Travel Diary: America Part 1 - Georgia

Scheduled to head back home in March 2020, for obvious reasons I didn’t get to take that trip. After 6 years, I made the trip back to the States to visit friends and family. That feeling of a mixture of familiarity and, contrastingly, feeling like an outsider at the same time is a strange dichotomy I forgot about and was instantly greeted as the wheels hit the runway. Living overseas obviously changes you, but in ways that I’m not sure I ever anticipated. It’s like watching a movie you’ve seen before. You’re not a part of it, but it’s all so familiar…. Until those things pop up that you’ve not experienced since you left. The sudden overwhelming sense of comprehension of everyone’s small talk, social cues, and nuance…. It’s a lot. But on the other side of that coin, not knowing how to carry yourself because of the sensory overload. Shifts in social interactions, world views, etc…It’s a mental obstacle course.

That all being said, it was incredible seeing friends and family and catching up with so many amazing people, seeing the old stomping grounds, and being absolutely shocked at the development Atlanta has gone through in the last decade. It’s astounding. I lost count of how many times I didn’t recognize places that were once intimately familiar and frequented on a nearly daily basis. I’m not sure how i feel about it, but progress is progress and it’s here regardless of how I feel. Anyways, enough waxing on poetically about all that shenanigans. I can already hear the “oh brother, shut up and show us your photos” and the see the eye rolls. So it goes. Anyways, on to the photos!

Atlanta

Augusta

Travel Diary : Indonesia

One of my favorite places on earth, Indonesia lures me back constantly with its beaches, rugged landscapes, underwater wonderlands, and general laid back lifestyle. This trip took me to Nusa Penida and Amed in Bali and the Derawan Islands in Indonesian Borneo. From temples to island life, it has me already eager to get back. This selection could hardly do it justice, but these are some of my favorite frames. Hop over to my instagram to see more travel images and be sure to give it a follow for regular updates!

Nusa Penida, Bali

Derawan Islands, Borneo

Amed, Bali

Travel Diary: Sydney

After two long years of not being able to travel internationally, I finally got a chance to hop on a plane, use the passport and revisit our home from before Saigon. Sydney holds so many memories, friends and, as we found out on this trip, new corners and neighbourhoods to explore. Staying with friends, I got to explore the neighbourhoods of Bondi Beach and Manly where in the past they were merely weekend beach destinations. Always looking at the watch to make sure I got the last bus or ferry back in order to catch the train back to the Inner West, evenings were few and far between. Having the time to slow down and wander the streets gave me a new appreciation of Bondi and Manly’s cafes, lesser known haunts, and general every day vibe. I revisited old familiar blocks and gave all the hugs and made new memories. I tried to shoot previously visits places with new eyes and capture every day life as well as some famous locations for some tourist action. All in all it was incredible be back in the Oz and has me longing to get back as soon as possible!

Prints will be available of these, so please get in touch before these limited editions are gone!

Family Sessions : Street Style

I recently took on a family session and as most of you know this is far outside of what I shoot on a day in day out basis. It’s not my wheelhouse to say the least. That said, when a client sends an amazing brief (hint hint, always send creative references and briefs to make your creatives happy. You’ll get the best results) and wanted me to shoot street style to document. their last days in Saigon, I jumped at the opportunity. We went to some of their favourite locations around the city and played with light, composition and tried to capture the city and form some incredible memories for them to look back on once they moved back to Australia. Many thanks to Lou and her amazing family. It’s amazing to have close friends instill such trust in the vision and be able to make something special together!

If you’re into this style, I’d love to take on more projects like this. Reach out and let’s create something stellar!

Recent Work: Madame Roselle Vietnamese Aperitif

In my former life I worked behind bars, in cellars and in kitchens so it’s no surprise I love shooting food and beverage images. Also, with that time in the F&B industry I got to eat and drink some of the best in the world. This exploration carried on in F&B photography, but runs the gamut from the phenomenal to the maybe not so much. This one is absolutely delicious. Madame Roselle is a hibiscus aperitif handcrafted in Hanoi that drinks like a floral, slightly spicy vermouth. Fantastically balanced and lends it self to so many applications. We got to riff on stirred boozy drinks like Manhattans and Negronis as well as mixing it with soda and serving it tall as a low alcohol tipple. With its floral notes, it gave a dynamic extra depth to sours and little fizzes too. Needless to say, I loved the challenge of matching the aesthetic to the varied uses for this really cool product. Check it out if you can get your hands on it!

Travel Diary : Hoi An, Vietnam

As most of you know, I help run tours in Central Vietnam with Pics of Asia with one of my good friends, Etienne Bossot. Also, unless you’ve been living under a rock under another rock buried next to Jimmy Hoffa, you’d also know travel has been sketchy and inaccessible in Vietnam the past year or so. So, when I got a chance to finally get back to Hoi An, I told Etienne we had to go shoot one morning. I left it up to him and we ended up going back to where it all began for me with Pics of Asia at the fishing village south of Hoi An. Neither one of us had been here in months and months due to the pandemic, and it was incredible seeing old faces, catching up with the fishermen and vendors and having a homecoming of sorts.

I also got a chance to meander around the old town and capture a few frames from one of the most charming places in Vietnam. Rumour has that we’ll be running a 5 day tour this summer, so check out Pics of Asia for a chance to explore some of my favourite places in Central Vietnam!

Travel Diary : Phong Nha Ke Bang

Over the Tet Holiday this year, I got the opportunity to finally get up to Phong Nha. How it’s taken me this long to explore this part of Vietnam is mind boggling and I’ve kicked myself a few times for not getting up there sooner. It’s definitely wayyyy up there with my favorite places in Vietnam. Caves, rivers, limestone karsts, rice paddies…it’s an adventure seekers paradise. Weather was less than ideal - cold and a bit rainy, but it gave such an interesting atmosphere and completely lended itself to the black and white treatment. Here just a few frames from the trip. With Vietnam opening its borders, maybe it’s time to book that next trip to Phong Nha.

A Study in Focal Lengths with Product Photography: Which one yields the best results?

I’ve been mostly shooting small objects recently and 9 times out of 10, I’m using my Sony 90mm 2.8 macro. Incredibly sharp, I can get up close and personal to capture all those fantastic little details in product and food photography. When shooting bigger objects, I have a bit more leeway in my choice in focal lengths. Depending on the style I’m going after, I can opt to shoot super wide for a more editorial or advertising feel or I can shoot with a longer lens for catalogue images. It’s not really a matter of what’s right or wrong, but it is rather interesting to see the effects of different focal lengths in these types of shoots. I shot this super slick chair with 4 different lenses in 4 different focal lengths - Zeiss Batis 18mm, Sony 35mm, Sony/Zeiss 55mm and Zeiss Batis 85mm. All amazing lenses, so optics weren’t much of a variable, and I shot them all at f/16 to make sure the chair was sharp from front to back. 

Lighting

Lit with Godox lights, I had an ad400 in an Octabank up high pointing down, an ad200 in a rectangular softbox feathered off the left side, and an ad200 in a strip bank from the right and behind for a rim light. I also added a bounce card on the right to give a bit of fill on the underside to maintain details.

Zeiss Batis 18mm 2.8

Normally, the 18mm sits in my bag on travel assignments, and I’d usually never think to shoot product photography with such a wide angle. It’s distortion is something I tend to avoid to make sure everything looks true to form. That said, I kind of love how this came out. The larger than life feel of this gives a great editorial or advertising option so I was super stoked to have found another little tool to create new images. I think I’ll have it sitting closer by on shoots where we want to give this over the top hero feel. Such a fun image and gives a playful sense of whimsy to an otherwise straight forward shot.

Sony 35mm F1.8

My 35mm lens is probably my most used lens when I’m on travel assignments and general walk around shooting. I also use this lens within my food work for bigger flat lays where I need to capture a bigger overhead scene. For this shot, it feels like its in this weird no man’s land of not compressed enough but still distorted. What do you guys think? Does it work?

Sony Zeiss 55mm 1.8

The 55mm 1.8 lens is a beast. Incredibly sharp, perfect for both flatlays and bigger scenes in food and product photography. It get’s heavy usage. Wide enough to show context and a surrounding scene, but still a long enough focal length to start compressing things into a pleasing image that is pretty close to what we see with our native eyesight…give or take. This image is starting to look like more of an image you’d see in catalogues. Clean, representative of the product and wide enough to still maintain context. A great all around lens.

Zeiss Batis 85mm 1.8

The Zeiss Batis 85mm 1.8 is my absolute go to for portrait photography. I absolutely love it. Normally, I’d opt for the 90mm macro for for this focal length for food and product photography, but with bigger objects the depth of field with the Batis is better and provides for a more versatile option. The 85 compresses nicely and gives a beautiful shape to the product. There’s a reason this focal length is used so often in these types of shoots. It gives a bit more definition and refinement than the 55.

So, after looking at the 4 focal lengths, what are your thoughts? Do longer focal lengths reign supreme or do the wide angles sit at the table too? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Lee Starnes is a food and product photographer based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Be sure to head on over to Instagram to check out more of his work.