Tag: photography

  • Capturing moments

    Capturing moments

    Each week as a photographer, I get to capture people’s special moments and each one is a unique experience.

    During the shoot, there’s all sorts of responses:

    • You’re funny!
    • I feel seen
    • I’m tired and this is extra work
    • I’m shy, but this is kinda nice
    • I’m so worried and my world is heavy, thank you for this tiny breather
    • Thanks for spending a few minutes with me
    • I can’t focus well, how do you expect me to smile?
    • I’m not sure I look my best, I’m trusting you

    There’s all sorts of people in different states of mind and level of chill before the shutter is pressed. Many want to chat. Lucky I’m a talker 😂 But similar to getting a tat, it’s someone else trying to encourage you to be comfortable and look the way you’d like to be seen. It can be a moment of vulnerability.

    It’s a trust exchange.

    When all the factors align though, there’s some that are captured just at that pure joy moment. A laugh or smile that’s free. A moment of pure energy where the soul shines through and it happens the shutter was pressed at just the right instant. And when it happens, it all comes together, it’s magic.

    I look back at those photos and they radiate truth. All the filters are off, the worries of life are gone. It seems like full release and or peak trust. Where the process and tool have been forgotten and the person is so in the moment.

    Somehow when it happens, what’s captured in the pixels feels like a tiny little glimpse of their true special self. Loose for a moment, free and happy.

    Maybe this is one of the major goals while behind the camera. And also I guess, just generally in life.

    To try and forget the process and just uncover the joy in each and every moment.

  • FaceTiming in German on the edge of the world

    FaceTiming in German on the edge of the world

    Albany is a beautiful town. I had such a surreal experience recently there, that ended up with me joining a stranger’s FaceTime (in a way).

    It was dusk and I had left it too late to go photograph any of golden hour. But I went out anyway to Sharp Point Lookout. It looks out across the vast Indian Ocean that connects Australia and Antarctica. If you look west, you can see the Albany Wind Farm turning away in the strong winds.

    It was a beautifully peaceful night. Calm with the rolling swells pushing up against the coastal rocks and the usual amount of wind. But this night it was pretty calm up top of the cliffs.

    When I arrived at Sharp Point, I was planning to sit and enjoy the view for half an hour and wind down. But there was another car in the car park (it was already pretty dark) and I wondered if I’d bump into the owners as I got out.

    Sure enough, as I rounded the corner to the lookout, they were there seated on the platform railing, looking out over the ocean. I could hear some conversation going on, they were very chatty. It was such a serene location, my first thought was for some reason – they were discussing something serious and I should just leave.

    Then while I took a few quick photos from nearby, I realised they were speaking German, the conversation was pretty jovial and there was a third voice. They were FaceTiming someone, I’m guessing back in Germany.

    Okay, chill then and I took more photos as we exchanged glances. They laughed away with their mate on the other side of the world.

    It’s a very common situation. People often sit on the beach or cliff and call family or mates and share the view with them. But for some reason, this one was quite dreamy, mainly due to the scenery and lighting I think.

    What seemed like a couple, we’re calling a friend, tens of thousands of kilometres away through that tiny iPhone and I could hear the conversation going as they showed off the stunning sunset.

    It was like they were straining for signal. Which of course they weren’t, we had full bars! And it was also like they were facing their friend, so very far away by sitting as close as they could on the edge of the world. Like they’d found the best location where they had peace and quiet and the best chance of hearing their friend.

    Logically, they actually had their backs to them direction-wise, RUDE lol and signal wasn’t a factor.

    I don’t understand German, so didn’t get the words but it was such a dreamy thing to hear this voice arriving from Germany to Sharp Point through the massive expanse of sky and ocean that was all around us.

    Sitting in such a huge open space, you really feel that distance of the person on the other line. Their voice travelling in real time into space and down across 14,500 kms to that tiny 1m of space so their friends could hear it and send back the view of the expanse of the Indian Ocean.

    The swells rolled in, the turbines slowly spun away and the wind blustered through our lookout every now and then. I snapped away, until I captured what I wanted.

    And off I went.

    Hallo and Verabschiedung friend across the ocean. We shared a serene space for a brief moment in the timeline of the world ✨

  • Kaarta Koomba macro flora photographs

    Kaarta Koomba macro flora photographs

    I had a chance to take the macro lens to Kaarta Koomba / Kings Park this week and there was plenty of flowers in bloom.

    Here are some of the the shots: