The Enterprise

The Enterprise quietly sailing past huge cliffs on the Tasman Peninsula.

Encore Theatre - Hair

Man of the Year 2009

The title is very tongue and cheek! ;)

Through some contacts at work I was able to get several of my images into three different company calendars for 2009. In the coming year I will have 13 images displayed around Tasmania. Two in the Tasmanian Alkaloids calendar on the months of February (Richmond Bridge) and July (Safety Cove Sunrise).

The other two company calendars I'm in are filled exclusively with my photos. Gunns has Safety Cove Sunrise (the only image to double up), Port Arthur, The Hazards Sunset, Mt Roland, Picnic Rocks and Freycinet Boats. FRM has The Entrance to Georges Bay, Government Gardens, Albert Hall, Tasman Island Sunrise, Evercreech and Safety Cove Yellow.

I am very excited to have so many images appearing in calendars next year. I'll have to get out and take more photos next year, otherwise I'll have nothing for the 2010 calendars. It would be nice to have at least some of my images in each of these calendars every year, and maybe some other calendars as well.

2008 Senior Medal Winner

I have been a golfer for many, many years now and I’ve been a member of the Quamby / Prospect Vale GC for the last 9 years. I’ve won my share of prizes in that time, this year I decided to give something back to the club. The club has grown in the last three years since we moved to Country Club Tasmania and a large number of the newer members are seniors. With that in mind I choose to donate a prize for the Senior Medal.

The inaugural winner of the Senior Medal for 2008 is Denis Lockwood! The prize is a 12” x 18” framed print of Safety Cove. Congratulations Denis!!

Safety Cove

This is another calendar I've put together. All the images were taken at Safety Cove on the Tasman Peninsula. I found this place on my visit to Port Arthur 2 years ago, I've been fascinated with it ever since.

This calendar shows the dramatic scenery I witnessed during my short visits.









Clicking the image will take you to a preview page where you can purchase it.

Old Trout

Recently we had a client come in to work look to get his painting reproduced on the printing press. This gave me an idea!

Working in the printing industry I've learned a few things that most of the public ignore. The most prevalent lesson is that we have trouble reproduce oil and water colour paintings in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black). The colour gamut is very small in CMYK printing. We have to try and reproduce the colours of a painting while compensating for the colour of the canvas behind it compared to the paper stock it's being printed on. It's a difficult time consuming and, at times, painful experience.

The general way to get the painting into a electronic images has been for a local photographer to shoot if with a film camera and give us a transparency. From that we have to scan it in on a high-end scanner. The problem with this is the transparency is rarely colour correct to the painting, and the scanner sees some colours differently to the human eye. this means that the colours are completely out of whack by the time we show the client a proof.

Knowing all the problems involved with a painting of this sort gave me the idea to try and shoot the painting myself with my digital camera and cut out the extra handling. I used a couple different light set-ups combining natural light with diffused flash.

This shot below is what I think is the closest to the original. It was taken in the shad with a direct diffused flash (thanks to my sb-900 and Gary Fong Lightsphere). I got the white balance correct by using a WhiBal white balance card.





As I said, this is the one "I think" is the closest to the original, the client chose a different image which I think is too blue. But the customer is always right (unless they are wrong ;) ). Either way it has made my job at work much, much easier!

My Tasmania 2009

I have had some success with calendars this year, which I will cover in a later post, but I decided to create my own for the year 2009. This is probably too late for Christmas but it's still in time for the new year.

It has landscapes from all over Tasmania. I've tried to put a good spread of image into it with sunrises, sunsets, HDR and a little infrared.






Clicking the image will take you to a preview page where you can purchase it.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed taking the images!

C Family

I was asked to do my first family portrait shoot a couple weeks ago with an extended family of 10!! It was a good experience and I hope that it's not the last.

The day was nice except for all the wind. It made for some difficulties, particularly with hair blowing over faces but, the end results were still very good. This is a sample from the shoot.

Golf Tasmania Centenary Gala Dinner

This is a quite a bit late but, better late than never.

Last month Golf Tasmania celebrated it's centenary. Part of the centenary celebrations was a dinner and the first Tasmanian Golf Hall of Fame Induction. I was lucky enough to be there to take photos of the event and the following are a small selection from that night.

It was a great night! The inductees were very good and the comedian was a good laugh!

Winner!?!?

There I was Wednesday morning waiting for an email for a client when I received an email from Jen Rinaldi. The title of the email was "FWD: Tasmania Sweepstakes Winner".

Earlier in the year I told her about this competition to try and win a trip to Tasmania. I thought it would be a long shot but you never know your luck.

So there I was, reading the line and getting very excited about the possibility she had actually won the competition, because quite frankly that's the way it reads to me. So my first thought was "no way?", which quickly became "this could be awesome!". Filled with anticipation I clicked on the email only to find she hadn't won. It was all about "the winners" exploits in Tasmania, not "you are the winner".

I've got to say I was disappointed! I was thinking that the email would say something like "I'm on my way to Tassie, my flight gets in at xxxxx.....". Wishful thinking I guess?

Oh well, it got my full and undivided attention (at least for a few moments). :)

Movember 08

It was a long month but in the end it was all worth it. Here is my Mo for 08!

With the help from several people I was able to raise $300 for Movember. Thank you to each and everyone of you!!

Mo Week 3

Not long now, only a week to go for the MO! I have to say that I'm starting to like the look of my mo now. It was looking a bit poor after two weeks but now it's starting to get some real form to it. It's still not fantastic but it looks the part.








Thanks to everyone who has donated to my Mo, I really appreciate it. I've now cleared $200 mark but I'd like to think I can still get a bit more before the end of the month. Well done everyone!!

Donations can still be made via this link.

New Gear

I've finally added to my equipment list. A SB-900 flash, 50mm f/1.8 prime lens and the Gary Fong Lightsphere Universal.

The SB-900 is a nice bit of kit but it is bloody huge!! It's even bigger with the Lightshpere fitted. I'm sure I'll have all sorts of fun playing with these new items. The Flash and Lightsphere has already had a full nights workout with decent results.

Mo Week 2

Donations can still be made via this link.

So it begins

Donations can still be made via this link.

Stained

Movember

To Mo or not to Mo, That is the question! I’ve done both in recent times but next month the Mo makes a return.


During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I’ll be growing a Mo. I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about tackling men's health issues and being proactive in the fight against men's depression and prostate cancer. But growing a Mo isn’t going to help unless I can raise some donations for the Movember Foundation.

If you would like to donate to my Mo and help me in this worthy pursuit you can: Click this link https://www.movember.com/au/donate/donate-details.php?action=sponsorlink&rego=1421076&country=au and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account.

All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

More information is available at http://www.movember.com/.




Thank you for any help you can give me.

I’ll be sure to keep the blog updated each week with a new Mo photo. The photos will start Friday when I give myself a clean shave and start Movember!

My Other Blog

After some thought I decided to create another blog. It will look different to this one but they will be more or less the same.

Stop by and check it out!

My other blog!

Highbury Apartments

I had a busy Thursday afternoon/evening. I had the Stormy Seas shots to do later in the night and I also had a photo shot to do at Highbury Apartments.

They were mostly looking for interior shots of the apartments but I also took some exterior shots. The lighting conditions outside weren't the best. It was overcast and blowing, but I did the best I could with what I had to work with.

The following are the better shots from the shoot.

Stormy Seas

Last Thursday night I had some product photography to get done for work. This isn't the first time I've taken shots for Stormy Seas. However, it is the first time I've shown the results on my blog.

Mt Roland

Late Moon

Championship Results

Well, I tried but failed! I bombed out in the quarter finals against Matt Thomas, 2/1. Unfortunately I had him beaten early, but then some small errors crept into my game and the rolls were reversed. Between us, we had a very good match. We traded pars and birdies throughout the round, but we also had our fair share of bogies.

Matt went on to play-off in the final against Phil Pears. Pears was the eventual winner by 3/1. This is the second year in a row he has won the championships.

In B and C grade. The B grade final was between Glen Duncan and Mitchell Britton-Thomas. Glen Duncan won 2up. C grade was fought out between David Mosely and Doug Burge, Mosely winning that one.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Golfing weekend

Golf, just another four letter word! It’s the pursuit of perfection but, perfection is unattainable. The sooner one comes to this realization, the more enjoyment you’ll get out of it.

These past couple of weeks has been taken up with qualifying for my golf club championships. I didn’t do very well last year but, this year was much better. I was leading after the first week but, finished up qualifying 3rd. This week we have the quarters, semis and the final. I don’t know how far I’ll get, or if I’ll win the championships, but at least I have a chance.

The 8 qualifiers are: The top half of the draw-
Phil Pears v Duncan MacFarlane
Phil Exton v Matt Millwood
The bottom half of the draw-
Justin Ryan v Duane Morgan
Colin Butterworth v Matt Thomas

It will be a busy weekend for whoever makes it to the final. The quarter finals are on the Saturday and the semi finals and final are on the Sunday. With a bit of luck I might win a third championship.

Speaking of golf….

The new Drummond Golf store is having their grand opening this Saturday 18th. They have been open for several weeks now and, from all accounts, are doing well. The owner/manager is a friend of mine, Michael Jordan. He has spent a few years working for Drummond on the mainland and now he has his own store. A real case of local boy makes good!

Another good friend of mine is one of the sales people in the store, Corey deBruyn.

If you get the chance you should stop in and checkout their fantastic store. As far as I know, Brett Ogle is meant to be there for the opening, so you should stop in and say hello. They are situated at Unit 19, Cambridge Park, 66 Kennedy Drive, Cambridge Tasmania. (Just off the Tasman Highway)

View Larger Map The map doesn't show Cambridge Park, the aerial shots were taken well before it was constructed.

Perth War Memorial

Fountain at night