Many many months ago, I talked about a secret project that I’d started to work on and put together with a few partners in crime.

I’m pleased to say that the wheels are in motion and that part one, is well and truly under way.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of photography – I think images say so much more about our world than scripted speeches or pseudo-intellectual quotes. The art of photography, gives a new vibrancy to the stories we tell, the memories we share and the lives we lead.

As cameras themselves have become cheaper, as people have become more versatile at using Photoshop or an iPhone app to enhance their images and as the ability to host, share and spread photos on the web has expanded through sites like Flickr or Photobucket, photography itself is booming.

And whilst you can share images with friends and take them almost effortlessly, the basic fundamental principle is that same. Is that a great photo? Is that a cool shot? Will I look at and soak it in for a few minutes? Will I go back to and remember where it was taken? Regardless of the medium, that’s the end result, for any photo. Photos have to last, and these days so few really do.

That’s why we’re creating Nothing Cooler, a community dedicated to creative and unique individuals, who are passionate about the photos they take.

We’re not attempting to mimic Flickr (of which I am one of their biggest fans) but what we do want to do, is foster a community, where creative individuals are communicating, challenging and motivating each other to take the best shot they can. If you’re not a photographer, we want you to visit the site and be truly captivated and fascinated by what you see.

We’ll be building in some really great features, like real-time stats and uploads, leader boards, contests, themes and all round general daily doses of goodness. You’ll be able to enter theme contests, vote on your favorite shots, leave comments and even have the ability to create your own personal photo profile on the web.

All for free.

We want you to see more of the world, in ways you never have before.

Nothing Cooler, will be a place where everyone can be genuinely inspired by the world around them – all captured through the lens of a total stranger.

Intrigued?

You should be.

Sign-up here, so that when we launch, you’ll be the first to know.

Can’t wait for you to start using it.

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48 hours ago I commenced my first official photoshoot with a band (or in this case a solo artist called Eugene Clifford featured above). He’s the driving force behind indie band BEARHAWK.

It was a great shoot to be involved with, unexpected and inspiring. He’s such a vibrant character that he gives anyone with a camera a lot to work with – nothing was really off limits and I think that shows in the images.

I’ve handpicked some of my favourites below.

You can see the entire gallery here. I’m keen to know which (if any) is your favourite – mine keeps changing.

As you know, I’m my own worst critic but I have to say, I don’t think I fared too badly on this, my first foray into the realm of portrait photography.

Hope everything is cool with you….wherever you are in the world.



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LINKS
Official site for BEARHAWK
Listen to their music

Cameras, video cameras and even projectors were a staple of my childhood – my Dad was always a keen photographer, he took some truly stunning black and white shots of my Mum during the early years of their marriage, way back in the 1970s – some of which I’ve only just seen. And as a kid I always remember there being a heavy camera with a dense a robust lens on many an office or coffee table.

There were also numerous times when the video camera (arguably the size of bazooka at the time) was blinking it’s red light at me, recording various high school Christmas Nativity plays (I was usually a Shepard) or when I was skiing in Europe, clad in an embarrassing puffy shell-suit, comprised entirely of a shocking array of 80′s fluro colours.

I vividly remember Santa giving me one of those fantastic toy cameras (originally called The Viewmaster), where you would click and it clacked a new image in front of your eyes. I honestly thought it was the coolest thing ever, to the point where I deluded myself into believing I was taking a new photo each time (despite the reality of it continuously cycling through the same 10 photos) regardless of what was ACTUALLY in front of me.

The 10 pictures came on a card disc and were rather like the negatives you used to get with your photos using a 35mm camera. Each image was then magnified when you looked through the viewer, so that as a kid they appeared as large as a TV-sized image. It was certainly better than any Kaleidoscope I’d ever had, even if it was limited to a few photos. It made an awesome sound too.

I didn’t get my own “real” camera until middle school, which funnily enough I won in the school raffle. I remember it was painted silver and it looked really expensive, but when I was given it, I was bitterly disappointed because unlike all the cameras I’d seen at home, this one was a light-weight, made of  nasty plastic, with a cheap airbrushed silver look, a no-name brand that didn’t even have a flash.

Fast forward a few decades and I’d gone through a few digital cameras, always handy to capture parties and friends – but nothing that would really capture moments as it were. I use to pull some decent shots from my old Canon IXUS but nothing that I would ever call close to being “professional”.

So in late 2009, I invested in a Canon Digital SLR – several weeks rent, well spent as they say.

Since then, I’ve been putting it to good use and the definition and colour of my photos has come on in leaps and bounds. The difference is quite remarkable at times, even if the photos themselves aren’t always living up to the capabilities of the device itself.

I would never classify myself as a photographer, I’m acutely aware of my technical limitations and utter naivety about what makes a good photo. There are so many truly inspirational photographers out there in the world, who operate on an entirely different level, capturing images that defy logic and take your breath away. Photos that us mere mortals, could only ever dream of taking.

If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know that 2010 has been an incredibly dramatic year for me. But along the way, I’ve had my camera by side – documenting it all, even at some of the most inopportune moments. I think that is what photography should be about, being bold, harnessing a sense of occasion and revealing elements of the world around us, which we are normally blind to or simply take for granted.

With these images below, I hope you’re able to get some insight into the journey I’ve been on thus far, the places I’ve experienced and the emotions I’ve lived through since the start of 2010.

From each of the places I’ve been to, I’ve selected photos of personal significance or simply because I liked the shot.

Simply click on any image to view the rest of the photos in that album, or view the entire collection on my Flickr page.

I hope you enjoy these photos, notice their faults, see their strengths and let the feelings and emotions I tried to convey in each, resonate with you.

Even now, some of these are hard for me to look at, but I think that’s why I took them to begin with.

NORFOLK , UNITED KINGDOM MARCH (2010)

BARCELONA, SPAIN MARCH (2010)

AUTUMN IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (2010)

HOLIDAY IN KIAMA, SYDNEY AUSTRALIA APRIL (2010)

MELBOURNE CITY, AUSTRALIA MAY (2010)

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I’m sitting here in my Dad’s office in the heart of Nofolk in the United Kingdom, overlooking the field beyond, with snow gently falling all around. It’s peacefully calm, bitingly crisp and it feels like the world has been temporarily muted – to the point where I’m not even sure what time of the day it is.

Just to show you that I’m not some whimsical writer with a habit of embelishment, here’s a video I literally just shot from being outside. This is the view from my window.

There is something really comforting and clarifying about spending a few days here in the countryside, huddled away from distractions and the general buzz of any metropolitan city.

It’s quite a therapeutic, if obviously cold experience – there’s this vast space for your thoughts, fears, hopes and dreams to run free amongst. I know that for some, it might be a bleak picture, but here, in the moment, you can smell the scent of damp leaves in the air, burning wood on log fires and hear the sound of  frosty grass crunching under your feet.

My step-brother Oliver thought it would be fun to take me into the woods and show me a camp site he built, several summers ago deep in the forest. It was a place he said “Where I could do my own thing and not have to worry about anything else.” So with trepidation and quiet excitement I ventured out with him, in search of those long lost childhood memories of the unexpected and carefree kind.

Now to give you an insight, as to what it was like –  you can see a quick video below, which I shot in the depths of the wintry forest itself.

As you can see from the clip, it was like being lost in the land of Narnia! To be perfectly, honest I was half expecting Mr Tumnas to appear next to me and ask me in for tea and biscuits.

Instead foxes, deer and Jackalope scattered past, black blurry shapes scuttling off into the distance, their footprints etched in the snow. I fought my way through the razor sharp brambles and wire fences, a little spooked and certainly overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. And I’m not ashamed to admit it, I even fell over, sliding down a ditch onto my ass.

Snow plus ditch = the perfect slide.

It really is worlds apart from my life back home in Sydney, physically and especially mentally – 22 hours to get here, but many more years between my childhood home and current dwelling. I’ve been capturing lots of photos and images, to document my 11 days here, including my trip to London.

Click on the slide show below, to see the images I’ve taken so far, I hope you like them, I’d like to think they’re an accurate portrayal of this moment.

I think it’s always nice to have photos, after all they serve as the perfect fuel to reignite lost memories don’t you think?

Hope you’re having a great start to the New Year

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I’m sitting here writing this on a Sunday night feeling a little dusty after the weekends festivities, oh and what festivites they were.

For starters, it involved, multiple bird cages hanging from ceilings, clarinet playing dwarfs, various love triangles, discussions about the awesomeness of Bill Murray and then morphed into debates on the blight that is auto-tune in music, the unbridled spending of Kevin Rudd’s stimulus package, muffin wars, small-talk about the virtues of pole dancing (and why it really should be an Olympic sport), stolen drumsticks tapped vigerously, even Satan and a Cardinal (in stockings) made an appearance.

I wish I could have actually recorded some of the conversations onto film, because some of them were incredibly funny – but alas, you’ll have to make do with some equally amusing photos (which I guess only tell half the story) but it’s better than nothing right?

As you can see, things got a bit out of hand hahaha. In an attempt to wake JJ up, the girls decided it was STACKS ON!!! He must have thought all his Christmas’s had come at once!

More happy snaps from the night are on Flickr, but if you can’t see the slideshow below simply click here to view them (see I’m full of good ideas.)

Also, thanks to help from my friend Dan, I’m going to be adding a new feature to Colours And Light. When you spend 12-14 hours a day on the internet like I do (scary huh?) you tend to see some really inspiring examples of people’s creativity in the world. From photographs, to illustrations, to blogs, to graphic design and independent film-making – there is so much quality and undiscovered talent out there.

So in attempt to share with you things which I think deserve to be seen, talked about or highlighted, I’m going to be creating a mini microblog which captures articles & images from the web.

It’ll be like an online scrap book if you like, constantly updated in real-time which will be cool. Its a few weeks off yet, but I hope you’ll dig it when it does go live – it’ll help you unearth new sites, communities and talent which you might not have seen before.

Until then, you might like some of the work featured here

Hope you’re doing well

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I don’t profess to be the greatest photographer ever, but when it comes to taking  photos, I try to do so, first with my heart and then my head. 

I hope you find a little bit of Sydney in them like I do. If you can’t see the slideshow below, click here 

Enjoy,



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March 14th, a night which involved a house party, torrential rain, bags of chilli & sour cream chips, fluro hoodies, felt hats, candy canes, handcuffs, tickle fights, German beer, dating interviews, taxi cab confessions and some rather amusing photos.

Don’t believe me? All is revealed

Hope you like,
Alex

Drinks with friends

On friday (16th January) I went along to loveable Lisa’s 25th birthday party. Oh to be 25 again ha. I think everyone had a blast, there was drunken make out sessions, even some chest hair brushing going on – don’t believe me? I’ve got the photos! Honestly, some are hilarious.

Booth Buddies!

They are all in my gallery on MySpace, whilst some of my favs are now up on my official Flickr Profile.

Hope you had a good weekend as well, although I’m wondering who is the muppet who decided it would be a great idea to have 5 days WORKING and 2 days PARTYING.

They ruined it for everyone!
Alex

So before I went back to work, on the 6th of January I did the Coogee to Bondi Beach walk along the cliffs. if you haven’t done it yet, you really should it’s beautiful. Also a really good way to clear your mind, get away from the city and just stare out in the vast expansion of the Pacific Ocean.

I took some photos whilst I was there, here’s a preview of one of them.

You can view more at the bottom of this blog, or on my official Flickr profile.

Hope you like

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