Save Brooks Jetty

Unfortunately, Parks Victoria have taken the interesting step of demolishing one of the prettiest little jetties we have in St Kilda. Here's a link to some photos of what we've lost:

Brooks Jetty
(they're up for sale by the way, and definitely check out the lightning shots!)

And what was the other night:

And tonight:

:-(

And now... I love this little Olympus OMD

It's getting pretty warm here at the moment. Without bothering to look up any actual Buereau of Meteriology figures, I would say we've already had two or three really hot days in Melbourne already that just melt your brain (hence the not bothering to look up figures - it's hot again...) and it's only the 17th. We're actually a fair way down South in Melbourne, which generally makes for more stable weather - not too hot, not too cold, juuust right :-) but I do understand a lot of the rest of world pictures Australia as being a constant day at the beach (ala tropical Queensland- just get home before the storms roll in). Long story short, Melbourne, or the inner city suburb of St Kilda more specifically, is currently beach perfection. Awesome!
I have been out on the bike most days recently. After teaching in (bloody) Pakenham (65km each way), there is nothing better than to get down on the beachside bike path, a little camera over your shoulder and see what comes.
This is what comes... enjoy :-)

(oh, have a go at riding along a crowded route on a very unstable but very fast road bike, kitted up with a Canon 1d / 70-200 f2.8L IS combo. Or rather, don't. Get an Olympus mirrorless!)

(I hope this all makes sense by the way... it's too hot to be bothered with proof reading to be honest - oh, but there are more photos up on my flickr page
cut and paste:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/haydencharles/
or if you trust me, here's the link directly Hayden Charles on flickr )

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why i won't be switching to mirrorless just yet

Granted my experience with the little Olympus OMD EM5 is not a fair comparison to the 5+ years on Canon gear and the 20ish before that on fully-manual Pentax film equipment, but I have now had a solid month using it as my exclusive  camera system. I've tasked it with a variety of jobs, situations like landscapes, street, architecture, and portraiture. I've learned the respective required setups for each and I have been, in general, very impressed... but one of the biggest strengths of all my DLSRs, being quick and accurate auto-focus, has been sadly lacking on tonight's adventure. It's really quite a let down for me too, because to carry 10kgs+ for 12hours+ shooting weddings, is not fun.

Tonight:

St Kilda, on nights like this, unfortunately always seems to play host to a small number of random idiots who decide the best way to top off a perfect day at the beach is with a fight.
A hot day spent relaxing down at the beach with your friends, is often followed, once the sun has retired for the evening, by relocating your group to the eating and drinking establishments of Acland and Fitzroy Streets.  You would still feel the sun's warm kiss as you walk in the direction of nourishment, when you catch a familiar yellow glow in the distance. Perhaps subconsciously you actually think this to be your earlier, enormous, hot yellow companion, having only just departed, returning to you to play on.
But alas no, it is Maccas who beckons you, like a siren calling, resistance is futile. Fighting ensues.

Anyway, here's today's instalment, in short:-
I saw: agro and fighting, cops then in attendance, followed by a mad dash to "freedom" by a "big man".
You see: a sequence of images, taken by a working (and currently also teaching) photojournalist, that are well-composed to tell a full story, that also are all perfectly out-of-focus....  enjoy!

 FYI, to all the punks who think fighting makes you a man... a man would not have run when police arrived. He would feel safe, confident that he had justifiable reasons for his earlier actions. This is what comes when you think before you act. If you take on-board this little piece of advice when dealing with all conflict-based situations, I hope that one day you may even see the futility of fighting fullstop. Then will then be a real man, grasshopper.

minimalist urban landscapes

Here's a couple of photos I took recently while I took my photography class on a field trip. Still awaiting their submissions, but it's a great group so I have high expectations.

Frieze Gallery selling other flagrantly stolen images (allegedly - pretty bloody allegedly I add)

Poor form Frieze! Very, very poor form.

Here's my personal views and perspective on this situation as it stands currently. As in Prince has ripped other peoples' art off instagram, adding a single line of text, printing the images, and selling each through Frieze Gallery, New York for many tens of thousands of dollars.

So I say this.

As if it isn't hard enough being an artist in the digital world.
Our first point of contact to the wide world is online. It's the place you get seen, you have to have a folio online, or you can't be found. This does of course mean you're left exposed. Anyone can screenshot your work anywhere, anytime, and enjoy your hard work for free. And as an artist, you basically have to accept it. Accept that it's praise. Appreciate that someone likes what you have created. Because the average person seems unaware they have stolen anything. As an artist, you have to deal with this by the appreciating that it's for their personal enjoyment; they simply liked something they saw. It's not for any commercial gain, but it's just a pity they do not see the commercial deprivation.
As an artist, how can we police this? The cost far outweighs the return of chasing these anonymous thieves.
But when we look at the analogue world, we should feel safer. There is contact; human to human to human to art. Accountability.
We shouldn't have to worry that the supposed "experts", acting as our agents to the buying world (and as agents, you have the potential to represent any artist, therefore you are accountable to every artist for your actions) are willing to turn a blind eye to flagrant art theft from clients by another client.

... Allegedly.

You're allegedly arseholes too

Engagement Shoots... are awesome when your couple show up looking like this!

There's nothing better, as a photographer, than clients who are able to just relax and forget that I'm there taking their portrait. This is when you get the golden shots of people who aren't professional models.

I always try to spend the first part of any shoot with non-professional models just getting them used to the camera and being in constant focus; trying to distract couples with little techniques I've picked up over the years, but often there's no getting away from the fact that they can't disengage from that connection. You ask them to look this way or that, at each other, or at nothing (like having their eyes closed for instance) but you know their peripheral vision is squarely on you, even through closed eyes they look!

This couple, for all their protestations about being terribly awkward they get when they are having their photo taken, and how they really didn't mind if I didn't get anything too special that day... just let go. After a really short amount of time, they seemed to almost forget I was there; any self-consciousness they had sure didn't show anymore... in fact, I think they may have forgotten a couple of times that I was even there!
All I could see, and therefore shoot, was this beautiful couple lost in their love for each other.... perfect.

What do you think?

Shot at Fawkner Park, South Yarra, Melbourne in beautiful Autumn.

New landscape work

A bit of travel does wonders for getting some inspiration back