Outdoor Portraits done at a local park (with flash for fill lighting) :
Studio Portraits – Reena – June 2014
Posted on June 9, 2014 //
I had a chance to take another batch of Studio Photos for Reena (and got to try out some new studio lighting gear – which I LOVE) :
Footy Photos – Awesome Photos of Everyday Footballers
Posted on June 1, 2014 //
Soon after kicking off Surfer Photos (the very next day in fact), I was explaining the concept to friend/mentor (and ex NRL player) David… and was inspired to extend the idea to other sports – e.g. Football…. So… that same day I registered and established www.footyphotos.com.au.
Footy Photos
The concept of Footy Photos is (surprise surprise) very similar to Surfer Photos…. I (initially) will take photos at various public football matches (not tied necessarily to a particular code – Rubgy League, Rugby Union, Aussie Rules, Soccer, Touch Footy, etc are all fine). Once the photos have been taken, reviewed and processed, the “best of” will be published on the site, to be made available for the players themselves to download for free (or buy higher resolution images or prints) if they so wish.
Today I trotted along to the local Intrust Super Cup (one of the main feeders to the NRL competition) and took some action photos of the Easts Tigers vs Mackay Cutters game. Of the 400+ photos, I processed and published about 100 at Intrust Super Cup – Easts Tigers vs Mackay Cutters – 1 June 2014
Here are some of my favourites from the day :
Surfer Photos – Awesome Photos of Everyday Surfers
Posted on June 1, 2014 //
I’ve spent much of this last weekend hanging out at the beach and at the footy – but not relaxing… I have been busy “working” – if you can call it that….
During the week I was inspired by a couple of mates/mentors and established two new online businesses – with (I believe) great potential.
Surfer Photos
I was talking to friend/business partner Nathan about the variety of photos I have been taking recently and he suggested – as a keen surfer – that there might be opportunities taking photos of surfers while they were out surfing (as most would love to get decent photos of themselves but rarely get the chance). The spark of an idea was enough for me to register www.surferphotos.com.au – and over the week this has sort of snowballed, so I found the need to go out and actually take some surfer photos to get the ball rolling.
I headed down the Gold Coast (on one of the flattest surfing weekends in recent history), with the intention of doing a recce on some of the more well know surfing spots… I stumbled across a couple of surfing comps – got talking with some of the local surfers (who were greatly impressed with the idea) – and ended up taking600+ photos. I have whittled these down couple of hundred favourites and created :
You can find out more about Surfer Photos – but here are a few of my favourite shots of the day :
Stanthorpe / Girraween Weekend
Posted on May 10, 2014 //
Last week I headed out to Stanthorpe for a client training session – which was a great excuse to get out to Girraween National Park, and stay for a couple of days. I can’t believe that I had not been back here for 30 years. The area is spectacular – with so many photo opportunities that I will definitely be back soon (in fact plan to organise some “guided” photography weekends to this area – watch this space).
I don’t know quite where to start, because I took so many photos (and timelapses) that it is likely to take me weeks to process them all. But just some of the great photo opportunities are :
- Wineries and Vineyards (thanks to Cheryl/Brad from Savina Lane Wines and and Sam from Golden Grove Estate for an amazing guided tour of the area)
- Stanthorpe Railway Bridge and The Southern Downs Steam Railway
- Girraween National Park – spectacular Granite Landscape, amazing wildflowers and animals, fantastic flowing creeks
- Ballendean Pyramid and surrounding area…
- Spectacular Sunrises/Sunsets
- Star Trails – one of the “darkest” places I have ever been at night
- Falls Drive (Killarney to Boonah)
….. and much much more…Â Herer is a selection of shots from the weekend…Â (Timelapses to come)
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- Stanthorpe Railway Bridge
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- Savina Lane Vineyard
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- Savina Lane Vineyard
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- The Pyramid (Girraween)
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- Bald Rock Creek
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- Giraween Country Inn
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- The Colours of Autumn
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- Pyramid Rock (Girraween)
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- Giraween Kangaroos
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- Girraween walking tracks (Bald Rock Creek)
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- The Pyramid (from West)
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- Bald Rock Creek
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- Ballendean Pyramid
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- Ballendean Pyramid
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- Vineyard Sunset
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- From the Killarney end
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- Queen Mary Falls
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- Dagg Falls
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- Browns Falls Walk
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- Browns Falls
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- Country Cottage
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- Browns Falls
Indigiscapes Model Shoot – April 2014
Posted on April 20, 2014 //
I attended a model shoot session organised by Ian McKenzie of IanDoesPhotography at the Redlands Indigiscapes Centre on Easter Sunday. Indigiscapes is an environmental education centre run by the Redland City Council, and offers a great variety of different locations for model shoots (and they don’t mind non-commercial photographers using their grounds).
We had a beautiful day – not to hot, with plenty of sunshine. Our biggest challenge was finding suitably shaded locations to shoot.
Lunar Eclipse Montage – April 2014
Posted on April 16, 2014 //
I (and about 100 other photographers) took advantage of almost perfect conditions (if a little cool and windy) to take photos of the Lunar Eclipse at Wellington Point in Brisbane on 15th April 2014.
Lunar Eclipse – Vertical Montage
A Lunar Eclipse occurs when the Earth passes directly between the moon and the sun and casts a shadow (Umbra) onto the moon. Whilst not as rare (or spectacular) as a full solar eclipse, the moon tends to take on a reddish tinge and become much fainter (sometimes so faint it is difficult to see at all).
Photographing a lunar eclipse can be a challenge because when it is in full eclipse, you need reasonably long shutter speeds – making it difficult (and often impossible) to get crisp images. As the shadow passes, there can also be significant contrast between the lit (bright) areas and that still in shadow
Despite cloudy conditions throughout most of the day, we were fortunate to have clear skies. There were some clouds on the horizon, which delayed things a bit (and had some of us wondering if the moon was going to rise at all).
Here is a Montage of selected photos
(taken approximately 6 minutes apart between 18:00 and 20:00)
Click to view and click again to Zoom
I also took a couple of timelapses (1 minute between shots), and am not quite sure if they will work out OK… but will post here (and probably on Brisbane Timelapse)Â once I get a chance to process them.
There is another Lunar Eclipse on October 8th and in April and September 2015.
The Summerhouse – Byron Bay
Posted on April 9, 2014 //
I was very fortunate to have spent last weekend at “The Summerhouse“, a luxurious coastal retreat overlooking Byron Bay, and had an opportunity to take some Architecture / Real Estate shots.
The Summerhouse offers luxury bed and breakfast style accommodation – with 6 luxury suites, clustered around a common lounge/dining/kitchen/pool area. It is quite a unique concept, because staff are there during the day to service rooms, cook breakfast and meet and greet guests, but there is no-one around on site at night, so it very much feels like your own place. There are also great opportunities to meet and chat with other guests (and plenty of breakout areas where you can do your own thing if you prefer).
I didn’t treat this as a proper commercial shoot, so didn’t worry about special lighting, or HDR, but here are some of my happy snaps of this awesome place (I will definitely be back).
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- Summerhouse Girls
and here is a timelapse taken from the pool deck
Byron Bay Weekend – April 2014
Posted on April 7, 2014 //
The weather this week has been pretty amazing, so we decided (last minute) to head down to Byron bay for the weekend. We were very late in booking accommodation, but managed to stumble across an incredible house to stay – in the foothills overlooking Byron Bay called The Summerhouse.
The Summerhouse has a fantastic outlook over the Byron Bay area and is just screaming “photo opportunity”…(look out for a separate post for The Summerhouse soon). I had great plans to capture some amazing sunset shots (no clouds = boring sunset), some fantastic Star Trails (cloud cover = no stars) and some stunning sunrise shots (band of clouds on the horizon = limited colour)…. however despite these little setbacks we had an awesome time and I managed to get some shots that I am very happy with (and some decent timelapses which I am still working on).
Here are some of the highlights :
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- I dare you…
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- Summerhouse Views
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- Afternoon snacks by the pool
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- Summerhouse
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- Summerhouse Girls
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- Surfs Up (Broken Head)
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- Summerhouse Sunset
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- Dumplings with Chilli Jam – Yum
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- A refreshing drink (or three)
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- Self Portrait
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- Summerhouse Night View
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- Surfs Up
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- Broken Head Sunrise
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- Summerhouse View
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- Cape Byron from Broken Head
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- Cape Byron Lighthouse (from Broken Head)
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- What better way to spend a hot day
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- Sunrise Paddle
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- Summerhouse
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- Summerhouse Views
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- Cat
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- Sunrise Surf
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- Ryan – Mwahahahaa
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- Summerhouse
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- Sunrise Swim
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- The Summerhouse
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- Broken Head Sunrise
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- The Famous Cape Byron Lighthouse
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- Summerhouse Sunset
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- Local Birdlife
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- Tallow Beach Surfers
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- Cape Byron
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- Julian Rocks (many fond Scuba Dive memories )
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- Beach Walk
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- What Wave ?
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- Byron Bay Beach
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- Tallow Beach & Broken Head from Cape Byron
… and here a here a couple of sunrise timelapse video sequences taken from Broken head (just 5 10 minutes down the road)
Bollywood Comes to Queen Street Mall
Posted on March 30, 2014 //
I was asked to photograph a series of Bollywood performances by students from Dance Masala (Brisbane’s Best Bollywood Dance Classes) in the Queen Street Mall.
There were a variety of performances – from young children through to teenagers and adults, and I was able to go along to the dress rehearsal as well as the live performance. I love the energy and colour of Bollywood, and was stunned by the amount of effort that must go into planning, preparation and choreography for these events. I am in absolute awe of Drea, who managed to put this all together in just 8 weeks…. amazing…
It was a very tough call to whittle these down to my favourite 40 shots (from over 700) – but here they are… (also look out for some timelapses which I hope to process and publish over the next week or two).
