Happy New Year!

Wherever you are in the world I hope you had a fantastic New Year's Eve and that your 2012 will be absolutely wonderful. What do I have planned? More photography work that I absolutely love!

I'll be honest, last year was a big challenge for me. It was my fourth year as a stay-at-home Dad and all the fun and enjoyment that entails. It was also the first year my youngest son went to school, which suddenly left me with week days between the hours of 9 and 3 to myself. I envisioned myself getting back into work full-time but life is never what we plan. Instead I found myself trying to determine exactly what kind of photography work I can do in these limited hours, and discovered that it doesn't look anything like what I imagined, or what my previous decade in the industry had me doing.

So this year will be all about trying new things, mixing it up and gradually transitioning my business away from the spend a lot of time overseas pattern that I've known up till know. I want to photograph far North Queensland in-depth. I want to photograph interesting people and their stories. I want to work on finding my voice and my niche in a city which has more 'professional' photographer than you can poke a stick at!

Last year I ran a private photography tutorial or two and I'd like to continue doing that. I really enjoy teaching, and if the feedback is to be believed, I'm pretty good at taking complicated concepts and putting them into layman's terms. I'd also like to run a few more courses - maybe even organise a day trip or two. Most of all I want to focus on my core competencies. The stuff wild horses couldn't drag me away from. I have stuff that I'm really good at and stuff that I'm not so hot at. I want to pass the not-so-hot stuff on to colleagues and concentrate on hitting every assignment out of the park.

What about the blog? Well I'm going to try and post more regularly but it will still be my usual rants on the state of the industry, the spiritual side of this amazingly creative profession and lots of pictures from my travels around the local area and the world. I'm thinking of making things longer. No more of these short posts that are nice to look at but ultimately don't cause you to think too much. I want to spark some conversations, some thoughts and hopefully help launch some creative dreams.

So as we go forward into 2012 I wish all of you a fantastic twelve months and hope that all your wildest fantasies come true (just don't tell me about the ones involving animals!).I hope you'll join me every so often to keep up with what's happening in my world, and come and follow me over on my Facebook Page - see the link on the right.

Fantastic FNQ photo Friday

Welcome to Fantastic FNQ photo Friday, the regular day of the week where I pay homage to the sights of beautiful Far North Queensland - or FNQ as we call it locally.

As a Cairns photographer perhaps more well known for my jaunts to foreign lands it's nice for me to be able to show pictures of the place I call home, and remind everybody that I photograph locally as well.

At the recent Queensland Tourism Awards in Brisbane this place, the Daintree Discovery Centre, won the Qantas Award for Excellence in Sustainability. I've been in here a few times over the years and it just keeps on getting better and better.

This image is of the giant aerial walkway that leads to a 23 metre tower that lets you get up above the rainforest treetops. It's a spectacular view and one usually only seen by our feathered friends.

If you make it up to the Daintree then this is definitely one place you should put on your bucket list. And if you come during the wet season make sure you bring your umbrella - or handy plastic poncho as these folks have! Click on over to my website to see more of my photos of the Daintree.

Woe is me.....no, really just confused.

There is a lot of negativity in the world of professional photography. And probably a lot of it is justified. I mean rates haven't gone up in decades, many clients are demanding if not your copyright then at least unlimited rights. There are more photographers than you can poke a stick at (that's 'a lot' in Australian!), many of whom have no knowledge about how to run a photography business apart from the fact that they know where the ON button for their camera is.

But I don't like to buy into all this negative bullshit. Photography has always been a hard business, competitive and full of people who think that it seems like an easy way to make a living. I can only control how I run my life, not how the world around me does. But one recent phenomenon has got me a bit baffled.

And I've only really noticed this in the last few years - mostly coinciding with the introduction of digital capture. Potential clients (and I use the term very loosely!) honestly seem aghast at the thought that they have to pay me money if they want to use my photographs.

Maybe I'm just naive but isn't that the way business is supposed to work. You provide a product or service, customers pay you money to use what you're selling and the world goes on its merry way. Yet for an increasing number of people, it seems that making money should only be an option for other kinds of businesses.

Maybe it's because photography is perceived as fun. Maybe if we enjoy our jobs we don't actually have the right to get paid for it? I'm pretty sure Brad Pitt loves what he does, and last time I checked he gets paid pretty well. Lady Gaga looks like she's having a ball out there on stage. I don't think she's doing it for free? So it can't be that people expect it for free because I enjoy creating beautiful pictures.

Maybe it's because digital is free. After all I only have to buy expensive digital cameras (every two years!), lenses, fast computers (that also need to be upgraded every couple of years), thousands of dollars worth of hard drives to back up my precious images on to. And let's not forget all the time and money invested in learning how to be my own personal photo lab. Digital is a hell of a lot more expensive than film ever was so it can't be that.

Maybe it's because if I give all my work away for free I'll get really good publicity. Hell, everybody knows that a credit line is the road to fame and fortune. Hate to burst your bubble but I don't really know anybody that has had a credit line on a free photograph lead to anything other than more requests for free photos! Actually here in Australia it's now federal law that if I want a credit line the client has to put it in there anyway. I took some tearsheets in to my bank the other day and asked the manager to pay my mortgage with those. You can guess what his response was! Then I went to my accountant and proposed to him that if he did my taxes for free I would make sure I told all my friends what a great accountant he is. He wasn't playing ball - bugger.


You know what I think it is. A plain old lack of respect. For both photography and the photographer. A thought process that says "I have the right to promote my business and make as much money as possible. I have the right to use beautiful pictures (because I know they are the first thing a potential customer sees of my business) but if I can get it for free than why the hell should I have to pay anyone?"

I don't know that this is always the case because I've met a lot of seemingly really nice people who just don't understand why they should have to pay for photos. So I guess I'm stumped as to why businesses understand that they need to pay for: their electricity, their printing, their graphic design, to place ads in magazines, to advertise in the Yellow Pages, to build a website. So why do they have to pay for all this stuff, and yet not comprehend that they should pay for the glue that holds it all together - beautiful pictures that show their business in the best possible light.

I gotta say...it's beyond me! I have no idea whatsoever. I'm just really confused. The only thing I'm not confused about is my answer to requests for free pictures - 'because it'll be really good exposure'. Sure I could get snarky and mean and abusive but who would that help? I've got better things to do with my time, and the last thing you need is to be abused for what might be an honest mistake.

Just be aware that if you come to me looking for free pictures, it ain't gonnna happen. There will be a charge for all uses big and small. The fees won't be astronomical but they will be respectful. Respectful to me that is. I don't set my prices according to your budget, I set it according to my bottom line. I'll try to be flexible and help you out when I can, but going to zero isn't in my vocabulary, or my best interest. And at the end of the day that's why we're in business - to make a profit so that we can do what we love for the rest of our working lives. Forgive me if I put my family's needs before yours but that's the way it's gotta be. My wife has a big stick!

PS I'm not talking here about donating my time and services to charities whose cause I really support and I know get no external funding, or have tiny budgets. I love to help grassroots organisations doing good work in the community when I can. Compassion makes the world go round. My compassionate streak just doesn't stretch to those running businesses for profit at my expense. Sorry but them's the breaks.

Fantastic FNQ photo Friday

An old primary (elementary) school friend of mine was up here from Melbourne the other week for a holiday with his fiance. They asked about must-sees while in town and I couldn't not mention my favourite little piece of rainforest in this whole area.

Mossman Gorge is a little north of Port Douglas, just off the main highway from the town of Mossman. It's a magnificent stretch of pristine rainforest with a beautiful swimming hole and a 2 hour or so walking track on the other side of a swing bridge.

I could spend hours in here with or without a camera, just walking around and enjoying the tropical lushness. So if you've only got time to visit one bit of rainforest whilst you're in far north Queensland this would be my pick.

Fantastic FNQ photo Friday

A friend of mine is up visiting at the moment and headed out to Green Island yesterday. The weather was beautiful and it reminded me of this image I took of Nudey Beach on nearby Fitzroy Island a while back. There's a reason why people choose to holiday here and this is definitely one of them!

The difference a few minutes can make.

When we first arrived at the giant Merlion on Singapore's Sentosa Island it was early evening and the setting sun had lit the giant statue up lovely and golden. The light was certainly lovely but the statue lacked a certain zing.

So I decided to go and take a look inside the lion. There's a lovely view out over Singapore from between those lovely fangs.

By the time we looked around, bought a couple of souvenirs and just generally enjoyed ourselves 45 minutes had passed. The sun had well and truly gone down and this is what we found.

Same statue, totally different light.

We often think of light in terms of contrasty, not contrasty, soft, harsh, golden, blue.

But often we don't realise how such a short period of time can have such a huge impact on the look of our subjects. With the mouth and eyes lit up it is a much more dramatic image and all it required was killing 45 minutes.

Don't just assume that because something looks really nice in the light that you see when you first arrive that it's not going to look even better at a different time of day - even the same time of day on a different day!

Whenever possible try and explore photographic subjects that enthrall you again and again, in all different types of light. There's no way of knowing which light you'll prefer unless you try and experience as many different varieties as possible. Oh and I'd love to admit that I totally planned to photograph the Merlion when it was lit up at night, but to be honest I was on holiday and just happened to be there at the right time! Nothing like a bit of Merlion serendipity. :)

Fantastic FNQ photo Friday

I don't get down to Townsville as much as I'd like. It's got a different atmosphere to Cairns, and heaps to see and do - especially for families. One of my favourite views is one that I got thanks to the wonderful staff at Townsville Jupiters.

Right down on the waterfront, I was there on assignment for a magazine and really wanted a lovely shot out over the marina towards Castle Rock. The management kindly let me go up to the roof one early morning to capture this beautiful view. If you never ask you never know!

Go to my website to see more Townsville photos.