My background…
I ‘m a country boy from New South Wales but these days I call Brisbane home.
I started my career in the Army, taking on an electronics trade and then working as an Electronics Technician… during that time I got a taste for working outdoors and continual learning.
In the Army I was at the cutting edge of changes in digital communications – by the time I left, instead of taking radios into the bush, I was taking a satellite dish and hooking up email and mobile phone networks to allow us to talk anywhere, anytime.
Eager for a taste of corporate life, I held a variety of network management roles in the mining, education and health sectors. By far my favourite role saw me spend several years as the IT Network Manager for a group of schools in the Upper Hunter Valley in NSW – it was a fantastic place to work, and really drove home the message that you can never stop learning.
After 14 years in technical IT roles I was eager to build on my technical skills by exploring some creative opportunities.
This latest adventure has seen me relocate to Brisbane with my wife to work as a freelance multimedia producer. During the past five years I have worked across every aspect of the digital media space, learning from some of the best in the business, including the guys at Cycle Torque Magazine and the producers at The Chop Shop, Fortitude Valley.
I n a nutshell I love drawing on my technical and creative experience and leveraging technology to create an engaging message.
The way this happens is evolving every day – but simply put, I like to look for an end outcome, analyse the available mediums, fit the best available options to the budget and then tailor the message to the target market.
Technology opens up so many options, especially for small or medium businesses. I believe in drawing on a truly integrated suite of tools – from digital formats such as websites, email and all forms of social media to more traditional mediums like print and film.
Along the way I have never stopped wanting to learn, both formally and on the job. Freelancing has provided me with a great opportunity to continually learn new techniques and to build skills in diverse areas. In 2011 alone I was lucky enough to complete a Diploma of Screen and Media through QPix, attend a Cinematography Masterclass through the Australian Cinematographers Society, to act as a photojournalist at the MotoGP at Phillip Island and to work on a range of web, social media and film projects for clients.
Areas of Work
I have been developing websites since 2005 and received formal training from Dynamic Web Training in North Sydney.
Since then I have continued to undertake short courses to keep abreast of technology – although my favoured platform has been a dynamic site built with PHP and mySQL.
I have utilised different frameworks over the years to build sites with a CMS – including all the major players; Joomla, Word Press, X-Cart to name a few.
On occasion I preferred to build my own from scratch, although that is very rare these days considering how well developed the existing frameworks are.
Like most developers I see no reason in reinventing the wheel!
I prefer a minimalist approach to graphic design – and having said that I prefer to outsource this work.
For a few years I was in love with Flash – especially building Flash data driven applications – however two things have killed my love for that platform – those being the iPad and iPhone.
My main use for Flash these days is creating Advertising content.
In summary the tools I use and have excellent knowledge of are:
- PHP
- mySQL
- HTML / HTML5
- CSS3
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Adobe Fireworks / Photoshop
- Adobe Flash
I really developed a passion for photography when I started working for motorcycle magazine ‘Cycle Torque’.
Fortunately for me, there were always vastly experienced photographers on hand to lend advice and explain the theory behind the workings of a Digital SLR camera – not to mention the most awesome subject matter!
All I had to do was apply the theory.
Cycle Torque’s publisher Nigel Paterson would fill my head until overload – again and again until I finally understood (I hope).
The result is that I feel I have a very good understanding of the fundamentals – and now love going out for a photo shoot under any conditions.
Along the way I have also attended workshops held by some of Australia’s top instructors and practising photographers including Mike Langford (well Mike is actually based in Queenstown, NZ) and the duo of Glynn Lavender and Shelton Muller.
My equipment:
- Canon 7D
- 15-85mm f2.8
- 70-200mm f2.8
- 50mm f1.4
- Kessler slider with motor (for time lapse)
- 3 x Bowen’s 1500W Monobloc
In the way of video and film, my passion for that also stemmed from the work with Cycle Torque.
Photographing motorcycles eventually led to creating video content – and out of the blue, this led to a Diploma of Screen and Media (Majoring in Production) run by Brisbane based QPix.
During this course I learnt about the intricate detail of producing content for television and cinema under the instruction of Lav Bodnaruk.
There is no point in having a website – or anything digital – if there is no positive commercial outcome.
This can be hard to come to terms with, especially for newer sites – and to this end I feel I am well qualified to advise on advertising choices and then design appropriate creative.
I have spent a lot of time looking over Google Analytics – working out which placements are the most effective for certain types of industry or outcomes and never tire looking for a better answer.
Afterall, if the advertising doesn’t work, anything digital is just an expensive hobby.
I generally find that web advertising is very much about interpreting statistics to make the right choices.
On the design side, I either develop an advertisement as a flat image or add animation using Adobe Flash.
‘The Rest’ consists of so many different things!
At the moment, a significant part of ‘The Rest’ involves iPad and iPhone App development.
It also involves eDM campaigns – generally using the MailChimp platform.
I shouldn’t forget social media either – namely customising Facebook, Twitter and youTube.
This means having a good working knowledge of the API’s all these major platforms use.
Basically, anything that has a digital aspect I am confident to have a go at – or have already had experience with.
This includes areas such as SEO and Google Analytics (or any web statistics).
All of these areas go hand in hand with most digital campaigns with the overall aim of driving traffic and gaining appropriate exposure.
