Better Homes and Gardens Shoot

On Monday the 28th July 2008 I had the pleasure of shooting stills for the Channel 7 program Better Homes and Gardens. The spring special segment features Joh Griggs and Graham Ross. It was a great experience to watch the filming and talk about a great bunch of people. Joh and Graham were a pleasure to photograph and talk to.

Please note that this image is copyrighted and owned by Channel 7 and any use is unauthorised.

Kulnura, NSW

When on my way to a commercial shoot I spotted this location on the side of the road and once I was done I stopped and took a few sequences of shots and this one was my favorite. This will be a great spot when all the leaves start to come back or in Autumn when they loose them. I will be back for sure.

This would be a great location for a model shoot. Just got to find me a model.

5 image stitch at 24mm.

What a day… Freshwater Beach

Today – Sunday 27th of July 2008 – I was doing a one on one course with a couple and the day started nice and sunny. About 3.30pm this storm started to roll in. In 9 years of shooting landscapes I have never been able to be in a position to see a sight like this unveil before me and it was an amazing sight. We left the beach just in time and boy did it bucket down in rain and hail. This storm made the 6pm news.

This shot is 8 images shot at 24mm and covers about 270 degree view of Freshwater Beach on the Northern Beaches. Crazy stuff. Also shot it on slide.

New Arrivals

In the wee hours of the 10th of July 2008 my partner Kelly and I became the proud parents of twins. My daughter Lily Alison Lauder was first and soon after my son Christian James Lauder.

It was an amazing experience standing there in the delivery room watching your children being born. Almost two weeks on from the day we are still finding our feet and getting to know their perks and quirks.

Below is Lily on the left and Christian on the right. They are about an hour old in this shot.

Moon Halo

About 11pm the other night I went out the back of my house with our two dogs. It was hard to miss this sight in the sky directly above me. A huge halo around the moon. I grabbed my camera gear and at 24mm I was just able to squeeze the whole shot in. (really wish I had the 16-35mm lens).

After shooting it I did a bit of a search on google and I found out this is a fairly common affair and occurs when high thin cloud containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each crystal acts like a miniature lens. Because most of the crystals have a similar elongated hexagonal shape, light entering one crystal face and exiting through the opposing face refracts 22 degrees, which corresponds to the radius of the moon halo.

The small white dot at the top of the halo is a star.

Soldiers Beach, Central Coast, NSW

On this morning I shot this sequence of shots and then when the sun breached the horizon I walked across rocks to another area to take advantage of the new light. Because it wasnt far I just picked up my tripod (camera, head still attached) and walked. When I walked down a slight slope I failed to see it was covered in slippery slime and I slipped over and came crashing down. My knees took a bounding but my camera was perfect… god it hurt but it would have hurt more to see me camera gear damaged.