Photographer | Writer | Mindfulness Advocate
As photographers, we are obviously interested in our subjects.
But are we curious about them? Are we curious enough to ask questions?
Mindfulness is how we see deeply and perceive the world uniquely. We come to understand the beautiful, interconnected nature of all things and learn how we relate to subjects we want to photograph.
For example, we may find a beautiful plant with vibrant yellow flowers growing on the forest floor.…
I get an immense amount of pleasure looking at Troy’s photography. He works with what the South Australian landscape gives him, creating clean, bordering on minimalist images with a certain nostalgia and plenty of negative space.
This is particularly true of Troy’s coastal scenes, often long exposures shot with beautiful pastels and textured water and skies. The notion of “less is more” is a great way to sum up his work I think.…
If you’ve seen the fascinating documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, you will have noticed the fanatical devotion that restaurant owner Jiro Ono applies to his craft as a sushi chef.
For Jiro, owning a sushi restaurant is not about paying the bills. Rather, it is a means for him to be able to do what he loves on a daily basis and do it exceedingly well.…
Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote in 1952 that the natural landscapes featured by Ansel Adams, devoid of any human presence, were not a worthy subject for photography.
This criticism was echoed by urbanites in New York who labelled some of Adams’ work as misanthropic, bleak, cold and so remote it had the potential to provoke terror.
“There is a person in every one of my photographs”, Adams would retort years later, perhaps understanding that city-dwelling critics would never understand his message.…
At some point, we want our photography to mean something. We want to graduate from taking images to making them.
No longer are we content with photographing a scene for posterity or jostling for position with other photographers at golden hour.
This discontent manifests as a lack of meaning. We know what we’re doing with our camera without necessarily knowing why.…
The vast majority of us will never make money from our photography.
Photography will, for the most part, be a hobby or passionate interest that we perform for the fun of it.
But sometimes photography isn’t so fun.
We compare ourselves to others. We become dejected when we don’t meet our very high expectations.
We are set in our ways and resistant to change, no matter how beneficial change might be.…
Rosalie Dibben is a proud South Australian and not afraid to show it.
Her feed is undoubtedly rural and outback Australia. More brown than green, more silent than noisy. Rosalie captures the essence of rural life so very well and in her interview, demonstrates the benefits of loving your backyard and developing a sense of place.
Please check out more of Rosalie’s superb work on Instagram at @rjdibs.…
Dogs always seem to know when it is dinner time, despite the fact that they don’t wear watches.
So how do they do it?
Perhaps they recognise the sound of a family member’s car in the evening or the way that their master smells after a long day at the office.
Or maybe it is as simple as golden evening light or their increasingly vocal stomachs.…
During the darkest days of my depression, photography was the sole activity that brought me any relief.
It helped me concentrate on something other than the maelstrom of thoughts swirling around in my head. The fog would lift, if only for a minute or two.
How had photography resisted the all-enveloping gloom of mental health disorder and become such an important part of my life?…
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This quote by Sommer is one of my favourites.
Eloquent, insightful and answering some complex questions with a relatively simple answer.
First, let’s start with the questions.…