The last few weeks have been a little crazy, seems like I’ve only spent a couple of days in the office. Actually, I have only spent a couple of days in the office. We have been all over the place, started off with a bit of speaking over in Perth WA. Great place, great photographers, great people, great food, great wine, great coffee and great grates too (you know I love urban shots!).

The whole reason for the trip was to do a presentation to about 80 photographers along side David Oliver, Christian Fletcher and Ric Syme. I really enjoyed the event and had heaps of good feedback. While out west I finally got to visit Jorgensen Albums, this is the place I get all my wedding and portrait albums hand made by a team of skilled and passionate people. I’ve been using these guys for about 6 years now, talked on the phone, emailed and sent Christmas cards to, but never met them in person. They were all taller than I expected.

I must have said a funny. Christian Fletcher, Me and David Oliver doing a joint Q and A at the end of the presentatioin, photo by Vikashni Moyle, she is talented!

It was fascinating to see all that went into making the albums and the amount of staff working away. I’ve got some images I’ll post soon. Then it was time for not working time. Summer is coming and I can see it’s going to be very busy so any time I can get at the moment is spent with Vee.

We managed to pack a lot in 2 day, both in things we did and things we ate / drank. There was catching up with photographers, checking out galleries, drinking wine, tasting cheese, waiting for sunsets that were always obscured by clouds, and then also some more wine tasting. The Margaret River / Dunsborough area were incredible, and I am looking forward to heading back there one day.

Some Holga action north of Margaret River

Clooney at Barwick Vineyard

Voyager Vineyard

Vikashni shooting the sunset, somewhere south of Perth

Then home for a couple of days and just as I got back into the swing of things it was off to Hobart. Hobart was a mix of Vee time, client time, learning time and speaking time. It was all based around a presentation I did for the Tasmanian Division of the Australian Institute of Photography. Vee also managed to into the talking spirit, doing a presentation to the happy snappers on social media. I was proud of her little talk! My talk was about evolving in photography from shooting body parts to shooting weddings and other stuff.

When that was all wrapped it was off to home for a few hours, a quick trip to the office and then on a big metal bird to the home of iconic music houses and water crossing structures. Yes, Sydney. A few days up there learning things, getting inspired and hanging around with some awesome photographers.

A shot of the back of a guys head with some kind of iconic bridge in the background

So I’m back now fully inspired and ready for action. There will be some changes about the place, nothing too major and all very cool. It may even involve some new products and saying good bye to some old ones. Looking forward to new ways of processing my images, getting new things up on the website, getting back to some old ways of shooting and catching up with all the clients who are coming back for their Christmas photos. Anyways, hope you are well and things are moving at a manageable pace in the right direction for you.

Oh and Congrats to Deb F for being the latest random Batblog comment prize winner! Some cool things are heading your way once I find out where to send them! Remember, big prize of limited edition art print will be drawn at the end of the month for a person who comments on the Batblog. Why not leave one now???

I first entered the Australian Professional Photography Awards in 2001, and got nothing. I had no idea what I was doing back then, I had talked to a photographer and sent in what I had. So nothing came of it, the next year I was a bit more on the ball and picked up a couple of awards, and have been getting some ever since.

This year I received the honour of Master of Photography with 1 Gold Bar from The Australian Institute of Professional Photography. I was presented during the awards ceremony in Sydney with a gold bar to be added onto my Masters ribbon.

How this all works is that for every silver award you get one point and ever gold award you get two points. If you receive 5 points with in 4 years you become an Associate, I received this in 2003. The next step is that if you receive 10 additional points within five years you become a Master of Photography, I received this in 2006. From then every additional 10 points gained within 5 years gets you an Gold Bar.

So after my name I get to put, Alan Moyle M Photog I

Just as a trip down memory lane I’ve put together a podcast of many of the award images over the years. These aren’t only APPA ones, they include images that have received awards all over the place.

Enjoy!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA9F1gqW7aU[/youtube]

 Some more shotsfrom Holga down at Salamanca. These were taken during the judging of the awards at a time where I thought I hadn’t got any of the main awards and was a little sad. A few hours later was a different story.

Proof the earth is rotating. These are some stars, they live in the sky at night. When I was away the other night I was inspired to do a startrail so taped up the Holga and let it spend a few hours outside exposing some film to produce this image. The Blue is flare which is a trademark of the Holga.

I had to do a couple of these for Uni and they were a bit of fun. I really have to pull out the old Olmpus and set is up next summer and do some more. They really are great photos to take,

Just a little Holga for Monday.

Just because he is in the US doesn’t mean he isn’t appearing on the Batblog.

More posts soon, hope everyone is enjoying some time off.
(i’ve polished off a book, heaps of good wife time, some West Wing, weeding, easter eggs, some work towards award images and played alot of throw the ball for the dog) 

THese shots are from Heidi and Wayne’s wedding. One of the first things Wayne commented on was my Holga photos. Generally no one knows what a Holga is. Wayne owns one, uses it and had a whole heap of other cool-but-not-quite-right cameras. So i took a roll of Holga at the wedding, here are my favourites!

Some shots from Summer… remember that?

Up at one of my favourite locations, the Cooee Abattoir.

This is at my local supermarket.

My plan is to add a new photo every few days. I shoot so many images that are not client based and never get the chance to show any one. So it’s time for the blog to share the images with everyone.

This is a Holga shot taken a couple of weeks ago, one of those found shots, they only exist for a second or two and you have to think fast to capture them.

I love the baggy pants!

I had some new Holga shots processed, I’m still enjoying playing with the little plastic camera. I picked up some tungsten balanced slide film and got it cross processed, give these strange colouring… no photoshop!

Using this toy camera has made me really have to think about many different aspects of the art of photogaphy, thinking about different light, compositions, using shadows, understanding how a film is going to work in certain light conditions and most importantly, how dam expensive it gets to buy and process film, let alone get it scanned.

For those photo types out there, these are shot with expired Fuji 64T slide film, cross processed standard C41 way. The blue cast comes from the film being balanced for tungsten light and the images shot in day light and the contrast is increased because of the cross processing.

I’ll be adding more photos into the new Holga Gallery on Photobat.net soon, but for the time being head over to my flickr site for more images.

I took a few photos in 2007, in fact, I took a few thousand.I always have loved showing off my work and am very proud of the way my images have developed in the last 12 months. So it’s time to show you all my favourite shots in an audio visual presentation. This is only on for one afternoon only, and not an exhibition that is hanging on the walls, so this is your only chance to see it.

Some of the highlights will include documentary work on the East Coast bushfires and backstage at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala, Holga images, urban and natural landscapes plus heaps of kids,families, pregnant bellies, animals and shoes.

In addition there will be a presentation of some of my favourite portraits of the week taken over the last 5 years. The POW started as a way of practicing and pushing myself by taking a different portrait each week. Some of these portraits are commissioned; others are self commissioned and feature comedians, musicians, brides, animals, fictional characters, photographers and everyday people I have bumped into.

The presentations will take about 30 minutes.

2pm February 10th 2007
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Inveresk, Launceston

Entry is Free and there will be prizes!

Please RSVP here as we have limited seating available andmay have to reschedule more viewings.

PLUS FESTIVALE IS ON, SO YOU HOBART PEOPLE SHOULD COME UP FOR A DRIVE!!!

Holyman House, Launceston, Circa 2007
Holga