Australia Day on Sydney Harbour

January 27, 2014January 28, 2014 / Mike / Leave a comment

Australia Day stirs mixed feelings in me. Most Australians are incredibly lucky, with democratic freedoms and an economy that makes them amongst the best off in the world. However, the wealth and opportunities are not there for indigenous Australians, and Australia Day doesn’t give this hidden Australia much to celebrate.

Australia is changing though. It is steadily becoming more multi-cultural, and most younger people are comfortable with this, embracing the mix of European and Asian cultures that surround us. I work in education, and my employer is intent on taking positive steps to make sure all of Australia is part of what we do.

I choose to take a positive outlook on what Australia Day can be – a mark in time that lets us assess where Australia has been and the progress we are making.

Magic in the mountains

June 26, 2013January 16, 2016 / Mike / 4 Comments

The Blue Mountains Winter Magic Festival is held each year around the winter solstice, and is a community event that brings artists, musicians, drummers, dancers and the wider community together.

The sense of fun amongst people who were gathering for the parade was fantastic, with singers, drummers and a samba group all creating as much noise as possible. The effort people had put into their costumes was tremendous, and I was particularly struck by the drum corp, who managed to keep in character and drum out the beat for everyone to march to.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Curves

June 15, 2013January 28, 2014 / Mike / 5 Comments

Stone garden, Maison Européenne de la Photography, Paris.

Our budget has been revised

June 8, 2013January 28, 2014 / Mike / 11 Comments

I was contacted last week by a representative of an “international press renowned for our fine art and photography publications” that wanted to include some of my photos in a publication. Wow!

Hi Mike,

XXX Australia are publishing a small format gift book (100 mm x 100 mm) on Australia for the tourist market and we are currently sourcing images to be included in the publication. As you may know, XXX are an international press renowned for our fine art and photography publications. We came across your work and feel your photographic style would be perfectly suited to this project. In particular, we are interested in using images from your Manly on a Sunday and Sydney Here we Come collections. However, we would also be very interested in any other images of iconic Sydney locations and wider NSW if you have any in your archives.

The publication will have Australian and NZ distribution so exposure to a large audience is guaranteed. We would love to include your work in this project and hope we can arrange permission with you to do so.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Kind regards,

Tahlia

Of course, I got back right away.

Hi Tahlia,

Thanks for getting in touch – it sounds like an interesting project. I have a number of photographs you may be interested in, both of Sydney landmarks and the Three Sisters.

Could you send me some further details on the terms and conditions and rates?

Kind Regards,

Mike.

I must say, I was very excited by all this. I was also contacted by Getty Images in relation to licensing some of my images I have on Flickr. The name looked familiar enough that I was sure it was the same company. The process of registering with Getty took a while (those agreements are pretty lengthy, and I wanted to make sure I understood what I was in for). I went through my photographs of Sydney, and selected a number of photos that I thought they might be interested in, and awaited a reply.

Hi Mike,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

Unfortunately after discussions with my boss, our budget has been revised and we will not be able to renumerate contributors for any images used. We would of course offer a photo credit but I understand if this is not a suitable arrangement for you.

Kind regards,

Tahlia

Great. So, this “international press renowned for our fine art and photography publications” had sent someone on a fishing expedition, to make a commercial publication filled with photos they wanted to get for free.

Oh well, this does give me an excuse to show a gratuitous photo of the Sydney Opera House – one of the photos they were interested in, and which I publish under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 / Mike / 2 Comments

Just a few short months after we met, my wife-to-be and I escaped for a week on the Isle of Skye. Skye is as beautiful as you might imagine, although if you are planning a trip around September, make sure you take plenty of spare clothes and waterproofs.

We took the ferry to Raasay, a small island between Skye and the mainland one Sunday. It seemed…quiet. Which was wonderful. We seemed to have the whole place to ourselves. What I hadn’t realised, was the religious traditionalism that is woven into everyday life on the west coast islands included shutting everything on a Sunday. We did eventually find a hotel to get some food at, but if we’d wanted a go on the swings…

Grime Bats

May 29, 2013May 29, 2013 / Mike / Leave a comment

Mount Wilson

May 24, 2013May 23, 2013 / Mike / 9 Comments

I took a trip up into the mountains last Sunday, to check up a couple of places for some photography and to get some “shutter therapy”.

As I climbed the mountains, the temperature dropped several degrees, and I ended up at Mount Wilson, as I’d been told the trees were particularly good during Autumn.

Alas, I was a couple of weeks late, and most of the trees were bare, although there were some particularly beautiful Japanese maples that had retained their foliage.