Memories: Nepal/Singapore 2016
It was my first experience of shooting on film in 2016 that made me fall in love with photography. Lately I've been going over old photos from this time period to see what I was drawn to with my camera, before outside influences started changing my ideas about taking photos. These images remind me of that puristic, curious approach to photography that I hope I never lose.
Before this trip to Nepal I was gifted an old 1970's Minolta SLR which I blindly took as my only camera (no test rolls - in hindsight not the greatest idea)! Having no instant feedback on the images I was taking was freeing. Months later I finally got the rolls developed and all the precious moments came flooding back in all their grainy, natural, vibrant glory. Since then I've been hooked, taking every opportunity to capture life as it happens around me, telling stories as I see them unfolding.
Get in touch if you would like me to capture something for you too.
Nepal
On this trip I worked alongside our friends at Compassion Nepal who work with a number of communities across Nepal to help give access to education, shelter, and food to people in need.
Click any photo to open the full-res slideshow // Shot with Fujifilm Superia 400 // Minolta XE-1 with 50mm 1.4 lens
Singapore
After leaving Nepal I had a stopover in Singapore for a long overdue visit to my Singapore-Chinese side of the family - Grand Uncle Eddie, Pohtai (Great Grandmother) and Grand Aunty Linda and Grand Uncle Dan. By this stage I was missing my little family pretty bad but had a great time of much needed rest, catching up with family and friends and hopping around Singapore with my GALinda and GUnkaDan.
Oakura Bay Summer Holiday, 2018
We took a family holiday up in Oakura Bay, Northland in January. I turned off my phone, swam every day and never left the little beach community. As my life has become busier and more 'online' in recent years, it was a gigantic sigh of relief to cut digital ties and connect more deeply with my surroundings and loved ones.
I hope these beautiful pockets of New Zealand remain unspoiled for many years to come.
Kodak Portra 400 (35mm) // Minolta 50mm f/1.4 // Dev + Scan by The Black and White Box
South Island, 2017
Here's a series of images captured in the South Island of New Zealand, in the winter of 2017.
Cook Strait Ferry
Te Anau
Road to Milford Sound
Queenstown
Burt Munro's World's Fastest Indian
Motorcycle Mecca
Flying over the Southern Alps
Click in to any image to open up the slideshow.
Kodak Portra 400 (35mm) // Minolta MD 50mm 1.4 // 6x6 image was Fuji400H on Zeiss Nettar folding camera
Reflections of a Singer/Songwriter
Recently I had the honour of being questioned about my music for a high school student's English assignment. It forced me to sit down and reflect on my journey as a musician and songwriter since I started taking it seriously in high school all those years ago. I actually really appreciated the opportunity to reflect on the journey so much that I thought I would share my thoughts here.
What inspired you to start playing music?
My sister had a guitar she was learning on and she taught me a few of the things she was learning, I really enjoyed it and ended up taking some lessons myself. What kept me inspired right at the very start was all the encouragement I would get from my classmates. As a quiet, shy teenager, music gave me something that made me feel unique, valued, and seen. Of course, my sources of inspiration have changed a lot over the years but that was what kept me interested at a young age (around 13-14).
Were there any challenges you faced when writing the Liquid Life EP? If so, what were they?
The biggest challenge I faced was finishing a song. As a songwriter I am forever tweaking lyrics, melodies, etc, even after a song is recorded and released. As I grow as an artist and a human being, sometimes I feel the need to adapt songs - to add depth or emotion or remove parts that really don't sit well with me any more, or even just to make them more interesting to play live. On the flip side, sometimes it is important to preserve the songs as they are, as a reflection of my growth or that point in time. So I guess I never feel like a song is finished - even if I am finished with it, someone else in the world may decide to make their own version of it and then the song takes on a whole new life (for example, see the Revisionist History episode on "Hallelujah"). The only songs I was truly happy with at the time of releasing the EP were "Sticks & Stones" and "For Love". In hindsight I should've listened to my instinct and sat on the EP for longer, to allow time for those songs to develop more. Maybe I should go back and revisit those songs...
While studying at EXCEL School of Performing Arts what was the hardest thing to overcome?
The most difficult thing at EXCEL was definitely feeling inadequate. I went from a small high school in a small town where my identity was based around being the guy who writes/sings/produces music, to a school literally full of people who were also amazingly talented at all of the above. It was incredibly inspiring but also very difficult, I was very discouraged as I compared myself to the other singers who all had much better voices than me (at least that's how I saw it). I wouldn't say that I've overcome that, as it is something I still struggle with today, but I am definitely learning to not compare myself with others and to discover and celebrate what makes me unique as an artist. When I started at EXCEL my vocal skills were pretty average but I learnt to instead focus on my strength in songwriting, which is where I really excelled (pun intended). Over time I've learnt that it is my personality, my life experience, the fact that nobody else sounds like I do - these things are what make my music special. There are people that my music will impact because of the aspects that make me unique from the cookie-cutter record-label-crafted singers out there. Realising and reminding myself daily that musical success is not about money and popularity but depth of connection and impact helps me continue to overcome these struggles every day. Quality over quantity ;)
What is one of your hobbies other than music?
Another hobby I have that has developed a lot in recent years is photography (on film). There are many overlapping aspects but the act of creating and is very different. In both you need to know your equipment (guitar, vocal technique, camera) and use that to portray an emotion, situation, person, idea, story that might otherwise be overlooked. Both, for me, come from a place of reflection, and while the act of writing/performing/recording a song is more crafted portrayal, photography is a much more immediate (sometimes subconscious) portrayal that can only be captured in a fraction of a second. Since I have young kids (1 and 3) carrying a camera around is currently a bit easier to do than to lock myself away in a studio for a few hours!
When writing music, what is the hardest thing to do?
The hardest thing for me now, when writing music, is to not second guess myself, and to allow myself to get lost in the act. As I had more success with my songs I found myself focusing on what I think people will like when I write. But in reality good art is confronting, it doesn't pander to what people want to hear. That can still be musical and creative but to me it is not the point of art, I want my art to move people and to make the world a more beautiful place by inspiring and challenging people to love. I have recently stopped writing completely as everything I was coming up with was rubbish, because of the pressure I was putting on myself to write something 'good'. I'm going to be working on some covers of songs that hold a lot of meaning for me, as an attempt to go back to the beginning and discover the pure joy of music again. A lot of the pressure I had put on myself revolves around the fact that many 'successful' musicians and songwriters these days seem to peak at like 21yrs (hello Ed Sheeran, all the Disney stars, Taylor Swift, and many many other artists). Again I was comparing myself to them and thinking I was missing the boat on musical 'success'. But that isn't the case at all. As I reconsider what 'success' really means, I look forward to a life full of successfully making connections with people through the art that I make.
Lost&Found 2017
Every now and then, I get together with a few friends and we play some live music about faith, God, and religion. Easy listening stuff ;). We call these nights Lost&Found.
Shot on Minolta XE-7 with 50mm 1.4 / colour shots were remaining frames on rolls of Kodak Portra 400 and Superia 400.
During/after the event (after the sun went down) I shot my first roll of Ilford Delta 3200, metered for the shadows at 1600.
