Just for Fun

Went along to the Mud Racing at Hidden Valley tonight. Was great fun. Took my D200 and 70-200vr. Shot at iso 800 with my SB-900 Speedlight on top and I gotta say, that thing packs some distance punch. Got some pretty good shots, albeit a little noisy but that's more the fault of iso800 on a D200.

Got some great driving action as seen below and then managed to be ready to leap when a streaker launced himself dangerously onto the circuit. Because of the mud all over him it took a little while for the officials to even notice him and stop the race

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Well, thats about it. Hopefully getting the Nikon D700 shortly so no more noisy iso800. Can't wait!! Oh yeah, here is the streaker!! I blurred his bits out to make it safe for everyone!!

Young Professionals Cocktail Party 2008

Well, It's been a little leave of absence from blogging for a while. Reason has been the Wedding season was massive and I have been working so hard getting those delivered blogging has been about priority 265.

Last weekend we were a supporting sponsor at the Young Professionals Coacktail Party 2008. It's our 3rd year in a row at this event and we had fantastic time. The YPCP08 is a celebration of opportunity for young people in Darwin and the rest of the Northern Territory. Mostly though its a huge piss up where many of the young professionals of Darwin get together and let their hair down.


We shot our photos a couple of ways through the night. Roaming crowd shots with on camera SB-900 action, using bounce whenever possible and we also took the trusty backdrop. We had 2 SB-800s with shoot through umbrellas at the backdrop. When someone wanted a backdrop shot we would just set our SB-900's from 'On' to 'Master' and they would trigger the SB-800's perfectly each time. Gotta love the Nikon CLS. When your working a crowd and 2 photographers both need to quickly go from Backdrop to Roaming mode frequently through the night this setup couldn't be simpler. Couldn't have done without the switch so handy on the SB-900. Good job Nikon!!


We had an amazing night, met some awesome people and then kicked onto the after party and a Monsoons in Mitchell St.

To see all the shots from the night head here.

Maybe we'll see you there in 2009!!

SB-900 Nutz

Just got my SB-900 today in the post. Already fired a few shots with it and compared to the SB-800 I am impressed. Quiet and effortless were my first two thoughts. Daniel and I ordered one each, mostly to use as a master for slaving our SB-800's but I have high hopes for a lot more than that now.

Once I have had a chance to play some more and use it both as a master and off camera I will post some more on the Nikon SB-900 as well as some shots.

Great Location

Congratulations to Josh and Sandra who were married yesterday (16 Aug 08) at the Darwin Ski Club. As far as a Wedding Venue goes it has certainly picked up this year. Josh and Sandra have been together for a while and already have one little girl with a new baby on the way.

The ceremony was lovely and a few teary moments when Sophie Lee got a little stage fright in front of 120 people. After the ceremony we took a few shots at the Botanical Gardens which had been closed down to traffic due to the Darwin Festival but we pushed our way past security and got in anyway.

This photo was taken with an off camera (camera right) SB-800 shot through an umbrella. Because of the wind we had Ashleigh hold the stand. The only problems with these umbrellas is they tend to catch the slightest breeze. The shot was triggered using the Nikon CLS and worked a treat until all of the sudden the master stopped triggering the slave. We swapped out the master for another SB-800 and kept shooting. (Gotta have a backup) Will have to perform some diags on that SB-800. We've also decided to buy a few SB-900's as Master units. SB-800 is just too clumbsy when it comes to adjusting remote settings. Anyway here is the shot. We tried some other stuff I may post later down the track.

The advantage of shooting the sunset shots so close to the reception is we were able to get back for the cake cutting and still take advantage of the after glow, which nearly always is prettier than the sunset itself.

iPhone 3G

I can't believe Strobist beat me to this because I had been thinking about this blog all week. You can find his here but it only covered some of the photographic uses briefly. I also won't post a picture of it just yet so if you haven't seen it you can check here.

Well, I have had these type of phones before. They supposedly do everything but usually very poorly. Touch screens are flaky at best and require realignment, plus that stylus thing. Not the iPhone, it just seems to work and it has changed some long time 'set in stone' perceptions for me.

Perception 1 - I just couldn't bring myself to use apple products. I have seen them before, and I have used them before but in setting up my iPhone to sync with iTunes (wireless encryption & iTunes remote) it just worked. No dodgy failures or unexplained lock ups. It was the easiest device I have ever connected to my PC. YES PC. It has got me think, what else does apple do so well. And I know I am not the first person I know to start to think this way after using the iPhone for a while.

Perception 2 - Email syncing to your phone is not for real. It sometimes works and your constantly out of sync. Well, not so far. I have my iPhone setup to sync with our PureArte Exchange Server and it syncs within seconds of a change being made through my outlook client. The same whether its email, contacts or calendar. Admittedly some of the functionality isn't in the iPhone, but if I invite an attendee to a meeting on outlook my iPhone certainly understands and any updates I do on the iPhone are sent out. Assign a photo to your contact on iPhone and see it appear synced in Outlook in no time flat.

Perception 3 - Touchscreens are crap. Unreliable and definately a technology in need of dev. Any crap on the screen makes it unusable. Again, not the iPhone. The touch screen combined with the video transitions makes the phone almost relaxing to use. I often pick it up and flick just to enjoy the interface. No complaints from me!!

I bought the phone for 3 reasons (4 if you include making phone calls but I expect any phone should have that sorted) and they are the portable portfolio, the iPod (podcasts and music) and the email syncing. Any photographer running a business doesn't like to be tied to their computer. Now I can reply to important emails if required, get my reminders, stay organised and SHOOT!

This phone does all these things very well, and a whole range of other useful but not essential functions which make shooting easier. Weather, Sunset Info (Thanks to photocalc $3.99 in Aus) Maps for finding clients and for Notes for scratching any thought or idea I have at the time.

Wrap up!! I bought this phone because I am a gadget guy. I buy things to fulfill a need in me to own flash and shiny (and expensive which this is not ) gadgets. I had no idea how easily it would integrate into what I do and then change it for the better. This is a tool. When I find a tool like this, like my pocketwizards, like my Nikon gear, that just works and enables me to apply myself even better that gets me excited.

My final tip!! I love this one. If your like me you give out business cards all of the time. Hopefully people hang on to them, but I know many people put them through the wash, lose them or file them somewhere safe never to see the light of day again. What I like to do is this. Once you've chatted, grab their email address and email them a business card, online, on the spot. You now have their contact details to follow up, and next time they sit down in front of the computer they will see your personalised business card reminding them of your conversation, and what you can do for them. You've just had a chance to make 2 impressions instead of one. Still carry a card or two just incase. Good luck.

Date with History

Congratulations to Michael and Mel who got married at East Point (technically Dudley Point) on the 08/08/2008. A lot of Weddings in town on that date. Very busy for a Friday. We didn't have a lot of locations mostly because the ceremony started an hour before sunset and of course the Bride was traditionally late. We did have heaps of group shots so nothing really out there amongst these photos so since I have never posted a Marriage Certificate signing before here it is.



This was the tallest Groom I have ever photographed. We did our best to hide it in all the photos. He is around 6ft 6in which is only a guestimate because we didn't ask him how tall he is. Figured he probably gets it all the time. It was a lovely ceremony and reception and the first Wedding I can remember in ages where my feet weren't shot at the end. Ashleigh assisted marvelously again and Daniel starred on with a whole heap of his specialty sunset shots.

Christian's First Birthday

Well, this is a first for me. I have NEVER photographed a child's first birthday party before, except maybe my own little girls. I have plenty of experience in general with kids. Kids are the Achilles heel for some photographers but I don't mind photographing cute kids.

This birthday was held at the Timorese/Chinese Association and wasn't the regular party I am used to. There were around 350 guests, and it was held late at night. I didn't arrive until 8pm. Wow. My little girl was going to bed and I was off to hopefully find some chirpy kids younger than her.

It was quite an entertaining night, with a bar, plenty of food and a live band all for little Christian and his family. His slightly older brother Jordan was there too. Their parents Jose and Valentina were so proud. It was great.

Here is a picture of Christian with his Dad, using an SB-800 and shoot through an umbrella on a portable stand. Only one light was used for all these photos so it's easy to get a feel where the light was. It was triggered using another SB-800 on camera as the master. Fairly safe an reliable technique inside and at night. I had only one flash failure all night. Pretty happy.



The little guy was just waking up when I took this. Poor fella. The second shot is of Christian's older brother Jordan, who like his brother is wearing his little sailor suit. Very cute.



This last photos is just of some random kid cruising around at the party. He is a cute little fella and had this facial expression like that caught me. He had balloons, food, music but still he looks just so sad. It's gorgeous.


Took a HUGE number of photos over the 2 hours I was there, but these were my favourite 3 and I probably could have stretched the list to a few more but since you weren't there you probably aren't interested anyway.