|
‘The Centennial Park Collection - August 2010’ This image titled ‘Winter Garden, 2010’ is part of new portfolio of work on Centennial Park, called ‘The Centennial Park Collection’. They are available for sale as limited edition fine-art prints. They are produced as signed editions of 15 in three different sizes, A2 (60x40cm), A1 (90x60cm) and A0 (120x80cm). Prices are $650, $850 and $1,250 respectively. Ten images from the editions have sold so far. Framed samples can be viewed at the park’s café and restaurant. The Centennial Park management have bought an A0 sized print of ‘Figtree near Weather Station’ (scroll down to see) to put on public display. Prices will increase as editions begin to sell out. Contact me via the contacts page for further information. These images were the result of an invitation earlier this year by the Centennial Park management and the organizers of the 2010 Head ON Photo Festival, (a Sydney-wide festival which ran from April to June this year www.headon.com.au) I was invited to create something unique on Centennial Park using my night-lighting techniques. The work received great acceptance by viewers who came to the Night Garden exhibition, held at the historic Superintendent’s Residence in the park during the festival. You can see several more images from the collection as you scroll down the page. You can also see a broader selection of my new works by clicking on the Illuminated landscape link on this website. I’m also getting a new website built at www.illuminated-landscape.com (due for completion late August 2010) to make it easier to review the whole library of images that I have produced.  ‘Aloe and Camellia - The Centennial Park Collection’ I was quite delighted in the way I could create such a luminescent light effect for this image taken at the park’s Rose Garden. Some objects lend themselves well to the lighting treatments that I do. It’s a simple image. Normally I would pull-back and show more landscape in the background, but some subjects deserve total attention. This was one of them.  ‘Muscular fig - The Centennial Park Collection’ This tree reminds me a bit of those muscle-man photos with the biceps and pectoral muscles all shiny from skin creams and soft studio lighting. It really is a powerful looking tree and I love the way I was able to sculpt the shapes so cleanly to help define it’s full character.  ‘Moonlight over Cannon Triangle, 2010’ I happened across a sublime moonrise as I framed up for this shot. There was some very good fortune at play on this night. (You’ll rarely see the actual moon in my shots. Instead what you’ll see is the resultant effect of the light of the moon in the clouds, as it is more subtle and dreamlike than shooting a bright round ball) I can do a lot to optimise my chances for getting a great shot (35 years of shooting means I have a lot of hit and miss experiences to draw on) but moving the moonrise to the left or the right is beyond my gambit. Lets just say this was a lucky photo.  ‘Figtree at the Weather Station, 2010’ I was preparing this image on my computer for ‘The Night Garden’ exhibition, when I started to think…. Wow this really is a GREAT photo of a tree. It actually brought hairs up on the back of my neck, so rich and complex and utterly complete this tree photo looked. So I decided to be a little bit bold and for the duration nominated it as ‘The World’s Greatest Tree Photo.’ I thought this title might raise a few eyebrows so I Googled the term so see what else was out there. To my delight no one else had made claim to the title. Indeed there are plenty of entries for the World’s Greatest Tree’s (that have been photographed), but that’s not same. Anyway the image drew a good deal of comment at the exhibition. I set an entire room aside for this single image as it felt so special. Anyway to me it is a triumph of sorts, as it highlights the incredible subtlety that my night-lighting technique can create. It is also flourishing, barely two kilometers from the concrete-towering shopping district of Bondi Junction. That is a triumph of another sort, of which the Centennial Park management should be very proud.  ‘NOT The World’s Greatest Duck Photo, May 2010’ This is not ‘The World’s Greatest Duck Photo’. Though my three-year-old boy seems to think it’s pretty good. It has created great curiosity amongst viewers and is one of those more playful moments of a photographer’s life. I borrowed a rubber ducky from my son while he was asleep and spent the evening fervently trying to replicate its naïve profile onto cardboard. Enough said about how it was done. I want to retain some magic to the image. But it’s important to say that this photo has not been falsely doctored-up in photoshop. Everything you see was created in-camera. Every duck was hand drawn using my torches. It was a long night in the duck pond.  ‘More images from ‘The Centennial Park Collection’ The top photo was taken at Federation Valley. I loved the sweeping canopy of this fig tree and decided to illuminate under the tree’s canopy with my torches to elevate it, almost spiritually, into the still night air. The photo at bottom left of a Moreton Bay fig near Lang road has enthralled people. One chap was even brought to tears. I’ve had peer photographers ringing me out of the blue to congratulate me on this image. I think I’ve hit a nerve. It is a magnificent tree. The photo at bottom right of the Column Garden has always intrigued me. As a toddler we used to play at the base of this column. (that was almost 50 years ago I dare say) The woman at the top has always felt ethereal and mysterious. Go to the Illuminated Landscape link on this website to see more otherworldly images from my night-lighting series  ‘Lachlan Swamps during a full moon’ This image is called ‘Lachlan Swamps #1, 2010’. This area was the source of Sydney’s water supply between 1837 and 1859. I love the texture and hues of the paperbark and the grasses were a welcome addition. The grasses lend a sort of ‘calligraphy of silhouettes’ to the image. I shot it during the full moon of June 26th 2010. Just above me as I worked, perched on a limb, was an ancient-looking tawny frogmouth owl, which gave added resonance to the moonlight, that was shafting through the forest canopy.  I couldn’t go past this image for a bit of ‘Australiana’ 2009 Christmas cheer. This image was featured in a show called ‘Nocturnal’ which consisted of lightbox-mounted images depicting landscape photographs taken after dark, using simple torchlight as the primary light source. The exhibition ran all summer at Customs House, Circular Quay, Sydney. It was a huge success in visitor numbers, publicity and the amount of positive feedback. The organisers had to reprint the postcards and catalogues that went with the exhibition as they ran out of stock due to public demand, halfway though the show.  ‘Shoot for 350.org Project, October 2009’ This image was taken as a part of the 350.org ‘International Day of Climate Action’ event, which was a global action to highlight the importance of keeping the world’s carbon emissions content down to 350 parts per million as being the scientific ‘plimsol line’ – beyond which the globe is traveling through troubled waters. A friend Barbara Schaffer organized around 200 people to gather on the shores of Clovelly on the night of 24th October to create this one-off event. I was asked to be the official photographer due to my nocturnal obsessions. I selected a long exposure and via megaphone got the mass of people to walk around a chalk line of numbers to get the resultant energetic effect of light traveling through space. It was a great night of community action. The final application of the image for the 350 org site can be viewed at http://www.350.org/home?page=8 The bikini-clad girls in the foreground were a last minute inspiration. As this was a global shoot and I had no obvious ‘iconic’ landmark to work with these girls were casual spectators so I asked them to position themselves on the rock in the foreground. They remind me of the famous sculptured mermaids on the rock off Ben Buckler at Bondi Beach, which were very much a part of my childhood growing up in Bondi in the 1960’s. They have since gone. Anyway a friend, Chris Gleisner did fantastic torch work to light them.  credits | photos | cont@ct | current projects | illuminated landscape | curriculum vitae | home |