Photography: November 2024
01/11/24
Headspace Armidale organised a halloween event in the Armidale mall and while I was only there for 90 minutes (shooting street with friends Peacock Photography and Rami) the turn out was absolutely awesome. Tonnes of people, heaps of brilliant costumes, just good energy all around. Here is hoping it runs again next year.
10/11/24
I made my way down to Armidales Black Gully Festival for the first time. The music and energy was great, the weather was perfect and the company wonderful. During my time at the event I got to hear the music of El Admira, Nascent and Skele Jay.
My main goal was to test out some camera body and lens combinations I hadn't yet so I could make some informed choices for street photography in Brisbane next week, (I think I will be taking the Canon R8 with my 24mm pancake and always reliable 50mm) but I managed to catch a couple decent shots in the process.
11/11/24
I was recently lucky enough to head to Brisbane for three days, my old stomping grounds in many ways, as I lived there for a number of years. After spending the better part of a year taking photos in the countryside, it’s always nice to return to the city and capture images in a style that’s not really an option in more rural areas. I do my best with street photography in the country, leveraging events and other special occasions that draw crowds, but in the city, there’s never a shortage of people.
Admittedly, the first day was spent mostly in transit—it’s about a six-hour drive, not including stops—so most of my shots were either taken out of the car window as we drove into the city or during a brief walk around the Botanic Gardens that afternoon as the sun went down. That said, I still managed to capture a couple of decent shots.
12/11/24
Proved to be a little more exciting, with a large portion of the day spent shopping (as you do in the city). On my end, it was mainly movies—I added a few new A24 films to my collection, including The Iron Claw and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. I also picked up Robert Morgan’s Stopmotion and Dev Patel’s Monkey Man. In addition to shopping, I spent time exploring South Bank and the Sky Deck.
Having the entire day free also allowed for far more photography opportunities. The weather was perfect for shooting, even if it was a little sticky. All in all, it was a pretty successful day.
13/11/24
Our final day in Brisbane turned out to be perhaps the most productive. I got up extra early in the morning specifically to photograph people in Queen Street Mall, and I think I captured some pretty great shots in that location. Skipping a sleep-in that morning was well worth it.
During the middle of the day, we went shopping again, with the highlight this time being a very, very old bookstore. I picked up Vin Rude and Rude Food by David Thorpe, Touch of Silk by Peter Barry, and Hot Foot to Zabriskie Point by Jilly Cooper and Patrick Lichfield—all focused on nude photography, a genre I’m hoping to explore more in 2025.
We also took a nice, long CityCat ride up the river, though it didn’t yield as many good photos as I had hoped or expected. Later that afternoon, I spent an hour on a single street corner, experimenting to see how many good photos I could capture in one location during that time. I managed to get quite a few.
Once that was wrapped up, it was time to head to the Heilung concert, which was the main reason we drove to Brisbane in the first place—and, yeah, it was excellent.
That was Brisbane. I have no idea when I’ll be back again, but I thoroughly enjoyed our short stay.
15/11/24
November 15th had me riding my new Royal Enfield Continental 650 (picked up on the drive home from Brisbane, as mentioned in the previous post) out to Walcha for the 2024 Walcha Motorcycle Rally—and what a ride it was! Between the rough state of the road between Uralla and Walcha, a farm dog darting directly in front of me while I was cruising at 100 km/h, and riding through two storms—one of which generously showered me in hail—it was hardly the ideal first day for my new bike. (The ride home wasn’t much better, for the record.)
As for the rally itself, Friday was quieter than I had expected; apparently, the following day was much busier, with better weather as well. I managed to snap some shots of a couple of the rally’s events, though.
The first event was the beard competition—a lighthearted affair that had plenty of laughs. Numerous people encouraged me to enter (I didn’t), but I did capture some great shots of the crowd enjoying themselves. It was definitely not an event to be taken too seriously.
The second event was the burnout competition, which really brought out the energy in the crowd. I probably inhaled far more evaporated rubber than is healthy, but it was worth it for some of the shots I captured. One might even make its way into my portfolio—we’ll see.
Although I was invited to attend the rally on the second day and fully intended to go, I ended up getting a call that morning for a paid gig covering another event. But I guess you’ll have to read all about that in my next blog.
