Photography, Woodworking and a Bike Obsession

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Rosemount Wines Shoot from not long ago. Styled by the lovely Kirsten Bookalil and art directed by Richard Smalley from MOON Communications group.

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Crash Test

My series for the Pin Up exhibition in Melbourne 2013. This year's theme - Glass. Opening 14th November. Runs 7 to 30 November. Pin-up Architecture and Design Project Space, 12-25 Keele Street, Collingwood, Melbourne.

www.pinupprojectspace.com

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Building a sub 7kg bike (not quite) - Part 2

Finally had the chance to take this stealthy carbon monster out on a 45km ride today. Although it did not make my goal of being under 7kg, it is certainly the fastest bike I've ridden and own. It eventually came in at 7.5kg. Equipped with a modest SRAM Rival groupset, the whole bike costs under $2.2K which is cheap for what it did to me today. I wanted to ride it all day long and very fast. It responded to all my breakaway tendencies and kept the pace hard and long. I can't describe all the technical intricacies of what makes a bike great but I've ridden many to know this was pretty damn good!

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Some out takes from a recent Virgin Mobile shoot previously posted. So much fun stopping time!

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Colnago Master Olympic - An Italian Masterpiece from the 80s

I've just recently finished building up this Colnago classic. Everything about this frame says it is special. Columbus Gilco diamond shaped tubing, chromed head lugs and you can't miss the paint work - truly worthy of something from the 80s. Campagnolo C Record components from the 80s are also sourced from around the globe to match the look and period to the frame. The Delta brakes fitted on this bike are arguably the most beautiful brakes ever made for a bicycle. A beautiful blue bike.

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Cover for Sunday Style Magazine - August 25, 2013

Before and after retouching.

Art Direction: Mary Talato, Styling: Emma Elizabeth, Assistant: Ola Holmstrom 

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I import and distribute STRiDA folding bikes in Australia and these were my photographic submission for STRiDA international's 2014 calendar. Inspired by the movie TRON.

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VIRGIN MOBILE

Recent images for a Virgin Mobile campaign just launched. Art Director: Lyndal Harris, Agency: Generation Alliance (Sydney), Assistant: Ola Holmstrom.

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TORii CONSOLE 

Just finished making this console for architect/designer Andrew Waller - (www.mrwaller.com) from Australian black butt. Andrew was inspired by the  Japanese gates most commonly found at the entrance of Shinto shrines. Console is 950mm wide x 300mm deep x 900mm high. Very balanced and zen indeed...

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BUILDING A SUB 7kg BIKE ON A BUDGET - PART 1

The quest to have a bike that weighs close to nothing is often a cyclist's obsession. My lightest bike up to date is an 8kg LOOK 486. Of course it is possible to go much lighter up to the 6kg range but you would most likely be looking at a $10K spend or above. My new sub 7kg bike (black bike above) will be relatively low cost and built from mostly generic or unknown brands sourced from Taiwan. The groupset will be SRAM Rival - taken off my beloved carbon and alloy Felt F-75 (8.5kg with all parts shown on image above) which will soon be on the 2nd hand market. I did like the look of the F-75 very much and it was a tough decision to dismantle it but I needed the SRAM Rivals on it.

Rivals rank #3 in the SRAM family and are priced around $700 for an 8 piece group. That is pretty good value for the weight of the set and I think it will just get me under 7kg on the complete bike. In part 2, I will be publishing the weight and costs of all parts that make this sub 7kg bike and most importantly, details on the ride quality of course.

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This is my mid life crisis bike - its the substitute for the sports car I couldn't afford. A project that started with a frame purchased on ebay from the Ukraine. It took about 3 months to source all other components to complete. A beautiful French bike from the early 1990s that deserves only the top components from that era.

Shifters, brake calipers, front derailleur, rear derailleur are Campagnolo Record 8 Speed from the early 90s. Crankset is Mavic (spider) as well as the rare 3 spoked (Mavic 3G) carbon wheels. Handle bar is 3T (Prima) and saddle is San Marco Concor Lite with carbon rails, both Italian. Pretty much a French and Italian affair.

A bike far ahead of its time, this 20 year old Look KG196 "Monoblade" still looks fully siiick in 2013. The integrated stem and fork would have been space age back when Whitney Houston had a voice! Although not a very light bike in comparison to today's carbon stuff, it was a ground breaker no doubt. One of the first era of carbon bikes raced professionally. Very happy to have me one of these... A weekend bike I only ride when the sun is out and the streets are clean.

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This is the latest cover for another David Jones Beauty Catalogue I worked on a few months back that has just launched. Lots of goodies inside as you would expect from 2 weeks of work. The usual suspects were involved - Jamie Chapman (art direction), Jenni Booth (styling), Ola Holmstrom and Leanna Maione (the assistants)

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AN OLD ANT WITH NEW SHOES

I gave this to a friend last week as it was just hanging around and taking up room in the workshop. Before it embarked on its new life to Shanghai via a shipping container for 2 months, I gave it a new look with white shoes. I think I should have done this a long time ago. I like the new look!

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My journey to a meeting...

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A few nights ago I was on a rooftop of a building with my camera hanging off a ledge weighed down by a fire distinguisher and rocks in my bag (many terrible outcomes had entered my mind). It had to hang off the ledge because the lens was a Sigma 12mm on a full chip Canon 5DM3 - parts of the building I was shooting from also came into view if I hadn't gone those extra risky inches into the void. The result is the image on the bottom, stitched from 3 images as I rotated horizontally. The view is nothing significant but it will be used as a background for a rendered residential tower going up in the middle of the image. It's kinda under wraps for now but I will update when possible.

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Received an email today with this attachment from Jamie Chapman (art director) saying we won best catalogue - I need to find out in what?. Anyway, it is nice to get recognition for 2 weeks of hard, fun work shooting cosmetics. Thank you to Jenni Booth (stylist), Ola Holmstrom, Leanna Maione (assistants) and Jamie Chapman - we were a great team!

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August 12, 2013 - AN INTRODUCTION

I started this blog not long ago to keep a record of furniture pieces I've made to show potential clients. After much hesitation (due to laziness on my part) I've decided to collate and share snippets from my other passions - there are 3.

I am a freelance photographer by profession, a part time woodworker and in the last few years I have spent a ridiculous amount of time obsessing about bikes (the human powered type).

I'm not much of a writer and it takes me ages to express myself with words, so naturally, this blog will be visually biased. I hope my future posts will give you a better idea of what I do and who I am.

Lets get on with it....