When I was in Sydney this past October, I spent one afternoon wandering around The Rocks. It’s the oldest part of Sydney (or Australia) in terms of European views. It was also the day of the Melbourne Cup. The streets were crowded with people celebrating the race, and they were all dressed to the nines. Below is one of my pictures from this afternoon.
A simple door that led to a patio. It used to be a General Store, now it’s a museum. The door doesn’t work (I tried), but I’d like to think that the deliveries came through there from the back ally.
Adventure
28
Jan 11
Old Town
16
Jan 11
Fine Art Vision
This past fall, my girlfriend and I took some time off work/school and traveled for 4 months in the southern hemisphere. Specifically, Australia and New Zealand. I won’t go in to where we went and what we did (if you’re curious, visit msquareddownunder.wordpress.com) but I will give some details about what I saw and how it affected me personally and professionally.
First off, my gear. If I am ever to do it again, and there is a high possibility of more traveling, I will, without a doubt, bring more gear. Regardless of what all of the travel books, offices, and the things people might say about traveling with stuff you don’t want stolen, forget it all. It may have applied 10 or even 5 years ago, but not anymore. We would be staying in hostels where people would leave their laptop, camera and mobile on their bed in a 6 person dorm and leave. For the night. Not saying that it’s very smart, but stuff doesn’t have a lot of theft appeal when there is so much around. It seems like everyone these days is backpacking with their laptop. And to think that I was worried about taking my iPhone. The camera that I did take down there was the Panasonic DMC-LX3. A decent “high-end-point-and-shoot” camera. It’s on par with the G11 variant from Canon. In my opinion, it performed admirably and to its credit, within its specifications. As soon as I tried to use the camera as I would my Nikon D3 (obviously a higher level than a point-and-shoot) I found that it lacked, immensely. I also, in my glorious spat of wisdom, didn’t bring a tripod. Why? Maybe you can answer that, I just don’t know. I did however bring a flash and a wireless transmitter for the hotshoe. I used it once. Okay, twice, but the second time was only to see if the thing was still working after three and a half months of shoving in to my backpack (it didn’t work). All said and done, there are reasons why I went with a push-here-dummy camera and why I didn’t bring my SLR and lenses: size, weight, insurance, theft-o-meter, and the massive files my camera produces would have caused me to go for broke on memory cards (they’re really expensive down-under). The camera worked for why I wanted it but there were times when I was kicking myself for not bringing a bigger camera. It would have let me take so many shots where I simply stated “I wish I had my…” but then held my tongue for fear of my girlfriend actually kicking me for bringing up that ‘issue’ one more time. Continue reading →
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Dec 10
Northern Hemisphere
I’m home from my travel this “fall” down in Australia and New Zealand. I’m going to be going hard over the next couple of weeks on the pictures that I took down there and I’ll be setting up a small gallery that I’ll link to at that time. Over the next month or two I’m also going to be putting out a “casting call” of sorts for some photo ideas that I thought of during my inspirational trip, so if you’re interested in finding out what those may be or how you can be involved, message me on Facebook or email me. Thanks for being patient with me while I completely ignored this blog on my trip and look forward to more exciting things to come in the new year!
Matthew
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Aug 10
Australia
As of September 1st, 2010 my girlfriend and I will be making a trip down south. We’re going to be starting in Cairns and heading south to Melbourne. Once we reach Melbourne, we will hop over to Auckland, NZ for a couple weeks and then we should be on our way home.
What camera(s) will I be taking? Well, sadly only 2. I went out and purchased a small PHD Camera (Push Here Dummy) for the majority of my pictures. I’m also taking my iPhone. Yes, it’s a camera too and yes, I like taking pictures with it. The camera that I purchased (for you gear junkies out there) is the Panasonic LX3. It’s essentially the Canon G10 but with an f/2.0 Leica lens.
For those of you who want to keep track of me while I’m down there, I’m going to try and update my blog and my twitter feed as often as possible. I’ll also be posting pictures as much as possible too. If anybody is in dire need of me email would probably work best as I won’t have a real phone with me.
10
Apr 10
Vancouver 2010 – Pictures From The Streets
During the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, I had the chance to go and partake in some of the festivities that took place surrounding the men’s gold medal hockey game. During my visit there I saw people laughing, screaming, crying, standing, sitting, climbing, hugging, hi-fiveing, cheering, singing, dancing and watching. It was the most intense emotional experience somebody could have. If you were there, you know what I am talking about. Something, Canadian, was in the air that day. People were extra friendly and I heard the words “please”, “excuse me”, and “sorry” more than one person could say in a lifetime. I had the pleasure of meeting a few people while we were there and connecting (photographically) with so many on what proved to be a very patriotic day.
Continue reading →
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Dec 09
Vancouver Island Logging Camps
Last year while I was in school, a couple of my classmates and I went up to Jordan River for a photo day. This weeks Tasty Tuesday picture is from that trip.
After this trip I was inspired to go out and photograph other logging camps, working or not, around Vancouver Island. I haven’t made this trip yet, however, when I do I will be sure to make it a wonderful experience. The goal is to document the whole trip and get it down on paper in the form of a book.
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