I type this as I finish the first day of manning the gallery this weekend. In front of me are walls full of art and inspiration. Four different unique approaches, views and finishes. Four different people who draw on life experiences, passions and love of sharing enable me to experience something that has changed my photographic vision looking forward.

I find it hard to put into words the emotions, anxiety, stress and almost naked feeling taking part in an exhibition puts you in. The fear that everybody/nobody will like your work.. the whispers.. the looks.. and the potential for nobody turning up is enough to make your stomach turn.

But the moment your friends and family start turning up on opening night.. seeing your work framed and up in the spot light on the bright white walls.. those fears turn into excitement and a craving for nice white wine.

The opening night was a blast.. with so many friendly faces and friends that I have accumulated from so many different walks of life. I admit I put myself out there, and in the process meet so many awesome people and you all mean a lot to me, and contribute a lot to helping me develop not only as a person, but as a photographer.

So it is here I sit about to close up for the day.. saying farewell to the last people to walk through and I have a massive smile on my face.

It is with much excitement that I post about an upcoming opportunity for me.. my first exhibit! Ill be displaying my film work with 3 other great film photographers in a show in Sydney at the Salerno Gallery in Glebe. I have known the owner of the gallery (Arran) for a little over a year now, originally meeting through a good mutual friend George. We had discussed at a fleeting moment the opportunity of doing a show sometime.. probably focused on something like street photography. As it happens with another artists pulling out for this early Feb slot.. I had the opportunity to get into the gallery with a few other great togs and get the ball rolling on a show about film.

I love shooting film, it isnt hard to see that a lot of my recent work are uploads from scans of me shooting film. The whole image printed brings the process full circle, for this show unfortunately I didnt print right off the negative (I scanned the negative and printed) but the representation of an image on paper… something you can hold.. something you can see the imperfections.. colours and framing apart from on a monitor or a small negative is definitely something special.

So.. details? Yes details.. there is an opening night as well as about 3 weeks of show time.

Salerno Gallery

70 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, Sydney

Opening Night: Tuesday the 24th of January.. 6:30pm – 8:30pm

Show Running Time: 24th of January – 11th of February

Website: http://www.salernogallery.com/exhibitions/on-film/

If you need any more information feel free to contact the gallery or email me on info@outsideinpixels.com

Till next time..

With the massive year that was 2011… you have probably seen me struggle to keep this blog rolling on with consistent updates! Taking a little too much on board is probably an understatement, but rewarding nonetheless. I am still very much obsessed with my passion for landscapes/seascapes.. but in the latter half of this year it has really taken second place to me expanding my portfolio and interests into people and naturally.. weddings. I have touched from time to time through my posts (and well I am guessing the few that will read this also follow other social media) that I am doing a lot of wedding work for Daniel K Cheung.

For me.. personally it is amazing that someone has seen the ability and given me the opportunity to try something, which I now love. I remember saying upfront that I did not like weddings! But it only took one to sway me the other way.. but for that chance and now.. after having assisted/second shot at 14 weddings for 2011 I am really struggling to show the gratitude I have towards Daniel for the chance. Not to mention that September/October saw myself solo shoot a wedding and primary shoot another!

SO how does that effect this blog? Well I guess in many ways it effects it a lot… I can no longer really say that the name of this site is in sync with what I actually shoot.. and that Ill be moving towards a domain name under my own name http://www.jackchauvel.com. My blog will be migrating over and will represent many things but also focus on wedding work and what is up and coming for me. It really comes off as a branding decision, and a logical business decision to make the move.

I have been a little disappointed with my seemingly inability to blog consistently for Outside in Pixels throughout 2011. There have been periods where I have been able to devote a lot of time, and get the words in posts.. and share every couple of days consistently.. and then.. I simply haven’t. There are a couple of reasons for this.. one is time.. one is my own approach to work. I like to talk.. there is no doubt about it.. seldom will you find me being short of words or not chattering away, but I like to talk. This translates to my blogs (and this mini essay you are reading now). The problem with this is that I might have a set of photos, but I dont have time to share words with them.. and that is my own hangup Ill need to work on.

Whilst I love the name Outside in Pixels.. it doesnt really reference my love for film that has developed into something much more than just a ‘fling’.  I have been exposed to printed art this year, and it truly opened up new doors in terms of ‘meaning’ to photos I have taken. To have something printed that you can look at up close, or touch with your own hands.. is pretty damn special. I feel this can be lost a lot with people.. I hope I can present many albums of my work that I have shot.. as well as printed works that get framed and grace the walls of others.

My plan is to re-work Outside in Pixels into more of a ‘portfolio’ and offer prints for sale (framed by me). This is something that will take a backseat and be more of a work in progress over time. I think sites like Red Bubble that gives many the opportunity to simply print straight from your account as a great way to get your work available instantly.. but I think printed works should be carefully selected.. and is something I will have to give some thought and then get feedback about before I take it further.

I have exciting details about an exhibit Ill be displaying in only 4 days! Ill blog about it tomorrow.. so very excited. It is a mix of my film photos.. I dont know how ill choose them.. and my friend I have made through the exhibit has taught me how to frame.. an invaluable skill to have

Feels good to write something on the blog again.. looking forward to my next installment.

Till next time..

Why hello! Yes.. I am still alive! .. I realise the blog has come to a crawl this past month.. what an epic month it has been! Ill have to write some musings.. and some stories.. but for now I just want to share some photos. These shots are from a shoot in September.. well I think it was September.. which Clancee again in Centennial Park. I actually even have gotten film back for this shoot.. thats how long it has been haha..

Some lovely light.. playing with my 85mm tilt shift lens I picked up the day before the shoot and shooting with my RZ67.. this was a LOT of fun. I have some exciting things happening in 2012.. and an excellent finish to 2011.. and I got to see my Nanna last week which just.. was amazing as she hasnt been well. I am off camping for a few days but look forward to a new post upon my return.

Till next time..

Up and over 11 minutes we go! This morning was.. pretty damn miserable ill have to admit. The colour to the left didnt really do anything with the passing cloud as I had hoped… and the big black clouds looming on the right rained on Sydney for the rest of the day (yay…)

Still this morning was to meetup with another photographer who was up in Sydney on a business trip and could sneak out for a sunrise. He liked the location, but still .. the elements didnt really work with him here. In fact the last 2 or 3 sunrises I have been on has been mainly about meeting other photographers to catchup, shoot the breeze and shoot some film (which I did on this morning). For me the social side of photography is a big motivatator.. and I really hope to get out shooting with some more of my buddies in the near future.

What is hard though is I have made so many buddies abroad! Many in the US & Canada which hopefully.. one day ill be able to do a road trip over there and meet a few of them

Only around 8 weeks behind now.. so as the rest get published it will move back down to one per week.. like it was intended!

Till next time..

Another morning at the Mahon Pool.. I say ill get sick of this place but I dont think I ever will.. soo much possibility..

The problem with sunrise/seascape photography is that it is always a battle against the elements.. and you have to go time and time again until everything is just right. This morning was actually a bore.. it was cloudy.. it was cold.. it was wet and it wasnt very inspiring at all. Its actually the same morning from Week 16 of my project… but that is OK they are totally their own images.. and you probably wouldnt have put 2 and 2 together without me anyway

One thing I have noticed as a photographer is that as your style & tastes change that you see locations in a new light. I am starting to see some places I have shot a few times in a completely different way.. but in other ways I have also identified that I have somewhat tunnel visioned myself into a few key locations, rather than trying some spots on the spur of the moment.

All areas of improvement.. really been missing my chances to shoot seascapes.. I am thinking about adopting my Friday pre-work sunrise again. When this post goes live ill in fact ill be driving down to Melbourne (hopefully just arriving) to shoot a wedding. I have a few things queued but will do my best to stay vocal with you all.

Till next time..

I have been looking forward to sharing this shot from the project as it was a lot of fun to put together and whilst I think I can make improvements.. I was happy with the first try. This is my first long exposure panorama, with 8 shots which were shot at f8 @ 60seconds (or there abouts) on the Cahill Expressway looking over Circular Quay in Sydney.

It is quite a tricky task, with light changing and camera angle/direction meaning light fall off is different but I think it works well. I tried to capture the range of shots as the boats came/left and moved about in the quay. For an added bonus of difficulty.. the expressway moves a tiny bit with all the traffic (+ trains underneath) so there is a chance you will get some slight shake or softness introduced to the photo.. but I couldnt see any.

I would love to do a few more panoramas such as this over the summer months.. as the sunsets get longer and it gives me some more time to execute them the way I want. In the end it will come down to location, and whilst I love Sydney I find it quite hard to find any really great panorama locations of different subject matter.. since these pivotal landmarks always seem to be featured in one way or another. Another challenge perhaps?

Definitely view this large! (Just click the image and the lightbox will do the rest for you).

Till next time..

I have been throwing around the idea of doing Model Monday posts.. of models I shoot. I don’t shoot enough yet to warrant the name however, but we will see how we go I have begun casting calls and contacting numerous models to lineup shoots.

So far it has been a bit hit and miss.. with some people getting back to me and others being quite flakey.. Jamie however has been upfront and easy to work with so we got our first shoot together and I must say I was very pleased with how it went at a new location, North Coogee Headland.

You will have seen me blog about this place only recently, and it works very well with the elevation and the way the sun is setting at the moment. The light lasts until the golden hour fades into the blue hour of shooting. The shoot was done all in natural light. As a set, I feel it doesnt work quite as well as the individual shots. This is mainly due to the time we shot (over a couple of hours) in diminishing light, with a mixture of shooting with the sun behind Jamie and him facing in a direction towards the setting sun.

Jamie has little experience but we broke the ice very well, talking a lot and getting into the groove. It helped me relax into directing him and this was definitely a great way to establish a good rapport for our future shoots. By the time this post goes live we should have completed our second shoot.. at Centennial Park. We are also working on a collaboration shoot to take place in late August which I am looking forward too, exploring some themes, a new location and using two models.

There was an amazing blood red orange colour on the horizon this morning.. not many clouds but still got some shots to work with. This is actually a long exposure.. hence the lost detail in the shadows as I cut it short to move locations. I infact have blogged about this morning more in detail before. The Green Rocks of Turimetta talked about it in fairly close detail. I still havent gone back to shoot what I had originally intended.. I think I have been a bit put off now to be honest after noticing the big drain in all the other photos I had seen of the ‘zig zag’ rock cut. But .. there is always your imagination and stepping up to a challenge… and the pies.. oh my god I havent eaten pies from The Upper Crust for so long….

Pies Sunrise this weekend anyone?

Till next time..