James Troi's Visual Diary

Iconic (Eyewear) I like the close up portraits in this one. From FantasticsMag

PHOTOGRAPHY JOSEPH SINCLAIR

FASHION EDITOR GRAHAM CRUZ

MODEL ANDREW STETSON @ PREMIER

FEATURED FASHION BITCHING AND JUNKFOOD, GUCCI

Great lighting, great movement and the water and blues are beautiful.

Joseph Kahn is an inspirational person. He’s an awesome music video director and I have to say watching his stuff has my shutter finger fluttering more towards a much faster shutter movement.

This shot taken from his most recent video from Eminem and Rihanna song “Love the way you lie”.

The video as a whole is pretty cool. Not my favourite one of Joseph’s videos, but that’s manly because of the subject matter. I do enjoy it as a work of art.

Watch the Clip or visit Joseph Kahn’s Site

Another music video inspiration I’ve actually started to mock up a small set like this for still photos. I think it will look great for a fashion shoot with the light streaming through an extremely light haze from a smoke machine.

If I owned power tools this so would have been done already, I’m investigating options.

So it’s not this particular image that I like, more so the concept behind the set and lighting choices.

This video Janet Jackson’s “Rock With You”.

Music Video Inspiration

Have you ever tried to capture a frame from a music video playing on your iPhone, it’s hard to get the frame you want!

Of late I’ve become a fan of close-ups like this, no I’m not looking to shoot music videos (yet) but find photographic inspiration in all sorts of mediums and have found myself watching a lot of music videos of late.

I’m especially taken with the work of Joseph Khan.

So yeah, I’ll be looking to replicate this type of shot. I really like the extreme widescreen of the one of P!nk below.

I’ve had this image stuck up on my wall at work for over a year. It’s from the hand out for the 2009 Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and featured as a fold-out cover, hence the fold line running through the image (which is more pronounced in this scan than in the original).

The high key nature of the photo is stunning. The make up artists work with the colour is exquisite and the model is a perfect canvas.

I’m wondering how much post work has been done with this one, given the model appears to have no hair, and her features are flawless. Regardless it’s an image I admire.

Taken from the Docklands magazine that I pick up near work, I really like this photo of singer Kate Ceberano.

The tilt of her head, her joyful expression and close crop all make this a great photo to me. My enjoyment of the photo is futher enhanced as there has been no obvious over-the-top post production applied to the shot. I’m sure there has been some, but they haven’t digitally botoxed her forehead, the lines under her eyes nor the smile lines around her mouth, it keeps the photo looking natural.

Great photo, not sure who took it because newspapers these days seem to not give much credit to photographers or are using micro-stock sites like iStockPhoto.

I like the partially obscured face of the child, the big exposed eye making eye contact (yes there is a theme in the photos I like). I even like the light sheen on from the material the child is hiding in.

Mike.04 by Gabriel Goldberg (AKA G*Squared_LA)

Gabriel is probably one of my greatest inspirations. His people photos are remarkably flawless and the lighting exquisite.

Mike.04 I like with its slightly desaturated colours, the out of focus patterned background and the subjects connection with the viewer with the direct eye contact.

Sarah McLachlan - Laws of Illusion

The cover art from Sarah McLachlan’s album with photos by Kharen Hill and Ralph Mazzucco

The Pool

Hmmm what is it I like about this photo? Because I really do like it. Might be the bird’s eye view, the relatively subtle colour range, the pattern the water and the tiles make or that the three people in the shot form a great dynamic diagonal line.

I’m not certain, I just know I like it.

In the 65 years since LIFE’s Alfred Eisenstaedt captured this scene amid the joyous chaos of August 14, 1945, his “V-J Day in Times Square” has become one of the most famous photographs ever made. Showing a sailor planting a kiss on the lips of a nurse as happy New Yorkers look on — shortly after the surrender of Japan effectively, finally ended World War II — the image has entered America’s and the world’s popular, shared consciousness in a way that very few photographs ever have. Today, it remains the picture that, for millions, serves as an elegant visual shorthand for the notion, “War is over!” On June 20, 2010, Edith Shain, the woman in the photograph (or, at least, the woman widely believed to be in the photograph … read on!), died in Los Angeles at the age of 91. But the story of the picture, and of the remarkable man who took it, never grows old .. http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/45081

Ted Grant

IMG_9636 by PhotoJunkie

If I didn’t already know this was an image taken at a Wii party way back when the Nintendo Wii was first released I’m sure I’d be forgiven for thinking this photo could have been shot for a magazine. The lighting and detail is perfect. Even the slight blur of the controller’s cable and the subjects arm are great to see and conjure the idea of the movement that was obviously happening at the time.

Not expressly taken as a documentary photo it does capture a moment in time in an attempt to remember an event, as does the series of photos from which this one comes.