Top 10 Photos 2017 – Neil Creek

Time again for the annual tradition where I look back on my year's work and choose ten photos that I feel best represent my work, my professional development or significant personal milestones. As always, narrowing the selection down to just 10 is a challenge, but overall I'm pleased with my year, the skills I have learned and the achievements I have made. Following is a post showing the selected images in chronological order, and a few words each about them. I hope you enjoy these works!

January 6th - Nude in an abandoned building

This year got off to an amazing start as I did a beautiful shoot with a dear friend in an incredible location. Being a local of Emerald and with a few contacts who can get me access to locations the public don't often see is a great boon for my photography. This particular location is a century old brick building of cultural significance. The things that made it special to me as a shoot location was the gorgeous textures and patinas on the walls and floor, as well as two windows, high in adjacent walls, which catch the late afternoon sun and project beams of golden light into the space. I knew it would be an amazing location for an art nude shoot, and I was extremely fortunate that Elain volunteered to shoot here with me on only her second art nude shoot. Though it was very hot, and I had to clear the floor of pigeon droppings, the shoot worked out exactly how I imagined it to! This image is my favourite from the shoot due to the beautiful lighting, the wonderful pose by Elain and the mood of the scene. I even sold a print of this image in my first solo exhibition!

You can see the whole album here: https://neilcreek.smugmug.com/Nude/Elain-Old-Building-170106 [caption id="attachment_4381" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Canon 5D3
Canon 24-70mm f2.8L
1/100sec f6.3 ISO100[/caption]

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February 26th - Astral Projection

As is obvious by my first photo, I continued to develop my art nude photography this year, and I started to experiment with different concepts for the shoots. Art nude and astrophotography are two of my greatest passions in photography, so I wanted to bring them together. For this idea I borrowed a digital projector, and in my home studio projected a variety of my astrophotography images onto Elain who worked with me again on this shoot. Thank you Elain! You're the best! <3

What I love about this concept is using my own images to create new images, and the message of the connectedness of humanity with the cosmos. We are all made of starstuff.

You can see the whole album here: https://neilcreek.smugmug.com/Nude/Astral-Projection-170226

[caption id="attachment_4384" align="aligncenter" width="683"] Canon 5D3
Canon 24-70mm f2.8L
1/80sec f2.8 ISO320[/caption]

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March 31st - Rho Ophiuchus Clouds

I also continued to develop my astrophotography skills. The biggest step up this year came with the purchase of a dedicated astrophotography camera. This camera is extra sensitive to low light, can capture light normally filtered out by other cameras, and can be cooled to reduce noise levels as much as possible. On the astrophotography boot camp hosted by the Astronomical Society of Victoria I captured this image of a segment of one of my favourite parts of the sky, the Rho Ophiuchi Nebula Complex. These complex, delicate clouds span hundreds of light years and show subtle details and structures which I was able to reveal.

[caption id="attachment_4385" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Camera: ASI1600MC-C
Telescope: 8“ f4 reflecting newtonian
Mount: NEQ6
Guiding: Orion StarShoot Autoguider
Control software: Sequence generator pro
50x5min exposures, 4:10hrs total
Bias and flat calibration frames used
Edited in Pixinsight and Lightroom[/caption]

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May 21st - Kara Colourful Nude

One of the new things I began this year was to set up a Patreon page where people could support my work: patreon.com/neilcreek

As a reward for patrons who support me at the level of $10 per month, I create and exclusive photo shoot which is available to them only for three months before becoming public. This shoot with Kara was one of the first of these shoots, and it was another art nude shoot where I got to try out an idea I've been wanting to for a while! I love colour and I wanted to try a nude shoot where the only lights used were bright, saturated colours. We tried a few different combinations and I was very pleased with the outcome! I plan to do more like this in the future. This was also the first time Kara and I worked together, and her first nude shoot! Kara deserves a lot of respect and admiration for her courage and skill on this shoot :)

You can see the whole album here: https://neilcreek.smugmug.com/Nude/Kara-Colours-170521

[caption id="attachment_4388" align="aligncenter" width="683"] Canon 5D3
Canon 24-70mm
1/125sec f5 ISO100[/caption]

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June 11th - Aura Vale Lake Aerial Little World

Working primarily as a real estate photographer, I need to keep up with the times and provide a variety of services to my lovely clients. With the improving capabilities and decreasing prices of drones, I was able to justify the purchase of one for my work to offer aerial photography as well. I have had so much fun with this amazing piece of technology, and have been able to create images from vantage points I would never have otherwise been able to. This 'little planet' 360 degree panorama is one example. Taken as a series of 32 five shot auto exposure bracketed images, the final result is made up of 160 separate photos taken by the drone as it hovered over Aura Vale Lake in Cardinia. I love the colour and light in this image, as do my friends Kate and Arvind who purchased this image for their home! A huge print of this now hangs in their dining room.

[caption id="attachment_4399" align="aligncenter" width="900"] DJI Mavic Pro
32 x 5 shot AEB
Processed in Lightroom
Stitched in PT Gui[/caption]

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July 9th - Kancolle Battleship Girls

I do still shoot cosplay! Just not as often as I used to :) But when I do it's always lots of fun, especially when it's with a group of friends. On this shoot I got to work with some of my favourite people, at a scenic location in beautiful light. Never mind that it was freezing cold and most of us lost feeling in our fingers! Also on the shoot was my mate Trung with his import car covered in art from the same series as the cosplayers!

This shoot is unfortunately in my backlog to process, but I'll update this post with a link to the album when it's done.

[caption id="attachment_4391" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Canon 5D3
Canon 135mm f2.0L
1/500sec f2 ISO100[/caption]

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July 18th - MacDonnell Ranges from the Air

In July I met up with family who were doing a four month driving tour of the Western half of Australia for a couple of weeks around Alice Springs. I took the drone along with me and had ample opportunity to put it to use. The scenery in the Red Centre is absolutely breathtaking, even more so from the air. This beautiful mountain ridge is part of the MacDonnell Ranges, and as we were driving along it in the late afternoon, the sunlight turned golden and made the geology and vegetation stand out in dramatic relief. I took the drone up for a few photos and this was my favourite.

The majority of the photos from the trip are still in my backlog to process, but I'll update this post with a link to the album when it's done.

[caption id="attachment_4402" align="aligncenter" width="900"] DJI Mavic Pro
1/1000sec f2.2 ISO100[/caption]

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July 20th - The Whole Night Sky from Alice

While in Central Australia I took advantage of some of the darkest, clearest skies in the world and did some astrophotography. One of the shots I was keen to get was a 360 panorama of the whole sky and the Milky Way high overhead. This is my best night sky panorama yet!

You can see an interactive view of this panorama here: https://roundme.com/tour/181294/view/468835/

[caption id="attachment_4403" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Canon 5D3
Canon 15mm f2.8 fisheye
7x 30sec f2.8 ISO3200
Processed in Lightroom
Stitched in PTGui[/caption]

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October 22nd - Abandoned Country Kitchen

I love exploring and photographing abandoned locations, and while on the road in country Victoria for a stargazing event I saw a run-down and open cottage from the street. I pulled over, grabbed my camera and tripod and explored the place taking lots of HDR photos as I went. This view over the old kitchen sink to the outside through a broken window is my favourite of the lot.

You can see the whole album here: https://neilcreek.smugmug.com/Places/Abandoned-House-near-Nhill-171022

[caption id="attachment_4404" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Canon 5D3
Canon 16-35mm f4L
5 shot AEB centred on:
1/50sec f11 ISO100[/caption]

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November 21st - The Running Man Nebula

I've been struggling with the complexities of astrophotography through my telescope and processing of those photos for most of the year. However I have also been fortunate to have the assistance of many talented and experienced friends to help me improve my work. I'm thrilled to end this year's top 10 with what I think may be my best astrophoto so far, showing the fruits of that help. I know of many ways I can further improve, but I'm very proud of this shot and I know that the improvement is showing in my work. Look forward to more cool space shots next year!

[caption id="attachment_4405" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Telescope: 8“ f4 Newtonian
Camera: ZWO ASI1600-MCC
Mount: NEQ6
24x5min - 2hrs total exposure
Processed in Pixinsight and Lightroom[/caption]

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That concludes another year's top 10. Thank you for sharing this journey with me, and if you want to help me continue to develop my skills and spend more time on the creative side of photography than on the breadwinning, please consider supporting me on Patreon! patreon.com/neilcreek

Thank you and happy new year!