It has been a personal project inspired by two of my most idolised photographers, Chase Jarvis and Zack Arias. Chase and Zack have always been advocates for setting yourself personal projects to help develop your creative skills and to extend your portfolio. Chase is also a great believer in sharing your knowledge. This prompted me to create my BTS video which after just over 1 year has been viewed over  21,000 times and I really have to thank one of my favorite bloggers Udi Tirosh who featured the video on his blog diyphotography.net. His website is a great inspiration to make the most of your gear and budget.

Seamless White Background @ Home Tutorial from Scott Bourke on Vimeo.

I have had loads of emails asking for more BTS from the series. So I have decided to put together a timelapse video from my rugby shot. I’m really getting into the timelapse stuff of late.

So thanks to everyone that lent me gear or gave my words of encouragement. Whilst it is my first ever body of work I still plan on adding to it over time so stay tuned for plenty more shots, who knows ping-pong may be on its way.

To finish off here are a few of my recent setup shots you guys seem to crave.

After putting my skateboard shot off for long enough due to the fact I had no idea how to execute my idea, I finally gave it a crack and it came out better than expected. I think this could be one of my best ever Self Sportraits.

After the success of my Tennis Sportrait int he stairwell I decided to give it another go with a few modifications for my AFL shot. These setups take much longer to position the camera angle and lights and even more time to get an image I’m happy with. The shadow has been dropped-in in post.

In 2009 I completed 4.5 of my 7 goals. This year I have 8 goals to complete.

Complete 365 Photo Project
I have put off starting a 365 photo project for some time now. I don’t know what came over me in early December but I decided come January 1st 2010 I would begin on a journey that should teach me plenty and drive me crazy all year long. Its not going to be a shot of some random thing , happy snap style. I want it to be creative or clever image that I would be proud to display. Some days that wont be so easy. Check back here on the blog for my weekly 365 updates.

Blog More
Last year I set a target of blogging twice a week and I failed in that. So this year I will set it at once a week and see how we go. I heave learnt a lot in the last year of blogging and have worked a few things out as far as the style of my blogs post.

Start Foto Fundamentals
I have so many friends that want to know how to take better photos and make the most of their cameras. Some think you need a great camera to take the shots I do. All it takes is knowing a little about the fundamentals of photography like the Rule of Thirds, what AV and TV mode should be used for and what the hell ISO is all about. So once every 2 week or so there will be a post dealing with one of these fundamentals. I hope it helps the average person take better looking photos and help them understand how to use thier camera to its full extent.

Take More Landscapes
For Christmas I got a Canon 10-20mm f3.5 wide angle lens. I have already begun to take some landscapes and HDR’s with it and its such a great lens. This year Anna and I plan to do more general bush walks and coastal weekends away. We are also heading to Europe latter this year so I really want to hone my landscape skills.

Learn Adobe Lightroom
I have learnt so much about Photoshop over the past year and this year whilst still learning photoshop I also want to see how good I can get at Adobe Lightroom. It could improve my work-flow hugely.

Understand Gelling Strobes

I currently have zero knowledge about gelling a strobe. I soon will have in my hot little hand the book Light: Science and Magic by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver & Paul Fuqua. Its a lighting bible from what I hear.

Explore Top 20
I got to #27 on explore last year with my Water bomb explosion shot. This year I want to crack the top 20. Yes explore is still a dodgy system but lets see what happens.

Have Fun!
This is probably the most important of all the goals. Photography shouldn’t be a chore or a inconvenient, it should be a joy and passion. Anyone can take a photo but only someone that lives and loves a photo opportunity can correctly capture the moment.

Ever opened a book (You know those things before the internet) and on the dust cover was a photo of the Aurthur and a run down on them. Well this is my electronic version.

I’m an Australian currently living in Brisbane. I actually grew up in a place called Woolgoolga on the Mid North Coast of NSW.

To pay the bills and expand my photo kit I work as in IT Officer for a University here in Qld.

I have been a very active person my whole life and in most cases I’ll try or watch any sport. I’m particularly mad keen on football or as others call it soccer. I actually went to the World Cup in Germany in 2006 with my Wife Anna.

I have been married to Anna since late 2007. She is a very supportive wife and keeps me getting the camera out at every opportunity.

So photography…hmmm I was actually a very late bloomer to photography. As i child i never really used a camera and hardly touched my mothers film SLR. It wasn’t until my first year of work after University that I decided to spend my overtime money on a camera. Hours of research latter I made the decision to buy a FujiFilm S5000. A 10x Optical lens with a useless 2.2x Digital with  6 megapixels.  It still to this day has rave reviews and I for one can say its an amazing camera. It taught me the basics of ISO, Aperture Priority,  Shutter Priority, Composition and heaps more.

It was however superseded by my current camera the Canon 40D. I actually bought my Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS lens before I bought the camera body. It was such a good deal and to tell the truth it was the swinging factor on whether I bought Canon or Nikon gear. I also have the kit lens of 17-85mm F4-5.6 which I would love to replace but the current budget just doesn’t allow for that just yet. But as they say its the photographer that makes the shots not the camera so for now i will just work hard. My next blog post will be a further analysis of my gear, so stay tuned.

Sport being a major interest of mine is also a passion of mine to shoot. Action photography has always captivated me. I love looking at the sports section of newspapers and magazines to see the action captured forever. I’m also touched by amazing landscapes and to capture this is an addiction.

As you can see from my blog 2 days ago I want to expand my knowledge further and give back to the photo community. So come along for the ride