Monday, May 31, 2010

Skater girl, Bondi....

This is a photo i took a while ago but didnt post it at the time... If you follow my blog you would remember my post on the Bondi Skate Park. This girl was the youngest 'serious' skater there and by 'serious' I mean seriously good at skating.. She must've been about 10 years old at most and was hanging out with all the teenager boy skaters. This photo was taken as she was about to kick off into the skating 'basin' - she was all focus and concentration...


Friday, May 28, 2010

Tamarama Beach, Sydney

Here are a couple of random shots I took when doing a Bondi to Bronte walk  a couple of weeks ago. The weather has changed since then and it has been raining non-stop for the last 10 days. The third picture is of a "sculpture" so to say which is mounted (what's the right term here? attached? embedded?) to the walkway. It's both the most bizarre and the coolest thing I have seen in a while! I miss the summer!
And ....I am now officially out of blog posts! I want the rain to stop!!!!




Thursday, May 27, 2010

On intellectual property..

Just read a really great article/blog post by Cory at Ganymede Kids on intellectual property and blogging. The post is based around the recent outrage about the retail giant Zara selling T-shirts with an illustration which was a copy of one of Betty's (Le Blog de Betty) photographs.  I strongly recommend reading it!!!

Cory's post  made me think about a couple of things (which are not necessarily relevant to Cory's post)... Photography is an interesting beast.. especially when it comes to candid and street photography. On the one hand, photography is an art and often the only way to capture a great moment is to take a candid photo. On the other hand, that sort of photography is only art until you find a candid photo of yourself on someone else's blog. At which point you realise how vulnerable you really are to a camera lense.

I take candid photos and I love them, but I often think about how I would feel if I was the subject of a photograph and I didnt even know about it. I remember stumbling on a website of a certain photographer  who takes street photographs of everyday people on the streets.... except the streets happen to be in the same area where I work... All of a sudden the photographs stop being exotic (one of the reasons i love blogs is that you get to see places and everyday lives of people in other countries.. countries you have never even been to).. and become slightly weird.

I have worked at the same place for over 3 years now, so on his photos I saw not only photos of places and streets that I have seen every single day for the last 3 years but also people that you see on your way to work every morning.. and it was kind of strange! May be it's just me and I am weird... but it felt strange and voyeuristic. One of his photos captured a guy and a girl having an argument on their lunch break. The girl was crying... may be they were breaking up.. may be it just a tiff.. but in any case I thought to myself that I would absolutely HATE to be caught on camera at such a vulnerable moment and then circulated on the internet via Youtube and Blogger!

I asked my photography teacher about what he thought of this and he said that in Australia we do not have a right to privacy in a public place and that to him from a photographer's point of view it didnt seem weird at all.

This is also one of the reasons why I almost never post photos of young children on my blog... You see a lot of cute children wearing something cool or being funny and you just want to catch the moment on camera.. I dont have children (yet) but somehow I dont think I would enjoy coming across a photo of my child on a random internet page..

I mean...  if I take a photo of someone (especially when it is a portrait or a candid) I often feel like I owe it to that person to make sure that a photo of them does not end up on some dodgy website.. But one can never know...

Just a couple of weeks ago Sarah from Mocha Soy Whippy found her personal photos on a number of dodgy tumblr blogs.. and understandably she was not happy!! Lucky for her tumblr promptly fixed the problem by removing the photos...

I mean I may be taking it all too seriously...but still... What do you guys think???

Catholic Church, Paddington

After seeing Biana's post on St Stevens Church a couple of days ago, I remembered that I had some shots of a church in Paddington which I took a few months ago. The photos never made it to the blog because I didnt think they were that interesting but after seeing Biana's photos I reconsidered. Thanks Biana! I think that's what they call 'inspiratonal'...

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

A Tavola...

Since it has been raining non-stop for the last 10 days... I havnt been able to shoot anything exciting.. so i'm really struggling here :) Anyway, this is an old shot I took for no particular reason when i was walking past this little restaurant on Victoria street in Darlinghurst. It is a small italian restaurant with amazing food and cozy atmosphere - perfect for winter... so if you are in Sydney definitely head there for a hearty meal.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Bondi Beach, Sydney

Here are some shots I took on one of many glorious Sydney days... I was trying out my new polarising filter... which in combination with the the "landscape" colour control setting on my camera seemed to result in some steroid blues in the photographs.. Just so we are clear - I did not boost the colours! Hopefully these photographs will make you want to visit Sydney :)


Monday, May 24, 2010

A cute Paddington terrace, Sydney

I have walked this little terrace in Paddington a million times before but never had my camera with me.. And finally one day I was walking past with a camera.. completely unplanned. It just stands out so much amongst the other old, posh, modest and traditional terraces. Imagine if you lived in a house liked this as a kid. Wouldnt you just love it?! 

Friday, May 21, 2010

The Tobacco Factory

The old tobacco factory has been re-developed into a fancy block of apartments years ago.. but they kept the name which is nice. I had a mild obsession with living in this building about 2 years ago when I first moved to Paddington (Sydney). Unfortunately, it was (and still remains) hugely out of my price range... but that doesn't stop me from photographing it :) I took this picture on an angle on purpose - I like the contrast of different textures and the geometry of the shot.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Bondi Icebergs...

On the weekend BFF and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary with a lunch and some Veuve at Icebergs. Bondi Icebergs is an absolute institution and a must if you ever visit Sydney! The view overlooking the water is just perfect for a cheeky sunday drink... The last photo (in case you are wondering) is my main course.. squid-ink risotto... It might not look very apetizing but tasted great!
p.s. Ok, so I'm not sure if this is possible but it seems that photos somehow change colour once I upload them onto blogger... These are crazy blue!


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Beautiful - Part 2

As promised in yesterday's post, here is the B&W portrait... Which one do you guys like better?

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Beautiful - Part 1

On the weekend I met up with a friend of mine to take some street style shots of her.. Whilst at it, I also took a couple of portrait shots because I think she has an amazingly beautiful and different face... I always take quite a few shots because I'm never sure which ones will actually work. So I have narrowed them down to two: one B&W and one colour. However, I decided I would like to post them separately because in my opinion they are quite different. So here is the first shot in colour:


Monday, May 17, 2010

Favourite form of transport...

Friday, May 14, 2010

Just some random thoughts in colour...

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Photographer...

May it's be because I am so new to photography but the subject of "photographers" just fascinates me... I've already done a post on this before but I could not tell you how many more pictures of photographers and generally people with cameras I have on my computer... This gentleman was just such a character! He had such a presence about him (oh and did I mention? - I love what he is wearing!)


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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Paddington Reserve...

I've been meaning to photograph the Reserve for a little while and finally I managed to get over there. It's a strange place.. not quite a park.. quite ghostly. The East Chamber is not officially open yet, but a bunch of skaters somehow managed to get in there and claim their territory. The third photo is of the East Chamber... Can you spot a skater?





Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Boys' house...

I am a girl. A very girly girl. So when I went over to a friend's house a couple of weeks ago to take some street style shots of him, and saw shiny bikes, half-dead bikes, wheels and a motorbike hanging around the house as if saying "what, you mean you dont have these at your house?!", I just had to take some photos (some of them ended up quite blurry but thats not the point!). Not going to lie to you this sudden urge to take photos at people's houses may have been caused by the fact that I spent that morning going through The Selby, which is definitely one of my favourite photo blogs out there! 


Monday, May 10, 2010

Portrait...

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Sunday, May 9, 2010

Bondi skate - Part 2...

Here is Part 2 of the photos from the Bondi skatepark...



Friday, May 7, 2010

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Bondi skate - Part 1...

Last weekend I was over at Bondi beach and of course couldnt help myself to take some photos of the skaters in the bondi beach skatepark (is that the right term?!)... What fascinated me the most is that the 'skatepark' is shared by adults, teenagers and tiny 5 year old skaters (the fact that they are young doesnt mean they are less serious or competitve about their skating)...  The unfortunate part is that I was there in the middle of the afternoon so there are some harsh shadows in the photos :(




Thursday, May 6, 2010

It's autumn in Sydney...

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

blue feathers...

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Paddington Markets, Sydney

Although, I get a little shy taking photos at the markets, I find there are some many colourful and fascinating things to photograph: