Chopper and Classic Car show

Back in 2006 I travelled across the Princes Freeway to an industrial area of Hoppers Crossing, and the Bikie Gang hang-out hidden within. Not something I’d normally do but it’s the second time I’ve done such a thing in the name of rock and roll. I doubt too many bikies read my blog, but I’ll keep it nice all the same, as they can be a sensitive bunch.

My friends in the Deep Purple tribute band, Stormbringer, were engaged to perform at a Bike and Car show held by the Outlaws Gang. I went along to shoot them as well as the many hot (not in the ’stolen’ sense I hope) vehicles on display. A windy and overcast day brought excellent photograph conditions to capture the detail and immense attention given to these bikie’s babies. After a few hours of suspicious looks from some of them, they eventually softened up and enjoyed the attention I gave them once they realised I actually appreciated their work.

Check out the full set of images at my Snapshots gallery.

Bike and Classic Car Show 2006

Rock Gods II

December 13th, 2008 – Rock Gods II, live at the Gershwin Room, Espy Hotel, St Kilda.

The lineup was enticing – tributes to AC/DC, Kiss, Def Leppard, Van Halen & Skid Row. And with a Sammy Hagar tribute joining the expected David Lee Roth show I was genuinely chomping at the bit to see what quality would be paraded on stage.

I wasn’t disappointed. This was a fantastic night of showmanship, musicianship, and outright 80’s nostalgia, and I loved it!  With only one or two small issues – Def Repplica had an off night, possibly initiated by the fact that their opening track (Let It Go – my favourite!) was marred with no guitars in the house PA – I went home with a smile and 500-odd shots.

Thanks especially to Jason for his professionalism in not only performing with Van Hagar, but also stage managing the entire night and keeping every band to a very strict schedule. I know how difficult that task is.  Kudos to Enzo and Jim for their immense workload.  Jim drummed with X-Halen and played bass with Van Hagar.  Enzo seemed to be everywhere! He played the perfect Eddie Van Halen for both VH tributes, as well as pulling off a most credible Bruce Kulick in the Kiss “all-star” tribute.  The Kiss band was lead by “Paul” from Kisstroyer (well, I’m not sure if he’s still in the band or not) who seemed to be much more comfortable off the leash and without having to think about moves, makeup and a costume that must have been the largest Paul Stanley costume ever made.

After watching Enzo most of the night, I decided he looks more like Brian May on stage. I was also amazed at how far he has come since I first saw him jamming with In-Halen years ago when I was fooling around providing keys for those guys.  The guy plays like a freak, and looks so cool whilst doing it.

Following are a few of my choice images to wet your appetite for the rest of the gallery.

Skid Row Tribute – The lead singer was a female, which was more of a curiosity than anything else. She did a great job and entertained us well, but you can’t replace Sebastian Bach.

AC/DShe – The incomparable Josie Jason, my favourite Australian rock artist, was a surprise guest vocalist, stepping in for their regular female lead for the night.  As always Josie stole the show and had the crowd combining head-banging with hysterics for the entire set.   I knew she was struggling to remember all the lyrics so made sure she could read my lips throughout all my favourites.  Josie told me the following week she actually did just that at times.

Van Hagar - I was most interested in whether “Sammy” could really match the man himself. He could! From the opening electric drill of Poundcake, Enzo powered through the more polished era of VH and “Sammy” effortlessly covered the vocals.  When they finally played Dreams the crowd was in raptures, and I was truly impressed.  I’ll be seeing these guys again!
 
 
  
  

X-Halen – With Enzo still at the Eddie helm, and Jim back on drums, in strutted “Diamond Dave”.  Now that Enzo has mastered the VH chops, this was the best performance from these guys to date. It’s hard not to enjoy music this good when it’s played and performed this well.
 
 

Kiss Tribute – Enzo now shone as Bruce Kulick, and the crowd continued to grow and be satiated with many of the Kiss standards. Not a life-changing performance from these guys, but a helluva lot of fun all the same.
 
 
  

Def Repplica – The final act, and unlike their last gig which went very smoothly, this one was not so good. You win some, you lose some.
 
 

Go straight to the full Rock Gods II gallery here.

Photo Challenge 4 – Transition

I’m impressed! I honestly didn’t think the gang could keep it together for this many challenges, but to all of our credit we’re still moving forward. Not only that, but we’re expanding our numbers.  As of next challenge I am very pleased to announce a new contributor – Katiane Goes.

Katy lives in Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil.  Katy is a teacher, and a beach lover who lives 1300 km from the nearest beach.  She has an excellent photo collection on Flickr which I invite you to go check out now. Welcome aboard, Katy!

Transition can mean so many things to so many people. And therein lies the fun of asking four very different people to apply their creativity to this theme.

Steve’s submission:

My thoughts: I’m not sure I should go first this time, as I don’t think my photo is really indicative of my style, nor a particularly good shot.  However, it does show the constant cyclic transition that nature experiences. In this case an old tree comes to a possibly untimely demise at the hands of farmers, but way below the eyeline, as yet unnoticed, the tree’s offspring raises it’s youthful head ready to take up the challenge of survival.  Shot on the Canon 30D, 45mm, F22, 1/50, ISO 100. Primarily processed in Lightroom 2.1 and all the really tough stuff cleaned in Photoshop CS3.

Mat’s Submission:

My thoughts: Mat, this is a fantastic idea.  I really love what you’ve come up with.  Next step for you is to build your technical skills to allow you to present the very best version of your ideas that you can. Ken is the post-processing master, so go drop in on him unannounced, with a bottle of wine of course, and get him to give you the works. Your photos will love you for it, and the less creative of us (i.e. me) will be bowing in deference.

Mat says: I struggled to come up with an idea for this one. I had some thoughts about sunsets or nature scenes where one landscape transitioned into another one, eg grass to beach to sea, or field to freeway, or parkland to car park – but the very wet Melbourne weather this weekend made me somewhat disinclined to venture into the great outdoors.

So I ended up deciding that with every tick of the clock we are transitioning from one time into another. I used a 5 second exposure to capture 5 ticks in a fairly gloomy room, then I massaged the result with some of the filters in Lightroom and Paintshop Pro to give it a slightly more abstract and grainy feel. I wanted an old fashioned look which is offset by the word QUARTZ showing it is actually a modern clock – hence indicating a transition from the old clock-work world to our modern electronic one.

 

Ken’s Submission:

My thoughts: I think Ken might still be having trouble with my Aussie accent, because he’s given us “trainsition” instead. This image had me believing the trains were both moving, making me wonder how on earth he took the shot. I love the character and details in Ken’s images, so even when I’m through thinking about the life analogy delivered by the passing trains, I can analyse the rails and stones to see what I can find in there.

Ken says: I must say…I have struggled with this week’s theme!  I understand why Stephen chose it, but once again I did not want to entertain the obvious and therefore set out to find something left of field. 

Whilst shooting the various images to compile this particular shot, U2’s Running to Stand Still was drifting through my head. For me, this week at least, transition is a train wreck in the making… We sometimes struggle to transcend without tearing down everything and beginning again. With all our optimism we set out with the lesson previously learnt in an attempt to make the transition to a better, happier life… Our problem is that we never really apply what was learnt and fall desperately back onto the same ol’ twisted tracks. All the while it seems that everyone else is on the fast train…passing us by…getting somewhere… anywhere….or maybe we are all just running to stand still?

U2 – Running to Stand Still (first verse)

And so she woke up

Woke up from where she was lying still
Said I gotta do something about where we’re going
Step on a steam train
Step out of the driving rain
Maybe run from the darkness in the night

This was shot with my trusted Nikon D2X, Nikon 28-35mm f2.8 lens. (shot at f8 at about 1/300 , ISO 200) 

 

 

Joepi’s Submission:

My thoughts: I left the best for last. This is the most tangible and definable transition of all, and Joepi’s presentation of herself in this collage is a little self-deprecating, a trait Aussies love.  I’ll leave it to Joepi to explain the story behind the image.

Joepi says: I had no plans of actually sending this,but I did put the collage together for the challenge just for the giggles.

The transition from drab to fab is every girly-girl’s favorite activity. And every woman goes through these transitions at least once in their lifetime, others do it too often, others too little and most, like me, do it for fun (especially if it’s a free make over!) 

Next challenge:

The next challenge will be a little different but the theme is a tad obvious – “Christmas”.

This time I am not looking for abstract images or unusual interpretations, but rather something that represents your personal impression of or experience with this particular event.

“Christmas” should be submitted by Sunday December 28

I’d also like each of you (including Katy) to submit a theme idea, and I’ll randomly use one for each of the upcoming four challenges.

Travelling first class on an economy ticket

I met a real classy babe last night.  At first glance she seemed nothing more than gutter trash.  The signs all pointed to one thing – stay away.  Indications were that she was the sort of girl I’d only try out of morbid curiosity, or to remind myself of exactly how the other half lives.  However, it was a cold dark night, the rain was gusting up under my glasses, and what she offered was so irresistable at such a rock-bottom price that I thought I had nothing to lose.

Last night, I undressed her and sat her down next to my hot pizza.  She was flushed red with excitement at being given a chance, but I was still rather hesitant, even a little nervous.  It wasn’t until she put on her party dress and tiara that the truth was ultimately revealed.

I am, of course talking about a bottle of wine.
Now, take a very close look at the label.  Try to ignore the very distracting dress – yes I know, it’s up there with Chris Judd’s girlfriend’s 2004 Brownlow Medal dress.  Those of you possessing better than average wine knowledge will immediately consider four key pieces of information.

1. It’s an Australian wine from either the Barossa, Tasmania, or Victoria.  So, it’s very unlikely to be awful.
2. It’s a Shiraz Cabernet – the Great Australian Red.  This blend is surging locally, and as evidenced by a recent tasting I attended, with very good reason. The rich, juicy spice of shiraz tempered by a dry, refinement, teasing the delicate palates of real wine lovers.
3. It’s 2008.  This would indicate that it’s far too new to drink now.
4. It’s a cleanskin. This will tell you that it’s going to be cheap, but it could give mixed messages on quality.  Right now Australia is nearing the end of a massive wine glut, resulting in much premium wine having to be sold as cleanskins or house brands simply to retain the necessary smaller bottle runs of premium labels.  This means you are very likely to be drinking $15-$45 wine out of a $5-$10 cleanskin bottle.

The real reason I am writing a post about this wine is yet to come.  One of our bottle shop chains opened a new store about a month ago. As part of the opening specials they offered cases of this variety and a Chardonnay.  I bought a dozen of both because:

Each bottle was $2

So, what would you expect from such a new wine at such a low price?  BBQ fodder at best?  Can’t be worth cellaring because it wouldn’t age well?  Wrong on both counts.

I didn’t even bother to let this breath and took a gulp immediately my glass was ready.  And boy, was I in for a surprise! What my glass delivered was a wonderfully engineered blend of both grapes, starting with a smooth warmth on the back of my tongue that continued down the throat without burning anything along the way, and a gentle reminder at the front of my mouth that cabernet also lives here. With time that trademark plum shiraz sweetness grew until I wanted to take more into my mouth at each sip.  In no time at all the bottle was gone, and I was seriously considering opening a second even though it was after midnight and the movie had finished.

So the lesson for today is this.  If some cheap, trashy-looking girl gives you the eye whilst you’re treading the liquor store boards, don’t immediately dismiss her as somebody else’s troubles for the night.  Squint your eyes a little, try to imagine her in a party dress, and imagine the potential rewards you’ll reap if you treat her well.

I’ll be revisiting this little beauty a couple of times every year for the next five to see how she blossoms.

Tokyo by night

OK – what day is it? What city am I in? What haven’t I told you about yet?  Hmmm – I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, but I’m going to tell you a little about one of the best places to be at night – Tokyo. You saw Bladerunner, right?  Me too. And Tokyo really isn’t like that. But it is full of bright lights and amazing signage that just draws the eye in.  It’s full of people all night long.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

It’s full of homeless as well. But the homeless in Tokyo still show pride in themselves. They are organised and clean, keeping their belongings well maintained and compact within their chosen transportation cart.  They sleep on the streets under umbrellas, but they seem to be left alone and they seem to leave others alone. It’s a bit sad, but nowhere near as sad as how the poor and homeless live in every other country I’ve been to, including my own.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

I was always looking for rock venues.  I rarely found them, but when I did I stayed all night.  Shibuya is home to the coolest, all-English rock karaoke venue. Great stage, awesome sound, a lot of fun.  But it always closed early, so I would head into Roppongi to find the only real rock venues around.  A tiny little bar (might have been called Ruby Red?) run by an Australian or an American – can’t remember which – holds open mic nights each week. That got me closer to the real Japanese musician, barfly or someone else less easy to label.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

Once that placed shut (still before 1am) I headed back to Shinjuku for an all-night dose of “dial your own” metal.  In a bar that was two levels below the street, held about 7 people, and was almost completely black, you would use a pen torch to pick out artists you wanted to hear,

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

be given CDs to choose from, then ask the barmaid to play the tracks of your choice.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

You would then sit on your stool drinking your choice of Japanese beer, loving your musical choice being played at a clean and punchy 2000 decibels whilst trying to communicate with Japanese metalheads. So much fun, and just what I’d love to do more of at home. Any local metalheads want to come over on a regular basis and do just that?

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

The metal bar is open 24/7 but you have to get sleep eventually, so off I trudge back through the early dawn, hoping I can find my way back to the hotel. Along the way I see that McDonalds has become more than just a fast-food outlet, doubling as accommodation for weary travelers.

From Asia II – Tokyo by night

Oh Tokyo – I’d love you more if I knew I’d get more sleep whilst within your grasp…

Update – buying and using a DSLR for beginners

A little while ago I posted a link to a site providing some basic info for those making the transition into theworld of the Digital SLR (DSLR).

http://site.rockportrait.com.au/2008/08/27/upgrading-from-a-point-and-shoot-to-a-dslr/

Yesterday I stumbled on CNet’s much better version of this, so I’ve made it available to you all here.  The content that really stands out to me is the workflow section.  This is a critical component of digital photography yet few actually consider it so until after they enter chaos or panic stage.  Once you start creating and collecting all that digital data you really do need a time-effective, and safe means of managing and protecting it.  My own process took a while to put together, but works well. I use a number of products to make my life easy (see below), and I store my precious photos in four different locations – the process of which is fully automated. Seems like a lot of trouble? Maybe, but well worth it when the hard drive crashes (it will) or the house burns down (I hope it won’t, but it happens).

http://www.cnet.com.au/digitalcameras/cameras/0,239036184,240001942,00.htm?ocid=nl_w_01122008_fea_l1?omnRef=1337

Saves me having to go through it with you, although you know I love it
Please read through this, but if you still want a human being to help you with your questions about getting into the DSLR side of things, feel free to get in touch.

The main tools of my trade:

GretagMacbeth Display Calibrator – not the best available, but cheap, and if you are serious about making great shots you need to calibrate your monitor regularly.

BreezeSys Downloader Pro – I couldn’t live without this.  With very little input It allows me to create and populate all the backup locations I need, as well as add the EXIF data (image identification and copyright info) and rename and deliver all my images to my working directories.  It kicks in the moment my camera or card reader is detected by the computer.

BreezeSys Breezebrowser Pro – not critical, but a useful and rapid way of creating proofs. It will do a lot more, but I use Lightroom for my other image manipulation requirements.

Adobe Lightroom – The best thing for photographers since sliced cheese, and almost replaces Photoshop. An affordable way to manage and manipulate your images, including the output stages – web pages, printing, uploading, slideshows.  Supports plugins and extensions. The latest version lets you make locational changes like spot removal and specific exposure modifications without affecting the entire image.  Most of all I love the filter plugins – make’s black and white and wild effects so easy.

Google Picasa – Hey!  You other photographers out there, don’t laugh! For a free product this thing is amazingly good.  When it comes to my snapshots (you know, the non-pro stuff I’m sure you all do as well?) I want a really fast way of polishing my images and getting them online.  This does exactly that.  And don’t underestimate how good the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button is.  They’re a clever bunch those Googleheads.  And yes, I’m a fanboy.

Adobe Photoshop – The beeze neeze of photography tools, but becoming less relevant as Lightroom ramps up. Far too expensive for anyone but genuine pros, but also by far the best product out there to fully control your images.

Wacom Pen Tablet – Until you’ve used one of these you think the mouse is all you need. However, making accurate exposure changes, and drawing objects in and out of images is so much more natural with a pen tablet.

Syncback – Do you backup? I bet you don’t.  Hey, almost no-one does! In every job I’ve worked in the backup process wasn’t refined, and in some cases didn’t even exist, until after a disaster.  So – BACKUP!!!! OFTEN!!!  Syncback has a free version that does everything for you when you are asleep.

Filezilla FTP Client – Finally, you need a way to get your images online if you are running your own web server (easier than you might think). Why give your copyright away to Flickr, Myspace or Facebook? (Did you even know you were doing that?) Host your own images.  Use FTP to manage your site.

That’s all for today.  Have fun installing and playing with your new workflow management tools!

Photo Challenge 3 – Blue

Our previous challenge was potentially a little difficult for a bunch of busy bees (although everyone rose to the occasion), so this time it was back to basics – “blue”.

Steve’s submission:

My thoughts: Personally I found it very hard to decide which way to go. I’m a fan of the Carlton Football Club, AKA The Blues, so the obvious way to go was with them. Then I had an idea to create an abstract shot of a blue sequined glam top I have, using a technique called light painting. I keep telling people I am not really creative, and my dismal failure with this idea proved it at least to myself.  Perhaps it was too late at night and I was using the wrong torch, but either way I hated the results.  So in the end I have gone with an image of a little girl at a market stall in Sa Pa, Vietnam.  She was sitting there for a long time, looking just miserable. Granted she may have been asleep as Vietnamese girls do work very hard from a very young age. What I saw surrounding her were plenty of signs of a daily battle to simply keep starvation at bay, so I read her body language as being a combination of both weariness and misery – she’s blue on life.

Shot on a Panasonic FZ18 at 1/320sec, F4, ISO 200

Mat’s submission:

My thoughts: I love this mirror, and I love the idea. I’d prefer for Mat to be more heavily exposed in the mirror, but I do get a rather ethereal feel from it, which by the sounds of it was Mat’s intention. I don’t see his blue expression, but I can imagine it from the body language. Without explanation I am more likely to think it is just someone walking through the frame. With a longer exposure or wider aperture I could see the expression more clearly.  I’d also like to see the walls whitened using curves and colour balance.

Mat says: For this shot I used the theme in three ways. The blue frame on the mirror, my blue shirt and the somewhat blue expression on my face. I shot this in low light with a 30 second exposure giving me enough
time to walk into the shot and pose for a few seconds before walking out of the shot again to give my reflection a faded ghostly appearance. It took a few attempts before I got one that looked ok.

Joepi’s submission:

My thoughts: I really like this shot a lot.  The blue dress sets off the little girl’s carefree smile just perfectly.  Joepi has captured her in a position that shows vibrant movement, and I can imagine her skipping. I’m not at all distracted by the background, which makes the blue dress really stand out.  If I was going to be picky at all, and this really applies less to travel photography as we’re often documenting fleeting moments the best we can, I’d like to see the rest of her front foot and her bag and right hand not hidden by her dress.  A bit sharper in the face would be ideal too.  But at f1.8 from a moving tuk tuk she’s taken a great shot.

Joepi says: I was being carried around the city on a little bike tuktuk when I had a chance to take this shot. I like how her blue uniform just stood out amidst the gray city background, not to mention her smile as she realized my camera was pointing at her. It was quite a challenge to have a moving subject and me moving at the same time. After several clicks I was happy to have gotten a few good shots of this pretty little Vietnamese girl heading to school with a ruler in her pocket and her lunch in hand.

Next challenge: