Another shot of a commercial photography job i did late last year for Deltaforce Paintballing in Baldivis, south of Perth. This shot was also taken on the Canon 5D II with my 14mm F2.8 EX Sigma aspherical fisheye.  This is an amazing piece of glass and has paid the $1,400 price tag many times over. 

With this shot i would of been no more than 30cm away from the closest person. I originally bought this lens taking landscapes though with the development and improvement of stitching software i now use this lens mostly for close-up wide angle shots.  Most of my landscapes now seem to be stitches of my 28mm lens.

If you're looking for any action or sport photography in the Perth area don't hesitate to contact me for an obligation free quote.

I have been sifting through a backlog of commercial photography jobs completed over the past year and wanted to post a couple to my photography blog.  While travel and landscape photography is certainly my passion, commercial photography pays the bills.

My question to photographers is, what criteria does a commercial job need to satisfy you creatively as well as financially. Secondly where does the satisfaction/financial line fall with most projects? 

Late last year i did a commercial job for Delta Force Paintballing down in Baldivis, South of Perth.  Having never shot paintballing before presented me with a few challenges but i was wrapped with the results.  Unfortunately i can't publish the majority of the shots as they are going to be released over coming months and they maximum exposure and wow factor.

I have to say of all the places that I've been paintballing in Perth, Deltaforce (At Bonneys Water Ski Park) blows its compeditors away with the facilities and courses they have.  If you're looking for a event to take your staff or host a bucks party...This is the place. I'll try and post a few more pics over the coming weeks but for now I'll let you stare down the barrel of a gun.

Round 13 of the WAFL saw the East Fremantle Sharks take on the Perth demons who after a stretch of great form came into the game with considerable confidence.  The game was an arm wrestle throughout the match with neither side being able to gain ascendancy until the fourth quarter when the East Fremantle Sharks turned a 3 point defecit into a 6 goal to 2 final quarter to run away with the game finishing 85-68.

Reece Palmer did his chances of being recalled to the Fremantle Doclers no harm with a tireless display through four quarters gathering 34 touches while former West Coast Eagle & Western Bulldog Andew McDougall impressed for the visitors.

Sports photography in varying lighting conditions can be difficult.  At East Fremantle Oval the best place to photograph from is near the large Grand-Stand as the sun is always behind you ensuring you don't get any lens flare and players faces are in sun not shadow when running towards the camera.  However this same grandstand starts to cause a large shadow over the field in the third and fourth quarters.  This means that my daylight light balance needs to change to cloudy white balance to account for the change in light temperature.  I prefer to do this manually rather than set to AUTO as i keep more control over the colour tones of the final image.

In a perfect world lighting conditions for sports photography would be for a "bright" overcast day.  A thin layer of evenly dispersed cloud ensures that you won't have to worry about harsh shadows in faces or bodies and enable consistent shutterspeed and exposure values.  My preference is for over exposing by 1/3 of a stop to get detail in the shadow parts of the image then bring back the highlights from my RAW (.CR2) file in Photoshop CS5.  If lighting conditions are consistant through the game i can then batch process the images to quickly apply pre-set RAW profiles and watermark's to all images.

Another Monday, Foundation day public holiday another classic Fremantle WAFL Derby. After taking the honours on their home ground, the South Fremantle Bulldogs came in wanting to make it two in a row over their arch rivals.
Meanwhile the East Fremantle Sharks, winners of 5 straight games including upset wins over the undefeated West Perth Falcons were confident of continuing their strong vein of form.

The game ended up being a classic arm wrestle with the visitors over running the Sharks in the last quarter to win: 88 - 71. Theo Adams was dominant throughout the game to finish with 32 touches while Ryan Cook worked tirelessly for his 30 touches.

For the East Fremantle Sharks, Rory O'Brien and Koby Stevens were impressive in the middle with 32 and 31 touches respectively. In the end the Sharks needed more help on the scoreboard with Brock O'Brien kicking 7 of the Sharks 11 goals.

Next week sees the Sharks given a solid opportunity to rebound with another home match against the much improved Perth Demons while the Bulldogs also have a home fixture over the struggling Swan Districts.

You can view the full gallery of the Foundation Day Derby here.