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Melbourne, Australia.
Hey, I'm Dallas - that sketchy looking dude with the monkey on his back. Welcome to my site and I hope you enjoy your visit :)
At the risk of boring you, I'll save the dramatic Oscar speech for a few more years down the track. Long story short though, Photography is my passion. It helps keep me sane, driven, and continually creatively inspired. Working as a freelance semi-pro for the last 2 years in the areas of Events, and most recently Travel, I've still got a long way to go to becoming the next Ken Duncan, Tony Mott, or Chris McClennan. With practice, time, hard work, some better equipment, and a consistent aim to push my own boundaries though, I strongly believe in my potential to make a name for myself in this industry - if I ever get famous for anything in life, it'll most likely be Photography. My primary areas of interest (and future focus) are based around Travel Photography, Candid Portraiture (primarily Travel Portraiture), Photo-Journalism, Event/Festival Photography, and a developing interest in Landscape Photography. I find a unique sense of beauty in chaotic, unplanned moments, and as such, have never really been attracted to the bright lights of a studio, or over-planned photoshoots - planning shots only really interests me if it's for the purpose of capturing unique portraits, landscapes at thier finest, or naturally occurring weather events. My dream job would be traveling the world as a well-paid freelance Photographer - shooting for a combination of Photo-Journalism assignments covering major world events (Civil Wars/Unrest, Natural Disasters etc...), unique stories, and creative Travel Photography for magazines, books, and fine-art purposes. That's that in a nutshell :)
My visual style ranges from subject to subject, but can be seen reasonably consistently through the way I present my final images. Overall, my style is relatively minimal, strong, creative, artistic, and usually accented by vibrant saturated colour, neutral greytones, or retro-looking earthtones. I treat every image differently, and edit each one in a way that best compliments or enhances it's unique qualities or mood. I find a large element of unique beauty in unplanned, often chaotic photo opportunities, and as a result, controlled photoshoots and studio lights have never really attracted me. In people, I like capturing defining moments that convey some kind of visible feeling, emotion or artistic quality. In places and events, I like capturing and presenting a final series of creative images that come together to tell an overall story, despite their vast individual differences. I also have a strange obsession with anything decayed, faded or worn by the elements or human use. It's an obsession that I'd mainly attribute to the many years I spent working in mind-numbing factory jobs, where I'd often find my mental escape from the mundane repetition of the work by visualising the unique beauty and photogenic qualities in anything faded, worn, or rusty - old signage, timber palettes, rusty machinery, or steel ceiling beams and rusty corrugated rooves. It's proven to be a ‘hit and miss’ type of obsession, but one that’s yielded alot of great images for me in the process. Aged and decayed items have so much unique artistic quality, and it’s an obsession that I don’t think I’ll ever sick of. Especially when it comes to the area of third-world Travel Photography - a virtual “goldmine” of decay.
I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but most of my so-called "professional" Photography in the last 2 years has been taken using a Canon 450D with standard kit-lenses. Although these have served me reasonably well so far, I've noticed some pretty big differences in things like colour quality, image clarity, and background blur between my photos and those of Photographers using much better equipment than mine. They say "a bad tradesman always blames his tools", but in Photography, the tools you're using can really make or break an image - they can make the difference between getting that sharp, front-cover photo of Fatboy Slim peaking off his face and raising his arms in "pure" excitement to a 5000+ strong crowd in front of him, or missing the moment by a couple of seconds because your lenses low-quality auto-focus didn't lock on to him quick enough, thus leaving you with a blurry, mistimed, underexposed and grainy image because your low-quality lens also can't handle low-light, no-flash Photography (true story). Realising this, I thought it was about due time to get serious and step it up a level so I can finally shoot on even terms with the big boys in the game. After some thorough research and consideration, pictured above is the package I'm aiming for next, and which is looking at costing me around $5-6K on the current market. I plan to purchase these in stages, beginning with the most expensive lenses.
LEFT TO RIGHT:
1. CANON 7D 18.8MP D-SLR: Cheaper than it’s 21MP 5D Mark II older brother, but a newer model with improved features and screen display.
2. CANON EF 70-200MM F/4.0 IS LENS: Perfect all round premium range telephoto lens for long-range shooting.
3. CANON EF 17-40MM F/4.0 IS LENS: Canon premium range lens for crisp and clear images, and short-range shooting.
4. CANON EF 50MM F/1.2 LENS: Canon premium-range lens, and by far the best, and priciest ($1500+!) out of all three 50MM lenses available from Canon.
5. CANON SPEEDLITE 580EX II EXTERNAL FLASH + Gary Fong Lightsphere II Collapsible Flash Diffuser (Not Pictured).
6. VELBON SHERPA TITANIUM TRAVEL TRIPOD: Lightweight and easy to travel with for professional use.
7. EXTRAS (NOT PICTURED): Tamrac Expedition 9X Padded Pro Camera Backpack, Various Lens Filters, and Canon Wireless Shutter Remote.
Chris McLennan (Amazing Travel, Adventure & Tourism Photographer: www.cmphoto.co.nz), Tony Mott (Veteran English-Australian Festival & Band Photographer: www.tonymott.com), Ken Duncan (Australian Landscape Photographer: www.kenduncan.com), and all the talented emerging Photographers I'm lucky enough to be acquainted with; including the likes of Reza Shams Latifi (Festival, Abstract & Portrait Photographer: Flickr Profile), Oliver Parzer (Abstract-Contemporary Photographer: www.oliverparzer.com), Ed Sloane (Extremely Artistic Surf Photography: www.sloanephotos.blogspot.com), Andy Sloane (Event, Travel, and Landscape Photography: www.myshutterspace.com), Michael Wardhana (Talented emerging Fashion Photographer: www.mikaelwardhana.com) Danny Allison (Landscape/Abstract/Portrait Photographer & Illustrator: www.dannyallison.co.uk) Hemang Mehta (Abstract, Landscape, and Portrait Photographer: Facebook Album), and anybody else I may have forgotten to mention.
+ Creative Travel Photography: Specialising in third-world countries
+ Professional Photo-Journalism
+ Candid Portraiture
+ Event & Festival Photography
+ Landscape Photography
+ Underwater Photography (Reef Diving & Marine Life)
+ Urban street-scape Photography
+ Wedding Photography
+ Fashion Photography
+ Begin Journalism studies (specialising in Photo-Journalism), starting in 2012.
+ Become a successful Travel Photographer and Photo-Journalist; ideally with the aim of working professionally for major media
organisations such as National Geographic Magazine, AAP, or Reuters.
+ Become a successful Photo-Journalist (and occasional Writer) specialising in coverage of dangerous, life-threatening
events such as civil-wars, violent protests, and the aftermath of terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
+ Continue Festival and Event Photography in my spare time, and improve/expand my portfolio in this area.
+ Get at least one of my images printed on the front-page of a state, national or world-wide publication before I die.
+ Exhibit at least one image in one exhibition per year.
+ Get famous for my work.
+ Have you purchase at least one high-quality print from my website :)
