I finally got around to finalising the book of my 52 project.

If you’re interested in purchasing a copy, go here to have a bit of a peek at the cover and the first 15 pages. Unfortunately, those early photos were pretty crap so you don’t get the full effect.

Pricing is a little on the high side in my opinion (around AUS$75 with shipping), but I’m not making a cent from it. Damn the Aussie dollar being so low. :(

So that’s it.
52 weeks, 52 self-portraits

It’s been such an amazing journey for me, not only in a photographic sense, but in a personal one as well. I’ve come to the realisation that those strange little ideas I have in my head translate well into photographs and that people do understand my slightly crazy sense of humour.

So why the living dead for my final week? Well, it’s simply because I’m not going to die off and disappear… I’ve decided that I’m going to come back and do this again next year. The number of awesome people I meet on flickr and the exposure that my photos get is something that I’d miss too much. As much as I may have whinged in the last few months about wanting to finish my 52 weeks project this week, I honestly don’t know what I would do in 7 days if I didn’t have to do this again.

So consider me dead for this year. But I will return, and I will be nourished after a festive season of eating brains.

To all of the people that have helped me this year (Soph, Ru, Macca, Deano and Rich), thank you. Sometimes, pressing the shutter is the hardest thing to do and I appreciate you taking time out to help me.

To all of you on flickr and my website, I thank you from the deepest depths of my heart. Your encouragement keeps me going and I love all of you for it. :)

May you have a fantastic holiday period and happy new year. 2009 will be a year of change for me, and I hope you’ll join me on that journey.

Lucky, aka Mulletgod

Strobist: 580EX @ 1/2 into shoot through umbrella camera right, 430 EX @ 1/1 on the ground behind the rock, 430 EX @ 1/1 gelled CTO into stofen omnibounce behind me.

Two days ago, my government made a decision that threatens the future. It’s related to perhaps the major issue of our generation, Climate Change. Yet again, politicians proved that they cannot be trusted.

The Australian Governement made the decision that our target for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 was, wait for it… 5%.

Five measly bloody percent.

I changed from my usual vote in the last federal election from the Greens Party to vote for the current Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. He promised strong targets, somewhere along the lines of 20% by 2020. It turns out he’s all hot air, just like his policies allow.

Big industry has been lobbying the government in the last few months trying to get the previously suggested targets down, and it looks like the mightly dollar has spoken again.

I’m sad and I feel cheated that I voted for a man who promised me more.

Please, be vocal, demand change. You Europeans and even Americans are doing more than us, please continue doing what you’re doing. Hopefully our sense of shame kicks us into gear and forces us to do something.

Strobist: 580 EX @ 1/1 into shoot through umbrella above camera, 430EX @ 1/2 behind my head.

I mentioned in an earlier 52 Weeks shot about a friend who had been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. Since then, she’s been through a horrible operation, some serious radiotherapy and a huge amount of weight loss. She has a rare form of cancer which grows aggressively, but thankfully doesn’t metastasise (ie. spread throughout the rest of the body). Anyway, for the moment, she’s doing well, and the doctors are unsure of how her tumour will react to the treatment. We’re all hoping for the best, and she’s getting on with her life as normal which is great. To top it off, she’s put on a few kilos too!

During her operation, she went through a MASSIVE amount of blood. Blood that was donated by people like you and me. Every single person who donates blood helps someone. You’re helping unborn children, old people, sick people, rich people, and poor people. Everyone’s life is worth it, so do your part and donate. I did it today and trust me, it’s not a painful process. The snacks afterwards are worth the trip alone!

In Australia, contact The Red Cross Blood Service on 13 14 95 to make an appointment, or simply visit www.donateblood.com.au/. In other parts of the world, you guys will have your own blood services, it’s a wonderful thing you’ll be contributing towards so go and do it!

Strobist: 580EX @1/8 into shoot through umbrella below and in front camera, 430 EX @ 1/2 into reflective umbrella behind and above camera.

For a long time, I simply couldn’t find a method of RAW conversion that worked for me. I’ve tried Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw, but was always left with this ugly green/yellow tinge I simply couldn’t remove. Even after mucking around for hours, my jpegs always looked better. Non photographers can probably tune out now, this won’t be of much interest to you. :)

Everyone knows the obvious benefits of RAW (if you don’t check out the numerous web articles) so finding a method of converting from RAW that works for you is important. I’ve finally found one that I’m happy with, giving me all the great benefits of RAW, with a workflow almost as simple as working with jpegs. This method is only suitable for Canon CR2 RAW files as I’m not too sure about Nikon.

You’ll need the CD of software that came with your Canon camera and will need to install Digital Photo Professional (DPP) as well as the Canon RAW Codec. If you can’t find your disc, tough luck, Canon, for some reason, don’t believe in a freely downloadable version of the software. But keep faith, there are sneaky ways around it! You can download a REALLY old version of DPP here and then go to Canon’s website and download the updates for it here. The Canon RAW Codec can be found here (enter your camera’s information there and wait for the options to come up for the software downloads).

You’ll also need Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Bridge as well. I’m using CS3, the instructions for you might be slightly different depending on your version, but it should roughly be the same.

Ok, so this is it. It goes, Bridge -> DPP -> Photoshop

Open up Bridge and you’ll end up with a nice folder structure showing your photos and previews and EXIF data (you can move all the panels around to get something that suits you).

Note how the colours in the photos seem crummy and yellow (seriously, Soph doesn’t have Jaundice!).

You’ll need to change the File Type Associations of Bridge by going to Edit -> Preferences -> File Type Associations. Click on the little downwards arrow next to Canon Camera RAW and select “Browse”. Go to the folder in which you installed DPP and select DPPViewer. Click ok and you should get something that looks like this.

What this means is that whenever you double click on a CR2 file in Bridge, it’ll now use DPP to open it instead of Photoshop (the default action in Bridge).

So find a nice CR2 file you want to work on (no, I’m not going to send you any photos of my cute girl!) and double click. DPP should open up and you’ll see something like this (click to open full size).

Change the brightness, white balance and picture style to what you want (ideally, match the conditions you are shooting in). Also, bump up the sharpness to around 4 or 5, something which should give you a nice presharpen. Hopefully, at this point, you’ll notice that the colours in this version are truer than the CR2 version you see in Bridge. It’s subtle, but you should clearly notice the difference in the hair.

Once you’re happy with this, simply click Alt + P and the file will open up in Photoshop as a high res TIFF as below (click for full size). The export resolution of DPP can be adjusted by going to Tools -> Preferences -> General Settings -> Default Value of Output Resolution inside DPP itself. Mine is set to 300 DPI, your’s is your choice!

The file will open as a 16-bit TIFF in Photoshop and will be placed in a temporary folder until you choose to save it. Do NOT edit the image and then simply click save, it won’t work. Save the image where you want it to go first and then edit. I generally downsample my images to 8-bit before I save (unless it’s a file where those extra 8-bits become useful), simply to save drive space. I also save the files as PSDs so I can continue using Photoshop layers. You can then go and close the DPP Viewer of you want. For some reason, it doesn’t appear in the taskbar but by pressing Alt + Tab you should be able to get to it. Make sure that when you close the DPP Viewer file, you save the changes. This means that the little XMP file that gets put in your folder with the CR2 files gets modified and the next time you open the CR2 file, the software already knows what changes you made the first time.

So that’s it! It might take you 10 or 15 minutes to set up, but once you’ve got it going, it’ll hopefully be a steady and successful workflow! Feel free to make any suggestions in the comments which might make things easier or better (or point out that I’m an idiot if you’ve got a better method!).

I had set up a bit of a DIY light tent to take some product shots for my mum and I managed to convince Soph to stick her head in.

Consider this my contribution to Pretty Pink Sunday, you’ll never see another from me again. :)

Also, I hope everyone who tilts their head to the right does it to the left as well, it’s good to stretch your neck out when you sit in front of a computer all day. :)

Strobist: white backdrop wedged between 2 lounges, 1 diffuser placed on top with 580 EX @ 1/128th and 430EX @ 1/64th directly into diffuser

I went to my Ten Year High School Reunion on the weekend and I didn’t expect to have as good a time as I did. I was never the cool kid at school, in fact, I was pretty much towards the bottom of the social ladder. At the reunion, no one seemed to care about everything that had happened and who was "popular", it was like we were just a bunch of friends. I saw some people I hadn’t seen for 10 years and I regret having wasted those 10 years without hanging out with them.

It’s feels just like yesterday when school finished, and I’m starting to realise that I’m actually getting old. My parents are getting old and more frail, and it’s finally sinking in. I’m not old in terms of life, but the illusion of being young and immortal is wearing off.

Strobist: 580EX @ 1/8 into shoot through umbrella camera left, 430 EX @ 1/4 bounded off the roof camera right.

This is the flyer for my 52 weeks exhibition. I’ll be getting them printed in the next few days so if you want me to send you one, give me a yell. :)

There will be plenty of free food and booze, and not to mention, 52 photographs of yours truly!

There will also be a bunch of blurb books for sale as well which I’ll probably make available online as well for anyone who’s interested. At the moment, it’s looking like it’ll cost somewhere near $50 or so which makes it a little expensive, but trust me, I’m not going to be making any money from it!

Most people have REALLY lame first album purchase stories! It’s normally something embarrassing like Boyz II Men or New Kids on the Block, or even Donnie and Marie Osmond if you’re a little older.

I’m going to take the moral high ground because my first album has far greater credibility. It’s arguably one of the most definitive albums of all time, Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’. I still remember handing over my hard earned cash for it back in 1993 (well after it had been released mind you!).

I learnt how to play every song on this album and even went so far as to build a Nirvana fan site! It most definitely made me look at music a different way.

So what was your first album? The lamer the better, don’t be afraid, we won’t judge. :)

Strobist: Bare 580EX @ 1/8 top right, Bare 430EX @ 1/8 far back left

Thanks to my mate Deano for helping me out on this shot, there’s no way I would have been able to manage by myself!

I remember when I was in Year 1, my class had to do a march past at some official function at my school. I was put in charge of carrying some sort of banner, not because I was the leader, but because I was about 30cm taller than all of my classmates. It just looked stupid with me in the line with the rest of them!

I’m a bit of a genetic anomaly; I’m probably 20-30cm taller than the average Sri Lankan male. I’m 6 foot 4 inches, and around 110kg meaning most people are generally physically intimidated by me. But you’ve probably realised from my 52 project that I wouldn’t hurt a fly! I might be tempted to hurt an aeroplane if I was annoyed enough though!

This photo couldn’t have happened if not for the amazingness of the Creative Commons licence and flickr user Milton CJ’s fantastic photo of the Empire State Building. Thanks Milton!

If you haven’t got a copy of this album yet (featuring my artwork!), do it NOW!

The Dawn Collective
Save A Place For Us
Green / MGM

The cover of The Dawn Collective’s Save A Place For Us draws you in and lets you ignore the old “can’t judge a book (or record) by its cover”. It shows a cluster of trees growing on a bleak hill, shot on grainy film with an almost sepia tone. It’s both unsettling and beautiful, yet strangely hopeful. The music within matches these impressions.

The music, as the press guff notes, is hard to categorise. At its core it’s indie-folk, but there are flourishes of traditional Eastern European music, splashes of jazz and streaks of progressive rock. A Russian Trilogy is bombastic, galloping and soaring like Muse. Eat, Drink, For Tomorrow We Die is a gravely singalong and A Handful Of Moments is a pleasantly off-beat country dirge, while Stop This Worry is a raucous, hysterical alternative rock track that unexpectedly veers into a lovely bridge before crashing violently into a brass section.

Producers Tim Whitten and Tony Dupé have done an exceptional job, particularly Whitten. The album has an epic, expansive feel to it. The crescendo of penultimate track The Art Of Longevity is thrilling, as strings shriek over a beat that sounds like the thundering hooves of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Save A Place For Us is not an easy album. It languished in the stereo for weeks before I really understood or even liked it. But save a place for The Dawn Collective on your album shelf. With time, this release proves itself to be a grand and glorious piece of dark, orchestral folk.

Liam Casey
Drum Media Issue 932 - November 18th 2008

BugGiRL are pretty much the most rocking brother and sister rock duo going around the world. Jack and Meg White look like they’re retirees compared to the all out rock factor that BugGiRL possess. Take a mix of AC/DC, The Divinyls and just a hint of everything good about 80s metal, and you’ve got BugGirl.

These shots were taken in a small room in a commercial/industrial complex that the band have. It was ghetto all the way with a couple of bedsheets acting as my seamless black and white backdrops.

I had my mates Rich and Mick helping me out on the day. Mick supplied the lubricant for the festivities (ie. beer) while Rich was lighting assistant #1. Thanks fellas!

These guys are just about to head into the studio to record their new album so keep an eye out for it and keep an ear out for their blistering rock shows throughout Australia and then Europe in the northern summer.

I appeared in a small article on the LA Times Technology blog after the now “world famous” Cookie Monster photo!

Check it out!

You’ll have to scroll down a bit to find me.

A bunch of Soph’s friends tease me about not being a very manly man. I don’t really take much offence because it’s mostly true. I don’t find the need to settle my differences through aggression and violence, I’m not a yob by any means and I (shock horror!) don’t drink copious amounts of beer! I’m not saying this is what defines a manly man, but you get the idea.

I’d like to think that being a gentleman is something that men can still aspire to in modern society, and I guess I’m comfortable with that aspect of my personality.

So you needn’t visualise me, in my feminine ways, this is perhaps what I would have looked like was I born a girl (or would look like if I pursued a career in cross dressing). The skinnier nose, thinner eyebrows, bigger eyes and changed jawline indeed do make me look very strange but I’m actually quite glad I wasn’t born a girl because I nearly burnt off both of my ears using Soph’s hair straightner; It’s something I hope I never have to use again!

FOR REFERENCE?

Strobist: 580EX into reflective umbrella above camera @ 1/8, 430 into shoot through umbrella below @ 1/8

The Watt Riot are an awesome rock band from Wollongong and have been around for a few years. I’ve known 3 of the band members for nearly 6 or 7 years in their various bands and have been keeping an eye out on them since they became The Watt Riot a few years ago.

We headed to an abandoned factory deep in the Southern Highlands and took a couple of hours worth of promos.

The empty spaces in this factory were amazing, if we had more time, there would have been numerous other shots taken throughout it.

I borrowed a few flashes from a mate of mine so ended up running a combination of PocketWizard triggered and Infra-red triggered flashes. It kinda got messy and I had lots of problems getting the flashes to go off consistently so that’s something that definitely needs work on my behalf! I think I had channels and master/slave things mixed up which should really teach me that I should stick to what I know instead of trying to get really fancy! :)