Damien Oliver

Damien Oliver is a well known jockey in the upper eschalons of the Australian Horse Racing arena. I recently had the chance to meet and photograph him for Settlers Run, a new Golf Club for whom I have become the photographer of choice. It seems Damien is quite the hand at a round of golf too!
Working quickly, I used off camera flash to simulate sunlight, seeing as there was little to be had. Nikon's I-TTL flash system is perfect for working quickly and effectively.

At the Nikon Launch

Nikon's first year of business as Nikon Australia has been a successful one with 30 percent growth of Nikon sales in Australia being recorded. That's a pretty good year!
To celebrate, Nikon hosted a wonderful evening at The Mint in Sydney. All my old friends and fellow editors and journalists were there and it was good to catch up with them all. My only problem was that the airline with which I had travelled from Rockhampton to Sydney had not sent my luggage with me so I had to resort to buying a clean shirt just to attend. While all were in suits and ties, I managed to get the time to buy a clean shirt and iron my jeans...I could have just said I was being Bohemian I suppose.The following day, my luggage having arrived, I wore a freshly pressed suit to the official launch of the Nikon D3 and D300. The launch was held at the Sydney Opera House and was again attended by fellow editors and journalists, photographers of note and many within the photo retail sector.
The D3 and D300 are incredible pieces of equipment. For the photographers present,nd a studio was established allowing all to prove for themselves what these cameras can do. A press conference was also held in which we journalists could field questions to the big wigs at Nikon. That was interesting to say the least, especially when the subject of Nikon software not being packaged with Nikon cameras came up...

Three well-known Australian photographers were interviewed, each of them having been given a fair time to use and test the cameras. Their comments were nothing but favourable, despite being given free reign about what they could say. The D3 was particularly favoured for its accurate metering and white balance and incredible detail and low noise in high ISO images. We saw for ourselves what a D3 rated at 6400 ISO could produce at a 20x30 inch enlargement! Compared to its Canon rival...well there just wasn't a comparison...Sorry.

Looks like I'll have to find a spare $6000 dollars...Yeah, right.

Rocky II is over

Well, Rocky II, the Rockhampton Workshops Extravaganza, is over. It was another successful event and I am hoping I can return again. There are some great people in Rockhampton - and for some reason they all love photography!

With the summer months approaching it will possibly be a little while before I am able to return - if they want me that is. But again, thanks to all for your attendance, and to Sharon Mahoney for once again doing a great job as my Rockhampton agent.

As images of the workshops get emailed to me, expect this post to change in appearance!

But, some comments so far are:

"Hi I am one of the crazy people from Rockhampton and I would like to thank you for your great effort in helping us with our pursuit to better photography, I have learnt more in one week-end than some will in a lifetime, my sisters wedding photos will now be amazing, Thanks hope to see you back here soon!"

"Hey Sheldon, (OK, so he spelled my name wrong..) I was at the sunrise session, really enjoyed it, learnt a lot. Can we perhaps have a section where we could share some of the photos we took? Would love to see some of the other people's shots and the model shots you took with the orange cellophane"

"Yes it is by popular demand!! We Rocky crew learnt sooooo much and had sooooo much fun on the previous seminar, that we just had to get you back. If anyone has the opportunity to attend any of his other future seminars; believe me you won't regret it!"

And! One for Sharon, my Rockhampton agent..

Hi Sharon

I didn’t get a chance yesterday to say thank you for taking the time to organise the courses. I had a great time, and like Shelton said you could spend every weekend learning about Photoshop and still not cover it all.
So thank you very much for bring this quality of teaching to Rockhampton.

Thank you all! How lovely of you! I am looking forward to returning in 2008!

An Annual Ritual

Every year for the past seventeen years or so (maybe more! I've lost count!) I have enjoyed the annual ritual of gettting together with my son and a group of close friends and heading off somewhere for four days of photography. We do this on Melbourne Cup Weekend. My friends are avid photographers, some of whom are professional but most of whom are keen amateurs. This year we chose the area of Portland, Victoria and drove home along the Great Ocean Road.For me, its a chance to enjoy the company of my fellow photophiles and to be with my son, to have some laughs and to just simply enjoy photography without any of the normal commercial pressures that are placed upon it. For me this is very important. To thrive, I need to continue to enjoy the art itself.It is just one of the ways I 'keep my eye in' and keep my heart beating alongside.I recommend it to all photographers as a ritual that is worth every endeavour. It keeps me in love with photography as something that brings joy, not just money. That is very important as one does beget the other.