Here are some BTS at taken by my phone and my assistant for the day Rob..a very hectic day with short time frames and full sunlight + really fast action is extremely hard to capture.

This is what the place looked like when we turned up at 8am. Amazing light..

One of the final images. Never underestimate the power of reflectors!!

13 of February 2007 i was found myself in Dresden Germany visiting my good friend Marian. Great city and really nice people. There is a lot of history here and a lot of stories. Really recommend visiting if your in Germany.

Not sure what this instrument is called but this guy was having a great time playing it for the people walking by.

Canon 5D, 70-200, 2.8. 2x 580 EX’s trigger by PW’s

This is one of my first really nice skating photos from this city. A triple kink. Pretty steep and small kinks but Patrick nailed it with style. I shot this from across the street while freezing my balls off. It was was coming into winter while i was there and really cold but no yet snowing.

14 of July 2007 i was travelling around Europe on a skate tour. One of the stops was Paris, France. In one of the many back ally’s around this awesome city we found this nice little bank to wall ride. One of the most stylish skaters i’ve ever shot Fabrice stepped up and we captured this.

Canon 5D, 70-200, 2.8. 2x 580 EX’s trigger by PW’s

Over the past 10 years of shooting rollerblading i’ve been using the triggers and receivers for my flashes without fail.

This is a photo from my trip to the states a few years ago using the old Plus 2 system. 2 AM on the border of Texas and Oklahoma. If i have a skater doing a rail with one chance to get a shot, i can’t risk getting a misfire or i will walk away with no shot which is not acceptable so when the new Mini and Flex came out a few years ago i really wanted to get them, not only for size but for the TTL capabilities. Pushing the shutter speed of flash photography past 250th of a second! well i’ve been chasing that black line for years now and here is my chance.

I haven’t had a great deal of time to test them out but late last year i did and here’s some results. I shoot scooters as an extension of my past 10 years of shooting rollerblading. These kids love what they do and push themselves in the same way i did as a kid so i tested out these fast shutter speeds. Here’s some results. Photo 1.

Hayden O’Conner, Power Slide

Here is the initial frame. We wanted to shoot a powerslide so we had this awesome snake track with a burm. Next we loaded up the burm with leaves to create an effect and build the action in the photo.

Settings, F4.5, 1/1000th of a second. 2 x 580Ex flashes with flexx’s on the left of frame, 1 x 580EX also on a flex’s from the right all on full power and all triggered by a mini on my Canon 5DMk2.

The Flex’s worked a treat in freezing the action. It also allowed me to shoot a shallow depth of field during the day. This spot was not in full sunlight which worked great as the faster you shoot, the more power you loose on the speedlights. Here’s a close up.

As you can tell the focus is not pin sharp due to the movement and exact time i shot the frame but for a magazine photo, this is fine. We got some great light on the leaves and they really pop with that separation of the shallow DOF.

Photo 2

Hayden O’Conner, Air

Settings, F4.5, 1/500th of a second. 2 x 580Ex flashes with flexx’s on the left of frame, 1 x 580EX also on a flex all triggered by a mini on my Canon 5DMk2.

This frame was taken just after the first one. I moved all my flashes just out of frame and pin pointed the exact spot he would tweak this air.

Again great DOF separation and enough light on Hayden for him to pop out of the back ground. He is the brightest object in the frame drawing your eye immediately to were it should be. There’s enough fill light to tell the story of where he came from, the peak of the action and where he’s going to land.

Here’s a close up on Hayden. Loving the shallow DOF.

In conclusion, they are working well. They do use a lot of power the faster you shoot as you have to have them on full power all the time so be prepared to go through the batteries but the results speaks for itself. I have been using the flex sock you get with the flex system to increase the range and decrease the misfires but with the latest firmware update, it seems to be working well.

Thanks for reading

Every monday on my blog i will show a travel photo from some of my journeys around the world including local spots in Australia like Darwin, Townsville, Brisbane and Alice Springs to overseas like Japan, London, Budapest, California, Vienna and the Netherlands. Anyway here’s the first post.

30 of May 2006 i travelled from Darwin to Airlie Beach via Alice Springs and Airs Rock.

A shot of me in front of the unlimited speed sign with a 1ltr NT beer and my skates. Check out the old on camera flash.

Kings Canyon is out there somewhere and it’s a great place to visit. We took a chopper ride to check all the falls but here is one from the top showing the overhang and shear rocks faces.

More posts every monday.

This time we had some problems like raining at 6am on the mountain on the day of the shoot. More on the later.

Here’s a preview of the front cover for now..

We spent 11hours on day one and 6 hours on day 2 shooting this machine. It’s a small machine but it has a few reflective panels and we had to light it accordingly. Large softbox overhead for a nice wash, 2 lights on umbrella’s for a white back round, Magnum head for a bit of separation from the top left, grid from top right to light a small important section at the back of the machine and last one was a fill softbox from the front left to bring up the shadows. A great challenge.

Environmental portrait for a safety induction brochure. Ashley wanted a nice clean back ground as the final product needed a explain all the gear he was wearing and what it does. We got him to stand on the little mound and shot from a low angle to maximise negative space. Magnum head as the key light and large softbox as a fill light. Fairly simple shot but getting out on these construction sites can take a while and you also have to have a white card and all the right PPE clothing.

We had a shoot with Australian idol singer James Johnston in the city. He wanted gritty laneway feel to the photos so they chose Burnett Lane. It offered a range of backdrops and small doorways we could use in a short period of time. Here’s Ashley and Michael from Full Frame going though some of the images Ashley just photographed.

After an hour of driving we made it to our second location. I’m not going to reveal where this is because the cops patrol it all the time but it is an amazing warehouse that was built and not finished. We could have spent all week shooting in this place but after being visited by 2 set’s of cops and the security guy after we had cleared it with the agent selling place, we only spent the day here. Below is another BTS photo of James busting out on his guitar. This was the only set Ashley photographed with his instrument.

I’ll try and get one or 2 images Ashley shot from this camera and post them on my blog so you can see how amazing this camera really is but for now i just have my BTS phone photos.

Thanks for reading

Here’s some screen grabs and the link to check out their individual profiles. http://www.broncos.com.au/cheerleaders.

You can check out our awesome video from the shoot here. http://www.daletravers.com/blog/?p=3232

This week I have had a few jobs pop up that i couldn’t cover and i have contacted various people I know on Facebook as up and coming photographers to either ask them to cover an event or come along to assist on a basic trial. I was thoroughly disappointed. I often hear about photographers always wanting jobs and wanting to make money from their passion but when I comes down to it ” Are you willing to work hard for it?” I can only come to the conclusion “NO” I’m sure this isn’t everyone but I’m hearing lots of no’s instead of yes’s so I guess it comes down to, what are you willing to do to become a photographer or work for a photographer? I’ll tell you about what I have done.

Here’s me assisting our photographer by holding a scrim overhead. We were shooting this photo for about 40mins at a water treatment plant. It was really hot and smelly but we needed the shot so we did whatever we could to get it.

My goal over the past 4 years is become a full time professional photographer. I have travelled the world shooting and was shooting photos for 13 years before that. Only in the past 4 years have I decided to dedicate my life to making it a profession. So, what do I do? Always say “YES” to everything. This means putting my life on hold, when I get a call from the photography company, no matter what it is I always go out of my way to change my plans and help out. I mean anything!!! Are you willing to do that? I quit my full time job and changed it to casual so I could say Yes to advancing my photography career. I bought a bigger car so i can bring all my gear so no photoshoot or assisting job was to big or small. I spent thousands of dollars getting my kit up to scratch so I could produce the quality that is needed for professional work. I spend every waking hour on the internet educating myself on better photography and photoshop practices. Again I ask the same question “What are you willing do to?”

I was chatting at work today with the photographer I assist with and our impression is that younger photographers seem to not want to work. Being a photographer is a great job but no means an easy one. I have arrived in my situation by doing just about any job for paying and for free over the years just because I love it. I don’t love working for free but sometimes doing a portfolio shoot can get a great contact that will get a huge paying job down the track so you gain skills by doing that non paying shoot and maybe a new client in the future.

This was a shoot for QUU Water. Ashley is sitting in dirty muddy water and i’m standing is really really deep mud. Not to glamourous.

We also came to conclusion that we are not going to chase people into this job. If we ask you for your help or cover a simple event or come along to help out, I’ll only ask once then I’ll move on. Getting into this industry is hard enough as it is, if you prove to us your keen and willing to say “yes” then there’s your foot in the door.

Thanks very much for reading my little article and if your willing to do just about anything to make your passion a full time paying job in Brisbane, then please leave a comment because right now I’m getting pretty pissed off with the “photographers” that are disappointing me.