St George Bank Ad Shoot: Bowl Cut
St. George Bank Bowl Cut
I just shot an ad for St. George Bank that was a blast to shoot. We spent the day shooting a kid with a couple different wigs on and we started off with a conservatively well-cut bowl cut haircut for each wig. I started hacking away at them with terrible scissors until the haircuts became progressively more awful and the crew and models were laughing between shots. It was a blast to shoot.
Client: St. George Bank Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Art Director: Simon O'Niel
OPSM Ad Campaign in Australia and New Zealand
I recently spent several weeks traveling and working with Saatchi & Saatchi on a new ad campaign for the eye wear retailer OPSM. The job was a really exciting project for me to be a part of because it picked two small towns- Busselton, Western Australia and Napier, New Zealand- and found people of all ages and walks of life who use and need their product, eye glasses. Saatchi & Saatchi scoured through Australian and New Zealand census data to determine a town in each country that encompassed the broad range of types of jobs, incomes, ethnicities etc. that represent each country. We met with bushfire fighters, a horse whisperer, a bagpipe marching band, a master jeweller and a beekeeper just to name a few. I was really excited by the notion of shooting my favorite subject in advertising work: real people with real stories. These are just a few of the shots from Busselton, Western Australia. I'll post images from the New Zealand campaign which was shot in Napier, New Zealand in the near future.
Like most of the large productions I've been working on lately, I was shooting alongside a TVC production that was filming spots for TV and the web, while I was shooting images for the new catalog, website and everything print- in-store, billboards etc. We shot every day for 10-14 hours a day for 2 weeks and I ended up shooting portraits of over 100 people and a lot of landscapes along the way. Most days I would shoot alongside the TVC crew, grabbing shots when I could and stepping in when the TVC guys were done or had a few minutes to hand the subject and location over to me. In each city I had a day to shoot 25 portraits a day which broke down to a new location, set up and portrait every 20 minutes or so for 9 hours. An exhausting but exhilarating exercise as the opportunity to meet new people with great stories just kept coming. At one point I ended up getting pretty emotional at a small town bag piper rehearsal after feeling so lucky that these people would allow us to come in and be a part of their private experience, something I would have never been able to know about or be a part of if I was on my own traveling through this small town.
At the end of the 2 week assignment I'd shot portraits of more than 100 people, was tired, sore and really missed home but damn, I enjoyed that job. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
CD: Matt Gilmour Sr AD: Nils Eberhardt Sr Copywriter: Veronica Copestake The TVC/Motion campaign was produced by Tobias Webster at EXIT Films and directed by Stephen Carroll.
New Zealand Surfing Day Trip
I recently had 2 huge jobs which both happened to bring me to New Zealand for shooting. We had a brief day with my fantastic assistant Maxy where he took us to an incredible black sand beach north of Auckland and we took a break from the crazy job and spent the evening surfing. I suppose it's a bit of cliche now to say that New Zealand is place full of lovely people and beautiful landscapes but it just is.
Kids Shoot Test- Alicia and kids
I did a test shoot with Sydney agency Bump Models a few weeks ago and got the chance to work with Alicia and her kids Ryan and Sara. I love working with kids and when I test I try to see how much I can get out of them within a time limit- say half an hour or an hour and a half or something like that. Most shoots that I'm hired for that use kids usually get planned in such a way that I have a limited time to get something and then I have to move on. For the test shoots I try to let the kids get crazy, come up with ideas as they're happening and let them play freely to allow them to come up with things naturally on their own. Nine times out of ten the parent is worried that the kids are being too wild and are apologizing for them and yelling at the children to be polite and do what I ask. I usually have to reassure them that the mayhem is perfectly fine and exactly what I want. At the end of the hour or two hours I've got a ton of great images and the kids are wiped out, the parents are relieved and everyone's happy.
The Monocle Guide to Better Living
The Monocle Magazine has just come out with a hefty new book titled, "The Monocle Guide to Better Living" and I have a two page spread inside featuring a shoot about swimming in Sydney I did for them last year. It's a beautiful book and it's great to have my images alongside other photographers and stories from around the world.
Aussie Bodies: Keep Going
A few months ago I was asked to shoot stills alongside a TVC production for Aussie Bodies. I shot portraits of several famous Aussie athletes and an everyday yoga mom in action for the Australian protein and supplements brand Aussie Bodies for use in print and online. Each story was a pretty inspiring one:
A few months ago I was asked to shoot stills alongside a TVC production for Aussie Bodies. I shot portraits of several famous Aussie athletes and an everyday yoga mom in action for the Australian protein and supplements brand Aussie Bodies for use in print and online. Each story was a pretty inspiring one: Sally Fitzgibbons is a world champion professional surfer and started winning titles when she was 14 after just a few years of surfing. Kelly Cartwright lost her leg to cancer when she was 15 and has since climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and won gold and silver medals at the 2012 London Paralympics. Lewis Jetta was part of the Sydney Swan's 2012 AFL Premiership title known for several of his last-second game saving goals. Marcus Bottay is a Guinness Book of World Records holder for the rope climb and is sort of the king of those guys who work out in the fitness yard on Bondi Beach. He's also a big believer in freeing people from gym and healthclub memberships and teaching them that opportunities to get fit, be healthy and have fun are everywhere. It was one of those jobs where I felt lucky to get to meet a bunch of pretty inspiring people.
Sally Fitzgibbons for Aussie Bodies
Sally Fitzgibbons for Aussie Bodies
Sally Fitzgibbons for Aussie Bodies
Marcus Bottay for Aussie Bodies
Marcus Bottay for Aussie Bodies
Marcus Bottay for Aussie Bodies
Lewis Jetta for Aussie Bodies
Lewis Jetta for Aussie Bodies
Lewis Jetta for Aussie Bodies
Kelly Cartwright for Aussie Bodies
Australian Mangoes
Mangoes in the summer in Australia are amazing- during my first summer here in Sydney I went crazy for them. Every Sunday I would buy a box of 20 mangoes for 20 bucks and spend the next couple days dripping with juice, eating them over the sink. My mother-in-law grew up in South Africa and her fondest memories of Christmas always involved piles of mangoes (and that's all that she ever wants from us for Christmas). Needless to say, I was pretty excited when the people who represent Aussie Mangoes contacted me to do some shots for them.
Mangoes in the summer in Australia are amazing- during my first summer here in Sydney I went crazy for them. Every Sunday I would buy a box of 20 mangoes for 20 bucks and spend the next couple days dripping with juice, eating them over the sink. My mother-in-law grew up in South Africa and her fondest memories of Christmas always involved piles of mangoes (and that's all that she ever wants from us for Christmas). Needless to say, I was pretty excited when the people who represent Aussie Mangoes contacted me to do some shots for them. Along with shooting some mango recipes for them they really wanted to show a family doing what Aussie families do best- having barbecues and having fun outside.
After a little searching we ended up lucking out and finding a fantastic family for the shoot. It's not always possible, but if I have the opportunity, I always prefer to work with a real family as opposed to a family made up of assorted talent. The main reason is that, well, it's real. I always think that it serves the client in a better way because they can say, "Yes, this really is a real family enjoying themselves" and it helps me do my job faster because we don't have to worry about any awkwardness- we can dive right in. It also helps with how I approach these types of shoot days. I'm usually presented with a shot list in the brief and I use that as a guide to how the days will flow. Once we get the wardrobe, maybe some props and other lighting/tech things set up I like to push that stuff out of my mind and begin the shoot. In this case, I spent the days cooking and eating with the family, cleaning up, having dessert and then running around in the back yard in the sprinklers with the kids. The end result is that we have a lot of fun and we get a lot of real moments of a family spending time together. I'd say the only negative thing about doing this shoot was that the mom was a little exasperated that I had gotten the kids so wound up and had fed them something like a dozen mangoes each- I think she was a little worried that they were never going to go to sleep again. I got to go home with about 20 kilos of mangoes and spent the next week making mango chutney, mango jam, mango pavlova...
Slicing the Mango
Scooping the mango cheeks out of the skin with a glass.
The mango cheeks removed
Mango, spinach, chicken and white bean salad
Mango, prawn and rocket salad with a capsicum vinaigrette
Mango pavlova
Grilled Lamb and Mangoes
Bondi Kite Festival
Last week I covered the Bondi Kite Festival for a local Bondi magazine "Life in the Bubble" and had a great time getting my feet wet in the Bondi surf while shooting these amazing kites. More images and the story can be seen here: http://www.lifeinthebubble.com/issue/2012/may/windsofchange
Monocle Magazine: Sydney Swimming
Last month Monocle Magazine featured the most liveable cities in the world and of course, Sydney was one of them. They wanted me to travel around the Sydney area and document the people and places that makes swimming feature so strongly in the Sydney lifestyle. I traveled around the northern beaches like Balmoral and Manly and many of the eastern beaches like Clovelly, Maroubra and of course, Bondi. I'm a big swimmer myself so I was really looking forward to hitting the spots that I love and getting the chance to find some new ones.
Last month Monocle Magazine featured the most liveable cities in the world and of course, Sydney was one of them. They wanted me to travel around the Sydney area and document the people and places that makes swimming feature so strongly in the Sydney lifestyle. I traveled around the northern beaches like Balmoral and Manly and many of the eastern beaches like Clovelly, Maroubra and of course, Bondi. I'm a big swimmer myself so I was really looking forward to hitting the spots that I love and getting the chance to find some new ones. After a summer and autumn of almost non stop rain I lucked out- the weather was fantastic and it was great to have an excuse to spend a lot of time near the water.
Below is Murray Cox. It was sheer luck meeting Murray as he was the first person I met on the first morning I went out to begin shooting for the article. It turns out Murray has been swimming in Sydney his entire life and is one of those rare swimmers who has "connected the dots," which means he swam every beach in the Sydney area from Palm Beach in the north down to Kernell in the south. He knew everybody associated with swimming in Sydney and put me in touch with just about everyone else I had to shoot for this article. What a find!
It was the beginning of winter here in Sydney when I began to shoot for this article, so most swimmers had retired until spring. Most of the people I met for the article were the few hard-core all season people. When I first moved to Australia I swam year-round as I was accustomed to swimming in chilly Lake Michigan (the water temp in Lake Michigan still never gets warmer in the summer than Sydney gets in the winter) and I would happily spend an hour or so in the winter water in my board shorts. A lifeguard had come out once to check to make sure I didn't have hypothermia and I sort of laughed at the idea of being that cold. Now, a year and half into living in Oz and I'm completely acclimated and I can't go in the water for more than 10 minutes without reaching for my wetsuit and feeling like I'm going to freeze to death.
My mother happened to be visiting us from the U.S. for a few weeks so I decided that it would be a great way to show her a bit of Sydney by taking her with me to Balmoral to shoot one of the Balmoral women's swimming clubs. The women loved that I brought my mom to a shoot and my mom ended up being so inspired by the incredible fitness of these swimmers (many of whom are my mom's age or older) that she decided afterwards to join a swim club.
Mazda BT-50 Shoot: Zoom Zoom Magazine
Last month I was asked by the UK's Redwood Media Group to shoot a story featuring Mazda's new BT-50 model for its award-winning online presence, Zoom Zoom Magazine. They wanted to tell a story about a day in the life of a BT-50 owner with a natural, reportage feel- showcasing its versatility by following the owner through rough terrain, a surf trip, a trip to the zoo "glamping" (glamorous camping) with his nieces and capped with a night out on the town.We had a looonngggg shot list for the 2 day shoot and I was working alongside Jefferson Grainger, from Corporate Video Australia, who was shooting the motion segment of the piece for the web.
Last month I was asked by the UK's Redwood Media Group to shoot a story featuring Mazda's new BT-50 model for its award-winning online presence, Zoom Zoom Magazine. They wanted to tell a story about a day in the life of a BT-50 owner with a natural, reportage feel- showcasing its versatility by following the owner through rough terrain, a surf trip, a trip to the zoo "glamping" (glamorous camping) with his nieces and capped with a night out on the town.We had a looonngggg shot list for the 2 day shoot and I was working alongside Jefferson Grainger, from Corporate Video Australia, who was shooting the motion segment of the piece for the web. Working alongside a motion crew on the same production can be pretty challenging for a still shooter because it can significantly cut into the time there is to shoot- especially if the motion crew is shooting sound or if they don't want to give time to the still shooter (which happens a lot). Thankfully that wasn't the case in this shoot as Jefferson and I both realized that we were going to have to really work together to make sure that each of us got what we needed and it was actually a lot of fun bouncing ideas off one another as to how to get as many good shots as we could in the time that we had. The client was really happy with the results and I just finished shooting a second feature in Sydney for Zoom Zoom Magazine last week. I've included the tears and just a few of the images from the shoot here.
Monocle Magazine Shoot: Darwin, Australia
Last month Monocle Magazine sent me up to Australia's Northern Territory to cover a story on their burgeoning capital city, Darwin. Darwin has become big news in the last few years as the United States has promised to begin stationing several hundred troops there in an effort to re-establish a naval presence in that part of the world. There's also been some massive investment in natural gas by the Japanese and French to the tune of $39 billion AUD. Monocle wanted to find out how this new interest in Darwin might change the city and what the people and government thought about it. I teamed up with Darwin journalist Eric Tlozek to meet some VIPs there and shoot everything I could with the 2 days that I had.
Last month Monocle Magazine sent me up to Australia's Northern Territory to cover a story on their burgeoning capital city, Darwin. Darwin has become big news in the last few years as the United States has promised to begin stationing several hundred troops there in an effort to re-establish a naval presence in that part of the world. There's also been some massive investment in natural gas by the Japanese and French to the tune of $39 billion AUD. Monocle wanted to find out how this new interest in Darwin might change the city and what the people and government thought about it. I teamed up with Darwin journalist Eric Tlozek to meet some VIPs there and shoot everything I could with the 2 days that I had. I've included the tearsheets here and just a few of my favorite shots from the trip.
It was over 90°F and 99% humidity when I was there so my lens would fog up every time I took the lens cap off and I was dripping with sweat pretty much the entire time. I was dying to go for a swim but couldn't because the water is filled with deadly box jellyfish. I also had the strange experience of getting thrown out of public spaces and people making me delete pictures because they were afraid they might be in the shots- I guess they're a little spooked up there about strangers walking around and taking pictures.
In my own experience, a lot of the people didn't really like all the new attention that was being brought to Darwin and quite a few didn't like what the new money and gentrification was bringing. One guy told me how much he missed the Darwin that he knew before the streets were paved (which wasn't all that long ago). Conversely, we had many people welcome us into their homes as we took pictures of the unique style of architecture in Darwin designed specifically for the tropical climate called Troppo Architecture. I also met people who had a key role in bringing about Darwin's change including the Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, the head of the Northern Territory's Cattleman's Association and a couple who successfully launched the first lifestyle magazine and gay nightclub in the entire Northern Territory. In their eyes the timing of Darwin's coming changes is just about right.
Ad Campaign: GoodStart Early Learning 3rd ad
These images are for the third ad of the GoodStart Early Learning campaign that I shot with the ad agency The Monkeys. To continue with the concept used in the first images that I shot for this campaignwhere the tagline is physically integrated into the image we wanted to create life-size letters that the children could interact with. When I first saw the concept drawings for this ad I was really excited with the idea of the kids running around and interacting with the letters in the shoot.
These images are for the third ad of the GoodStart Early Learning campaign that I shot with the ad agency The Monkeys. To continue with the concept used in the first images that I shot for this campaignwhere the tagline is physically integrated into the image we wanted to create life-size letters that the children could interact with. When I first saw the concept drawings for this ad I was really excited with the idea of the kids running around and interacting with the letters in the shoot. I had a pretty specific idea in my head as to how big the letters should be and how they should look so that they were the right size for the kids to play with and that their scale would read properly when set at different distances when placed in the large room. I jumped in and offered to build the letters myself. I had studied glass sculpture in college and one of the things that was a constant part of the creative process in sculpture was the act of building a maquette out of cardboard, wax or other materials before one went on to attempt to build the final object. This helps the sculptor visualize how the final product will be assembled, how much material will be needed and what obstacles one might come across in the process. I spent a lot of time gluing cardboard together in college although it didn't really help all that much since I broke just about everything I made... But I was pretty sure I had the chops to make the letters for this shoot in the way that I wanted them to look.
In some cases I had to distort the letters so that they would look normal in the lens width and perspective that I was planning to use in the shoot.
At first, spending long days listening to music while working with cardboard and hot glue was sort of fun and reminded me of college years. One of the interesting challenges in this project was being reminded that I now live in a fairly small country (Australia with 20m people) and it's not like where I used to live (the U.S.) where you can get just about anything and get it cheaply. While back in the States I could go to just about any packing supply shop and easily buy or find cardboard with a white side to it, white cardboard just doesn't seem to exist in Australia. I was quoted by some company that it would cost me several hundred dollars for them to print the color white onto the amount of cardboard I would need and it would have to be rush shipped up from Melbourne at no small expense and it would probably arrive late. I ended up having to paint the letters myself and I was surprised at just how much paint a thirsty piece of cardboard can soak up before it looks like solid white and ended up painting 4-5 coats for each letter. After getting about halfway through the letters (and about a dozen hot glue burns on my fingers) it came flooding back to me how tedious this kind of studio work was.
At the shoot the kids had a great time playing with the letters and drawing all over them. Hiding in the rocket ship seemed to be a pretty big deal and a pecking order was immediately established as to who could spend the most time in the ship. It was only when they realized that they could kick and throw the letters that the shoot started to get a little hectic as the client, the agency and myself realized that the letters could get destroyed before we finished shooting. I had to jump in and run around, playing with the kids and distracting them from destroying the letters while I shouted instructions for when the art director should shoot, as he had become the camera operator about mid-way into the day so that I could manage the craziness.
All in all, it was probably a bad idea on my part to decide to build these letters the week between Christmas and New Years- which happened to be the week my baby daughter was due to be born. Having a baby is stressful enough but having to make gigantic cardboard letters while wondering if my baby is coming every time my phone rings is a bit more stress than anyone needs in a decade.
I finished the letters and we had the shoot 3 days after my daughter was born. It seemed like the minute the shoot was over and I was back at home I slept for what seemed like days. It might be a while before I volunteer myself for prop making but all in all I was pretty happy with the experience and end result.
Ad Campaign: GoodStart Early Learning
In December I worked with the impressive Sydney agency The Monkeys on a three image campaign for Australia's GoodStart Early Learning Program. The GoodStart program has hundreds of early learning centers around Australia focused on children's learning development in the crucial first 5 years of their life. Our approach to the shoot was to capture children engaged in discovery and play with their environment and the tagline, "Minds Now Open," becomes an integrated part of the image and the activity.
In December I worked with the impressive Sydney agency The Monkeys on a three image campaign for Australia's GoodStart Early Learning Program. The GoodStart program has hundreds of early learning centers around Australia focused on children's learning development in the crucial first 5 years of their life. Our approach to the shoot was to capture children engaged in discovery and play with their environment and the tagline, "Minds Now Open," becomes an integrated part of the image and the activity. Here are the first 2 images, already out on the streets. The third will be up soon as the finishing touches are made.
Pampers Village- Images for Global Website Relaunch
This past July I had the fantastic opportunity to go to New York and work with Saatchi & Saatchi and Strawberry Frog to shoot a series of images for the global relaunch of the Pampers Village website. Pampers Village is a site overseen by Pampers as a resource for parents and parents-to-be that serves as an information hub and an online community. The site covers a huge range of information for parents from learning about prenatal care to preparing your child for her first day of school.
This past July I had the fantastic opportunity to go to New York and work with Saatchi & Saatchi and Strawberry Frog to shoot a series of images for the global relaunch of the Pampers Village website. Pampers Village is a site overseen by Pampers as a resource for parents and parents-to-be that serves as an information hub and an online community. The site covers a huge range of information for parents from learning about prenatal care to preparing your child for her first day of school.
The goal was to create a small library of images that would cover a broad range of ages and demographics so that as each country- or region-specific Pampers Village website rolls out they would have the appropriate imagery. Among the usual challenges of finding a range of locations, ethnicities and strong talent covering a lot of ages, we had to have it all in one place (and where else but New York?!). For about a month of pre-production I had to get up around 4am, work through the day and go to bed around 1am in order to be on the same page with the clients, the agency and my production team. I was in Sydney, the Creative Director was in Capetown, my producer was somewhere in southern France, the web design team were in the Netherlands, the agency was in NYC and the client was somewhere in the wilds of Canada (Toronto, I think). As one group of people were going to bed somewhere in the world another group were waking up somewhere else. By the time I arrived in New York we were hammering out the final details and the shoot went like clockwork... mostly due to the efforts of my indefatigable producer- whose name I reluctantly share- Annika Howe. It was a great week of shooting and working with Saatchi & Saatchi's Global Creative Director Tris Gates-Bonarius was one of the best working experiences I've ever had.
Here are a few images from the new Pampers Village (the first site to roll out with the new look has been the site for Ireland.) As more country sites come out I'll put up more pictures from the shoot.
New lifestyle work for a Sydney real estate company
Back in April, a design firm based in North Sydney called Delivery Inc hired me to shoot some imagery for a new real estate development there called The Belvedere. The challenge was to find compelling imagery that told a story about working and living in North Sydney for them to use on the web, in print, in billboards, etc. I had only been living in Sydney for a few months at that point and hadn't really been to North Sydney so I needed to do some exploring. I spent 16 hours walking many miles crisscrossing North Sydney, Milsons Point and Kirribilli and shot many, many images. It was exhausting but a lot of fun.
