Art Vs Science, for Best Independent Release. Loved your performance too. I recognize those goggles from our shoot! I have a suspicion Angela Cheung helped style your Aria costumes.

My award for Art Vs Science is ‘Funniest Photoshoot Ever’ I lost my voice for a week after laughing so hard when you were pretending to fear seagulls.

Claire Collins, you get ‘Best Manager Ever Award.’

Boy and Bear. Awesome work on 6 awards!!! Let’s go back down to Bronte and take some victory photos.

You guys get my Aria award for ‘Sweetest Band Ever Award.’ Sergent Callahan, it appears you have been promoted to Aria Callahan.

AND Gotye and Kimbra. Beautiful Wally and Kimbra. You guys have created something so quintessentially singular. Wally, I have shot you many a time, and generally half naked! You are incredible. I can’t wait till our next shoot. You come in with so many great ideas, it’s like spring break for the surrealists when we shoot.

You guys win my Aria for ‘Nakedness.’ And no, I am not referring to your video. I’m referring to your ability to strip down any listener to their rawest emotions. You tapped that shit!

Ok, now off to the Aria party!

Me and Lanie went for a cruise and stroll in Centennial Park to snap these pics for Drum Media. I love this girl. I first met her over a bowl of Pad Thai on my couch after Daniel had done a shoot with her. We ordered thai for dinner, and she just stayed on after everyone had left and ate and watched tv with us.

I knew I wanted to do something outdoors, to somehow focus less on her rockerbilly sensibility, which has been overshadowed by her country blues vibe of recent (I am speaking dress sense more than anything else by the way people). So, we decided on Centennial Park, found some beautiful locations that I haven’t used in previous shoots- can you imagine there are untouched places still in Centennial Park! and borrowed Lanie’s record label manager Andy Kelly’s wheels for the second part of the shoot. The shoot went so smoothly, Lanie is just such a natural in front of the camera, we were done and dusted in 40 minutes. Yee-haw!

I just love this shot. Her hand covering her face. It’s just so cute.

Yelle was one of 87 portraits I shot backstage at Splendour this year for Triple J Mag. This is the 3rd year I have shot these backstage portraits, and, with Art Director Ben Jarvis by my side, my sneeky collaborator, it was so much fun.

Each year we do a new little gag, this year we got each musician to stand for a mug shot. They wrote their charge on the letter board and gave me their most guilty face possible.

Heaps more pics to come. Including Florence Welch, Tricky, Foster the People, Mogwai, Hot Chip, Foals, Scissor Sisters, The Kills and loads more.

Group Love is coming back to Australia in January! Twitter is a-buzz with excitement. It reminded me I still have these awesome shots of them backstage at Splendour this year for Triple J Mag. We had over 60 subjects come into our make-shift studio in the Triple J broadcast tent, each writing out a conviction and standing for a mug shot.

These guys were so much fun, I was in love with each and every one of them. If you read this Group Love, lets do another shoot when you come back!

Many many more backstage pics to come, from the past 3 years of Splendour. Quite a catalog. Including Florence Welch, Laura Marling, Tricky, Sigor Ros, The Kills, Foster the People.

The day after Gotye’s song ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ made major ripples through the twittersphere the charming Wally aka Gotye was standing in front of me, topless, with shards of disco ball glass contouring his face. We were doing a shoot for Triple J magazine, and believe it or not, this is not the first time Gotye has been standing in front of me and my lens (semi) naked- that’s a whole nother story for next time.

Anyway, what with the success of his video, featuring Gotye and the beautiful Kimbra, we thought we would reference it somewhat, at least the ‘naked’ part, and focus on the title of his latest album release ‘Making Mirrors.’ Gotye brought the disco ball stickers, and was a champion. Sitting in the make-up chair, watching his reflection in the mirror as his face was slowly becoming a mirror itself.

Thanks to everyone involved, it was such a fun shoot!

Before and After- spot the difference

Client: Triple J Mag
Photographer: Cybele Malinowski
Art Director: Ben Jarvis
Retoucher: Justin Malinowski
Hair and Makup: Felicia Yong
Assistant: Ash Holdsworth
Special thanks to Sam Clode for the lollies, and the wine, and setting this shoot up!

Perhaps because they could see I was willing to risk my life for them, I was asked to shoot their press shots for their 2011 release, The Experiment. Being such a fun and creative band, they were really keen to talk about ideas; they wanted to get some cool shots, and were more than willing to be a bit experimental, create some shots that were more than your standard band on a wall press shot. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for such shots, but with a band like AVS, it’s important to get some of their idiosyncratic energy across.

I’m going to start with our last shot of the day first. Now, if you know Sydney, you know Coogee is the second most southern/distant beach in the eastern suburbs. I wanted seagulls and lots of them, for a take on Hitchcock’s eminent film Birds. One (unnamed) member of the band said there were ALWAYS THOUSANDS of seagulls at Coogee cricket fields, GUARANTEED. So, we went down there, the sun rapidly making its daily routine towards the horizon, time was ticking and we were after birds. Lots of them. So, there we were, for our last shot, exhausted, frustrated by Friday afternoon traffic, standing in Coogee cricket field. There were lots of big guys playing sport, and a couple mangy pigeons, not a seagull in sight. Moments later, the whole crew ran to the cliff tops, me at the front, cheering them all to hurry up, to beat the sunset, in a desperate search for seagulls. This was the most ambitious shot, and I was determined to make it happen. Groups of tourists watched on as 3 wonderfully dapper men screamed and squealed relentlessly at one or two stray seagulls diligently eating the bread crumbs we threw at them. My voice disappeared without a trace for an week, after laughing hysterically at this farcical scene. Once the job was done, and we had scared away all willing seagulls and tourists, it was a wrap. I shot some flying gulls down at the beach, and dropped them in post production. Ah photoshop. And ah Art Vs Science. Happy to risk my life and my voice anytime for you guys.

For our 3d cinema extraordinaire setup we went to the Enmore Theatre, one of the few remaining old school theaters left in Sydney. The amazing Angela Cheung styled this; I showed her a reference of some cool 1960s contraption, combining white goggles and huge headphones. She made replicas. It was rather amusing, the goggles were spray painted white, the boys couldn’t see a thing. Interestingly, it was very difficult to communicate directions to them, I must normally use a lot of body language! There are some unreleased shots from this setup still to be revealed at a later date.

There are heaps more pics to see, click to view them. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Billy Hydes across the road, for their shiny instruments.

Tony encourages the new guard; when Daniel first started shooting streetpress covers Tony lent his house for a cover of Sarah Blasko and Katy Steele for the Brag. A year back I photographed Sarah Blasko for Jmag and Tony sent me a brief email, praising it as the most beautiful shot he had seen of her. I blushed for days!

On the one hand, being a music photographer myself my be advantageous, however, being 29, I am only scraping into the ‘youth’ category, so we’ll just have to see! I do hope my experience and success does not work against me. Either way, I am nervous for the prize night on the 11th November. IF I did win, my plan would be to travel back to the states, with Daniel, and try to establish myself and Daniel in the big league. I have made an amazing life and career here in Sydney so far, I just need a push, out of my comfort zone, to see what else the world has to offer. It’s now or never!

There is also a people’s prize, and if I haven’t harassed you on facebook or twitter already, please click here to vote for me! And cross your fingers and toes!

Here are some of the photos I entered this year.