This is the last photo of the famous Dr Perera before he disappeared. It is believed he built a device capable of transporting himself through time and space. However, this machine is limited to a time shift of 4 seconds into the past and a location shift of 7 cm (only to the left) rendering it quite useless. Fortunately, since the time machine is on the right had side of the table, it slowly worked itself to the left without falling off for 3 further trips.

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I really wanted to mess around with a long exposure shot (10 sec, f20) at some point and figured since I stole the time machine from my lab, I’d put it to good use and show everyone a little time travel and my modded Canon 40D that can take images of the past.

Strobist: 580EX @ 1/2 blue gelled at the back of time machine, compact fluorescent lamp with red/yellow gels in the background being swung around by Soph, 430EX @ 1/2 gobo-ed camera bottom right pointed at me. I had to crank up the power of the flashes because the aperture was so small, thankfully Soph only had the patience to spin the lamp around in 5 separate photos meaning flash recycling wasn’t an issue.

Getting a tattoo is something I’ve been thinking of for a long time. I went through a bit of a emo period where I thought I’d definitely get one whinging about the world but the more I think about it, the more I realise that it’s a serious commitment. A friend of mine has 46664 on his arm and Soph has a little soccer ball with the Southern Cross on her ankle. I can see how these will both be things that my friend and Soph will believe in until they day they die, so I’m thinking about what in my life would be like that. I haven’t come to any conclusions yet, but if I do, I’ll probably find the shortest route to the tattoo parlour.

Don’t try to do this at home, it’s almost 3 hours later now and I still smell like baby oil.

Strobist: 580EX camera top left @ 1/32, 430EX on left @ 1/16 zoomed to 105mm.

Each week that passes, I’m starting to feel more and more under pressure. Life just isn’t what it was 2 years ago, and I’ve only myself to blame.

My PhD is already 1 month overdue, but thankfully, I’ve set myself a target of September 30 to submit which I honestly believe can be done. But it’s not going to be without a lot of hard work between now and then, as well as hoping that all my proof readers get back to me in time!

It also seems like I’ve got some photographic thingy on every single weekend. I’m either taking photos for a band, for a friend somewhere or for my soccer club, I really wish I could say no. I’m getting better though, I promise.

I’ve got a couple of weddings coming up that I’m really looking forward to in Melbourne and Adelaide so at least I’ll be photographing people in love and having fun, that makes my job a lot easier than those surly bands!! :)

To top it all off, I found out that this is in fact the 35th week of the year, meaning I’m actually 2 weeks behind on this project. Looks like a couple of substandard point and shoot photos coming up, because I’m honestly finding it hard to fit all of this in. I’ve even thought about quitting, but I really don’t want to. Plus, I know you lot love me too much to let me quit. :)

Strobist: 430EX camera left 1/8th, 580EX gobo-ed camera right with CTO gel, white balance on tungsten.

I’ve been sitting on my wedding website for a few months now and I’m finally ready to take it public. I wasn’t sure that I actually wanted to do any wedding photography seriously, but I’m feeling quite inspired about it right now so I figured it was time.

So go check it out, www.lakshalperera.com, tell me what you think. Any suggestions?

The lovely web design by my good pal Hooverdust! He’s your go to man for awesome web design, seriously!

Scissors: TICK
Willing Participant (me): TICK
Enthusiastic Amateur Non-Hairdresser: TICK
Boring Saturday Afternoon: TICK

This is the end result!

Soph gave my extremely versatile, yet increasingly difficult to manage hair a chop on the weekend. She’s never cut hair before, and after her first attempt, I could see why. I decided that I didn’t particularly want to look like an Indian call centre worker so we had another go and I ended up where it is now.

This shot worked really well in my head, but I’m not sure it worked that well in real life. Don’t worry, all you Mulletgod lovers will get to see me and my hair in all of its glory within the next few weeks! :)

Strobist: 580EX @ 1/4 power zoomed to 80mm about 2m directly above, 430EX @ 1/2 behind my head for rim.

BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER, but not stronger

This is a tiny little sample of an 18000 pixel wide image that’s going to grace all 6 panels of the debut album from one of my favourite local bands, The Dawn Collective. The album is going to be called “Save A Place For Us”, and having listened to it, it’s an amazing, mature masterpiece. I really hope this is the start of something really big for them.

The album out through MGM on the 20th September and should also be available on iTunes around the same time. If you’re in Australia, you should be able to pick up a copy from JB HiFi and be able to order it in from any other store.

I took some promos for a local prog rock band Earth Mechanics a couple of nights ago. I had this grand vision of taking some really desolate, badly lit photos at a local dry cleaning joint (of all the places to choose!), but alas, it didn’t happen. It was damn near freezing with strong winds and my brain (and fingers!) was freezing, as were my batteries in all devices. PocketWizards, flashes and the camera were all victims of the crisp outdoor temperatures!

This has a single flash through an umbrella directly above the band, being held on the normal light stand by the band manager. Another flash is near the road about 5m behind them.

The original shot of this next one made me a little unhappy, it was the basis for the whole shoot being where it was. I decided to make up for it by going a little crazy in Photoshop, there’s about 30 adjustment layers on this image. Check out a large version here.

The last shot was something I did for fun, I’m kinda hoping the band doesn’t end up using it because it’s, to be honest, a little silly. The background is totally underexposed, a single strobe into a shoot through umbrella directly above is the only lighting. The shadow on their necks caused by the lighting made removal of the rest of their bodies really simple.

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Last week Soph and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary! We met at the University Games in Newcastle when both of our soccer teams were at the same social function. So that means, not only do I have an awesome girlfriend, but one who I can drag along to soccer as well!

She was a sport and helped me with this shot by removing her head and arms to put into the box. What a trooper!

My confusion is amplified here. You’ll really want to read that book.

Strobist: 580EX, camera top right @ 1/4 into umbrella, 430EX slightly lower with ghetto grid @ 1/16 pointed at tools on the bench, a big industrial floodlight thingy on the ground, camera far left.

This is one of those soppy lame posts most people will hopefully ignore, but it’s quite a lovely landmark occasion for me. I was immensely lucky to photograph one of the three bands on my “bands to photograph before dying” list. The wondrous, beautiful and exhilarating Sigur Rós. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do since the first ever gig that I saw them play at, the Great Escape Festival in 2006 where I nabbed a spot with Soph right at the front and waited patiently with my brand new Canon 350D. I didn’t know anything about aperture, shutter speed, focal length to be able to take good photos at a gig, I was just a lucky kid who had enough money to buy a nice camera. It’s now come full circle for me; I own an awesome camera (whom I love which loves me back) and for some reason, people actually ask ME questions on how to take nice photos! It’s a humbling experience.

I kinda feel like this is something I’ve worked very hard to get to, all those late nights driving home an hour and a half just so I can take some shitty photographs in a dimly lit pub somewhere have been worthwhile. I know it’s probably not a big deal for most of you, but I feel really proud of myself for getting to a point where I can photograph these huge bands and actually be able to take some nice photos that I’m happy with.

These are a few of the shots from the first time I saw them, all those years ago, I still think this next one isn’t that bad a photo for a newbie like me, I was even shooting manual! Check out the EXIF: 1/125th, f5.6, 120mm, ISO1600

Damn, I really WAS a newbie!

So right now, it’s one down, two to go: Radiohead and the Dave Matthews Band remain uncrossed on the list, who knows, maybe I’ll luck out again sometime soon!

Check out the entire gallery at TripleJ.

I checked out the most confusingly named band in the world, The Music, last week at the Metro. I loved their first self titled album, hated the 2nd one, “Welcome to the North”, and am slowly working my way into their latest release “Strength In Numbers”. I was expecting a pretty killer show (I’ve got their live DVD) and wasn’t the slightest bit unhappy with what I saw. The crowd was going nuts and there was a generally pretty positive vibe around. So much so, I accidentally managed to hit Craig Nicholls from The Vines in the back of the head with my camera as I was walking through the crowd and as I apologised, he just smiled and said no worries. I thought he was a famous rock star who’d get ‘his people’ to deal with me out the back!

The Music played all my favourite songs off the first album, include “Take the Long Road and Walk It”, “The People” and “Getaway” while the songs on “Welcome to the North” translated well in the live performance. The new tracks including “The Spike” and “Strength in Numbers” had the crowd resonating the dance floor with quite scary timber shattering vibrations.

It seems whenever I end up at the Metro, I end up shooting in dim red lighting, maybe it’s the bands who I see there or something, who knows. Or maybe I’m just a gumby and only ever snap whenever the lights are red.

The full gallery can be found at The Dwarf, and eventually in my gallery.

I managed to get a bit of a write up in a magazine called A Fine Line, published by the lovely people at The Dwarf. I had to contribute a little photo essay and include a couple of photos. I didn’t pick my favourite photos, but the ones that would probably turn out best in black and white which my section would be printed in. It turns out I was in issue 8 as well, but I didn’t know!

This is what I wrote, only the Mammal, Missy Higgins and Tim Rogers photos made the cut.

Live music photography is probably one of the most challenging tasks for photographers. Where else do you have fast moving objects in the dark, with unpredictable, yet extremely intense spots of light? Anyone can take a photo at a concert from the crowd, but being in that little pit down the front brings with it a bit of expectation. For a while your shots will look pretty average, but you learn very quickly and it becomes quite addictive. It’s something that I love and am deeply passionate about. I do it for the love of it. You’ll see that all the great live gig photographers really love what they’re doing and this is clearly shown in their work. It’s always adventurous, individual and inspiring. Something that I personally want to achieve.

I’ve been really lucky that websites like thedwarf.com.au have given me a chance to photograph the bands I love.  When I first started shooting, it was at smaller shows where there were relatively small crowds and not such large acts. But with a bit of luck and a whole lot of hard work, I’m now fortunate enough to occasionally be given the bigger shows and festivals, which all rock photographers want to go to. There’s still a lot of bands that I’d like to photograph and agencies like The Dwarf have put me in a position where I’m more able to achieve it.

Live music photography is mostly luck. I’ve said this to pretty much anyone who asks me about it.  It’s kind of like poker, where you might be the best player in the world, but if you get dud cards, you can’t play.  You need to know your camera and lenses and understand the lighting you’re working with, but if you’ve got a boring performer, there’s absolutely nothing you can do. Continuing on with the luck thing, if you happen to have the artist in a great position, just as they switch the lights on/off, the shot’s gone!  All you can do is hope that the lights come back on and the artists gets into the same position so you can have another go. I know some photographers who do research before a show to see if a performer is known for doing something spectacular which will create a great photo. They then wait for that moment at the show and snap a killer shot!  I’m more of a point, hope and shoot kind of guy; I get the right lenses on and set the camera settings to what will give me a well exposed shot for the lighting and the lens I have on. I don’t mind letting the camera do a little bit of the thinking for me, but I know I still need to make some choices because the camera isn’t smarter than me (I hope!).

When I take a photo, I can generally tell straight away if it’s going to look good or not. That shot sticks in my head and when I have a chance to download the shots on to the computer, they’re the first ones that I go looking for. The following photos are all shots which had this effect on me, they’re some of my personal favourites and they all have little stories that go with them.  Granted, they’re not technically perfect shots, but my photography is about shooting for myself and me being happy with my work. If I get a job at a big news agency, the story might change!

Something for Kate - Great Escape Festival 2006
This photo was one of the very first photos I took with my then very new Canon 350D digital SLR. I was waiting patiently in the crowd for Sigur Ros and had somehow managed to get myself and my girlfriend to within 1 person of the railing.  I knew very little about the technical aspects of photography but somehow I managed to freeze a very cool moment where Stephanie Ashworth swung her head around, flaying her blonde locks in all directions. It was probably one of the photos that inspired me to get into live music photography (that and the realisation I could get into these shows for free!).

Muscles - University of Wollongong Unibar, 2007
I have no idea where Muscles came from or where he’s headed, but the punters seem to love him. I’d been working as a house photographer for my local Unibar for a couple of months and this shot is from one of those nights. There wasn’t a railing at the front of the bar for this show so I had to resort to unusual angles to get a shot, I tried some from side of stage and even one from right behind Muscles’ head looking back into the crowd. None of them really worked for me so I took the plunge and dived into the crowd. It took me a good couple of minutes to get into the centre of the pit and was well and truly sweaty by the time I reached the point I wanted. The Unibar had recently had some bright heat lamp style lights installed at the back of the stage and I waited patiently for the lighting tech to fire them up, hoping the smoke machine would have done enough work to create a nice effect. All this time, I was getting pounded around, and was struggling to keep my elbows up to put the camera to my face. After about 30 shots, most pretty average, I managed to nail one. It was all crooked from being bumped by some guy next to me, but it was in focus and not suffering from motion blur, easily savable with a bit of post processing!

Tim Rogers - Sydney Opera House, 2007
This gig goes down in my memory as the night Timmy and I had a conversation. Granted that conversation consisted of him making everyone aware I had turned up late (damn Opera House security, but that’s a different story!) and asking me sarcastically who I wanted him to be. I responded with the lamest thing I could have said, “Just be yourself” and this day, I’m sure Tim remembers that one fateful night where the corn-factor of audience interaction was taken to the next level. Incidentally, I believe this photo was a personal favourite of then-Dwarf editor Jade, which always helps in getting future gigs!

Mammal - University of Wollongong Unibar, 2006
Lead singer of Mammal, Ezekiel Ox is one of my favourite artists to photograph; he’s a maniac dancer and a crazy character on stage. I’ve photographed Mammal on 3 occasions now and they’re always great value for a photographer.  This mirror ball helmet was something Ox used for a period early on in Mammal’s career, and I was lucky to be in the right spot at the right time.

Missy Higgins - Homebake Sydney 2008
When you cover a big festival, you generally rush from stage to stage, trying to get as much coverage as possible. However, you’ll probably end up getting the same shot as about 80% of the other photographers there. One of the key things that I focus on is trying to get something different to everyone else and that’s by catching musicians in a natural state, relaxed and with their guard down, unaware that they’re being watched by large numbers of people. It’s unlikely I’ll ever sell that photo or get it printed in a magazine, but I find that it opens a window to the musician’s persona that other photographs may not succeed in doing. This shot was taken in between songs as Missy had handed her guitar to a roadie when someone in the front row yelled something out to Missy. She grabbed her chest over her heart and smiled back into that area of the crowd, a beautiful moment of interaction.

I hope these photos have inspired some of you to pick up your camera and get to a local gig. Most local bands love having their photos taken by someone with a nice camera, so help them out. Offer to give them some shots afterwards and that’ll be the start of a rewarding pastime. But like anything else, do it for the love of it, you have to be passionate about it and each good set of photos you take, gets you closer to a bigger and better show. Work hard, be polite and friendly to the people in the crowd and remember, enjoy it!

More and more I find myself getting involved in conversations with people about religion. I’m a Buddhist by birth, and although my parents are quite devout, I don’t consider myself a religious person. I have beliefs, as I think all people should have, but they have been derived from the studies I’ve had in Buddhism and my own free thought.

I have a huge problem with organised religion. The reason for this is because I believe that organised religion can leave people with the answers, but they’ll often not know what the question was. I don’t believe that organised religion teaches people to think for themselves, it leaves far too much opportunity for a single person or a select group of people to force their message or agenda down the throats of people who are only too willing to accept it as gospel.

I have a number of close friends who are religious, including a friend who worked as a missionary in South America. Even though these friends are deeply religious and in contrast to myself, they’ve all reached that point in their life through research and understanding of what their beliefs are. They don’t preach to me as if their beliefs are the only answer, they’re tolerant and understanding people.

At the end of the day, religion should be about love, compassion, understanding and acceptance, something which I believe DOES exist in all organised religion. It’s just a matter of extracting those aspects in day to day life and being a better person.

While I’m more than happy to accept intelligent discussion within the comments, anyone who leaves derogatory comments will have their comment removed. Religion is a very sensitive issue to a lot of people, so please be tactful and polite.

Strobist: 580EX into shoot thru umbrella camera right @ 1/2 power, 430EX into reflective umbrella camera left @ full power. This is a digital composite using a popular artistic rendition of Vishnu taken from this website. The original image can be found here. The arms, the head, chest (kind of) and feet are real, but I haven’t purchased 5 cobras for any of my shots yet. :)

Large here.

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Before anyone writes hate mail to me, I want to put out a pre-emptive apology for anyone who is offended by this image. I am not claiming I am a God of any description, let alone Vishnu, the Hindu God of the Universe. This is simply an artistic work based on a religious identity and I know personally that Hindus are forgiving and understanding people so I hope you understand.

I photographed these guys a couple of weeks ago and just haven’t gotten around to uploading any of the shots. It was at a beautiful old and intimate theatre in Wollongong called the Regent, which is a similar size and style to The Enmore Theatre, one of my favourite venues in Sydney.

I tweaked the two shots above with the “Vintage White” action you can get from my actions site!

Check out the whole gallery at thedwarf. They’re not the most exciting band in the world to photograph, but they’re probably one of the best looking. :)

This post is dedicated to my good pal Scuba Steve, who has more than a little crush on Julia Stone.

This is probably the most disturbing photo someone would take to celebrate their birthday. But I think it’s hilarious! :)

As the title of this post suggests, this week I passed 27 years on this Earth without serious mishap/misadventure. I feel like I haven’t really achieved much in my life; I’m still a student, never had a full time job and am yet to have paid a single cent in tax. But this is the year everything will change,I will be useful to society, I will contribute. So watch out world!

If your baby comes out with eyebrows like this, consider pushing it back in. It’s worse than Gerald the monobrow baby in The Simpsons.

Strobist: 580EX into shoot through umbrella directly above camera, 430EX gelled (slightly green) above camera to give a few more specular highlights.

I have to thank Soph for helping me with this shot, there was no way I was going to touch my camera with all this goop hanging off me.

Secondly, thanks to my newest favourite photographer Aknacer. If you like my self portraits, check him out, he does one of these EVERY DAY. He’s the man who told me about the wonder of high fructose corn syrup. Mmmmm, to think i can lick all of this stuff off at the end…

This is what I actually looked like when I was born. I guess I always had a lot of hair!

This is what happens when you buy camera stuff from Hong Kong. You end up with crappy power adaptors because their plugs are different to ours. Everytime I plug my camera battery charger in, I hear the crackly noise of ionising air, a tell tale sign of poorly made electrical equipment.

I borrowed the awesome Yorri¢k’s 10-22 lens for the week and I just couldn’t resist doing this. I’ve been planning it for a couple of weeks and really couldn’t help myself, even though this is taken 4 days since my last 52 weeks photo. I like how the theme of personal injury/death has been permeating my photographs in the last few weeks, I’m going to see if I can keep it going. :)

Strobist: 580EX 1/2 power into collapsed shoot through umbrella camera top right, 430EX@ 1/16 camera left @ 105mm.