Throwing Halloween parties are a bit of a tradition of mine. Since moving out of home I have thrown five parties, and each year I am impressed with the level people go to in dressing up. I’ve never really celebrated Halloween before moving out of home (not that many people in Australia do) but for me it is always fun to get crafty with my housemates, decorating the house and then getting a little boozey. A tradition I started a few years ago also was also setting up a mini-studio at home. This year I wanted to play with a ring-flash look, and after buying a few coloured paper rolls earlier in the year I thought it was time to crack out the red.

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This year my Splendour in the Grass festival saw me mainly backstage assisting Dan Boud in the FasterLouder studio. As I knew I wouldn’t have much time to actually shoot much myself I decided to head to the festival grounds a day early so that I could have a full day shooting my own photos. I decided to undertake two projects at Splendour this year, the first being a timelapse of my whole festival experience (video to come soon) plus portraits of the punters at the festival. I spent the afternoon of the Thursday walking through the festival and campsite taking photos of interesting people I saw.

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Last week I caught up with Maggie Collins for a quick headshot/ portrait session. Maggie Collins is a weekend host on Triple J and she needed some shots to accompany her online staff profile on the Triple J website.

The shoot was SUCH a blast with Maggie keen to do pretty much anything. After 20 minutes and a costume change we wrapped with a buttload of great shots. Maggie chose these as her favourites.

Much love goes out to Carla Cosgrove for doing Maggie’s hair and make-up. Also to my helpful assistant’s Michael Battensby and Tessa Fox.

On Sunday Mr Maps performed a free set on a tennis court in New Farm park. In collaboration with Small Lakes and Guerilla Gigs, the gig was held to launch their new single Tennis Party. With weather threatening to call off/ postpone the gig a small crowd hovered around the tennis courts during soundcheck. But almost like clockwork 2PM hit with blue skies and a crowd of 200 people packed on the courts to watch Mr Maps play.

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In March and April I was commissioned for the second year in a row to photograph new marketing and promotion photos for the Southbank Institute of TAFE. Over a few days I was commissioned to photograph across a few different faculties. At the moment some of these images are being used in advertising for the TAFE. Look out for them around the traps.

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Neal McGuinness - the "English Gentleman"

So two weeks ago I decided to undertake a series photographing men who had grown a moustache for Movember. I decided I wanted to test out a style of lighting I had only really played with at home, a simple black and white portrait, showing off the mos in a serious, yet hopefully comical way.

I pushed myself a little with this project and set out to also interview all my subjects to find out a bit more about their experiences and reasonings behind participating in Movember. I quite enjoyed playing interviewer as well, the first time I had done this. This is something I’d definitely love to do again (both the interviewing and the portrait series).

Mike Fritz - the "German"

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Last month I worked with a friend on his final year QUT project. He had to style a shoot with a concept that got me excited, a movie inspired men’s fashion shoot. The three I got to photograph was the Fight Club, Anchorman and Pulp Fiction inspired shots. These will be appearing in the QUT fashion magazine Frock Paper Scissors which will be out in a month’s time.

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This year was my fourth year (I think) photographing the Queensland Poetry Festival. It is one of my favourite times of the year, and one of my favourite festivals to photograph as I have been doing it for so long, and it is a chance for me to reflect on the year that has been since my last QPF shoot and see where I have come as a photographer.

This year the Queensland Writers Centre and I organised to shoot the poet in-resident (visiting from the USA) in a private portrait session. On the Sunday I took Emily XYZ and her performance partner Myers Bartlett to two locations around the Judith Wright Centre for this quick session. All up we did three set ups and took 15 minutes (walking time included). On a quick glance (and still while I edit the rest of the photos from the festival) these are my quick favourites. Myer reminded me on all my aunties on my mum’s side, with the loudness and swearing to boot. I am not sure if Myer realised this was a compliment when I mentioned that during the shoot.

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A few weeks ago I photographed headshots and stills for actor Frankie Paul Oatway. Frankie and his crew were shooting action sequences with real guns and required a few stills to use for agencies and the like.

Following are a few photos that came from the shoot.

More photos below

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Some of you who follow photographers such as Jeremy Cowarth, Chase Jarvis and Vincent Laforet may already know about Help Portrait. For those that don’t then here is a little info:

Initiated by a call-out by American photographer, Jeremy Cowarth, Brisbane’s collective of Help Portrait photographers hope to establish an ongoing community of hobbyist to professional photographers interested in not just the act of ‘taking’ but also in ‘giving photos’.

Five local Brisbane photographers, Mark Lobo, Adam West, Toby Scott, Ian Henderson and Elleni Toumpas are participating in Help Portrait, a global movement of photographers who are using their time, equipment and expertise to give back to those who are less fortunate this holiday season.

On 12th December 2009, these five Brisbane photographers will unite to participate by sharing the gift of photography with kids of the Starlight Children’s Foundation and their families. On the 12th December the Brisbane Help-Portrait collective will spend a whole day with families at the Royal Children’s Hospital through the collaboration with the Starlight Foundation, roaming and providing free portraits to patients and their families.

But we need your help. Through donations collected by the public we hope to also provide professional printing on site to give back the photos to the children and their families.

DONATE NOW

Do you want to do your part in sharing the gift of an image by donating to this project? Visit  http://helpportrait.chipin.com/help-portrait-brisbane or use the widget below. All donations will go towards providing printing, canvasing or framing options for the families that receive the free Help Portrait photos. Any donation large or small is appreciated.

ABOUT THE STARLIGHT CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION

The Starlight Children’s Foundation provides positive distraction and entertainment for seriously, chronically or terminally ill and hospitalised children, to take their mind off the pain, stress and isolation caused by their illness and treatment. Starlight provides an opportunity for them to simply be kids, have fun and connect with other children. Starlight does this through entertainment programs within and outside the hospital environment.

For more information on the global Help Portrait movement visit www.help-portrait.com. To find out about the Starlight Children’s Foundation visit www.starlight.org.au