Blog

17
Jan

Run Red, and some musings about failure

It’s been six whole weeks since I last released a photo which is probably more of a surprise to me than you. Back in November I photographed all the component pieces I needed for a photo that I hoped would be my biggest and best yet but I’m afraid to say that after weeks of work I […]

29
Nov

Wallflower

‘Wallflower’ came into existence because I found this tutorial by Andrei Oprinca, which is a technique I’ve always wanted to try (mainly because of the shirt/wallpaper scene in Garden State) and also because I’ve been debating whether to do a tutorial on displacement masks. In a nutshell, displacement maps can be used to make a texture fit a […]

8
Nov

Jacaranda season in Brisbane

Every September my city (Brisbane, Australia) turns purple when the Jacaranda trees begin to bloom. The purple flowers are feared by students because it signifies exams are about to start and relished by locals and tourists because they’re such a beautiful sight. For me it means packing up my camera and heading out on numerous day […]

25
Oct

Back to the Future

Seeing as Back to the Future day is now in our past and even I, a committed fan, am quite done hearing about it for the time being, I no longer want to dwell on why I made this tribute image. But I do want to talk about how I made it and what I […]

11
Oct

RAW Brisbane Showcase – the show goes on!

On Thursday 1 October I exhibited my work for the very first time at RAW Brisbane’s MERGE showcase. After months of planning, buying things for my display and organising prints it was wonderful to finally have everything come together. There was a great response to my work with lots of positive feedback and people spent […]

27
Sep

Tree Change

When I photographed last week’s shadow image I also shot a few other concepts; the tree girl being one of them. She sat open on my computer for a week, with her tree arms on a plain background, and I kept staring at her thinking there was nothing I could do to make her interesting.   I looked through […]

18
Sep

RAW Brisbane showcase

In less than two weeks on Thursday 1 October I will be exhibiting my work FOR THE FIRST TIME as part of RAW Brisbane’s ‘Merge’ showcase. RAW showcases are run all over the world and feature the work of visual artists, designers, musicians, filmmakers, photographers and hair and make up artists. Having looked at the […]

13
Sep

Lifestyle shoot in a field

Since the Exposing Illusions tutorial blog is now a fortnightly affair I’ve decided to fill the off-weeks with other bits and pieces I’ve been working on. Recently I’d been thinking about doing a lifestyle shoot to add to my portfolio with the stock agency, Arcangel. While driving around my suburb with my mum looking for locations we […]

30
Aug

The Blue Girl

Although this isn’t a tutorial week I got a bit carried away with the underwater theme after last week’s tutorial and wanted to try filling half a room with water which is how ‘The Blue Girl’ came about. I photographed myself against a blank wall in my living room with a floor to ceiling window diagonally to my left for light. […]

23
Aug

How to fake an underwater photo with Photoshop

How long I’ve wanted to shoot underwater! When girls in pretty dresses are combined with the weightlessness of water the results are elegant and ethereal. But shooting underwater is costly as it requires expensive purpose-built camera housing (around $2k) or an underwater point and shoot, which is cheaper (around $500) but offers less control. You […]