only if it was bigger!

 Puhoi- If i was to be a Librarian it would definitely be here

 My first attempt at HDR

The T-Rex of the Northland

A trip to the land of the Long White Cloud, it's been roughly 18 years since I had been there, so its hard to appreciate the place when your 5. This time I went with open eyes and with thousands of photo's taken here's a few that i've processed so far. A bit from column A and a bit from column B. The place is so diverse, it's hard to know if your coming or going. I gave it a shot and now I know what to expect next time..