Would you like to see more? I’ve been watching too many Paul Verhoeven films.

While sifting through my ever growing catalogue of images I came across these two portraits which I forgot to share with you lovely people. Will update a little later with some insight into a variety of my portraiture and retouching processes. Take care.

The Anderson siblings are a creative bunch, here’s a quick preview from my sisters fashion label launch on Thursday night. Check back later for a full update about the launch, the fashion and the photography.

Sometimes I wish I were a girl. Being able to enjoy the finer things in life like lamps and interior decorating, order fruity cocktails, and be able to enroll in the roller derby league. I attended my first bout last weekend at the Gold Coast Convention Center between the Sun State Roller Girls (SSRG) and the Victorian Roller Derby League (VRDL). While the match was close the VRDL streaked ahead after half time and crushed our team quite handily. Wow I’ve never referred to any sports team as “our” team before, and that is the draw of roller derby. Guys and girls, outcasts and miscreants, pasty sun hating nerds and geeks (myself included), even those who hate sport can find something to love about roller derby.

I was unable to get a spot close to the action, but figured I’d try take a few shots from the grandstand. I’ve never tried heavily cropping a shot from the 5dmk2 before, and the results were pleasantly suprising. With 21.1 megapixels to work with, you can crop the hell out of an image and still maintain detail. Here’s a comparison between the full image and the crop. Not bad huh? I’d still love a 70-200 though… *wavy screen and daydreaming music*

High quality edited shot, extreme crop. The detail from so far away, with such poor stadium lightning can still be recovered.

The original untouched image.

Every week I head out with my camera (my current girlfriend the 5dmark2, better known as Beatrix) and try to see what mischief I can get into. This week I ran into a street busker in Brisbane CBD, I’d met her a few times before and she always impressed me. Being a former member of The Red Paintings and an operatically trained singer and violinist, why someone who so much talent has to busk is a crime. But it does afford us certain opportunities, like teaching her how to play Still Alive (the Portal song) and then recording it for my gentle viewers.

I let her listen to the song on my iPhone and she learnt it on the spot. Musicians amaze me.

Always an entertaining night out in Brisbane Here’s to you, busker girl, I can never remember your name but you always remember mine.

Doing a little experiment with Tumblr integration, I swear I think I’m creating a virus with this blog. All content everywhere! For your troubles here is a picture of a pretty girl.

Beauty retouching can be perilous ground to tread, too much and your subject loses their human quality and takes up residence in the Barbie estate, too little and the image loses the “pop” which makes it stand out from the rest. Personally I am a champion of non destructive retouching, small blemishes should be removed, anything which causes distraction, but not at the expense of texture. Pores, faint hairs, scars…the traits which make us unique should remain intact.
 
Too often you will find magazines attack their models with the airbrush as an ogre with a club, completely destroying the details. Is this look desirable? Do we as consumers covet being absolutely picture perfect? I for one would rather a scar, after all, chicks dig them right?
 
Below is another image of the lovely Minda, who was kind enough to stand amidst my flashing lights for a few hours while I tested out some new gear. Very little retouching had to be done, just a few minor adjustments which make the image pop.
 

One of the biggest challenges being a live music photographer is dealing with poor lighting conditions in small venues. Usually this means neon flashing lights creating undesirable colour casts, making focusing nearly impossible and obscuring details. However, if you can get close, and with a wide enough aperture (2.8 in this case, although I have my eye on a 1.2) you can make the best of a challenging situation.

Quick preview of The Driving Conditions, more to come.

Our vibrant and amazing city was just given the Atlantis treatment over the last week. Clean up efforts are currently underway and the community is coming together like never before. While not affected directly, the waters did get close and swallowed up parts of Coorparoo near Norman Creek.
 
I will be offering a free service soon through Red Light Laundry, providing digital restoration to photographs damaged by the floods. If you would like to know more email me directly.
 
Brislantis Gallery ►

While the controversy surrounding Julian Assange and Wikileaks rages on, rallys are taking place around the globe in his support. Speakers included Libby Connors from the Queensland Greens, and Ian Russel former president of Amnesty International Queensland. Hearing their passion and conviction was really inspiring and definitely got everyones attention.
 
Wikileaks Gallery ►

December equals lots of crazy work parties going on in the valley and city. Stumbled across this feline heroine at RGs the other night. If a cat smokes and dies from lung cancer, does it use one of its free lives up or is self inflicted harm a deal breaker?

Todays world is shrouded in black voodoo magic, taking decades off lives, giving teenagers a chance to finally defeat acne, frizzy hair controlled without expensive salon treatments. Just a small sample of the retouching and restoration I’m working on. If you guys have any ideas of what would be fun/impressive to add to the site give me a shout.

Irish Murphys from the other night. I know a few of you emailed me about the pics, if you aren’t in one of the final cut gimme a shout and I’ll send one over.
 
Irish Murphys More ►

Been doing a few tests recently with automatic exposure bracketing (AEB) and various Photoshop plugins. The images are a bit hard to look at, crazy detail, no point of focus. I kinda dig it though, so I’ll keep refining the process and maybe find a happy medium.
 
Oh yeah, if I’ve shot you out and about recently, the Irish Murphy’s gallery is almost done. Been busy with a bunch of stuff now that I am back in Brisbane. Later today perhaps.

I’m suprised in all my years of shooting social and live music for clubs that I’ve never had my gear destroyed. I came close once when a guy behind me decided it’d be a great idea to drop his beer on my head, luckily it bounced off and ended up soaking the girl next to me. Small bump on the head was a small price to pay for not having my camera taking a swim.
 
Anyway continuing my portraiture series, we have a shot from Club 299, a goth/alternative club in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. Check out the guy accidently photobombing the shot from the side, brilliant. I’d love to start shooting some more social stuff now that I’m in Bedford, might have to get in contact with a few of the clubs.

If you live in Fortitude Valley (Brisbane), John the Baptist is a regular sight. Not the actual biblical figure mind you, but the man the locals have dubbed with that name. He wanders around in a urine stained robe, muttering about the end of days, quite the character as you can see. I like how he is facing ahead, but his eye is staring directly at me, wondering perhaps if I am stealing his soul or being another annoying local. This was outside The Globe Theatre before a metal gig, I’d never run into the guy before and thought he was just another metal head until I was told otherwise.

While I dig around for some photo of the day inspiration I’m going to upload some portraits I’ve taken over the last few months. As usual I was drinking at my local haunt, and bumped into this guy who told me a few stories about cancer and how you can’t trust doctors. Something about how it can be cured but the doctors are dragging their feet on the issue and you should just use mind over matter to get rid of it. Hilarity.
 
Anyway he had an interesting face. Don’t forget to add me to Facebook and Twitter, I need more love. MORE!