If you don't know the name Jacob Gower, get to know about him. A photographer who divides his time between Victoria and New South Wales, with a creative vision and eye that is second to none. Currently, he is most well known for his sports photography: capturing beautiful images for well-known Australian runners such as Brett Robinson, Gen Gregson and Jack Rayner, although he has dipped his toe into other fields as well. We spoke to Jacob about his creative process, experiences in tertiary education and a few of his peers and inspirations.
Normally with these interviews I like to end with the Instagram questions, but we got a few good ones when we put the question box out the other day. So, let's start from the very, very start. How and when did you get into photography?
I've always been into photography. I guess the love of it started because my dad was a professional photographer, so I've always been surrounded by it. I did start off going to university, studying a degree in architecture, but then I dropped out after a while because it wasn't as creative as I wanted it to be. I had a year off, and then I started getting into photography just around [Newcastle] and I eventually decided to do a Cert 4 at TAFE. That was what really got me into it, and it was the people around me in the class that helped me learn and helped me get into it.
I loved visual arts class back in high school, so architecture was the goal. I didn't really touch on photography until I left architecture, and then I really fell in love with it and wanted to study it.
I love your photography, by the way. It’s amazing. I've seen you taking photos at Pulse events and other major running events, and obviously I can’t see what’s happening in your eyes but through your lens it must be so different. It just looks incredible.
I've tried to take a bit of a unique point of view, especially with my running stuff. I'm a lot better at the more artistic stuff than I am with the more commercial stuff. I did a recent shoot for a JP Morgan corporate 5km and they wanted really stock standard running photos. That kind of made me realise that's something I'm not practised in at all, so I need to get better at that career wise. But it's fun to try and make my photos a little bit different.
Was there ever a time that you thought ‘I can like really take this far,’ or, ‘I've got something special going on?’
The first ever running event I did was the Bathurst cross country world champs, which was a crazy event to start with. That kind of kicked things off a little bit. A few of the athletes started posting my photos, a few of them started following me. Heaps Good Runners followed me, and I was like, ‘oh sh*t,’ and then he posted one of my pictures as well. Melbourne Track Club used some of my photos too, so that was kind of the kick off for me. That made me realise that I could follow this and keep going because people are starting to like it.
I was speaking to my mate at work the other day. She also runs, and she's another Pulse athlete. I mentioned to her I was going to do an interview with you and she wanted me to ask you some of her questions. The first one is what lens and camera do you use?
I currently use a Sony A7 Mark IV and an A7 Mark III. My main lens is the 70-200mm F2.4 G Master lens. That’s my baby, I love that lens.
I didn't start with that stuff though. I started off using a pretty cheap Nikon and a 20-year-old Nikon lens. I had to manually focus that one a lot, which was interesting for sport. I don't think gear matters too much, but I'm very, very happy with my Sony cameras. They're lovely.
Have you ever experimented with film cameras or video before?
I've done film stuff at TAFE and a bit in high school. I love that. I would love to take that to some sports stuff as well, I think that'd be interesting. It's a little bit stressful though, because you can't instantly check the photos after you have taken them. I love the process of developing film though. We have a darkroom at my TAFE, and we can do everything there. It's really satisfying and the images that come out of it always look so much better than the digital, especially black and white stuff. I would love to give it a go.
For video, I have been getting a little bit more into it. I recently did a music video for a local musician, Sam Winder in Newcastle. That was fun. I also turned a few of my ‘burst photos’ into a few reels on Instagram, but that's about it so far.
You’re a pretty creative guy. Do you think you have a knack for knowing when something's about to happen and you think, ‘I have to get the camera out for this?’ For example, when Brett [Robinson] was tipping the water on his head at Sydney Marathon, did you know that there was a photo there to be taken?
A lot of it is knowing where to be at the right time. With the Sydney marathon, it was good because I had practiced the month before when I did Sydney Harbour 10km. I knew a lot of the good spots around, and I could pick where I wanted to go. I knew where the lighting would be nice at that time of day. The one of Brett tipping the water, that was a spur of the moment thing. He crossed the line a lot quicker than I thought he would, and he sort of ran off and I followed him down.
So you've got a lot of preparation that goes into your photos.
Sometimes I go and look at the area beforehand. A lot of it is just hoping that it's good, especially at the finish line. There’s always a bit of a fight to get into position with all the other photographers. Some of it you can plan, but a lot of the time you have to adapt to it and work with what you’ve got.
When I was doing my research, I found Trent Parke was one of your inspirations. I was looking through his stuff, and you've both got this blur effect that you do that looks amazing. How do you take these photos and how do you edit to get them to look like that?
A lot of it is already in the camera. Lower shutter speed is what it’s called. If you leave the camera sensor open, it gets the blur of whatever you're trying to get. You can also pan it along and keep one subject in focus and get everything else blurry.
I think Trent Parke lived in New York and he did a lot with lights. He would paint on his film with the light. It's kind of hard to explain. I do try and emulate a lot of that. Obviously, I’m not Trent Parke, but it's fun to try and recreate the more artistic style.
Do you have any other creative inspirations?
There’s a lot of modern photographers, especially running ones. Joe Hale or Cortney White, they're both amazing. Riley Wolff, he's really good. I don't know if you've seen Casey Sims stuff from World Champs. Her stuff is amazing. ‘notafraid2fail’ on Instagram as well, his stuff is really cool. He's over in America. I love looking at how everyone else interprets, especially running events, how they edit and use colour. I try to learn from that what I can. I've got some good photography mates as well that I've met through this whole process. Ben, or ‘lightknife.jpg’ on Instagram. Joe Westwood, Teun Prompers. I met them both at the Pulse 5000. It's really cool, and it's a good environment to be in because we're all trying to help and build off each other.
Do you spend a lot of time editing your photos before you put it out there? Do you ever need to do much?
A lot of time is spent on editing. Especially this year, because I've had a lot of creative freedom in what I can do because I’m not working for anybody when I shoot these events. I've tried make them all a little bit different in their colour grading or emotion around the event. For the Bathurst Cross Country, especially in the men's 10km, I really wanted to show off how crazy the weather was and show how dramatic that whole scene was. There was a massive storm right at the start, and it was so windy and there was lightning everywhere. Unfortunately, I didn't get any shots with lightning. That would have been sick. But I really wanted to show that off. For Melbourne Marathon this year it was moody. I wanted to show that off as well with the colour grade. It’s just sort of having a bit of fun with the editing.
We might move away from photography a bit and I'll talk to you about some other things that you're you're interested in. I want you to rank these five things for me. They’re all pretty different. So we have: Trent Parke, Sydney Swans, Milwaukee Bucks, Formula 1 and The Marathon.
You've done your your research. I'd say marathon one for sure. I'd have to go Formula One next. I'm a big Formula One nerd. Then I’ll go with the Milwaukee Bucks, Sydney Swans and Trent Parke. Sorry Trent, but I'm very loyal to my sports teams.
As you said, you're a big fan of sport, and you really like F1. I don't know much about F1 myself, so I can’t ask any questions about it. But you're a big fan of Track and Field, and basketball. Can you tell us your thoughts about Noah Lyles saying that he doesn't think NBA players should call themselves world champions?
Look, I do think he's got a point. I don't think they should call themselves World Champions. I do think that if America put all their best players into the American team, I think they would have a pretty good chance of winning. I do agree with him. I don't think they're world champions because it's not the World Championships.
So what's your tertiary experience like, contrasting between university and TAFE? What's your experience between them?
I guess it does depend on what you are studying, but university for me was a lot more hands on and you actually learnt stuff, whereas, not to bag on TAFE, but most of it has just been self-taught. I would have chosen to do photography at uni if any university around here had it, but they don’t. And also TAFE was free.
I did think about doing tertiary study in Melvourne. I was planning on moving there, but in terms of costs, it worked out to be a bit better to do the TAFE course here for free. Doing a diploma of photography down in Melbourne is pretty expensive, it’s around $20k.
Do you have a few favourite songs you've been listening to at the moment? Give us five or something.
I do love a bit of Stormzy and Brockhampton, but I have been getting into some older stuff like early 2000s or 90s hip-hop. I think my favourite song at the moment would be ‘93 ‘Til Infinity’. I love that song. ‘Running’ by The Pharcyde. ‘Ms Fat Booty’ by Mos Def is good. I love that song. Steve Lacy ‘N Side.’ That's probably what I've got on repeat now.
Going back to photography, could you give us your top three photography tips for someone that's just starting out as a beginner?
I would say learn the basics and get into manual mode as quickly as you can. It throws you in the deep end a little bit when you start off, but just playing around with everything and taking as many photos as you possibly can. That's how I learned. Just have a camera in your hand every day. Take some photos, play around with the shutter speed, play around with the aperture. Play around with the ISO and you'll slowly learn and build up skills. That also is reflected in in [Adobe] Lightroom, so play around in Lightroom or whatever editing software and learn. Watch some YouTube tutorials just to get the basics down. I think it's fairly easy to learn the basics of the camera. And then it's just practise.
It's going to be a bit hard for you to verbally say, but what are your favourite five photos that you've ever taken? And why were these your favourites?
A lot of them would be from Bathurst World Champs just because the scene was so insane and the athletes there were world class. I love the one of Brett coming up the hill and he looks pretty exhausted. He's got the wind and the people behind him with the clouds. That was sick. I really like the one of Stewie [McSweyn] coming over the hill with some dramatic clouds in the background. That one is also one of my favourites. There's one with Letesenbet Gidey, where she's in a line of five women, she's in the middle, she's in focus and the rest are out of focus. I really do like the one of Brett pouring the water on his head. And I’ll say there’s one of Ed Goddard where he's coming under the bridge which is also nice. I have taken a few that I do like this year, but that that's probably my five picks.
Brilliant. And the last one I have is to ask you is if you have any words of wisdom, people to shoutout or things to promote.
Words of advice, I think I'll just reiterate what I said before. If you have any sort of artistic or creative endeavour, just practise. That's it really. That's how you learn. People to shout out, I'll give a shout out to my beautiful girlfriend Josie. She's great. She's supported me a lot this year. I'll also give a shout out to Brett and Joel from FTK for helping me so much this year. Without them, I probably wouldn't have got into as many events as I would have liked. I've used their names to slip my way in for media accreditation sometimes! They've been really helpful. Any athletes that have posted my photos, that's also such a compliment. Gen Gregson's been a big fan of me. Thank you to her. Thank you to everyone who's done that. It's great.
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