On Photography - I love to make portraits - Kirk Tuck (Fri 07 Dec 2012)

Grandpa (Eric) [1] - John Sharman (*) Gallery / Mogo (Sun 07 Dec 2003)
Kirk Tuck (*) writes about the beauty the wonderful relationship he has with photography in (*):

I love to make portraits.

I love that not all of my subjects are required to smile.

I love that we can spend time talking about life while we're making portraits.

I love to work in black and white but I don't fear color.

I love light that can be both dramatic and flattering.

I love the contrast of dark shirts against light skin.

I love longish lenses and continuous lights.

I love going back and looking at old contact sheets to look at the "paths" not taken and then re-scanning and reprinting to see if my tastes have grown or changed since we last peeked into the contact sheets and made our choices.

Another amazing piece of writing about photography by a professional photographer. Got to love that. Thanks Kirk.

[1] Random Recollection - This is a photo of my Grandfather (my Father's Father). My brother, along with my Aunt took him on a drive and at my Aunt's suggestion we ended up at John Sharman's Art Gallery. My Aunt knows him well and she has a few of his paintings. John had also made some paintings from the cliff on the edge of my Grandfathers property at Malua Bay. One of the paintings is the unframed painting behind my Grandfather. This is a nice reminder of my childhood days spend at Malua Bay with my Grandparents.

I have a few more portraits from that day which I will publish here at some stage.

Grace - Alexandria (Sat 17 Nov 2002)

Grace - Alexandria (Sat 17 Nov 2002)

On Photography, Relationships and Identity - Joel Meyerowitz (YouTube)

What you put in the frame determines the photograph - Joel Meyerowitz [YouTube (*)]
If you have been taking photographs for a while, this will really make sense and inspire you to think about what you have been doing and how you might want to view the way you take photographs in the future. Here is part of what he had to say:

[..] when I think about my photographs, I understand that my interest all along has not been in identifying a singular thing, but in photographing the relationship between things.

The unspoken relationship, the tacit relationship, the impending relationship.

All of these variables are there if you chose to see in this, in this way.

But if you chose to only make objects out of singular things you wind shooting the arrow into the bullseye all the time and you get copies of objects in space.

I did not want copies of objects.

I wanted the ephemeral connections between unrelated things to vibrate.

And if my pictures work at all, at their best they are suggesting these tenuous relationships.

And that fragility is what so human about them.

And I think it's what's also in the romantic tradition, because it is a form of humanism that says we are all part of this together.

I am not just a selector of objects.

And there's plenty of photographers here who are great photographers but who only work in the object reality frame of reference.

They collect things and I don't think of myself as a collector.

It's my sense of where I am different from other people and that's not a measure or judgement.

It's just a sense of your own identity.

For me the play is always in the potential - it's like magnetism.

Thanks Joel and congratulations on a fantastic career in your chosen profession.

Geoff and Michael - Blackwattle Bay / Glebe (Sun 25 Nov 2012)

Geoff and Michael - Blackwattle Bay / Glebe (Sun 25 Nov 2012)
We played hockey together starting in 1982. We bumped into each other recently and Grace took this photo for me, After spending a few years with his Family in Narooma as a cartoonist, they now live in Orange he is a practicing architect. It was great to catch up after all these years.

Blooming - Alexandria (Fri 30 Nov 2012)

Blooming - Alexandria (Fri 30 Nov 2012)
Hundreds of buds flowering at the moment. Gave it the Daido Moriyama treatment which I quite like.

Happy Birthday Tim - Manuka / Canberra (Sat 29 Nov 2003)

Happy Birthday Tim - Manuka / Canberra (Sat 29 Nov 2003)
It was a few days early - his Birthday was the 4 Dec - and all his Family and Friends gathered to celebrate his 40th. Bumped into Michael (he is leaning against the post with the camera) Sunday week ago and I have a photo for here shortly.

Grace and Jenny - Manuka / Canberra (Fri 28 Dec 2003)

Grace and Jenny - Manuka / Canberra (Fri 28 Dec 2003)
Grace and Jenny prepare Tim's 40th Birthday Cake.