Innholdsfortegnelse for February-March 2025 i Australian Photography

A part from a couple of portrait jobs and a pair of weddings, I barely picked up my camera last year. But it wasn’t until the Christmas break that I realised it may have been an even longer time since I’d photographed something just for the sake of it, with no expectations about how the images would look or be used. It also got me thinking about how different things are with digital photography and how we use it to record our lives. I remember those dinky compact cameras we’d take away on our holidays as kids, and how they were the only real record of what happened. My parents bringing home a neatly stacked pile of prints in one of those glossy envelopes, mum meticulously filing the images, good…

Photography is, at its heart, a toolkit of a few simple techniques executed with almost limitless variation. But in our gear-obsessed culture, it’s easy to believe that another spendy piece of kit will make you into a better photographer. Yet the truth is the reason we take uninteresting photos usually has far more to do with inadequate technique than with inadequate gear. Here’s an idea then: take the gear out of the equation as much as possible and focus on technique instead. How? By using the camera you always have with you: your phone! As a tool for practicing photographic composition, a smartphone has numerous advantages. For one thing, it’s all viewfinder. Better yet, it doesn’t require you to fool around with settings, meaning you can devote 100% of your…

One of the secrets of many successful photographers is that they are active members of their local photography club. Professional photographers join clubs to escape from the stress of running their businesses so they can work on their passion projects. Semi-professionals use clubs to practice their skills in a supportive environment. Hobbyists join to develop their creativity with like-minded artists. And beginners join clubs to learn from others in ways that are impossible with internet-based courses. But what do camera clubs actually do and how can you make the most of your local club? SO, WHO GOES TO CLUBS? You can find camera clubs (also called photography clubs) on every continent on the planet. There are over 600 clubs in the USA, 500 in the UK, and clubs are very…

ROBERT FRANK’S ICONIC PHOTOBOOK ‘THE AMERICANS’ GETS RE-RELEASE TO celebrate 100 years since the birth of Swiss American photographer Robert Frank, his iconic photobook The Americans is to be re-released. Born in Zurich in 1924, Frank is best known for The Americans, first published in 1958, which gave rise to a distinct new art form in the photobook. The book, which featured 83 photographs taken across the country and an introduction by Jack Kerouac, unveiled an America that had gone previously unacknowledged – confronting its people with an underbelly of racial inequality, corruption, injustice, and the stark reality of the American dream. At its release The Americans was highly controversial – the work was described as featuring “grainy, blurry, muddy exposures, drunken horizons”, and Popular Photography called Frank “a joyless…

​When a photographer wants to fill more of the frame with a subject, they normally have four choices; move themselves closer, reach for a telephoto lens, add a teleconverter, or crop in – either in post-production or using the camera’s crop mode. However, moving closer isn’t always an option, and bigger telephotos lenses can be both expensive and heavy to carry. So, should you consider just adding a teleconverter to what you have, or just crop in later? TALKING TELES With today’s higher megapixel cameras, there are many times we can fill the frame by simply relying on the ability to crop in post. At the same time, for those who don’t have a high megapixel camera (think 30MP+), thanks to programs like Topaz AI or Lightroom’s Super resolution, the…

Founded on Friendship Vision, strength of character and an irresistible personality enabled David Yaffa to become a key player in the media industry. Yaffa Syndicate Pty Ltd was incorporated in 1925, but it had been five years in the making for the founder David Yaffa. Born in Sydney in 1893, David Yaffa Snr was the son of immigrants from Latvia. He attended Fort Street High School and went on to be a successful salesman for an importing company. This most likely gave him some entrepreneurial ideas about what he could import and sell in Australia. He decided to specialise in products and services for the newspaper industry, which was the dominant advertising medium at the time — radio would not launch for a few years yet, and television was decades…

Growing up in South Africa one tends to forget how lucky we are with animals on our doorstep. To be able to visit a national park or a neighbouring country and take photos becomes second nature. In fact, it’s only when you move away you realise how privileged you are to be living in a place like it. We moved to Australia in 2018 and always wanted to go back to South Africa, Namibia and Botswana for a photo tour. In 2024 we finally made it happen, and we were fortunate enough to visit these three countries for a 2.5-month camping adventure. Our journey started in Johannesburg with a few days visiting family and friends and then we headed to Etosha National Park in Namibia before travelling through the Caprivi…

LEVERAGE YOUR PHONE’S DOF “I was walking back to my hotel on our last day in Sri Lanka, and while looking at the kite sellers along Galle Face Green, I noticed the young boy flying his own small kite on the drying grass area. With only my phone on me, I took a few shots. I thought a high key feel would work so edited and cropped some buildings on the right in Snapseed and was happy with it. I’m not usually a fan of filters, however I thought it works in this big open vista. I'd like to hear your take on it.” ANTHONY’S TIP: Hi Keith, smartphones and their creative filters can make for great photos, but you do need to appreciate the effect they have on the…

JOY KACHINA Alpine Light NW Tasmania EDITOR’S COMMENT The rising sun casts a gentle glow as the mist lifts from the buttongrass in the alpine valley of Cradle Mountain National Park. Joy Kachina’s beautiful image captures everything that makes remote places special to photograph. There’s lovely light, the perfect balance of an ethereal mist to soften the scene, and a nice, balanced composition that’s been edited with a deft hand. This is a great shot that would look amazing printed large. TECHNICAL DETAILS Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S lens @ 68mm. 1/100s @ f8, ISO 400. Thanks to the team at Blonde Robot, Joy Kachina has won a Think Tank DarkLight Backpack in 20L size. Also available in 14L, the DarkLight is the ideal blend of tactical style…

AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY: YOUR JOURNEY IN PHOTOGRAPHY IS PRETTY INCREDIBLE. HOW DOES ONE GO FROM AMATEUR GAMES IN AUSTRALIA TO THE NFL? Nikki Verbakel: It all started 13 years ago in Melbourne, when my husband, Aaron, started playing American Football again with the Pakenham Silverbacks and I wanted to take photos of him playing. I started with a little Canon PowerShot, something cheap back then, and began learning. I started taking photos of other senior teams, juniors, and women’s, and I became friends with another photographer, Barend Van Den Hoek, who is the current photographer for Gridiron Victoria. I began following him around, shadowing him and learning as much as I could over the next couple of years, whilst upgrading my equipment. I even started playing myself for Melbourne University women’s…

I had submitted an EOI for a photo series called ‘Dust’ in the While the World Waits collective exhibition, an event put together by Arts OutWest. And much to my surprise, my work was chosen to be one of 20 artists from 12 local government areas from the Central West of NSW. The exhibition aimed to reflect on the challenges posed by COVID-19 with each artist presenting their unique take on how the pandemic had influenced our lives and surroundings. It was an adventure that unfolded before me. For a couple of years, While the World Waits took me on a journey spanning vast distances in the Central West to showcase our artworks to many communities. The exhibition reached its peak in August 2024, marking the conclusion with the final…

WHAT SHOULD YOU CHOOSE? Personally, I prefer the horizontal orientation (16:9) for video. It presents your image the way our eyes would naturally see the world. It allows you to fit a wide scene into your frame, and it looks fantastic on any screen. If you are primarily displaying your video on a TV or a platform like YouTube, this is your best option. VERTICAL VIDEO (9:16) So why would you choose to shoot video in a vertical (9:16) orientation? If you plan to share your video on a platform like Instagram or TikTok this is the native aspect ratio. Your content will be optimised to fill the screen of any mobile device and will look as it should on these platforms. If you upload video in a horizontal orientation,…