A few weeks ago Perth was rocked by the news of yet another Shark attack this time at one of Perths most iconic tourist destinations, Cottesloe beach.  As the office is only minutes away and could hear the news and search helicopters overhead, i headed down with the camera unsure of what would be happening.

It surprised me as it seemed business as usual, though this was Bryn's bathers had been discovered at the bottom of the ocean (which would force the immediate closure of the beach).

This photograph is a 10 image stitch which has some nice cloud formations (perfect shark attack weather) as well as reflections of the sun bouncing of the glorious Indian ocean.  When you blow this image up you can see that below the Indiana Tearooms is closed off to police and there is both a helicopter and police boat within the scene.

The scene is nicely book-ended by the Tearooms and the boy gazing out to the ocean.

For those that have been on one of the Perth Photography Tours that i run through the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia you may recognise this location?  It's our meeting point at the Fremantle Town Hall.

From this point I take photography enthusiasts for a leisurely photo walk through Fremantle passing iconic locations such as the Fremantle Markets, Historic Wedding Wall, Limestone Tunnel under the Fremantle Round House as well as taking in the fabulous heritage listed architecture that dominates the "West End" of Fremantle.

Along the way I aim to teach a series of creative principles and elements of photography that participants are then challenged to achieve in small groups with their cameras.

As well as hopefully imparting some creative tips that customers can take away, I mix this with a series of technical points to encourage participants to go beyond the Auto mode on their DSLR or compact camera and start getting a greater understanding of the modes and capabilities of these cameras.

If you're interested in coming along for what i believe is Perth's best value photography course, tours run every Saturday morning all year round.

As mentioned earlier, the meeting point is at the Fremantle Town hall at 8.30am and finishes down at the Fremantle Harbour near Little Creatures Brewery, which can be a great place to unwind and discuss the mornings events.

Perth Photography Tours run for 3 hours and is limited to a maximum of 10 participants to ensure plenty of one on one tuition and opportunity to ask questions and feedback.  These tours are great value at just $99.00

Please click this link to take you straight to the online and secure booking form.

Just out of interest i'd love to hear peoples opinions on which composition they prefer out of the two photos above. 

This shot was taken in the picturesque mountain town of Dalat in the south of Vietnam. Having taken a scenic cable car voyage to the top of the mountain where the Buddhist Monasteries dotted the hillside I came across this couple having their wedding amongst the carefully sculpted gardens which were meticulously maintained by the monks that called this place home.   I wanted to test out some of the colour profiles that were pre-set as a test to using this filter to batch process a series of portrait shots for future photography shoots in Perth.  I thought this would be the perfect image to shoot as I wanted to test how the fine details in the white clothes of both the bride and groom held when the remaining colours were enhanced.  

Overall I found the highlights stayed together quite well and was able to boost the saturation of the green tones of the foliage both in the foreground and background of the key subject matter.  This plugin is very kind to skin tones and naturally smoothes out blemishes and softens the skins complexion subtly without over doing it and becoming a glamour style shot.  I can highly recommend “Portrature” as photoshop plugin or a stand alone program.  I also believe its available on Aperture as well.

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.

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Last weekend saw the East Fremantle Sharks overcome a 5 goal deficit at quarter time to eventually overrun the East Perth Royals in the final quarter. 

Sports photography offers a wide gamut of photographic opportunites if look at the game from a different angle.  Normally sports photographers are concerned with whats going on between the start and the end whistle on the pitch, court of field of play.  Its true that this offer great opportunities to capture athletes at the peak of physical activity, tackling, shooting, running in what ever the sport may be.  However if you confine youself to this your missing out on some great opportunities in other facets of the game.

One of my favourite places for excellent sports portrait photography is in the team huddles between quarters.  It's here where a lot of emotion can be picked up on the faces of players and in particular coaches.  In the photos above i have included a picture of both the East Perth Royals coach Tony Micale and the East Fremantle Sharks Coach Steve Malaxos. The photograph of the East Perth Royals huddle is taken by putting a fish eye lens on the top of my monopod and raising over the huddle on the timer setting.  I particularly like this shot with Tony looking towards the playing group and his players circled around him.

The photo if Steve Malaxos was taken with him addressing his troops at three quarter time just before the fightback to overrun the Royals in the last quarter.  In this shot Steve was adjusting the matchups on the whiteboard.  The intensity in his eyes makes for a strong "action" portrait.

Finally I also like to photograph the crowd if i get the opportunity in a match.  The shot of this passionate sharks fan is one of my favourites and i love his expression jumping out of his chair after another goal.