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Recently i got down to photograph the South Fremantle Power Station.  Wow - What a sensory overload.  Wall to wall graffiti, every square inch of the ground covered in broken glass, spray cans everywhere...It was amazing.

I cant wait to go back.  I was so in awe of the place, i found myself just watching and exploring rather than just taking photographs.  I desperately need to go back soon and shoot the Heritage listed building again and focus on sections that i missed or take from another angle.

It wasn't until it was almost dark that my photography partner Leo and I discovered the staircase that took us to the upstairs section that opened up another range of stunning photo oportunites.

The photographs above have been processed using HDR (High Dynamic Range) overlaying three different exposures of the one setting to bring out such vibrant colours, intensity and  contrast.  After the RAW files have been HDR processed using photoshop CS5 the resulting 32bit images were then processed a second time using the Photomatix plugin filter which amplified the HDR result even more. 

The final stage was to convert the image to 16bit and then use the dodge and burn tool to create focus points in each of the images.

I think this building would be very intimidating and powerful in Black & White as well.  I need another trip down ASAP to re-shoot.  For a personal project this has been really rewarding and challenging shoot.  I still think I'm yet to get the best out of the building as far as graffiti and architectural photography goes.  As its really is one of the best places to photograph in Perth or even Western Australia.

This trip has tripped a switch within me and I'm keen to explore some of the other unused heritage listed building througho

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.

Fremantle and the Easter long weekend have become synonymous with the Fremantle Street Arts Festival and each year seems to get better and better. Since its foundation in 1998 it has become one of the best events on the arts calendar in Perth, Western Australia each year.

This year was perhaps the best yet with an array of street and performance artists from within Australia and overseas.  The quality of the performances these artists put out over the long weekend is nothing short of staggering.  Most seem to make "Busking" their full time jobs/careers and put in amazing shows that have the crowds in awe. 

Parts of Fremantle are blocked off to traffic (Including South Terrace) - The famous cappuccino strip becomes flooded with people and acts staggered throughout the four day festival. For myself some of the highlights this year included the USA Breakdancers from the Bronx, New York City who not only put on a dazzling acrobatic break dance performance, but also had the crowd in stitches with their unique brand of comedy and crowd participation.

Darien Le Page - Is an Australian Mime Artist who is simply incredible. He has an incredible ability to "converse" with his audience and his style of humor is a hit with the younger generation.

I also managed to catch the "Badpiper" and his energetic performance.  I have never seen anything like him before and it was impressive to see his unique fusion and interpretation of popular rock songs through a set of bagpipes.

Finally thanks should go out to the City of Fremantle for another world class festival. Bring on the Fremantle Street Art  2012. 

RAW - Is an informative blog website run by Perth based professional photographer Tristan Judd.  A couple of weeks ago Tristan put the word out of an exciting competition based around the name of his website "RAW".  The concept was staggeringly simple.  The execution of the task...challenging.

Simply supply an out of camera image and the same image after post processing...simple right? To make the challenge all the more enticing there are some awesome camera bags up for grabs from Thinktank Photo. Check out Tristans review here.

So after deliberating for far too long what do i enter, how much post processing should i do. I ended up with the image above.  I wanted to take something new for the photography competition as i get bored of my photos very quickly, and i believe my best photo will be my next one.

It was Good Friday when i went for my first visit to the derelict and abandoned Power Station for the first time.  Such an incredible building to photograph in terms of its heritage listed architecture and then the abundance of graffiti throughout.  The challenge artistically was to find  a focal point in a landscape that was covered in glass and graffiti. 
It was so visually busy it was almost distracting.  Technically the biggest challenge i faced was the enormous range of stops between shadows and highlights.

I was pretty happy with this final image and i still cant decide if i prefer it in colour or black and white, though i've choosen the colour option to highlight the difference after post production in photoshop.  Regardless of the result of the competition it got me thinking about photography in a new way so its been a really enjoyable challenge.

The RAW photo blog by Tristan Judd is full of reviews and interviews and i was fortunate to be one of the first interviewed several months ago.  You can read my interview here.

Finally as a side note, does anyone recognise the "Monster Image" on the left.  It is none other than the internationally famous "Beastman" - Brad Eastman.  I love his style and iconic images that can be found scattered throughout Australia.