Karmichael Hunt

Canon 1D Mark 3

24-70mm lens

100iso 250th/sec at f-13

Just this weekend I was asked by Australian, Queensland and Broncos player Karmichael for a nice shot in the studio with a white background. Very simple straight forward stuff for his upcoming web page. They have turned out ok considering they were a quick job and really great to work with.

Broncos

The Brisbane Broncos modeled their new strip they would wear for the Lance Armstrong charity Livestrong. I set up an Elinchrom Ranger pack with 2 lights to light it from both sides. The guys came out and I shot them as they lined up. The pic was run as a poster in the Courier Mail.

Sports Portraits

Canon Mark 3

24-70mm

Canon 580 flash for the lighting

I've been shooting the Queensland State of Origin team over the last 2 months during the Origin football series and have been shooting the normal boring stuff but on the odd rare occasion I have tried to get something a bit more interesting.

During a recent media day I shot a picture of Johnathan Thurston (second image) and just shot him up against a concrete wall. I just tried to make it look a bit more exciting with the shadow. Its nothing new but hey its a bit different. In the first image I walked into a storage room at the hotel there was nothing but a large mirror. With the team photo on the following day I asked to take the player Billy Slater into the nearby room for a photo op. I moved the mirror a little to one side and sat my Canon 580 flash on a chair to the left and took 4 frames before the player had decided that was enough. I like it because its different but feedback was not so positive. Each of these pics were taken in less than 2 minutes so the results are ok considering.

The Australian Backline

I last week had to shoot a portrait of the Australian Rugby League backline. Seven of Australia's best players for a front page photo for the Courier Mail. The whole team photo was being shot downstairs from the pool deck (which overlooked the city) of the hotel they were staying at. I got there half an hour early and setup my lights and postioned them ready for their arrival. As they have very short attention spans I knew it would be very quick shoot. After the team photo I hurried the guys into a lift to go upstairs. I put them in their spots for the pic (ideally I would have had them all lined up together with the city behind but it did not lend itself to a vertical shot aswell). I shot about 10-15 frames before the guys started to play up a bit and this meant of all the pics only 2-3 of the were any good. Its always a challenge shooting footy players but luckily it was well organised by the media guy and my journo. So in the end I was happy with the pic. I've done a bit of photoshop for fun but hink it came up ok.

Darren Lockyer

Canon 1D Mark 3
16-35mm lens

Thought I might put some info up about this shot as I keep getting emails about it and how it was shot. The image is of Australian Rugby League captain Darren Lockyer and he was nice enough to come into our office at the Courier Mail newspaper for the shoot.It took me a few months to organise a piece of toughened glass for him to stand on. Perspex was my first choice but really expensive and not in my budget. The glass was toughened and thicker than I needed but I wanted it strong. It was 1 metre x 1 metre square and 12mm thick or half an inch thick. I set up for the shoot on the roof of the office and used 4 saw horses to set the glass on. Each saw horse was about 1 and a half feet high. 1 horse on each side. this was very secure and stable but not as high as I would have liked. If done again I would want the level of the glass at least 3-4 feet high.Lighting was a little tricky. In lighting his feet I ran into the problem of reflection from the glass. To beat this I draped black velvet everywhere under the glass and poked an elinchom through a hole in the velvet off to the side. I then put a 1 metre square softbox at the glass level in front of him slightly tilted upwards. This worked well. Then finaly I simply squeezed between the sawhorses and poked my lens through the velvet to take the shot. See simple. Lots of fiddly work for this shot but it works well. The image was then cleaned up by a retoucher who did a sweet job.

Shadows

I have been doing a side project on shadows. I'm trying to keep them sports related. Here are a few of the shots so far. I'm aiming for about a dozen nice ones by years end.

Australian PGA

Here are some shots from the Australian PGA golf at Coolum at the Sunshine Coast. Most were shot on a 400mm 2.8 of a Canon Mark 3 and Mark 2n. Its my favorite sport to shoot next to rugby league. I like the idea of so many places to shoot around a course and you are not as pushed for time and deadlines so much. There is one hole on the course that has a group of kangaroos on it and as the crowd follows the group the roos hop out onto the fairway. Happens nealy every year. This year there was a stand off with golfer Peter Lonard and a small kangaroo. It provided a nice shot.
Geoff Ogilvy in action.
John Daly in action.
Geoff Ogilvy hits an iron shot with Mt Coolum in the background.

Jed Adcock

Just a random photo here of Brisbane Lions AFL player Jed Adcock I took this week. It was shot with an Elinchrom with a small softbox. I used my canon 1D Mark 3 and a 16-35 mm lens. It was quite a rushed shoot and only had him for about 2 minutes. I have done some desaturating in photoshop and some dodging and burning. Nothing to exciting but its a nice enough profile shot.

Water Drops

During a day at the races at Eagle Farm I was shooting pictures to illustrate the wet and rainy day. I had been shooting people with umbrella's and mud covered jockeys etc (all been done before). During the day I noticed the water drops on the rail so I went to get my macro lens from the media room and waited for the horses to come into the encloser.

The image as you see it is actually upside down. It was a little confusing with upside down horses so I rotated the image so the horses would be the right way up.

It got a cool run and was something totally different to normal.

Its always good to see stuff you think would not get run get used well.

Footy Training

This is a shot from last year of Brisbane Broncos captain Darren Lockyer during a team training session at Red Hill in Brisbane.

It was early in the morning and the light was pretty contrasty. There were lots of shadows from trees in the background which worked nicely for shots. Towards the end of the session darren started kicking towards the sun and with the right exposure I got a nice shot which works really well in black and white. The colours seemed to not cope to well with the blacks.

The story of the day was on another player so later that week I went and told the sports editor that I had a nice shot of the captain that they may like to use. It got a nice run on the back page of the paper. I like this shot and it shows a nice shot can pop up anywhere.

Mitchell Johnson

Another pic of a sports person I took a while back now but thought I might put it up here.

This is Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson. He was about to play his first test cricket match for Australia and I thought this may be a cool shot.

I got the idea after seeing something similar that was once done with a baseball player in the States and thought it may work well with the right subject. I waited about 6 months before I learned that Mitchell was to be picked in the team so I drew up a few idea's. After I put some idea's on paper I knew which direction to go in.

I contacted a cricket company (Gabba Cricket) and asked what the chances might be of them loaning me 1000 cricket balls. They were a bit unsure but they seemed to like the idea that I would be using there brand of balls. The day before the shoot they delivered me 1000 balls which were all packaged individually which there staff kindly unwrapped. I then had to create a pool style setup to hold all the balls. Under the balls I put some black velvet so gaps would not show up. I then got Mitchell to lay down in the balls which I simply covered him with. I then climbed a ladder and shot down on him with a 24-70 on my Canon 1D Mark 3. The shot was taken from a high ladder and only took about 5 minutes. Again this was a massive about of fiddly work but got a nice shot.

Joel Patfull

I took this shot of Brisbane Lions AFL player Joel Patfull at the Gabba Football Stadium in Brisbane.

I had three shots to do in about 5 minutes. I shot the first 2 images on the field and was after a slightly different shot. I took a softbox and a flash pack down the stairs of the tunnell which leads from the dressing rooms to the field. I told him to stand right in the middle and fired off about 8 frames before he had to take off to training.

I shot this with a 16-35 on a 1D Mark 3, 100 iso, 200th of a second at f11.

I have desaturated the walls and the sky slightly and have done a bit of dodging and burning. With the walls being concrete and the grey sky I did not have to desaturate much at all.