Entries Tagged 'Events' ↓

Photograph by Shelton Muller.

Last Tuesday night saw a group of brave photographers risking wind and waves at Mordialloc pier for the Five Minute Photographer end of year meet. Most of the regulars turned up but we had one keen individual fly in from Queensland just to hang out with the Guru and the rest of us.

This night saw the unveiling of my “Voice Activated Light Stand” t-shirt and Shelton decided that it needed an appropriate image.

It was a great night with much laughter, mateship and photography. Can’t wait for the next one, which means I better organise it!

I was on a train last Saturday when I overheard two young people talking about their recent university graduations. I thought nothing of it until one said “And you should see the photos my friend got. They hired a professional photographer who took them to this cool alleyway and the shots are awesome!

Then they went to the walkway bridge between Southbank and Flinders Street station and he had them all in a line. They even had their photo taken with police horses!”.

Then she went on to say how her standard graduation photo is “so boring compared to his”.

She was referring of course to the recent RMIT graduation shoot I did.

I must say this did put a smile on my face.

I look forward to visiting the Malloy family every year for their Annual Grand Final Day BBQ. It is always hinted that I take a camera along (as if I’d go anywhere without one anyway).

I got to spend a great time with the usual great bunch of people (including a future “Trash the Dress” client) and managed to snap off a few photos.

Unfortunatly you see these types of headlines in the news all the time.

“Britt Lapthorne, 21, was last seen by friends at a nightclub in the Croatian coastal resort on September 18.” (from ninemsn.com.au)

What you don’t see all the time in these stories, is the name of someone you know. I worked at the Kilmore International School for nearly six years in IT and I remember Britt well. I even remember her login details on the school network I administered.

I hope the authorities can help Britt and send good news home to where her family and friends are anxiously waiting to see her or even hear from her.

You are all in my thoughts.

Encouraged by all the remote cameras used at the recent Olympic games I decided to hang one of my D200s off the lighting rig for the play I am shooting (see previous posts).

Why the good D200 and not my not so good D70? The D200 has an “Interval timer” option. I climbed the ladder, hung the camera next to a light using a gorilla pod, it’s own strap and padlocking the camera to a security chain (not taking any risks) and set it to take a photograph every 90 seconds until the battery depleted.

So, as I was grabbing ground level shots such as this (the director’s favourite)

The remote camera was grabbing pictures like this

It’s 1945, World War 2 is over, and Winston Churchill has just lost office. “His Lordship” is off celebrating in London; back at the Manor his daughter, “Miss Julie”, is celebrating with the servants…. the world is changing.

I am shooting the front-of-house photographs for this three person play.

Kudos to Michael Jewel, the director for deciding last night that all of the photographs will be in black and white. This has made the project that little bit more interesting as the photographs will need to sell themselves without relying on pretty colours to distract the viewer. I love the intensity in the image above.

The lighting was managed by cross lighting the stage with two strobes on tripods. I then used the exposure to dial in the desired level of ambient light. I mainly used the 70-200 2.8 to avoid distracting the actors as they worked.

I had a great time shooting a standard rehearsal last night with two dress rehearsals to follow next week.

I can recommend the play to anyone. Very powerful story told by very capable actors. For more details, check out the facebook event page.

I am proud to announce that I am a Gold Sponsor of this years McKinnon Arts Festival.

Nikon D200 | 85mm 1.8 | 1/320 @ 1.8 | On Camera Flash

I was invited to an engagement party on Saturday night and took one camera along (travelling light) to grab a couple of photos of a friend. Within half an hour I was the “official photographer” for the night and tasked to capture the family photos after the speech. I of course happily obliged and was told later that I went right into “wedding mode” as I worked the room.

Had a fun night and who knows, I may get a wedding out of this.

Yesterday (Wednesday) morning I was shooting an event for InvestHK. The seminar was for people and companies interested in expanding their business into the Honk Kong province of Foshan. The list of speakers include Dr. Chen, the Mayor of Fushan Province (pictured below), the Director-General of Invest HK as well as several prominent business leaders who have made the move into Foshan and the Pearl River Delta.

The seminar was held at the Langham Hotel on Southbank in Melbourne. A stunning venue, it had the smae issue that most of these venues have … appalling lighting for photography!

The Nikkor 85mm 1.8 lens paid for itself this shoot as I could shoot without a flash distracting the speakers whilst maintaining some kind of professional distance from the subject.

I enjoyed the shoot and even learned a few things as I photographed each of the speakers and gathered some general “atmosphere” images.