Samba Australia

A rather wet and dreary Sunday afternoon saw me head out to a local beach hotel, to help a budding photographer out with a favour he had been asked to do.
Eduardo, my friend, had been asked by a friend of his - Vinnie - to come along and take some photos of their band. Ed and Vinnie are Brazilian, and the band was a samba band, playing traditional samba music. I'll admit, if given the choice, I'll pass on the opportunity of listening to samba, but the chance to take some photos after a draining and tiring weekend was too appealling to pass up.




A few of the photos are attached - the rest are going to be given to the band for their website and promotion. And what a bunch of guys - it's always a pleasure to photograph musicians who aren't just talented, but also whose passion, enthusiasm and fun is present during their performance.
They're playing again over the next few weeks - might just have to take MSO out so she can check them out too. It'd be wrong to keep something like this to myself.

WOOT!

WOOT: (sl., exclamation); to show exuberance or excitement, normally following the reception of good news.

OK, I made that up, but after receiving an email this afternoon I've been woot-ing continuously. The organisers of the KXAG Photographic Competition that I entered recently sent me an email informing me that my image Essential Animal had won the Peoples Choice Prize for best Image of the Cross 2009.

Noice.

So I'm happy - made a few dollars, people like my images, and as soon as I can figure out how to turn off the italics and MSO gets home to help me celebrate, my day will be complete. Cheers to everyone that voted, and especially to Animal for giving up his time to sit for me.

They might be right. It might be about who you know...

So a few weeks ago, I was busy at my non-photographic job, when who walks in but an ex-workmate from Nu Zild. I worked with 'The Missile' indirectly for a few years - he worked upstairs in the editorial department as a reporter, and I was entrenched downstairs working in advertising. We briefly caught up last year at a social function where over a few beers we swapped details and had a few laughs etc etc etc.
Now he's a managing editor for an independent publishing house - he's definitely made some headway from the days of reporting on provincial rugby matches. To cut a long story short, he contacts me about a breaking story - a 'maverick' has left an advertising agency he helped establish a few years ago, and is joining ranks with another agency. Other media think there's something happening but the Missile and his reporters have the exclusive story pretty much nailed down - all that requires is images to support the story.
So - I supplied two main images. One was shot on the roof of a local apartment block, and it was here that I found out about the Canon flash inconsistency in remote firing/IR trigger failure in direct sunlight. The problem was remedied by going old school - simply linking the off-camera main/master to the camera with a sync cord, and fingers crossed that the slaved skim flash would fire (which it did!). Second location was downstairs to the basement garage for a more grittier, underground vibe.
Quite happy with both shots, but prefer the underground option - and funnily enough the 'roof' option was printed on the front of the magazine. Still - The Missile and I have booked in another shoot for another issue, and if all goes well, this could be the foot in the door I was looking for...