Nina Höglund on the R80
Nina Höglund on my old BMW R80 custom
The thing is, Nina is a more experienced and better rider than the majority of us. She’s been belting around on two wheels since she was an early teen growing up in Sweden. The point I’m making is, none of this shoot was a pretend girl on a pretend motorcycle. She is the real bike-chick deal for sure.
Here’s Nina Höglund on my old BMW R80 custom…. the only difference being, she doesn’t normally ride those sparkly pants when she’s riding around New South Wales. She looks better on it than I ever did!
Outback NSW
A recent drive over to the other side of the State..
I knew very little about Broken Hill, other than being a remote mining town in far Western New South Wales about 14 hour drive from Sydney, AND I knew that it was the home of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Mad Max II. If honest, the latter was the most compelling reason I’ve wanted to visit this place since the 80s. I love that movie!
So there’s me - your modern day Road Warrier; swapping out Mel Gibson’s 1973 V8 Interceptor from his brutal dystopian world where you loose a limbs over a tank of fuel, for a 2015 Mazda 3 with air-conditioning, cruise control, and endless hours of bluetoothed crime podcasts.
On the way out to the desert I passed through Orange, Dubbo, Cobar, Wilcannia, and finally Broken Hill a couple of days later. Along the way staying in remote pubs with character; meeting locals with even more character.
The landscape change is subtle, but beautiful…especially as you see both the sunrise and sunset golden hours… all during the same day’s driving. The roads start to become longer, straighter and littered with more kangaroo carcasses (I hit one roo, and narrowly missed a large emu). That’s the reality. It's a tough environment known best by the local indigenous population, rural farmers and road train drivers, but the red dirt, huge open space and remote quietness all around you is magnetising.
Broken Hill is way more than a simple mining town. Plenty of art galleries and restaurants. I stayed in the large old Palace Hotel where Pricilla was filmed; walls covered from top to bottom in local landscape murals, and legal Two-Up every Friday night! (the town has some sort of exemption from the rest of the country apparently?!). That was a fun night mixing with locals, miners, engineers, students and travellers.
30kms further takes you to Silverton. A movie-set perfect outback town of a few houses, dry riverbeds, old vehicle bones, donkeys and a pub…oh, and the Mad Max II museum..... all separated by dust and sand.
Mundi Mundi plains lie just over the hills; a huge expanse of open flat dessert; wide and far enough to see the curvature of the earth. This is where I was most excited to get the camera and drone out!
The journey home took me south through Mildura in Victoria and the large country town of Wagga Wagga back in NSW. I looked at the map when I got back to Sydney and remembered I had only travelled around a tiny corner of Australia's map. So much more to explore!
Special thanks to the Roth's who put me up in Orange on my first night!
Tasmania
A visit to The Island of Inspiration
A quiet week on the work front in Sydney gave me the excuse to jump on a flight down to Australia's island state. My first, well overdue visit...what a great place!
So, my flight from warm, sunny New South Wales landed just after Jetstar flight no. -010 from Antarctica touched down in Hobart. On board that flight was 'Mr Brass-Balls cold-as-ice weather front' who came up to join me on my Spring trip. Crikey...even the locals were rugged-up and swearing under visible breath as they walked into the pub! Unfortunately, along with the unseasonably low temperatures came some snow, which meant the roads up to Mt Wellington and Cradle Mountain were shut, so I missed a few photography hotspots I was hoping to get to. I'll have to go back another time!
Here are the things I learned about the island on my quick visit...
This is a charming beautiful island; super empty and remote at this time of year.
Tasmania doesn’t have 'four seasons in one day’. It has four seasons every hour.
Here phone coverage & working WIFI are wondrous myths, rather than an actual real things that exist.
Tasmanian people are extremely inclusive, knowledgable and proud (I found this from all my cafe, petrol station, restaurant and pub conversations)
Below are some photographs from my journey (plus some random iPhone shots mixed in for good measure). You'll notice the lack of people & cars in the images. That's because there aren't many! I left out any photos from the MONA on my first day... 'The Wall of Vaginas' and Cloaca's real life 'poop machine' are best seen in person... that place is brilliant, and totally bonkers.
I really give full credit to those photographers who make landscape photography their full-time job. Yes they go to some beautiful places; working with stunning environments, animals and people, but I also realise it takes a lot of time, local knowledge & research, and a ton of patience and persistence to get brilliant results.
Bombing around the countryside for a few days with a camera and a tripod and no real plan (i.e this trip), is really no match for researching locations, watching weather charts, traveling to the right place and then waiting hours/days in position, hoping for that ideal time where all perfect photographic conditions align.
It was fun though, and that counts for a lot!
The Corporate Side
Corporates need portraits too…
Corporate and commercial work are a big part of my photography business. Though you won't see as much of this work on my IG or FB pages (I have to keep up the beach & motorcycle lifestyle appearances right?!), this is the regular work that allows me to exist as a photographer. And I really enjoy it! The jobs are diverse, challenging and rewarding; shooting a whole range of subjects through architecture, interiors, corporate, portraiture, education, medical and events.
Here are some behind-the-scenes from a recent portraiture shoot for Westpac here in Sydney. My first visit up one of the brand new Barangaroo International Towers. Super smart and what a view!
HMU Lizzy @elmakeupandbeauty & Mary @marygarcia_mua
The Concourse, Sydney
The Concourse, Sydney
Striking geometry and dignified lines: beautifully designed modern buildings are a favourite of mine to photograph. In the midst of a month-long deluge here in Sydney, I just got lucky with conditions turning briefly in my favour for a sunny, midday long-exposure shot of The Concourse in Chatswood (plus a couple more shots to compliment)
Designed by Sydney-based architectures FJMT, this stunning public complex comprises a library, concert hall, theatre, exhibition and retails spaces.
Crescent Head
Four days in Crescent Head, Australia
A four day surf trip took a few good mates up to one of my favourite places on the Northern NSW coastline. Crescent Head is a unique sleepy little surf town with a wonderfully long right-handed point break...known for its perfect peeling longboard rollers which last for miles. This weekend saw some protected waves, shorter boards and beautiful clear blue waters.
I sent the little whirling bird up a few times for some shots. The colours, patterns and textures around the point, and up over the creek are stunning...
More to follow on my new aerial eye-ball IG account @risingeye ....
Planning the next trip already...
You are not considered a true local in this town unless your grandfather was born here!
Night Photography
Night Flash Photography with Peter Coulson
Melbourne girl up in Sydney @ririchix
I have long followed the portrait photography of Melbourne based photographer Peter Coulson. I recently joined a night-time flash photography workshop of his up here in Sydney.
Great to meet him in person; to learn a few techniques and styles with new gear, and uproot some of the old myths, assumptions and even bad habits that many of us are guilty of falling into. Refreshing to actually un-learn a bit, and just play with a fresh approach to shooting.
Model: Rara @ririchix
Kate Powell
Studio shoot with Kate Powell
Model// Kate Powell H&MU// Lorella Giannini
You still get the odd rainy day in the middle of summer here, so for me, a great time to get back in the studio.
I was remarkably lucky to meet two lovely, and very humble women in the last couple of weeks...our model (who doesn't even model?!) Kate Powell, and makeup artist Lorella Giannini. None of us knew each other before this shoot... but I think we made a great little team. Thanks again to both of you - so stoked with the results!
@k_annalise @lorellagianninimakeupartist @andsroberts
...and a little extra one at the end for fun....
Julia Wheeler
Photographers photographing photographers
Julia Wheeler on Bondi Beach, Australia
Here’s Julia. She’s a passionate underwater & lifestyle photographer; competitive freediving, African wildlife crusading, anti-poaching, clean-ocean advocating and endlessly adventuring kind of person. She is no Swampy the activist either.
Here are a few images from the last shoot we did for fun…a kinda' Ursula Andress/Dr No influenced little series featuring the beautiful wetsuits & swimwear by Abysse.
HMU by Samantha Symonds @makeup_bysamantha
Behind the Scenes from The Hunter Valley with The Throttle Dolls
Video by Ollie Khedun @wearebörja. Thanks guys!
Hazel Spencer Chapman
West Country surf chick Hazel Spencer Chapman
Natural light portrait of @hazelinanutshell
Stoked I got the chance to do a shoot with West Country surf chick Hazel Spencer Chapman just before she left Australia on her travels through Sri Lank & India, and home to the UK. A talented designer, an adventurer, and water woman at heart....she'll be missed by her friends in Bondi! New surfing and motorcycle adventures from her to come on @thelittlerocket
All natural light with the help of some ideal white wall pillars to bounce some of that lovely light around…
Santina Malacarne
Bondi Skate Park with Santina Malacarne
Here is this shoot in 25 seconds....a fun one in the blue bowl!
Editorial published in ELEGANT Magazine - Summer (Sept 2016) print edition
@elegantmagazine http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1167262
Cuban travels
Old American cars, matured multi-coloureds, cigars, rum and a rumba heartbeat
Cars, colours and Cubans in Trinidad, Sancti Spíritus province
This was my first trip to this charismatic and beautiful island. Compelled to explore ‘before it all changes’, but soon realising that the country’s charm and lure will not simply vanish over-night (thankfully!). While so many things really do make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time to the 1950s (1850s when it comes to Trinidad!), a cultural shift is definitely in progress and it's an exciting time to be in Cuba.
I was keenly anticipating impressive old American cars, matured multi-coloured building facades, cigars and rum. But it’s not until you are actually there do you really feel the island’s rumba heartbeat, and absorb its peoples’ pride and very evident sense of community.
You also can’t help but be compelled to learn more about it’s history over the last century; especially with revolutionary icons such as Martí, Fidel and Che so visibly revered. In Hababa Vieja, Hemingway seems to be next on the list of national heroes, with seemingly every bar enticing travellers with the claim that he used to drink his mojitos or daiquiris there!
Things we’ll remember:
The energy, music and history of Old Havana
Long cross-country Taxi Colectivo rides (6-8 people + bags stuffed into a well aged American classic)
The vivid colours, timeworn lifestyle and tropical backdrop of Spanish colonial Trinidad.
Scuba Diving in the beautiful blue waters near Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs)
Our Cuban hosts' extra warm & helpful hospitality (and humouring my made-up Spanish)
Milwaukee Art Museum
Architect Santiago Calatrava’s flying museum design
Santiago Calatrava designed: leading suspension bridge, mast and Burke Brise Soleil
I have always wanted to visit and shoot this stunning Santiago Calatrava designed lakeside building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 'Burke Brise Soleil' is the main feature; a massive moveable wing like structure which acts as a sunshade and automatic wind defense. Winds aside, the huge bird folds it's wings down twice a day. It is such a beautiful thing to witness in person.
Morocco. series II of II
2nd part of this little black and white series...
Sahara silvers
2nd part of this little black and white series...
During a very hot, dry Ramadan last July, we travelled east from the beautiful confusion of Marrakesh, up over the vivid High Atlas mountains and across the dusty baked savannas to the the desert village of Merzouga on the Algerian boarder. From here we took the southern loop back around to the shabby Atlantic surf town of Tagazout, and finally a few kms north to the artisan city of Essaouira for Eid al-Fatr.
Our journey gave us ancient medinas, soukes, and legions of minarets. Timeworn and abandoned riads, lush palmeraies, Saharan sand dunes and Berber desert camps. Nerve-racking low-fuel car journeys through the 50°+ desert tracks, a camel ride crash (yep, that happened), surprising local musical encounters, and the promise of the infamous Argan fruit-pooping 'goats in trees' (Eilidh reckons she glimpsed this phenomena from the car, but I didn't see it?!)
This last shot again taken by Eilidh. Me waiting half asleep (with bed hair) for the the sunrise over the Sahara Desert
Santina Malacarne
Bondi Skate Park with Santina Malacarne
Santina Malacarne
A quick beach-side coffee one week turned into a shoot the next with Santina at the local skate park. Blues on blues was the theme for this shoot…
Morocco. series I of II
1st part of this little black and white series...
West Sahara. Morocco, North Africa
Just a year ago, one of my oldest & greatest friends Eilidh and I took a little adventure to Morocco. I thought it about time I put a few of the images up (sorry its taken me a while Eils!)
During a very hot, dry Ramadan last July, we travelled east from the beautiful confusion of Marrakesh, up over the vivid High Atlas mountains and across the dusty baked savannas to the the desert village of Merzouga on the Algerian boarder. From here we took the southern loop back around to the shabby Atlantic surf town of Tagazout, and finally a few kms north to the artisan city of Essaouira for Eid al-Fatr.
Our journey gave us ancient medinas, soukes, and legions of minarets. Timeworn and abandoned riads, lush palmeraies, Saharan sand dunes and Berber desert camps. Nerve-racking low-fuel car journeys through the 50°+ desert tracks, a camel ride crash (yep, that happened), surprising local musical encounters, and the promise of the infamous Argan fruit-pooping 'goats in trees' (Eilidh reckons she glimpsed this phenomena from the car, but I didn't see it?!)
This final photo by Eilidh McGregor.... before my camel crash
Throttle Roll 2016
Throttle Roll costom motorcycle street party 2016
Throttle Roll 2016. Custom motorcycle street party in Sydney, Australia
(Triumph bobber build by @moonknine)
Last Sunday saw the Throttle Roll custom motorcycle street party move to its new location in Marrickville. A whole street taken over and dedicated to two-wheeled custom culture, with more stunning bike builds than you can shake a stick at, live bands, food trucks, manufacturer stands, competitions and plenty of beers. Here's a few photos before taking my bike home and returning to enjoy some cold ones in the evening....
Nina Höglund to Pie in the Sky
Nina Höglund to Pie in the Sky
Nina from the Throttle Dolls on a Moto Guzzi V7 Scrambler
Shooting some images for a moto article about the lovely Nina Höglund. One of the 3 founding Throttle Dolls, a formidable advocate for woman who ride, and one of my best friends. This morning’s ride took her with her friends and visiting Swedish family up the old Pacific Highway to Brooklyn, NSW. It's all smiles, hugs and positive vibes with this one!
Massive thank you to Erica Valenti for her car lend, and to Ollie Khedun for driving it while I hung out the back with a camera…
