Some pre wedding location shoots

Over the last couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to photograph two wonderful couples for a pre wedding shoot for their approaching weddings. It is also a time where for an hour or so I get to know the couple on a more intimate level and where I can pick up subtle things that will help me enhance their wedding day coverage and I love these chances. I thought I would share them here which I have not previously done. The first couple is Katherine and Brendon followed by Laura & Krys. I am looking forward to covering their special days.

Dust storms choke Sydney

Sydney has been blanketed with high levels of thick dust, affecting visibility, brought on by gale force winds.

Major roads are being shut due to the high levels of dust, including the Sydney Harbour Tunnel and the M5 East Motorway from Beverly Hills to Kyeemagh.

Ferries have been suspended due to visibility and flights have been diverted from Sydney Airport.

Northwesterly winds from the western side of New South Wales have carried the dust to the city, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The dust is expected to dissipate later in the day.

Cars in the city are driving with their lights on this morning due to poor visibility.

Prolonged exposure to dust can result in asthma attacks, allergic reactions and other breathing-related problems, according to the NSW Department of Health.

People with respiratory conditions such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema are urged to exercise caution.

Reports of raised dust are also coming in from Canberra, Newcastle and Tibooburra.
(source - ninemsn.com.au)

Well that is the news. I ventured outside a few minutes ago with my camera and these are the shots I got. Mind you my nose has been running and I have been coughing since I have come back inside, so I will resist going out again until it dissipates. I have never in my life seen anything quite like it. like a huge fog with an orange lens filter over the top of my eyes!

Thought for the day

Each spiritual journey begins with a step forward—the moment when you realize that there's more to life than you've been living.
~Vicky Thompson

Faith and the Art of taking risks

I visit the blogsite of a man I have never referred to previously. He is a Canadian photographer who now lives in India, a place I have wanted to, and will visit. This is a post he wrote in August, and I have read it a couple of times and love it very much. He says what I feel, and yet for reasons of financial security and for the maintenance of a family I have resisted from following in his footsteps but yearn to do what he has done. As my post yesterday indicated, life is about overcoming the fears. I realise in a very sobering way though, that to follow my heart could mean some very serious financial hardship, if I was single, I wouldn't think twice.

My challenge however is if I wait for a right time, will one ever really come? Martin really says and expresses precisely what I feel and want to do. He is living the dream, the dream I want. It would be nice though if I had a financial buffer at least, but one currently does not exist. So do I make the plunge. I cannot tell you that in all of my posts, in all of my thoughts and feelings expressed on my blogs this one thought and feeling lies beneath and dominates my thoughts and feelings. Will I make it if I left the security of being a photographic trainer, and photographic sales manager for a company? will I be able to take photographs and create images that would allow me to be self sustaining, giving me the amount I need and more? Will I prosper? I know I have the right stuff, but honestly, THIS is the biggest fear I face, and it is an adversary I battle constantly. I love how Martin has written this. Was it the lion in the Wizard of Oz that was looking for courage only to find he had it all along?

It may appear nothing to any who read this, but this is the one area I have never said on here and the one that I yearn for the most. I have bared my soul in the last couple of days...and that is OK.

Perhaps I need more faith......

I have consciously chosen a career as a working artist. No one pushed me to it, I alone chose my path.

I fully and graciously accept my life as a result of all choices I have made, the defeats I have suffered and the victories won.

That being said, the path of the artist is long and often times difficult path; meandering through the crumbling parched earth of doubt, being cut on the sharp brambles of criticism, both external and internal, squinting through the howling fog of financial insecurity.... anyway you want to describe it, its a journey to be respected.

Eventually though, you begin to find your way. To extend the metaphor further, you learn where to step and where not to step, you learn to wait out storms as opposed to trying to power through them and you realize that there's fellow traveler's out there to help you and guide you...

... but often times as artists we come lose our path and we end up standing on the edge of a huge precipice, a giant yawning chasm of black unknown-ness. Death. Failure.

On the other side of the chasm we can see our path continuing, and it looks so clear and clean, like somebody has swept it. But how to cross the chasm.... there is no bridge. You could go back, thats always an option, but what's back there really?

No, its time to take a risk. Its time to jump.

Only when we jump into that black abyss, into the fear, into the possibility of the unknown do we find what we as artists are made of. Its in this dramatic, faith-filled, insane leap that we grow our wings; long flowing beautiful wings that we never knew we had, wings that will carry us to the other side and set us down on our path again... (or we could fail miserably, hitting the ground in a heap of broken dreams and mushy depression... hence the 'risk' part)

Now this is far from an original analogy, i've read it before but what's more important is that I've experienced it and am experiencing it now.

If we take a step towards our dreams, the universe takes two towards us. Its almost like a law of life, one that we haven't figured out how to measure yet.

one year ago I made a decision. I decided i was going to leave my home town of Vancouver. Vancouver was familiar to me, my family was there, my friends were there, I had a client base there but inside me I felt i was being smothered somehow, as if some latent potential was aching to be brought to light.

Over the years I have become better at listening to that little voice in my head, the one that says "for god's sake, you live once, do it..." So Tonia and I sat down, discussed our future and decided to hit the road.

I had had a dream one night, vivid as can be. I was in India again, practicing yoga, happy, fulfilled. I awoke and I remember thinking to myself; "Bombay, I have to go to Bombay...I don't know why, I just have to." I sold my lighting gear, gave up our apartments, bought a plane ticket to one of the world's most over populated, smelly, dirty but alive cities. We arrived in Bombay knowing one person, a distant friend I hadn't seen in years.

We took a risk, we jumped, but within the universe was listening and gave us wings.

Within six months I had shot some of the biggest Bollywood stars, shot the cover of GQ India, shot for Vogue and an unheard of 22 pages in Harper's Bazaar. I'm working and networking more than I did back home and in an emerging market that's 10 times the size of my sleepy home town.

I think that there are a great many talented photographers in the world and I would be seriously humbled if someone thought I was part of that group, but the fact is, I took a risk...a huge crazy risk that many thought was crazy, including me at times.

So start taking more risks, is my advice. Sure you'll f**k up but life is an art and the more you live it the better you get at it, it just depend on how you want to live it.

peace always...
POSTED BY MARTIN PRIHODA

Martins blog

Developing - Rising higher

For the longest time, I have been on a journey of discovery, of defining and honing my creative abilities, and for seeking to find the best within, and develop those attributes or talents to a point where I can achieve some personal dreams. I was the son of a widowed mother at age 14, and the son of parents who rarely achieved much that would be hailed by others as great or worthy of accolade, yet they were good years, defining years for me and I remain a very fortunate son, raised by parents who cared and who sacrificed what little they had to open up opportunities for me. I am grateful..

I have sought for the highest within myself particularly over the last 10 years, as though the sands in my life's hourglass were running out more rapidly, and indeed they are. I undertook to be the best, have the best and be associated with the best for the longest time, as though the "best" is where I needed to be as though THAT would give me the fountain of all the worlds bounty. In a small measure I have achieved that and found also, that when you travel consistently on a road for a high speed like 110 kilometres an hour for a sustained period of time, it appears that the speed is slow, until you approach a truck traveling much slower in your lane and quickly change, or when you exit the motorway and hit 50 km/h do you become keenly aware of just how fast you are going. Perception is a changing and sobering thing.

So, having achieved a small measure of the things I have been seeking, it previously had never been enough. I have wanted a bigger house with a studio, grounds that I could use as photographic backgrounds etc etc. and whilst in a sense I still want these outward things for personal reasons. I have discovered well by accident that the greatest journey I have been on is the journey of discovering and developing talents and overcoming fears. The greatest journey has NOT been the accumulation of accolades and "things". I have achieved something I had never imagined possible in the simplest of realisations. I COULD and CAN do what I imagine. In and of that purity of understanding I am at complete peace. I once said to someone years ago who asked me "what would you like to be doing in 5 years time?" I said, being able to take portraits of people, like celebrities in their homes where I have been invited there to do that, and to have my work appreciated. I have absolutely done this but had until recently little idea, that it was something I had in fact created. It is indeed true, we are what we believe we are, we achieve what we imagine we can, and do what we think we can. Conversely, if we say we can't, we won't. If we think we can't, we don't.

I have several talented friends who have talents like singing, painting, sculpting and model creation. For the most part these people, my friends, are simply amazing and dear to me, but on a whole other level I yearn for them, yearn that they have not achieved what I imagine their potential to be. True, these thoughts and feelings are based on something I imagine and want for them, and may have no bearing on what THEY want for themselves and if they don't, well that of course is their prerogitive. Though I have glimpsed inwardly that fear holds them back in some way. Perhaps even the fear of failure.

Fear is a massive thing. Humans have fears of almost everything. On my wall once I was given a newspaper cut-out which said in bold letters, what are you afraid of? I was given this with the vocalised expression to not have all the dreams and do nothing about them, make them your own and don't be afraid. Fear is one of those things that can lurk in the darkness and strike when we least expect it, perhaps we are called upon without notice to stand in a room full of people to introduce ourselves, and tell others of our likes and dislikes, or it can come when we are about to start a race, or even happen when people come into our sphere whom want to develop who they are, and we may feel threatened or compromised by their presence or previous achievements. There are constantly people within my small sphere of influence who seek to minimise me or what I do, or at best want to compete with me as though I should PROVE my photographic or other ability in a match off or some lame thing like that. Whilst on such occasions I can feel a mixture of anger, disappointment, competitiveness, and confusion - they are fleeting.

I have fully developed an understanding that I alluded to earlier. I recognise that the only person I race with is myself. There will always be people better than me, always people who are not at the level I am but the real challenge I feel about life is to not be, or even feel less than others. I have observed that self - worth or it's enemy self- loathing, are powerful motivators in opposite directions. I feel that there are so many people whose self worth has received a battering over time that they seek to hide it and like most talents or things we have that are rarely used or abandoned, we lose them forever. They can also have massive negative connotations if we go to that "dark side" as well.

However, I have only recently at least on a deeply personal heartfelt level, begun to see that I know nothing. The things I think I know, are not true for all people that I meet. Our life experiences are so diverse and so wonderfully different, I find that I have been blissfully creating "rules" about life and about people only to have them splinter and be dissected by experiences and developing over time. What I do know of a surety however is that each of us wants to be loved, recognised and appreciated. Each of us deserves that too, I hasten to add. Yet it would seem that we are seeking to isolate ourselves or pitt ourselves against one another more often to prove we are better only to find that the ground on which we stand in those instances is a little empty or lonely. It is written that no man is an island, I think that resonates with me. Whilst I am very comfortable in my own skin, with its incumbent weaknesses, I love other people, and would be lost without social interaction with family, friends and people generally.

I am not in competition with anyone and am genuinely happy when others achieve. I am proud that my pictures find an audience. I am deeply gratified when people comment about my blog, which surprises me in many instances when certain people even read it, recognising that for the most part, I do this as a way of understanding and appreciating the small slice of the world I find myself in, it is also a way for me to understand it all a bit more.

May I in closing, simply encourage each of us to develop more of the talents that we all have. As much to inspire others but more for the fulfilment we can feel at any age when we stretch our envelope a little and try something new. Good intentions are not enough, begin...NOW. Too often we are always getting ready to live, and before we know it time runs out. Think of something you’ve never done before but secretly would like to do, and then start taking steps toward it. Do not be polarised by what others think or feel, just DO IT.

I promise, that for those who push the bounds and develop talents will discover that wonder, self worth, appreciation and self respect will follow. It is those things that help guide the "inner compass' as a friend said to me the other day, that can guide, motivate, lift and inspire many people. Life is here and Life is NOW. Live well.

To have passion, to have a dream, to have a purpose in life. And there are three components to that purpose, one is to find out who you really are, to discover God, the second is to serve other human beings, because we are here to do that and the third is to express your unique talents and when you are expressing your unique talents you lose track of time.
Deepak Chopra

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
Albert Einstein

Confidence can get you where you want to go, and getting there is a daily process. It’s so much easier when you feel good about yourself, your abilities and talents.
Donald Trump

Each spiritual journey begins with a step forward—the moment when you realize that there's more to life than you've been living.
~Vicky Thompson

let it go,
let it roll right off your shoulder
don't you know
the hardest part is over
let it in,
let your clarity define you
in the end
we will only just remember how it feels

our lives are made
in these small hours
these little wonders,
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away,
but these small hours,
these small hours still remain

let it slide,
let your troubles fall behind you
let it shine
until you feel it all around you
and i don't mind
if it's me you need to turn to
we?ll get by,
it's the heart that really matters in the end

our lives are made
in these small hours
these little wonders,
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away,
but these small hours,
these small hours still remain

all of my regret
will wash away some how
but i can not forget
the way i feel right now

in these small hours
these little wonders
these twists & turns of fate
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away but these small hours
these small hours, still remain,
still remain
these little wonders
these twists & turns of fate
time falls away
but these small hours
these little wonders still remain

Our lives are indeed made in the small hours, and whilst time does fade away, the way we feel or felt in those instances or small hours will, with our heart, be what matters in the end. Live well, our moment here is all too fleeting.

Time passes

Not much to say here other than I have been flat to the boards busy...again. I must love it as I find myself becoming busier and busier. I have had a few disappointments, a few let downs and some really nice moments, and the latter part makes all the grind worthwhile. I am a very fortunate person. These pictures are a few which have happened in the last little while. There is SO many more images that I have taken of artists, painters, weddings, portrait shoots and even family outings but these are just a sampling. The shots of me are in the Old Parliament House in canberra, and I really like them of me. I love that building. If only those walls could talk. You will notice that I have done the cover for the latest installment of the Down Syndrome Calendar as well for 2010. That should be finished soon. I have also finished the artwork for a new CD for Steve Prestwich, the former drummer of Cold Chisel and will be giving away two copies of that to the first people who can tell me what major song he wrote that Cold Chisel recorded. I have had it on my blog previously. Lastly, the pictuers below are of a dear friend Mimi and her colleagues and friends whose birthday party I photographed. I thought I would show some pictures here.