Faces and Places

Hum(mer) a Birthday Song

2009-05-10T15:09:00.004+10:00

Around eighty guests joined twins Maria and Nicole for their 30th birthday bash at Rattlers in South Yarra on Saturday night. The venue looked superb in pink and chocolate and we took around 500 photos on the night.

The girls arrived in a pink s t r e t c h Hummer - I couldn't quite believe it when the driver pulled up on the other side of the street and the girls had to negotiate busy Toorak Road to get to the party! We missed out on what would have been a nice shot of the Hummer in front of Rattlers. You can see the photos we took here.

Matt and Daniele

2009-05-09T01:23:00.003+10:00

Matt and Daniele got married on Sunday last at the Wooling Hill Memorial Garden at New Gisborne, with their reception at Roomba's, right next door.

We had a bit of fun with Daniele and her sister Michelle during the pre-ceremony photos.

It was a great wedding and the courtyard out the back of the venue was a lovely place for the family group photos.

Together, we do better . . .

2009-04-25T23:09:00.005+10:00

It's been a real pleasure this week to photograph the annual Disability Professionals Victoria conference.

This is my fourth year photographing the conference and the 2009 event didn't disappoint. The Sebel is a great venue (if a little hard to get to in the morning peak hour) with great facilities and staff.

But the best part about the conference are the inspirational sessions. People like Anna Healey and Don Elgin have amazing stories.

This year the conference opted for a paperless conference pack - all the conference papers and promotional material were contained on a usb drive that flipped out of a plastic card the size of a credit card. Funny man, Rod Quantock, the MC of the conference, gives a demonstration of downloading from the usb drive by sticking it in his ear.

You can see photos of the conference here.

Federation Square

2009-03-29T00:45:00.003+11:00

I have been to Federation Square twice this week. The first occasion was to photograph the launch of National Disability Services' Disability Safe program.

The second visit was to get some photos of Erick Fackert.

Erich is the current artistic director of the Melbourne City Opera. But he returns to Germany in a couple of days and parts company with the MCO.

The photos were used in a poster to celebrate Erich's last performance with the Melbourne City Opera.

Just an update

2009-03-27T15:54:00.005+11:00

If you follow this blog you'll know the updates are quite occasional! It's been around four months since I made the effort.

For the record:

December 2008 was very busy with the CPCA photos and then a fantastic Indian wedding which was a ball. A couple of corporate Christmas parties rounded out the month (the funtastic party was good fun!).

January 2009 was a good start to the year with a photoshoot for High Ideals and a wedding with Brad and Kylie. The High Ideals photoshoot was a to get some images for their website etc - High Ideals is maybe best described as an industry association but it's not restricted to one industry, it's an association of like minded people intent on providing the best for their clients.

I used the shoot as a training vehicle for my good friend Mel Norris who was down from Queensland getting some experience. I spent some time working on some ideas to make the images a little different from the usual three quarters front - do you like the "logo on a clear sheet" idea?

February saw us off to Bangladesh and India for five weeks - a great experience. Mel looked after Photoeventz while I was away and did a fantastic job. We did some prior training before I left but you never allow enough time for this sort of thing and it was great to come home to a clean desk. Mel shot an event for Austrian Airlines in Sydney and Melbourne while I was away. I took the Canon 5d Mark II to the sub-continent and it now looks well used!

March has been good with an engagement party that became a wedding, a great night for Thai Airways and an MFAA race night at Moonee Valley plus a program launch for National Disability Services.

The "to do" list hasn't got any shorter. Plenty of plans for new things in 2009, just need to make some time to achieve them. Heading off to Tasmania at Easter - the rest of April is blocked out and May is very busy, so we are having plenty of fun.

Art for company sake . . .

2008-11-18T10:22:00.002+11:00

Annecto celebrated their establishment of an office in Coburg yesterday. Local member Kelvin Thomson gave a speech and annecto representatives Ed Sill and Lando Antonelli talked about their community initiatives in the area.

Annecto's mission is to assist people who have a disability or who are disadvantaged and older persons and carers to achieve their goals and enable better lifestyles. One way to establish links within communities is to foster programs that include people like choirs and art groups. These are great ways to bring people together for a few hours each week and to give them a sense of belonging.

The photo above shows Tiziana Contu who volunteered her talent to help a group at the Coburg facility to realise a large wall mural. It certainly brightens up the venue.

Spring (Carnival) is over

2008-11-12T00:47:00.005+11:00

The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival is over and The Cup has a new (long shot) owner. I photographed some different awards last night with some 300 FINSIA (Financial Services Institute of Australasia) graduates stepping up at a ceremony at The Grand Hyatt. Pictured is Kevin Saunders who took away a stack of awards. We'll we sure need his expertise over the next few years to get the economy going again.

Talking to my computer guy Sam up Sydney Road this morning and he tells me that people have stopped spending - they are frightened of what lies ahead and prefer to keep their money in their pocket at the moment. I wish! I upgraded a couple of hard-drives into a server configuration last week at not an inconsiderable expense, and invested in a new dye-sub printer. So I'm on rations until Christmas.

Photographed the EW Tipping Foundation AGM tonight - it is exciting to see the talent and dedication that is in these organisations that provide services for members of our community that need support.

Brother with a Geisha theme . . .

2008-10-30T23:45:00.002+11:00

The Melbourne leg of the Brother Roadshow happened on the banks of the Albert Park lake this year with a Geisha theme. There was certainly no "economic gloom" with some 300 keen to see the new Brother products (from sewing to labelling machines with a new multi-function printer with A3 capability the star of the event). Plenty of social happenings with cocktail mixing, a mock Melbourne Cup race, a caricaturist, and games to play.

A couple of nights previously I photographed the punters at the Hardy Bros function to introduce the 2008 Melbourne Cup. There were plenty of people happy to grab a photo of themselves with the famous cup (we printed onsite) and make a $20 donation to the Leukaemia Foundation in the process.

And the weekend was busy with a 50th birthday party and a christening - who said a photographer's life isn't varied and interesting.

It's a great place in winter . . .

2008-10-22T21:10:00.002+11:00

Spent last week shooting the annual connective conference, this year at the Sheraton, Port Douglas. I had my head down most of the time shooting images during the conference and social events and producing dvds of the photos that were used as walk-ins to the conference sessions.

I did get the chance to walk on the beach (photo above) for a bit of relaxation after a hectic couple of days. Well, someone had to do it . . .

Throwing Stones

2008-10-06T00:42:00.004+11:00

Krystle and Brendon got married on Saturday and had an interesting variation to their wedding ceremony. The wedding was dockside (the reception was on board the cruise boat "Sea Melbourne"). They each had a rock (Krystle's was from her Dad's farm in Western New South Wales and Brendon had one from his family's home country, New Zealand) and they threw them into the water.

There is an ancient Latvian tradition which is often associated with weddings which involves the bride and groom writing their sins on rocks, then tossing the rocks into a body of water, allowing them to start afresh as it were. The practice of transferring a sin onto an object to be discarded is traditional to Eastern European folk remedies, which have a practice of transferring an illness onto an object and destroying it or throwing it away - thus destroying the illness.

We'll, the rock thing was quite cute don't you think? Because Brendon and Krystle were leaving on the boat straight after their ceremony, we did the photoshoot prior to the wedding. Spent an hour in their hotel room with the studio lights and then visited Hosier Lane and Fitzroy Gardens.

It's a small world . . .

2008-10-01T01:07:00.004+10:00

The wedding on Sunday was very happy - Sharon and Robby are a great couple. Loved the wedding cake which had caricatures of them both. Their reception at Ballara Receptions in Eltham looked like it would be a fun time. Ballara always impress with their decor and service and the grounds are picturesque.

One of the bridesmaids (pictured) was from Tasmania and it turns out that she lives in Cygnet where I once worked. And we have a mutual friend who still lives in the town.

Cute!

2008-09-28T09:42:00.003+10:00

I am having a busy week. Went to a two day Photoshop seminar early in the week and I've got two weddings this weekend.

This shot is from yesterday's wedding down at Rosebud. Heidi and Clint particularly wanted some great shots of the kids. This one was taken using a couple of studio lights. One to light the face and the other to give a bit of a glow to background. Then I've added a vignette.

I hope they will be pleased.

Sharon and Robert

2008-09-19T01:57:00.003+10:00

Caught up with Sharon and Rob this week to discuss plans for their wedding photography. Colours for the wedding are coffee and latte, with the ceremony at their church in Eltham and the reception at the nearby Ballara Receptions.

Ballara is a great venue with picturesque grounds featuring a lake and pagoda and plenty of photography opportunities.

Sharon and Rob's wedding invitation had a nice scalloped edge, so I featured this and their wedding colours in the design of their wedding website.

Goodluck guys.

Military Officers' Ball

2008-09-11T17:17:00.003+10:00

A great result at the weekend - the 600 plus guests at the Melbourne Military Officers' Ball raised $41,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We had three photographers at the ball and posted over 1000 images to the website on Sunday.

As well as table and dance-floor photos, the studio backdrop was a big hit with the availability of onsite prints. This is the third year we have done the ball - it's always a great night out and they come from all over Australia to attend.

Then on Monday a completely different task with the opening of the Victoria Grange Aged Care facility at Vermont South for Australian Unity.

Altered States

2008-08-29T11:16:00.002+10:00

The last three months have been very busy - never enough time to keep the blog up to date!

Some balls, weddings, a university awards night, a major project involving 36 theatre performances over four venues and some 20,000 images, several conferences, the Victorian leg of the National Small Business Awards, a Telstra awards night, and a year 12 formal have all kept the camera clicking.

This image is from the Telstra awards night - with a little help from a filter I'm playing with at the moment. So you might be saying "Ah, this is why this blog entry is titled Altered States" - but you would be wrong.

The title comes from another project I have had the pleasure of working on. An artist friend asked me to photograph some work she had prepared for an exhibition. The artwork wasn't complete in that she was going to add some text, but she wanted the images as a record before she added the text. The job was done and I got to thinking that the work could make an interesting screen based presentation. The exhibition is all about cross collaboration between artists, so the screen based experiment was appropriate. the art itself has as its influence the current drought. I hope you enjoy the movie:

Pssst . . . want a job?

2008-05-21T23:59:00.004+10:00

I don't actually talk with a lot of photographers but there are a couple that I share and bounce ideas with. And Pat in Brisbane refers his Melbourne enquiries to me. One such referral came a couple of days ago. A company was sponsoring an awards night and wanted a photographer to cover it.

As it happens, we were already booked for the date. However, the company was looking for a photographer to cover the event for nothing and make money by selling the photos afterwards around the tables at the function. Now, there are businesses that do this, and they regularly advertise for photographers.

My approach is different - I charge an attendance fee designed to cover my costs and then set up a website so the guests can view the photos and purchase any they like. The website also promotes the sponsor's involvement in the event with messages and logos - it's a great way to maximise the funds the company has spent in the sponsorship deal. The guests are happy - they don't get photographed while they are eating because we don't have to rush off to get the photos printed, they don't get pressured into purchasing a photo, they get to see all the photos of the event on the website, and there's no bun-fight at the end of the night trying to find your photo - it's a win-win situation.

Of course there is an attraction for the company to get something for nothing, but in my view, it's a little short-sighted. And of course there are non-profit organisations like schools and clubs that don't have the money to employ a professional photographer. And some people do like to take home a souvenir on the night, so I have been working! I'm about to launch the Photoeventz "Click to Print" service - onsite printing at events. I'll provide the service in conjunction with my mobile studio set-up. It's been a process getting it right, but after investigating and trialling a few different options, I'm satisfied that the set-up I have chosen will provide a good value package for my clients.

The past few weeks have been used for consolidation. I have had a number of albums to produce and the "Click to Print" service has taken some time to set up. June is going to be very busy with a ball, a major conference, a children's theatre group performance (some 3000 kids over four venues) and a couple of weddings.

20 20 [Vision]

2008-04-21T01:21:00.006+10:00

Tripped the light fantastic to Sydney last week to shoot the Connective conference. Fifty of their best contributors enjoyed a program that included a bridge climb, a harbour cruise, a great meal at the Italian Village restaurant and conference proceedings.

Bad weather didn't deter their enthusiasm. And it did rain during the bridge climb but everyone agreed it was an experience.

This weekend saw the Nation's best and finest gather in Canberra to set some 20 20 goals and aspirations. We'll a good broadband service would be great (I swapped over to ADSL2+ a couple of weeks ago and my connection has been up and down since) and maybe a couple of simple things like a common national driver's licence and a common set of road rules.

The images above are a good example of the power of my 400mm telephoto lens - the guys on the right are part of the group you can see climbing the right hand arch of the bridge.

2008 Marches On . . .

2008-04-03T00:25:00.002+11:00

And March was a busy month with a number of great weddings, a big conference at Telstra Dome and some portrait shoots.

Spiro and Rosey's wedding at the Greek Orthodox church in Lygon Street was a great traditional event, closely followed by Emma and Hayden's wedding (pictured above) in the mounting yard at Flemington. Kelly and Stuart chose a great venue for their Easter Sunday wedding at Lyrebird Falls in the Dandenongs. And there were some 450 guests who witnessed Jerry and Andrea's wedding at Laverton (and we were lucky with the weather with rain threatening for most of the day).

For the third year in a row I photographed the Disability Professionals Victoria annual conference. And it was nice to donate my time to the opening of the 'Stitches' art exhibition and sale that was staged by Oxfam. A few other little jobs made for a busy month.

Wedding Tram

2008-02-15T02:14:00.004+11:00

It was all aboard the wedding tram on Wednesday after Natasha and Ben's wedding. The ceremony was in the rose garden at the St Kilda Botanic Gardens. And then all the wedding party and guests walked down to Ackland Street to catch the No 96 and then the No 112 to eventually arrive at the reception venue, Belucci's Restaurant.

The tram driver of the 112 took it all in good spirit as I asked him to make an announcement on the tram's public address system congratulating Ben and Natasha , which brought a great cheer from all the passengers. And he waited while we got a few shots of the happy couple in front of the tram. As we did so, the restaurant tram passed on the other track (now there's a good idea for a reception venue!).

On the track . . .

2008-02-09T14:29:00.000+11:00

I spent last night at Moonee Valley racecourse photographing a Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia function in the Committee Room.

Great venue and a good night out. Luckily several of the MFAA members sponsored races and I got to get down to track level to see some of the action.

Here's the winning jockey Sebastian Murphy who rode Sooze to a win in the Romanis Cant Handicap. Sebastian is a leading apprentice.

Proceeds from the MFAA function were donated to the National Jockeys' Trust.

2008 Already

2008-01-29T12:31:00.000+11:00

2008 already and it is several months since my last posting to this blog - many things have happened that I should have recorded here; is it too late to make a New Year's resolution to update the blog on a more regular basis?

One of the highlights over the last few months was the Connective conference on Hamilton Island. My first visit and although I was busy behind the camera, I did get to see some of the sights when I followed the conference delegates on their buggy rally around the island.

Some great weddings, including Simone and David's at Summerfields.

Plenty of corporate Christmas parties in December including the IBM bash at The Trust Bar (I just checked the web gallery - very popular, over 1100 visitors in under two months) which had a 1920's theme. And the Funtastic Christmas party at Kobe Jones Restaurant at Docklands had a 1970's theme which was fun to photograph.

Anyway, it's now 2008. I have been developing a new digiwedding package which includes a small personal video player loaded up with a movie of the wedding photos - it's a great way to share your photos with anyone you meet (the player I am using has a built-in speaker). As well as the high rez images that I include with all my wedding packages, the digiwedding option will also include a disc of image files optimised for email and web posts.

February is going to be busy - I'll be away for part of the month with a major project in South Australia. March is going to be frantic with five weddings. 2008 is shaping up as a good year (already).

Catch-up

2007-10-30T00:38:00.000+11:00

October started with a major conference for the Cemeteries and Crematoria Association and stayed busy with weddings, an awards night, a golf day and a corporate promotion for Brother (printers) at Red Scooter. It was great to catch up with Carolyn and Shane (photographed their wedding a couple of years ago) to do a photo shoot with their new son, Mitchell.

The photo above is from the last wedding for the month for Melanie and Corey. Quite an interesting photo shoot following the wedding in Queens Park, Moonee Ponds with location photography in Hosier Lane and then at the Soda Rock Diner where we were serenaded by the resident band 'Sons of Elvis'. Melanie was a picture! She complimented the 50s theme for her wedding with a Marilyn Munroe look, and the bridesmaids wore black and red. The guys looked pretty good too. The full shoot is here.

So plenty of variety for the month and November looks just as busy with some interstate work thrown in.

Footscray Gardens

2007-09-24T22:51:00.000+10:00

Spent some time at Footscray Gardens yesterday while looking at some venues for Marcela and Guiseppe's wedding photos (they are getting married on December 1). Originally they were planning to have some photos in Queens Park at Moonee Ponds but after having a look at Footscray Gardens, we decided that was the place!

Last couple of weeks have been busy with the Melbourne Military Officers' Ball, a couple of weddings and a ballroom dancing exhibition. Caught up with Michael Johnson (who plays the harp) at one of the weddings - Michael is the resident harpist at the Melboune Botanic Gardens and a nice guy. He teams with Megan Kenny who plays the flute and it's great wedding music.

Weddings, parties, anything

2007-08-28T12:13:00.000+10:00

It has been a busy month. Started off with a shoot for Boost Baby Foods who were looking for the next baby face for their packaging (over 1200 baby face photos in three and a half hours), some weddings, a couple of corporate functions, some more linen product shots and a 21st birthday party which took me to the Bond Bar to see how the other half lives!

Yesterday had a little photoshoot with my granddaughter in the back yard. Shot RAW and converted some using Bibble and Sean Puckett's excellent plug-in to black and white. Printed the one above with excellent results, good blacks and a great tonal range.

Variety is the spice of life.

Sour Grapes

2007-07-24T00:28:00.001+10:00

A fun shot of the resident band at Witchmount Winery. The band is (inappropriately) called "The Sour Grapes" - besides the fact that their music is pretty smooth, the local drop ain't too bad either.

And the weather last Sunday was one out of the box for a Melbourne winter for Scott and Clare's wedding - bright sky and no wind made the lunchtime celebrations just perfect for the bride and groom. The cloudless sky played havoc with the contrast for the photos, but we got some nice shots to remember the day.

The winery is a bit of a favourite with Clare and Scott, so we spent some time in the barrel room!