Slide Show

 
Anja with Guitar

Anja with Guitar

I sent the call out a few nights ago, I had a new set of Elinchrom D-Lite 4 IT studio lights and wanted to give them a bit of test run.

Thankfully my neighbour, and many times featured model, Anja, was home and in a very generous mood, she quickly accepted my invitation and was promptly dressed and on my door step with her guitar.

I had played around with studio lights at the Rockhampton Photography club a few times and normally would set up 2 lights in soft boxes, turn them right down to attempt the widest aperture I could possibly shoot at, some wise words from one I consider to be a guru, even though I think, he still gets a bit embarrassed by the reference, Shelton Muller had me reconsidering my “normal” approach.

I instead decided that I would only set up 1 light and get the best result I could from that, I also came to the realisation, that when there really isn’t a background to be concerned about, there really is no need to shoot at f2.8, so I settled on f11, a little by accident, and adjusted my light to suit. Anja Standing with Guitar

What did I learn from the experience, well I am glad you asked.
I learnt that when using a soft box, you do not necessarily have to have the middle of the soft box pointing directly at your model, I turned my soft box pretty much away so as to limit the amount of spill onto  my backdrop.
I also learned that when  you think you have your grey backdrop far enough back from your light and model to achieve a black background, think again. Unfortunately I created an amount of post processing that I hadn’t really counted on having to do.

I also learnt that I need to buy just a small amount of extra gear, I really do need to get myself a good reflector holder so that I can bounce in just that little extra bit of fill as required, propping the reflector up with a 20ltr water barrel really doesn’t quite get it in the required place.
I also took the opportunity to grab a few shots with my Mamiya RZ67 that was loaded with a roll of Ilford HP5+, this is a 400 asa film that seems to provide a very fine grain for the speed.

Anja - Black and White

Anja - Black and White sitting

 

The Birthday GirlsI was recently approached by a colleague enquiring if I was available to photograph a combined 16th and 18th birthday party, after a small amount re-arranging I was able to help out with this special occasion.

Zhyvan and Jaleeza were the guests of honour at this gala event, no expense was spared to ensure that the girls had a celebration to remember.

The party started at Kershaw House for lunch, where we took the opportunity to get some semi formal portraits of the girls with their respective family and friends. Followed by a selection of random candid images for them to remember their day by.

The party then moved on to The Crazy Joker in the evening, they had completely booked out The Crazy Joker until midnight to allow the guests to just cut lose and enjoy themselves after the formalities of the morning luncheon.

The girls arrived in a convoy of limousines from Rockhampton Luxury Limousines, and as per normal, Kathy and crew provided a great service ensuring that not of the white dresses touched the tyres and the guests were comfortable in the back.

The whole gang

 

Amy and AnjaI have been very neglectful of this site and that has to change.
On September 19 we had a gathering at the photography club where we had some very nice young ladies come along and model for us.
We have been focusing on studio lighting and Off Camera Flash techniques over the last couple of months for our practical sessions, this all culminated in the session on Sunday the 19th.
We set up 2 studios in the club room, and had flashes set up downstairs in the alley.
2 of our initial models, Anja and Amy joined us around 2:00pm, with Nikita and her sister coming in around 15 minutes later, on very short notice I might add, a big thank you to all the girls.Amy - Lost
Larry pretty much took control in the studios and I spent my time outside with the off camera flash, consequently I didn’t get any images from the studio of any of the girls.
We had one bare Canon 430 EXII and I had my 580 EXII on a light stand with a 60×60 softbox attached.

All who attended the session came away with an assortment of images, which in no small part was due to the models we had on the day. Anja and Amy both have some experience in front of a camera whilst it was a first time for both Nikita and her sister, once again a huge thanks to our models, nothing was too much for them .

Amy

 
Darryl and Sandra Signing

Darryl and Sandra Signing their lives to each other

Darryl and Sandra were married married in an intimate affair in Kingaroy on Saturday March 20, I was asked to photograph there special day as a favour for for Darryl’s sister who was less than confident in photographing people in any setting let alone a wedding.

The happy couple were a treat to work with and nothing was too much trouble, even though both were not very comfortable in front of a camera.

The ceremony was a small affair at their house, attended by close family and friends.
For the more fun and memorable photographs we had a great location in the old train station that has been turned into a sort of town square for the people of Kingaroy.

Darryl, Sandra, Debbie and David

I would like to thank Darryl and Sandra for trusting me with the production of their photographs for their special day, they were a great couple to work with and their co-operation ensured they have some memorable images into the future.

The Bridal Party

 

CJ and Sandra are friends of my daughters at Hervey Bay, they were after some family portraits near the beach recently to send to family and friend for Christmas.

I had made arrangements to travel to Hervey Bay to see my daughter and to photograph an event that she was holding, so made a booking to shoot this family on the following day.

After accepting the challenge, I was informed that 3 of the seven children had minor behavioural difficulties and began wondering what I had let myself  in for.

I must say the kids were all perfectly behaved and were only to ready to do anything asked of them on the day, stand here, look that way, smile, move a bit, don’t move a muscle, they did it with what really appeared to be joy in their hearts.

The light was harsh, so I opted for using it as back light for the majority of the images, using my gold reflector to add an amount of fill light in when needed.

After taking pictures of each child individually, I did the group shots, with mum and dad, without mum and dad, all the girls, all the boys.

We then headed down onto the rocky foreshore for a few fun shots with the kids, man were they up for that, I don’t IMG_4968think I was number 1 on mums christmas list however, the kids had been told in no uncertain terms that they were not going swimming, then I turn up and ask the kids if they wanted to go splash on the water a bit, a compromise was reached and all was well in the end.

A great time was had by all and I felt very privileged to have provided a quality service to CJ and Sandra.

Thank You for allowing me to produce these images for you

 

Lights1I recently had the opportunity photograph a Youth Dance Party held by Widebay Mobile Entertainers, these youth events are dance parties held for the under 18 age group in the Widebay (Hervey Bay) Area.

Dance parties are held at the Great Hall, Hervey Bay High School, on Beach road from 7:00pm until 11:00pm and are fully supervised by trained staff who all hold current Positve Notification Blue Cards from the Queensland Government. The events are also attended by qualified and registered security guards to ensure that those attending are safe at all times.
Widebay Mobile Entertainers also take these events to the regional areas, regularly holding and underage event in Howard, with an early session, 6:00pm – 8:00pm for those up to 12 years old and then from 8:30pm – 10:30pm for 13 years to 17 years, giving the youth in the outer area a chance to have a supervised night out.

As you can imagine a dance party with all the latest lighting effects that go with present some challenges to try and photograph. Direct flash of the people at the events is just not going to work for many reasons apart from a total loss of the feeling and ambience of the hall, so I concentrated my efforts on capturing some of the lighting effects with just a touch of bounced flash to add a small amount of fill at the end of the exposure.

4139675886_09bea4d182_o

 
Mitchel

Mitchel

I was approached to capture the head and shoulders portraits of the students of Glemore State High School at the annual School Awards Ceremony last week.

Of course the last thin I wanted to do was to bang away with the flash on the cmaera so I took my light stand nad umbrella with me, the school was providing a back drop to shoot against. I set up the light stand and umbrella about 1 meter in front of where I wanted the students to stand as they passed through my mini studio one after the other.

Upon initial testing I was having a lot of trouble seperating those students with dark shirts from my background so I opted to set the second flash as a back / side light just to add some separation, this worked very well and my off camera flash triggers didn’t miss a beat.

After the initial set up the night was not terribly challenging, apart from getting the students to stand in the position I wanted so as to make use of the the way I had the lights set.

Congratulations go to all of the award recipients on the evening.

 

GroupThe CSR – HIA Housing Kitchen and Bathroom Awards are the pinnacle of recognition for builders and cabinet makers in Australia.
This year I had the pleasure of photographing the awards ceremonies for the Mackay, Cairns and Townsville areas, along with the North Queensland Regional Awards ceremony held at the same time as the Townsville area awards.

The awards celebrate the achievements in both housing construction and kitchen and bathroom construction.
Entries are judged on a range of criteria which include things like innovation in materials and processes, energy efficiency, value for money and actual workmanship.

As with previous years the level of the entries was absolutely outstanding, with winners  for the North Queensland Regional Awards coming from all areas with in the region. This year Bentec Homes took out the prestigious Home of the Year award. They were joined on the top step of the podium by CCW Cabinet Works you gained the Kitchen Project of the Year.

Congratulation to all the winners

Kitchen Of The YearBentec Homes

 
Kelly

Kelly

I had the pleasure to photograph the wedding between Kelly and Adam on Saturday 17th October 2009.

Kelly and Adam were referred to me when their plans took an unexpected and urgent change.
They had to bring their wedding forward from the dates that they had previously been planning.

The lovely bride, Kelly, made her preparations at the Leichardt Hotel, assisted by her bridesmaids, Marie and Theresa, these girls were a great help to Kelly and only too willing to anything that was asked of them. Thank you gorld from myself and I am sure that Kelly is grateful for your help as well.

From there the ceremony was held at the Slab hut in Kershaw Gardens, as we all know Saturday was not the best day due to all the fires around Rockhampton, this presented it’s own challenge to photography with all the smoke and ash, the order of the day was keep in close and avoid the use of any flash.

Adam was assisted by best man Fabian and grooms-man Stephen, casual was the order of the day for these boys. Adam in a black open collar shirt with his boys in the same style shirt in a very nice purple colour couple with  beige denim jeans. These boys looked very smart whilst remaining cool on very hot day out.

The ceremony was intimate affair with close family and friends gathering to bear witness to Kelly and Adams marriage and then to join them in celebrating this joyous day.

The Whole Crew

The Whole Crew

The reception was held at the Leichardt Hotel, the room looked a real treat. A lovely two layered cake completing the formalities.

It was a great pleasure to record this event for Kelly and Adam and I wish you both all the best for your future together

 

I was given Joe McNally’s book, Hot Shoe Diaries – Big Light From Small Flashes, for fathers day and I have just finished reading it.

This book is a wealth of information from Joe and some of the assignments he has completed using off camera flash. The book is very well written and presented with finished photographs produced by Joe and then a text to explain how he came to achieve the desired result.

The book works through from relatively simple single flash images to a massive image achieved with 47 flashes.

Although Joe McNally uses Nikon cameras and therefore the Nikon CLS system the theory of how he achieved the images should be the same no matter which system you use.

If you are even remotely interested in off camera flash I would suggest that this book would be a great investment and even so far as a resource to help achieve similar images, I myself will be blatantly ripping off a couple of his ideas for an upcoming corporate job.

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