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Photos © CJ Levinson 2023
Some photos from my photo group’s last photowalk at Caves Beach. It’s one of my favourite spots and it was fun to get the drone out for a different perspective at the end.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2023
It was very hot yesterday, one of the hottest days we’ve had in several years. It resulted in a beautiful sunset though with a bright red sun and sky. Probably the best sunset we’ve had so far this year.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2023
Flying my drone at Valentine a couple of days ago. There wasn’t much of a sunset but there was still some nice colour around.
I’m having fun with the drone, it’s great for seeing locations in a new way. Valentine jetty is one of my favourite jetties around Lake Macquarie and photographing it from above really shows off how unique it is.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2023
I took this photo a few days ago in Toronto. It’s of the jetty and swimming area, on the Toronto foreshore.
I had been in Toronto dropping off some framed photos of the area for a local business. I was really happy with how they turned out and it was great to meet the owner and see their reaction.
They’d mentioned to me that they would like a photo from the Toronto foreshore as well and as I couldn’t find one I’d taken that I liked, I thought I’d go down and take a few shots afterwards.
It was about 4.30pm when I went down and set up near the jetty to take a few pictures. There were a few people around and a couple of kids playing in the water so I tried to find an angle I liked where no one was in the shot.
After a couple of minutes a man approached me. He immediately got in my face and demanded to know what I was doing there and what I was taking pictures of. I said I was taking landscape photos of the jetty.
This kind of thing has happened before; from time to time I get stopped by people thinking I’m taking photos of them because they’re nearby, I even had a police car stop and ask once. I always say the same thing – I’m taking landscape photos and show them what I’m trying to shoot. Usually that’s enough; if it’s not I offer to show them the last photo I took so they can visualise it.
This guy was having none of it though. He seemed convinced I was “taking photos of kids” as he put it. Seriously? Yes there were a couple of kids around but they were on the complete other side of where I was shooting and anyone should have been able to see I was shooting the jetty.
So I said again what I was shooting and showed him the back of my camera. He still didn’t believe me and asked to see the previous photos too. I showed him but he still didn’t believe me even then, kept saying there are kids here, you shouldn’t be doing it, it’s “not right, not right”.
Then another man who was walking past joined him. He was even more aggressive than the first and said I wasn’t “allowed to be here” and actually tried to take hold of my camera at one point so he could see the photos.
It went on like that for a couple of minutes and I was getting quite annoyed now. I’d been more than accomodating but nothing I said was getting through. I was also really pissed off by this idea that I wasn’t “allowed” to be there and must be some kind of creep.
Look, I do get that parents and adults are protective of children, particularly around swimming areas, but I felt like I had done everything in my power to reassure them and the only reason they were going on about it was that I had a camera.
Before they approached me I saw a number of people stop and take photos with their phones. No one assumed they were taking photos of children or weren’t allowed to be there. But because I had a camera, somehow the rules were different for me?
It felt unfair. And the thing was too, I knew I was allowed to be there. It’s a public space and, on top of that, I was doing a job. It’s not like I could just go somewhere else and just because I wasn’t dressed in a suit and tie didn’t mean I wasn’t working.
But they weren’t listening; it felt like they’d already made up their minds long before they came over and I was afraid it was going to escalate even further if things kept going like this.
So I tried to calm myself and said again that I was contracted to take a photo and had every right to be there. Then I said that I needed to get back to work and tried to ignore them as best I could.
After a minute they both started walking away, shouting back at me over their shoulders.
I took a few more photos but after that my enthusiasm was pretty much gone. So I took the above shot and then packed up.
I can’t say I’m particularly happy with the photo; it’s fine but it’s not what I was after so I will have to go back at some stage and try again. There’s usually always people around so hopefully it won’t happen again.
It was a shame as well as it ruined what had otherwise been a nice trip to Toronto. I didn’t even feel like looking at the photos for a couple of days after.
I’m sure I’ll be asked what I’m shooting again in the future so I’m going to keep a printout of the Australian laws with me in case anyone pushes me on it again. And if anyone has a major problem I’m going to ask them to call the police, for me as much as for them.
Maybe I could have handled the situation better but regardless I don’t think I deserved any of that. No photographer does.
I think sometimes people see a camera and just see red. But most of us try to respect your privacy, respect you as a person.
It just would be nice if that respect went both ways sometimes.
Photo © CJ Levinson 2023
Walking around Newcastle a couple of days ago. It was good to get out with the camera again after a bit of a break, Got a chance to fly the drone for a little while too.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2023
My 5 favourite photos from 2022 and a mix of my other favourites below.
Looking back on 2022, overall it was a good year for my photography. We had some absolutely stunning sunrises and sunsets throughout 2022 and they’re some of my very favourite landscape shots ever.
My food photography work continued to grow as well throughout 2022 and I branched out into a few new areas as well, including doing a wedding which was a good experience.
I found the year itself very challenging though, particularly around learning to live with Covid and the impact that would have on my photography. So far I’ve managed to avoid getting Covid, which I think is mostly a mix of luck, caution and having a fairly small social circle, but I have to be very careful and that’s led to me turning down opportunities I otherwise would have accepted. Luckily some of my other work has helped to offset that but it has been frustrating, particularly when a lot of people seem to be ”over” Covid and think everyone else should be too.
The abuse one gets for taking simple precautions like wearing a mask doesn’t help either.
The big event for me in 2022 was getting a cat! Tira was a cat I photographed for animal rescue and both I and my partner fell in love with her immediately. She’s a Siamese-mix and was badly treated before coming in to care so it took a long time for her to warm up to us. During the first couple of weeks she hid in our wardrobe and would barely eat and I was worried she might never settle. But now she’s turned in to a lap cat and loves playing and has helped to make our little flat feel more like a home. It’s amazing what a little patience and love can do.
I also got a few new photography toys in 2022, the big one being a new camera system. I got a Fujifilm X-T3 as I wanted a smaller, lighter camera system for travelling and for non-professional work. I’ve really enjoyed it so far; the film-style dials and buttons are a lot of fun.
I also bought a drone which I’m just starting to learn to fly and I’m looking forward to the different kind of photos it will allow me to capture.
Thank you to everyone for continuing to support my photography throughout the past year and Happy New Year. May 2023 be a happy and healthy one for us all.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
Merry Christmas! Hope you have a wonderful, safe day with family and friends.
Photo © CJ Levinson 2022
The Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills farm shed, on the way to Morpeth. Shooting it has been on my bucket list for a while, finally ticked it off yesterday.
It’s a recreation of the kind of advertising we used to see before the advent of billboards.
The pills were very popular in the late 1890s-1940s, and particularly here in Australia during the 1919 Influenza Pandemic.
Many homes had some of the pills and they claimed to purify the blood and cure many ailments, including everything from indigestion and headaches to “female ailments”.
There was no scientific basis to the pills at all and nor was there even a real Dr Morse; instead he was part of a fabricated backstory to make the pills sound more alluring.
Mid Coast Stories has some more info on it if you’re interested in finding out more.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
The different phases of last night’s lunar eclipse. This is 5 shots combined in Photoshop afterwards with very little editing.
It was amazing watching it live, the colour was amazing and we were lucky to have a very clear sky for the whole night.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
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