Great day for Mataatua Wharenui.

This little lass should be proud to be the chosen one to cross the threshold of the recently returned Mataatua Wharenui.

Shock for Effect

Accidents may be the least liked aspect of my job but I am glad to say the pics below are mealy part of a mock accident. This provides emergency service with essential training which you may say is obvious but what isn't is this whole exercise is designed to shock risky youth into understanding the potential results of there behavior.

It was all rather to realistic if you ask me.

Montys Revenge

Whakatane is an outdoors mans mecca so it makes perfect sense that there will be plenty of well attended and respected events that celebrate our unique environment.

Motys is a fantastic event and a joy to shoot.

Unfortunately not all photographers were able to enjoy that day as much as I did with this unlucky shooter stuck on the side of the road after attempting a U turn and this culvert kind of snuck up on him.

Kora Kora Kora

I loved this shot of Brad Kora, taken with nothing more than two remotely triggered flash guns. Kora is a name usually associated with music here is Whakatane with most of the family seemingly all blessed with the musical gene but music is not the only talent the Koras are recognised for. Brad runs a growing mixed martial arts Dojo and the cage (as per pic) is a new addition.




I am often surprised at how great and eye catching images can be created when we take the time to remove the flash from the camera. So if your looking to take your photography to the next level, spend some time trolling the net for some of the numerous strobist sites and then take your flash off the camera and play.

For those who want to know, there were two Nikon SB800s, 2m either side of brad just above eye height and against the cage shooting manual at 1/8th power. The camera used spot for the metering duties, 1/250ths, ISO 200, f3.2. The 50mm 1.8 lens was used here, a great little lens.

When $10.00 is not Enough.

Ones childhood is full of stories about dragons, trolls waiting under bridges to snatch the unwary, witches attempting to fatten up there captives to eat and ginger bread men roaming the countryside. Then we grow up and "hey, there just fairy tails", so as adults we carry on our merry way passing these stories on the younger generations with a degree on amusement.

UNTIL ONE DAY while out working, I come across this. Now even though every sense and experience tells you its there for someones amusement, everyone who approached this still stopped in there tracks, eyes betraying a fleeting moment of nervousness and a sideways glance under the bridge. Each step is lightly taken as we venture to the other side all the time reminding ourselves how stupid we are to be thinking like this.



I guess those fairy tails fed to us as children will always reside somewhere deep within us.
Sure was a laugh watching other grown adults letting there inner child pop to the surface just long enough for all seriously realise $10.00 is a joke. Surely there's a few zeros missing.

One Hoop 2 Far?

Sometimes we get invited to things we would otherwise never get to see. Here is a guy from Canada who is a traditional hoop dancer. Cant say I had ever heard of such a thing but hey, here on is. He was great with a max of 30 hoops hanging off him as he danced around for a group of delighted primary school kids.

Hot in 60seconds.

Well, a dull can turn at any moment. One minute your cleaning the dust off the back of the desk and counting the loose paper clips and the next there's smoke on the Horizon and your off like a rocket and today was no exception. Its important to be ready for anything, have the batteries charged, memory cards clear, and spares loaded into the bag just in case. The last thing a reporter wants is to wait for the photographer to get his stuff together when something happens.

I cant say I have ever had a desk job and would avoid one like the plague. I love what I do and to be able to work in such an unpredictable environment suits me down to the ground.

The above pics were from a car fire in an industrial scrap yard. I managed to get there before the fire service which was a bonus. Details are sketchy but it seems as though someone was cutting parts off the car when fuel ignited resulting in facial burns to the guys face.

Water Water Everywhere.

For those who don't live around here, we have had just a little bit of rain lately, not quite enough for a repeat of a few years ago to cause the destruction Matata suffered, but enough to mess things up a bit.

The unlucky owner of this Mobil servo has had a rather muddy beginning to his day twice in the last week. That's enough to really soil your mood.

Well, I guess she's going no where fast.

The water level may have dropped but this once sedate canal has caused more than a few headaches once logs block the water flow the water spews water and mud into surrounding properties with disastrous results.

All in a days work aye!! Looks to me like a vain attempt to improve drainage on King St.

Done it Again

Well I hear you say "how did you fair in the Community Newspaper Awards"? and my answer would be..... FANTASTIC. I scored the "Dick Graig Memorial Award" for best photographer for a second year running. I am stoked about that as I had thought there were a few gaps in my portfolio but it looks as though the judge still saw fit to pat me on the back.

Below is a small preview form my portfolio I submitted for the competition.

The Holiday Is Over.

Well it's been a while I know but have no fear, I have not disappeared into a sea of nothingness. There is a fair bit happening behind the scenes with a couple of projects requiring some thought and planning long before I get anywhere near the camera.

In the mean time for all those image starved readers, here is a few recent images captured while out and about during work hours.

This was a real challenge. These arrows travel at hundreds of feet per second so capturing it a just the right point of release required a shutter speed of 4000th/sec and quite a few frames before I got it right. For me its so important to have the image already captured in my mind long before arriving at the job. Be prepared to be flexible as nothing is ever exactly as you want it.

Photographing bands and live performances can be just magic.

Hard, gritty and an accountant. Great to see local business men getting down and dirty for charity.

If you have never been to a rodeo, please go. There a so many fantastic action pictures just waiting to be had. I get to do this stuff for a job. Not a day goes by without me thinking about how luck I am.

I have another photo shoot on the horizon involving a fantastic model, a rocking horse and ???, well you'll just have to watch this space.

The Game Is On.

Yes people, as mentioned before, my butt is in the hot seat so if my start to the new year is anything to go by, I'm in for a wild ride.

So I kicked things off with two biggies, the Summer X and the Opotiki Rodeo but hey, you've got to love it. The deafening noise, the chocking dust (finding its way into every unprotected camera part) the heaving crowds, it all make for a noisy, dirty series of fantastic pictures.

These are two events I love to cover and the crowds flock to them every year. Despite the extensive de-dusting exercise on all of my equipment and myself plus the sunburn, I get a kick out of checking out the pics on my PC and sharing the results.

The Temperatures Rising.

Well as you all may have heard, the Beacon is now minus another photographer leaving me here on my own. So far so good with only a couple of really insane days to deal with. This may be generally our slow period as far as news goes but the past two weeks has been the exception with 4 fires a couple of road crashes and a train derailment.











So I guess this will make for a rather interesting environment when this really hot up around here.
Its not going to be easy but am looking forward to the challenge.