Random BW Photos

Photography 2: My Photos

Just throwing up a selection of my photos from my Photography 2 class from way back. Thanks to Paul for helping me get these scanned up. These are straight scans of my printed photos.

My Photo Philosophy - Photography 2 Poject

This is what I submitted for my Photography 2 class. It was pretty much an honest piece on how I got into photography, my highs and lows and just my honest opinion on some photographers. I hope you guys take some time to have a read of it because I really enjoyed writing it, all the way to 3am as usual but it's one of the more enjoyable essays I've written for uni.

Growing up, I wasn’t fond of photographs and always thought taking photographs were a burden. Like any other kid, all I wanted to do was run around and play, but my parents were always making me pose with them for photos and taking away my play time. It didn’t get better at birthday parties or family gatherings as I was always forced to awkwardly take photos with relatives instead of playing with my cousins. At that age, I thought taking photographs were just a “thing” to do at parties and events. It wasn’t until I got older that I started to understand the importance of taking photos, the ability to capture a point in time and treasure it forever, but I still wasn’t fond of taking them, it was just such a chore.

When I finished high school my Dad brought home a Digital SLR and I thought nothing much of it until I decided to take it with me to a car show to get some photos of the cars. At that show I bumped into an old friend from school who also had a DSLR and we went around taking photos of cars together as he was showing me how to use my Dad’s DSLR. It was at that show that I learnt about shutter speeds and how I was able to capture a photo of a car in very low-light conditions just by slowing down the shutter speed. I also learnt another lesson that was just as important, I needed a tripod because my hands weren’t as steady as I thought they were with a lot of my shots being blurry that night.

Countless nights were then spent on the internet learning about aperture, shutter speeds, ISO and all of the different modes available on a DSLR. I would bring my Dad’s DSLR with me to every car show I went to and I made sure I got my hands on a tripod as well. My photos were then shared on car forums online and I would be getting feedback and I would keep trying to improve my photos at the next event. These events included track days, where cars would be racing around a racetrack and here I learnt how slow shutter speeds allowed me to show movement in my photos and how difficult it actually is to do panning shots.

On these car forums there were a mix of amateur, emerging and professional photographers and I looked up to all of them for inspiration, as their photos were of quality I would only see in high-end car magazines and I wanted to take photos just like theirs. I thought that if they could do it, so could I. From there I realized I was able to take decent photos of cars, whether they were static or racing around a racetrack and members of car forums started to notice my improvements as well.

Not long after a friend, who writes for an international car website, approached myself and asked if I wanted to provide media coverage of a popular race event for them and I was ecstatic as this opportunity. I was provided with a media pass that allowed me to have access to the media room and parts of the track that normal spectators aren’t allowed on. It was also the first time that I realized that it wasn’t all fun and games being a photographer, there was much more to it. Running from one end of the track to the other trying to get the right shot, frantically uploading all the shots in the media room, staying back late after the event finished and processing the photos so they can be uploaded immediately. Over the three days, I learnt that it was quite a tough job but I loved every moment of it, sitting in the media room with international automotive journalists and photographers, guys whose work I would only read about and see online or in car magazines. That is something I’d never forget. It was a great experience and it opened my eyes to what it actually takes to do their job – a lot of hard work.

It was at the same event that I made one of my biggest mistakes. As the three day even wrapped up I was packing away my camera gear as well as a couple of lenses I borrowed from a friend. Switching lenses between bodies and so forth, I put my friend’s lens, which is quite expensive, on my camera body and threw it over my shoulder and started walking out of the media room. As I stepped outside the lens fell from the camera and hit the hard concrete ground. I had forgotten to lock the lens in place. I frantically picked up the lens and tried putting it on to make sure it was still ok, hoping that it wasn’t damaged. Unfortunately the mounting ring was bent and I could hear broken glass inside the lens. It was a horrible end to what would have been a perfect weekend for me. Looking back it was still a good weekend overall as I managed to take away so much even if it did cost me a fair amount of money to replace my friend’s lens.

By this time, I thought I was quite competent with a camera but only if I were to photograph a car. I was clueless when it came to portrait or landscape shots. It was then I decided to take up Photography 1 so my eyes could be opened a bit more to world of photography, especially since the luxuries of digital technologies were taken away from me and I was forced to use black and white film and a camera in manual mode. Photography 1 put me back on square one and whatever advantages I thought I had were gone the moment class started and it felt nice to see things with a fresh eye as I went about completing that course.

Now moving onto Photography 2, it has opened my eyes even more as I’m taken back to a time of intellectual romance between the creative minds of photographers, writers and other artists of their time. The stories told in class of how one photographer used to spend a lot of time with other influential figures of their time just baffles me. I’ve never thought that all these creative minds would have crossed paths at one time or another let alone spend quite a bit of time with each other. I find that very intriguing and it fuels my curiosity into finding out more about these photographers and how they’re all connected.

Sally Mann produced a photo that I had embarrassingly thought was by Robert Frank, thanks to the mighty power of the internet. This photo was of a young girl holding a cigarette and just staring straight into the camera like she didn’t even care the photo was being taken. I was later informed that the photo belongs to Sally Mann and I did a bit of research on her. Although that portrait caught my attention, it was her landscape photos that tugged at my emotions. The eerie feeling in all of her landscape photos didn’t help me sleep at night at all, they were just so powerful even though it was usually just a pond, or some trees in the frame. There’s just this distinct feeling that I was right in the middle of a horror movie and something bad was about to happen. I can honestly say that I haven’t experienced those emotions with any other photographer’s work I’ve seen so far.

Naturally the next photographer I looked into was Robert Frank. Although there isn’t one photo that grabs my attention like Sally Mann’s one, his photos as a series were quite interesting, especially the ones from his book, The Americans. It’s astounding that he was able to paint a picture of America at the time through his photographs. It was so diverse and unique, from young children to grandparents, Caucasians and African Americans and everything in between at the time. It’s as though everyone he photographed had a different story to tell, they all had their ups and downs and this is where they currently are in their point of life, going about their daily business. His photos have a very natural feel to them, when looking at his photos I feel as though I’m transported right back in time and I’m just an observer. It was like he wasn’t even there taking the photos and people were just doing what they’d do any other day of the week. I feel it’s like he’s observing them from afar, like when we go to see animals in their natural habitats from a distance to make sure we have no affect on their behavior. It’s very honest what we’re seeing in his photographs.

The other photographer I studied was Edward Weston, firstly due to his connection with so many other creative minds as briefly mentioned earlier. What I really like about his photos is how he’s able to show the similarities between the human body and pieces of vegetables. Usually I just eat my vegetables and don’t give them a second thought but his photographs have actually got me thinking about how we’re just as natural as a piece of vegetable, at the end of the day we belong to nature as much as a piece of vegetable. I’m not sure if he had made that connection before the photo was taken or not but it’s very intriguing that the connection was made. But like I said, the main thing that attracted me to Edward Weston was his connection with other great minds of his time who have become very influential and successful people in their respective fields. It makes me wonder about the conversations between them. What did they talk about? What were their interests? Who did they look to for inspiration? How did they all become so influential and successful?

As this is my final year at university, I’m a bit disappointed to not be able to continue photography and take on Photography 3 but I’m very glad I took on Photography 2 as an elective. It’s been one of the most thought provoking subjects I’ve taken and it’s a much lighter on my head than my science subjects. It’s good to exercise the other half of my brain. Not only have I learnt about the pioneers of photography but also their stories and how they came to be who they are and usually the journey is more important than the destination. From here I would love to continue taking photographs, I want to try my hand at street photography as I’ve quite enjoyed just going for walks with my camera in hand. The allure of black and white film is quite enjoyable also, it takes things back to basics and I really enjoy that. No fancy new technology, just myself, my camera and the undiscovered streets I’m yet to walk.

Before & After

Last First-Day

Today was my last first-day of uni. No more checking out first-years, no more struggling to get past the busy co-op bookshop, no more queuing up for my concession sticker and no more summer holidays. Shit gets real after this year, I’m finally going to graduate. Am I excited? A bit. I’ve been here too long, I’ve already had way too many first-days, more than I ever planned on having. So it’ll be good to get out of here and see what’s out there.

But my last first-day didn’t turn out any more spectacular than any other ordinary day.

I woke up, freshened up, threw on some clothes and the next thing I know I was at uni making my way to my first lecture. Managed to get lost too. How awesome is that?

Ended up in the right room and the first lecture slide pops up and it reads “Welcome to university”. Great, it’s a first-year subject – yes I chose this as my easy elective – so the room was full with keen first-year students. They’re all there, the hipsters, the wannabe hipsters, the nerdy ones, the over dressed, the under dressed. You name it and they’re there. Then there’s me.

I pull out my book hoping to get into the swing of things and make sure that today would be my last first-day and that I wouldn’t be here again next year. One hour passes and I’ve written nothing. Ok I lied, I wrote down the date and the lecturers name. But that was it. The whole time the lecturer was being an egotistical dick out the front trying to break the ice for all those first-year students. What a waste of time.

The lecture ended and I got out of there, grabbed some food and went to my second lecture. Checked my timetable and it was the same subject, again.

Great, more shit talking from my so-called lecturer. My thoughts wander off, I’m in my own little world. I was thinking about all sorts of things, things that didn’t really make sense now that I think about it. Suddenly the room bursts into laughter and I kick a little in my seat. Shit! I fell asleep. The lecture was done and the lecturer must have squeezed in one final joke before the class ended. What a great start to the semester and an awesome way to end my last first-day at uni.

Time In Transit

Life has been pretty busy for me lately and it seems as though I've complained about it a lot but over the last few weeks it truly has been crazy busy.

Mainly uni has taken up a lot of my time since I think I'm actually putting some time and effort into it now (it's taken me 5 years to do so). I enrolled into photography 1 and even though it's an elective it's actually quite a bit time consuming as well as money consuming. I've got mid-semester exams coming up too so there goes my free time.

Since becoming the club captain for UTS Kendo Club I've stepped up and I've been taking role more serious to set an example for the new members of the club so 3 times a week I'll be training kendo at UTS. This also has to do with uni games coming up in a couple of weeks and I'm going for that gold medal again.

Last weekend my friend Hazuki, who I met while I was in Japan last year came to visit. She's currently doing a summer program at Griffith University in Queensland but she managed to take some time off to come visit Sydney for the weekend. So I took her out to explore Sydney, I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

So what I'm getting at is that I don't have much free time anymore. The only time I usually get 'me' time is probably on the train, where I'm usually reading a magazine or just listening to my iPod or even napping. It takes just under an hour each way so I usually just sit and enjoy the train ride as I reflect and just chill.

Tonight is different though, I've been inspired by the discovery of some great blogs out there especially after reading the post on Zen Garage by Herman Phung which lead me onto his tumblr and personal blog. I've heard of him through the old Autosalon crew but only met him briefly at WTAC not long ago. But from reading his post and blog it made me want to write and write something as amazing as he did. They say practice makes perfect so here I am, trying to get back into the swing of things and into the rhythm of posting on a regular basis again, during my time in transit.

Excuses

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last two months, at first I was busy with end of semester exams and after that I've been too busy enjoying my holidays. I haven't had much time in front of my laptop, or even at home. Weekends I'm usually out drinking as I did last weekend for my good friends, Stephen and Lisa's birthday party which was great even though my memory is a bit hazy of what went on that night. All I know is that we all had a blast catching up since I hadn't seen them since my going away party before leaving for Japan. I'll try and get more posts happening but I'm not promising anything as I've been getting stuck into F1 2010 and it's very addicting.

Procrastination Post #150

What better time to write a blog post than when I'm supposed to get started on my report.

Well it's been a while hasn't it? (it feels like I've written that line quite a few times on this blog). But it has been a while, the last time I blogged it didn't really work for me, it felt awkward and unnatural at times but this time around I think I'm starting to find the groove again and I think I know why. It's thanks to the two week mid semester break that just finished, during which I got to relax from uni work and also get away from it all and it was a well deserved break considering I got thrown straight back into things after coming back from Japan.

Home (Bitter)Sweet Home

So it's been a while hasn't it? There are no excuses, I just haven't been motivated to update it. I'm still settling in at home, catching up with friends, spending a lot of time in my garage and trying to keep up with uni work so my mind has been in a jumble lately.

Busy Busy

Just a quick update on what's been happening since I haven't been blogging. In exactly four weeks I'll be sitting on a plane on my way back home to Australia (it's been so quick), so I've been busy trying to make the most of my time here in Japan. I have a lot of things to blog about but I've just been too busy spending time away from my computer and spending time with friends for the last few weeks.

I've managed to hit up a pretty big snow trip with quite a few friends last weekend, managed to make it to Tokyo Auto Salon the day after the trip and I've just been hanging with all the cool people here in Japan, both international students and Japanese. So I really haven't had the chance to sit in front of my computer to create a decent post.

I have a couple of photos from the ski trip which I'll share later on as well as a whole bunch of photos from Tokyo Auto Salon which was amazing. I have a whole heap of other things which I have to share with you all but for now I think most of my time will be taken up by me organising to get things sent home and randomly updating my tumblr which seems a bit more simple to update than the long blog posts here.

I also have a lot of things to do before I leave, including 2 reports due by the end of this month, a night out in Nagoya, a trip to Takayama, another ski trip and then a couple of farewell parties. So I'm definitely going to be busy before I leave. But I don't mind because looking back on my time here in Japan I can happily say that I've made the most of my time here in Japan which I'll write about soon.

Donate to the flood relief appeal

Source

This goes out to everyone that reads this, if you may not know Queensland is currently suffering from some really bad flooding and I've seen and read some really terrible stories in the news.

It's in these times of need that we need to stick together and dig deep for those in need, so I encourage you all to donate as much as you can so that we can help those who have been victims of the floods.

http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

My girlfriend and I have already donated and I hope you all can as well.

My thoughts go out to all those who are affected by the floods.

Welcome to 20 Eleven

Welcome to the New Year everyone, I hope you all had fun New Year celebrations because I know I did. No new photos from me today but let's take a look back at the memorable moments in 2010 and hope that 2011 would be an even better year.

Let's see, in 2010 I noticed that I picked up a lot of new interests some I'm still into today and some I have lost interest in. Here are just the things I got into throughout 2010.

Happy New Years!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and I hope you all party hard into 2011. 2010 has been a year to remember but bring on 2011! I'll probably be out of action for a few days after tonight but I'll be back after with hopefully some cool updates for 2011.

Have a safe and Happy New Years.

Much love,
Steven

A different approach to the road saftey message.

A great video I just watched in regards to hooning and the whole illegal street racing scene. I think it's a great idea and is more effective than our stupid NSW RTA's "pinky" ad.

Source here.

New Headphones

So for some reason my 2nd of pair of Skull Candy headphones have decided to stop working properly and thanks to my friend Khoa he has hooked me up with these new Sony ones.

$2

There's been a lot of times where I feel like this $2 coin.

Much Love

What more can I say...

New profile photo

Check out my new profile photo which replaced the photo of my car on my About page.

Miniature Dachs

This guy here is a Miniature Dachs or more commonly known as a sausage dog. They're all over here in Japan and they're pretty expensive too. I spotted this guy at Gidaisai last weekend and had to snap up this photo, he's so cute!

Happy Halloween!

After a big night out to celebrate my birthday with some friends in Nagoya, it happened to be a big Halloween event on as well, this is what I woke up to.