A LOOK FORWARD AND A LOOK BACK – YEAR IN REVIEW PART I

I have been very excited to write this post to share some of the great upcoming articles and photos Chris and I have planned for Photo Basecamp in 2018. We have been on a number of amazing trips recently, both locally in our home countries of Australia and America, but also further afield including some incredible explorations in Europe including London, Paris and throughout Austria.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. I love this picture because everyone I show in my family instantly say, it looks like Dad! Its a terrible thing to say, but if I was to draw a caricature of my dad – this would be it! This sculpture has been in the center of Melbourne, Australia’s business and shopping district and even though I have photographed it many times, I finally felt like I captured what I was hoping for.

Chris and I started Photo Basecamp because both travel and photography are our passions. Even though we haven’t been everywhere, or profess to be experts in the field, we wanted to share this passion and hopefully along the way inspire and entice others to pick up their cameras, create amazing images and, along with us, continue to improve in our photographic hobby.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. My wife and I recently returned from London over Christmas, and on the first night visited one of our favorite locations, Carnaby Street. All decorated for Christmas and right after a heavy London downpour, I took this shot where I wanted to capture the colors and reflections in the water. I just printed this image BIG – and its turned out great.

Leica M-P240 50mm Noctilux f1.0. I love classic old cars – my favorite since being a kid was the 1957 Chevy. Big tires, long fins and loads of chrome! Bob’s Big Boy diner in Burbank, California has a great hot rod show every Friday night and I took along my new lens, the amazing Leica 50mm Noctilux 1.0 to test out recently. Lots more about this lens coming up soon on Photo Basecamp!

In 2017 we built and launched Photo Basecamp and wrote a lot of articles. Initially, the site was going to be fully subscription based, but we quickly realized we wanted to share this content freely and thus to a much wider audience. It was the lack of real information online as to exactly where a photo was taken that spurred us on to make this site, so we didn’t want to hide it behind a paywall. We also wanted to make sure that when we started to share our creation that there was already a wealth of content for people to discover and for us to build upon.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. Melbourne, Australia is famous for these very colorful beach box houses dotted along the southern coastline. They sell for large amounts of money now, but I have a vivid recollection of them from childhood and is says classic Aussie beach to me.

With that now in place we will continue to not only add many more locations (with a particular focus on more spots within Europe, Asia and the US National Parks), but also more reviews.  Reviews on gear including lenses and printers, more tutorials and behind-the-scenes features describing the stories, as well as, the post-processing behind our images.  We are also looking forward to a new section to be launched soon on photographers that inspire us, their books and interviews.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. I have a number of ongoing long term projects, one of which is cool old bikes. Whenever I see one, I have to take a photo. The image on the left is from a small town outside of Melbourne, Australia and the right hand side was shot about two weeks ago in Vienna, Austria where there was the most perfect soft light streaming down this tiny alleyway.

There is one other major development that I am very happy and excited to announce; I will be starting a local chapter of The Leica Meet here in Los Angeles! The intention is to meet up and regularly connect with photographers shooting with Leica gear, where we will go out and take photos together, grab a coffee and review and constructively critique each others work. Much more information will be coming soon so look out for a featured post on the home page.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. This is one of my favorite images from last year. I love dogs and have two of my own. This one looked so upset that he was missing out on brunch! There is so much personality in his face which is droopy on one side, the sad eyes, the chain leash and the way he is sitting on top of one of his legs.

However, with all this looking forward and at the coming of the new year, I find it natural to look back at the year just past. At the end of each year I like to create a little retrospective of my favorite images. I feel that this serves a number of purposes; firstly, to see how my work has progressed. I like to review where I have been and set new goals in areas where I feel my work is lacking. This really helps to give me a focus for the new year of not just snapping away more photos, but the types of projects and things I need to be more aware of or learn more about whilst taking these images.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. My parents were on their way back to Australia after a trip to the US and had a stop over in Hawaii for a few days, so I decided to meet them there. I took this about 5 mins after arriving to my hotel. The late afternoon light, the yellow chairs against the blue water and the soft curtains blowing in the breeze just summed up the feeling of the location perfectly to me.

Secondly, I love to print photos. Both in my work as an Animator and in photography, my world has become digital. Animation is now all CG and much like my photography, it all lives in the computer. Before, you had the drawings and the prints on paper. There was a physical product, something you could hold in your hands. I miss this.

Leica M-P240 50mm Voigtlander f1.5. I took this image whilst testing the 50mm Voigtlander lens at a local diner near my house. I love the light that streams through the windows in the afternoons here. It has a very Frank Herzog feel to me. I will write about his latest book shortly.

So each year a create a book of images from the previous year and I pick photos that I believe pass the “would my wife and I want to hang this in our house” test, and then print them up BIG 🙂

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. Even though this was taken on a sunny, blue skied day, I loved the black and white version and how it creates a quite creepy feel with the twisted trees. It also shows off the 3D pop from the 35mm Summilux lens.

So with that in mind, I have chosen 30 images from the last year and included a small comment or explanation for each. As this post has already gotten very long, I will break it into two parts.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. I loved the movie La La Land and the scene that was filmed on Santa Monica Pier – this is my tip of the hat to that great movie.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. My wife and I love taking road trips, and earlier this year we took the right of passage drive between LA and Las Vegas along Route 66. This abandoned gas station screams classic US highway to me.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. Taken in Vienna, Austria at the imperial crypt, I really like how this image looks like it was taken a long time ago but also feels like it could be from the front of a pirate ship.

Leica M-P240 35mm Summilux 1.4 FLE. Taken in Vienna, Austria, I loved how these two women and guy looked like they were from the Russian mafia shopping for groceries! The expressions all work so well together.

To be continued in Part Two!

Share: