Merry Christmas from Contacts!

Contacts wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you survived the marathon leading up to it! We will be closed from midday Monday 24th December and re open Monday 7th January. Wishing you a happy and prosperous New Years and look forward to working with you in 2013.

The team and photographers at Contacts.

photographer Janyon
stylist Rebecca Riegger
assistant Tim Hazzard
talent Rocky
location John and Victoria's Avalon Christmas castle

Janyon talks about his recent work for Praise

"The AD, Pamela Parelli, had put together a concise brief which resonated with me straight away. It called for an expression performance from the talent, and the food to look good too. It also needed to work visually with the hands holding plates reaching in.

We were fortunate to find the perfect location, and the weather smiled upon us, being the first clear day in a while.

Had a dream team of crew, with styling by Natasha Harrison, food styling by Kristine Duran Thiesen, and Contacts' Leeby Sotheren doing makeup, and Todd Sotheren as retoucher.

The model, Angela Shallis (Scoop Management), was serene and professional, and while the exclamatory performance was out of her comfort zone, she kept on trying till we got what we wanted.

Everything was shot on location, including the packshot and additional food tabletop shot to keep costs under control.

The AD, agency and client were very happy with the outcome, and so am I. One of my favourites for the year!"

- Janyon

Jason Loucas for Ok Tedi

Jason Loucas recently traveled to Papua New Guinea where he shot this documentary for Ok Tedi Mining.

Jon Bader for Panasonic

Hugh Peachey for Ford

Hugh Peachey for Telstra

Martin Mischkulnig for Effilee magazine

Martin Mischkulnig recently contributed to the German food magazine Effilee. This page is a regular feature, titled Restaurant at the end of the Universe. Martin's shot was a creepy roadhouse in Iron Knob, South Australia where all he could get was fish and chips "fresh" from the deep freezer to the deep fryer.

Janyon's shots for Allianz's image library

"We were fortunate to be commissioned to shoot images for Allianz for their ongoing library use.

The shoot appealed to my documentary roots at first, but I shifted my style in a enviro-portrait direction to accommodate  the wide range of applications that the images would be used for.

The client quite rightly felt that there was very little in existing stock that suited their needs, and wanted to use real people, in real situations, with a definite sense that we are looking at real Australians.

There were some pretty stressful challenges in getting the right talent and locations logistics sorted within the budget constraints, not to mention the curve ball thrown by the weather, but I'm proud to say the images portray, for the most part, people in their actual jobs, in their actual workplaces. In fact, the situations where hired talent had to be used, I found less convincing.

I wanted to hero the subjects subtly with lighting and casual pose, but keep it feeling natural. We scheduled around the weather for the outdoor shots, as hard sunlight is a strong differentiating factor when trying to make images look more Australian.

Our ÜberProducer Penni (Glencross) pulled absolute miracles with regards to talent, locations and even weather prediction, and needed a relaxing massage by the end of the shoot.

Cherith Crozier did a cracker of a job in the styling, and together with myself and AD Sarah Straker, we had a solid team with a clear direction throughout the shoot."

- Janyon

Janyon for MasterFoods

"The opportunity arose to submit a last minute treatment for what was originally a typographical execution with a simple hand-with-pack shot to overlay.

I couldn't think of much to make a hand more exciting, so I expanded upon the brief a little, suggesting we go for a bit more depth, and instead of doing the headline typographically, I thought of using a stencil on a wooden crate. This would give the type the genuine wood texture.The crate has relevance also, as it further suggests the use of fresh produce, and provided a tactile third dimension for the shot.

The creative team loved the idea, and sold it to the client, who was reluctant at first but happy to put their faith in us.

I stuck to my guns in my efforts to keep it "in camera", and our stylist, Jan Edwards found beautiful crates and painted stencils of varying sizes to suit the layout. We took it a step further by shooting the sauce splats on acetate so that they could be positioned in camera and required minimal comping. It also allowed us to ensure the message was not lost.

Our hand model was a pro, and was able to fine tune the amount of squeeze distortion on the pack. I had mentioned in the treatment that the squeeze is part of the fun, and wanted to portray a bit of bottle throttle, but needles to say we pulled back to a firm hold which yielded a more acceptable label distortion.

The team were stoked with the result, as was the client."

- Janyon



Clemenger BBDO. AD: Andrew Chu, Writer: Emily Lynch, CD: Luke Chess

Damien Pleming for Zoom Zoom Magaizine

North Melbourne captain Andrew Swallow for Zoom Zoom magazine. Ten shots, three outfit changes in three hours!! Zoom zoom indeed!
Styling: Rachel Dennis
Grooming: Merton Muaremi
Shot on location at North Melbourne Football Club

Damien Pleming for Qantas Magazine

Travis and Adam Garone co-founders of the Movember movement. Shot for Qantas magazine.

Damien Pleming for In The Black

Black Caviar trainer Peter Moodey for In The Black magazine.

New Work from Zahn Pithers

One day he'll have to explain this to his son...

Janyon and Jason Loucas in Shoot the Chef

Two Contacts Photographers were finalists in this year's Shoot the Chef competition.

Janyon took an interesting approach to the idea of what makes a chef and photographed a mother of six in her home kitchen.

Jason Loucas has been collaborating with James Viles from Biota Dining for over 18 months now. This shot was taken on one of Jame's many trips to Belanglo State forest to forage for Pine Mushrooms in the winter months.  James is a chef who is governed by the seasons and makes a great effort to forage and use producers from around his local area which is in Bowral, Southern Highlands.

Jon Bader for Uncle Tobys

Steve Baccon in Tahiti for Billabong

Steve Baccon for Jet Star

Steve Baccon for Target

Steve Baccon for Munster Kids

 

Steve Baccon
Munster Kids

Martin Mischkulnig for Tags Anzeiger

Martin recently shot this story for the Swiss German broadsheet newspaper Tages Anzeiger. The story is about Daniel Trappitsch's fight against a coming bill in the Swiss Parliament passing mandatory immunisation, his belief is that we shouldn't immunise people or animals.

Steve Baccon for Jeanswest

Some recent work by Steve Baccon for Jeanswest.