The Gold IP Project

Last year I got to work on a series of shots for Gold IP, a brand leader in the intellectual property (IP) legal industry.  Amongst other specialist work in technology, media, and sports law,  they are also the go-to guys in protecting creations by inventors, artists across all mediums, writers and anyone that has made something that needs to be protected as far as copyright.
The images were intended for print, display and web campaigns, and I was honored to be involved as they obviously have a number of creatives on their books nationally.
During the creative meeting I was impressed by their dedication to have all original works and not go near stock images at all. Another thing that was fantastic was them giving me the time and financial budget in order to produce the final images.
I had just read Annie Leibovitz' latest book "At Work" and was really inspired by her black and white portraits and the tonal depth she is renowned for, and used that inspiration for this project, all the way from the initial drawing of the mood boards to the final processing.
Check out the Gold IP website here.

Bali High

I just got back from a trip to Bali. Most of us have been there, many more than once. Everytime I go I'm blown away by the hospitality of the people and how hard they work to make a living and support their families. Sure things aren't perfect, but nothing is. I saw something that I thought was really cool. I paddled out in the surf one day and it was not by any means small, in fact it was pumping. Out in the line up were 2 local ladies on old shortboards, looked in their mid to late thirties, dressed modestly in shorts and long t-shirts, pretty much fully clothed. No roxy girl wear or billabong bikinis. They were laughing together and paddling for waves and having a blast, much like the social mum surfers I see where I live who meet on their longboards and catch up. They actually couldn't surf yet and were going over the falls, yet just kept hooting each other on and laughing and paddling back out. Awesome! Oh yeah, I took some pics too

Win a Shoot for Free with "Hey Kenny, Save Us a Penny"

This is for REAL! Are you a band, business, organisation, amateur sporting team, dancer, new magazine, writer, actor, or creative individual? Keep reading.

Normally, I shoot promotional photoshoots at a considerable cost to my clients, and rightfully so, they take a lot of time in pre and post production. But right now, I'm in a giving mood, here's why:
American lighting company Alien Bees has been lighting shots and putting smiles on the faces of photographers in the USA for years, and now they have recently become available in Australia. I've been lucky enough to get my hands on a great complete set, and to celebrate, I want to do something for fun. I'm going to shoot a project for free. That's right, it will cost you nothing other than turning up. I will even cover hair and make up.

To enter, this is what you have to do:

• Join the KSP Facebook page here
• Write "Hey Kenny, Save Us/Me a Penny" on the wall
• Email that you have done so to info@kennysmithphotography.com and include information about who you are, your goals, past achievements and WHY you are the right project to shoot for free.
• Be original in your application/pitch. Feel free to use colourful language, funny photos or drawings, anything tha best descibes who you are and what you are about.
  

The winning entrant will be chosen by me after the close of competition and in return get a photo session free of charge, with all fully retouched final edits in high res. I will then grant the winner usage of the photos for their own promotional use absolutely free! There is no hidden catch, just show up, and we'll shoot!

Entries close March 31, and on April 1 (April Fools Day) the winner will be announced!

The shoot will take place within the Gold Coast/Brisbane area

Tell all your friends and nominate whoever you want, may the most creative win!

Creatives: Thalassa's Samantha Hough

This is Samantha Hough. Sam is a designer responsible for designing interiors of places that are cool. If you've ever been to a party at a pimp house, or been thrown out of a trendy nightclub, chances are Sam and her team at Thalassa designed it. I shot her for an industry publication.
All you fellow lighting and tech geeks: pretty simple stuff, one speedlight, umbrella, and a reflector.

Storytelling In:Series

As I eluded to in a previous post, Mike our web guy here at KSP and I have been working on ways to get out the work for your enjoyment beyond delivering our commercial product to our clients.
They say that great photographers need to be great story tellers, and often out of all the frames I'll shoot, only one or two will have a life beyond sitting on a disk drive.
In order to storytell a bit more, and share some of these images with you, we've built a new page onto the KSP website, called "In:Series". This page will contain picture tales narrated by imagery which when you look at it all together, tell a certain story that I hope you will find interesting.
You can view the new In:Series page here.
This first Series is with a friend of mine on the East side of the island of Oahu in Hawaii named Debbie. I stayed as a guest with her and her husband Ivan and their 2 boys Christian and Allen while I was over there in Jan.
You can view my blog post with more pics from Hawaii here

Train Spotting - (Nothing to see here)

Last week I made myself take time out for a photo walk. I was a little sapped keeping up with deadlines. I knew I had some big days in which coming up with "something" was the objective, so needed to charge my creative batteries.
I stopped at an old train yard in a town in country Queensland, and took some time taking photos of "nothing".
Nothing to see here........