Eating dust with Jez

My new blog

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:02:00 +0000

Yes I know it's been a while. But I have actually been really busy and have a new blog to tell you all about it. So please check out my new blog HERE>>>>>>

I'm not sure if i'll ever get my car clean again

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:01:00 +0000

Finally I have got to shoot Rally Australia a round of the World Rally Champion -ship. It was quite a surprise when somebody from the event rang me and asked why I had not applied for accreditation and would I be interested in doing photography for their media releases.

So just a few days later I was heading up to the Tweed Coast of New South Wales. Shakedown was awesome with a great jump and some nice sunshine. What a great start to the weekend. Although I'm not sure if i'll ever get my car clean again and that is dust not snow!

I then had a job to shoot 3 of the drivers from the Production Car World Rally Champion -ship, 2009 champion Czech Martin Prokop, Norwegian Eyvind Brynildsen and Bernado Sousa from Portugal for a media release for the WRC's PR company. They were to meet Ironman Dwayne Thuys and have a go at surf skiing and surfing. All 3 guys really entered the spirit of things and I got some great shots that were published all over the world.

I shot the Prime Minister today!

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:02:00 +0000

I shot the Prime Minister today! I got to shoot Kevin which is how he kept introducing himself to every body. "Hello I'm Kevin" he would say. The job was for the Health Department's other type of doctors, the spin doctors in Canberra. I have to admit he came across as a genuinely nice guy for a politician and was really helpful. Anyway the pics were not bad.

Do we have to get out and push?

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:07:00 +0000

Had to do a big commercial shoot today. This included aerial as well as ground shots of a new shopping center in Kempsey. I had already had to postpone it once because the plane was not back from being serviced. Unfortunately when I got to the airport the plane wouldn't start. This really inspires you with confidence so "do we have get out and push?"

"No, we'll try spinning the prop by hand". No way would I do it but the engine was soon running. Unfortunately the battery was so flat that it would not charge. It's handy to have some electic power in a plane for radios and other bits like that so we had no option but to turn it off and stick the plane on charge for half an hour!
As you can see by the picture this worked although the people at the funeral we kept doing loops over at 600ft probably wished we hadn't.

New Targa video from Mazda with some my still shots.

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:41:00 +0000

Been in sports shooter mode today

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:39:00 +0000

I've definitely been in sports shooter mode today. I was up early to shoot a surf comp at the crack of dawn for my www.surfshooter.com.au website and then this afternoon Newcastle Jets v Sydney FC.

If this Hyundai A League warm up game is anything to go by the Jets are in for an ordinary season. Sydney won 2-0 with both goals scored by Socceroo John Aloisi.

The sea is still 20c

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:13:00 +0000

Middle of winter and the sea is still 20c. Port Macquarie Longboard Club V Point Plomer competition today.

Shame the waves were a bit small.

Photo of the month in Motorsport News, cool!

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:53:00 +0000

Photo of the month in Motorsport News, cool!

And words straight from the blog too.

Piper Navajo was a bit quicker than the Cessna

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sun, 17 May 2009 01:53:00 +0000

I've done a bit of aerial photo graphy over the years but never had the opportunity to shoot air to air. A new aviation charter business in Port Macquarie commissioned me to create a logo and website for them. (www.aviationcharters.com.au)

So this gave me the perfect excuse to get a couple of planes and go for a fly and get some aerial shots. The twin engined Piper Navajo was a bit quicker than the Cessna I was in but at least I could shoot with the window down. The clients & I are all really happy with the shots and I particularly like the one with Port Macquarie in the background.

Picture of the month

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:05:00 +0000

Got a few pics in the latest online edition of Motorsport News from Rally Qld & Targa including this nice big one on the back page. Apparently my shot of Simon playing in the water is going to be picture of the month in the next magazine issue. Pretty cool but who is this Roger bloke???

Drifting sideways and sent water everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:53:00 +0000

What a way to start a weekend. For the first shot on the first day of Rally Queensland I headed to the fabulous railway bridge in the "Kadanga Long" stage. There is a variety of interesting wide shots that you can get here from both on top of and below the bridge. It's quite rustic so keeping bits of the bridge in the photo adds to the atmosphere of the shot.

However the sun was very low and intense early on so I decided to head to the top of the bridge and shoot tight down onto the watersplash with the cars backlit. I used a fast 1/800th sec shutter speed to freeze the water as the cars hit the splash. It was quite a nice shot but then along came Simon & Sue Evans. Simon attacked the corner fast and went through the watersplash drifting sideways and sent water everywhere. Just fantastic and a perfect shot in the bag on my first stage. Thanks Simon, I couldn't have done it without you!

We then headed of to the main spectator point which was a bit dull and heavily backlit for the one decent corner but the final stage of the day was great. A heavily shaded water splash with dappled light when the sun came out. I think the photos speak for themselves. Rally Qld was then over for me for another year and early Sunday I had to return home with a quick 750km's back down the Pacific Hwy.

Can't see another soul

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:30:00 +0000

Just a quick 700kms up the highway today. I am now on the Sunshine Coast in QLD which is a bit of a change from Tassie! I'm here for Rally Queensland which is a joint Asia Pacific Rally Championship and Australian Rally Championship round. One of the highlights will be seeing World Rally Championship star Chris Atkinson although he says he won't be flat out as he is only driving the zero car. Chris not flat out will still be very quick and I'm sure Cody will be trying to catch him. I got to shoot a fair few different pics of Chris which was nice of him.

Highlight of my day was undoubtedly catching up with Christophe Barriere-Varju. Christophe is one of my heroes. He competes on a motorcycle in The Dakar every year as well as races like the Finke & Dubai Rally. It was quite interesting to get his views on the difference between Africa and South America where Dakar was held this year. Christophe just did not think it was the same and more like a long Baja. It certainly was not as challenging navigation wise and he felt you did not get the same feeling of wilderness as you do in Africa. There you can't see another soul for miles just awesome landscape but in South America there seemed to be people everywhere. Although he did love the enthusiasm of the crowds and got a sore shoulder from waving and shaking hands. What an inspirational guy. I would love to shoot Dakar one year, maybe when it goes back to Africa again. As Christophe says "dreams do come true".

A Ferrari 308 in a ditch

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:33:00 +0000

The final day is from Strahan the Hobart and includes the famous Queenstown stage and the awesome 47km stage of Mount Arrowsmith. The day dawned to be wet and misty. I had planned on going up to Mt Arrowsmith if there was the chance of snow but it was not quite cold enough so I settled down on the famous twisty road heading up out of Queenstown. I knew it was damp but when a Daytona Coupe that was in the tour drove into a rock wall right in front of me I thought this could be interesting.

Sure enough there was lots of slipping and sliding but only 1 major incident with a BMW 2002TI which had it's front caved in. A lot of drivers tend to relax when they get above the bends and go a bit too hard and every year there are cars of the road in the last part of the stage but this year was the worst yet.

We had a Ferrari 308 in a ditch, a Porsche 944 on it's roof but the worst was Kevin weekes Lamborghini Gallardo. I was right behind the police sweep car and when I came on the scene I thought it was really bad. He had come down a fairly narrow piece of road with a left but slide sideways and would have gone from 200kph to zero in about 20 foot. It looked really bad and when they bought his wife and the chaplain down I thought the worst. Fortunately they build those Lambos tough. They had to cut the doors off to get Kevin and his navigator Rebecca out. They were both airlifted to hospital injured but not life threatening thank goodness.

So we finally arrived in Hobart for the ceremonial finish. Congratulations to Tony Quinn & Naomi Tillet on winning the modern class and overall in their monster Nissan GTR. I picked them to win on media day. I don't know but it seemed that the fast guys were all pushing harder than ever before. Very rarely do you see Jim Richards make a mistake let alone crash out. Kevin Weekes had his big off as well but Jason White in his Lamboghini Gallardo pushed Quinn hard all the way and finished second outright. Despite suffering flu early on Rex Broadbent won the late classic for the 3rd time.

As for the Mazdas Brendan & Rhianon finished third in the showroom class after being penalised for tyres and Steve & Bernie in the RX8 finished 10th outright which was an amazing result considering how new the car was and the technical issues like a gearbox with 2 gears. He was really quick when it ran properly and caught Warwick in his Porcshe GT3 halfway through Cethana. So enough of the cold and rain next weekend I am on the Sunshine Coast for the Asia Pacific Rally Championship stay tuned.

Wearing tyres, hot brakes and slippery roads.

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

Targa Tasmania is not called the ultimate tarmac rally for nothing. Trying to complete 5 days of competitive racing stages all over Tasmania on one set of tyres can be a big ask. Especially when it started raining hard as we headed down to the wild west coast at the end of day 4. The final stage was between Queenstown & Strahan, 33kms of twists, turns and rain. I walked into the stage and and found a good spot looking down on the cars for a nice tight pan in the gloom. Once the 999 sweep car had gone through I followed to shoot the Mazda cars servicing at Strahan.

So we have cars being driven fast with wearing tyres, hot brakes and slippery roads. Not a good combination. As I drove through the stage there was a Nissan GTR totalled in a big spin, a Porsche Carrera up in the trees, the remains of something else all over the road which somehow had managed to continue and then to cap it off the 999 sweep car on the final corner of the stage with it's back end caved in. They are supposed to be the responsible ones! Fortunately all drivers and navigators were fine.

It also sounds awesome!

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:18:00 +0000

Well Day 1 and 2 are over and it's still very tight among the modern class in this years Targa Tasmania. With 2 Lamborghini's, a Porsche and a GTR making up the top 4. I will stick my neck out and tip Tony Quinn in his Nissan GTR to win especially if starts to rain. The thing is a monster just hope Quinny can keep it on the road.

The 2 Lambos have been spectacular with flames shooting out the back and very quick. As I am shooting for Mazda again I was pretty pleased to catch the RX9 of Steve Glenney with some flames too. You can see my images on Mazdas website. www.mazda.com.au and look for the link to Targa bottom right of the page.

There are some fabulous classics that have made the trip down to Tassie but the pick has to be the 1960 Porsche 356B Carrera Arbath. Its one of only 21 made and is driven by Klaus Bischoff director of the Porsche museum in Stuttgart. The car won the world championship in its class 3 times and the Targa Florio in 1962. Plus it also sounds awesome!

And yes it's cold in Tassie! As we were heading up to shoot on the famous Sideling stage early this morning it was -2c. Very chilly but when the sun came out it was not bad at all but this afternoon in Longford it was bloody freezing. I'm just thawing out now 2 hours later.

Opposite lock and flames shooting out the back

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:30:00 +0000

Yes it's Targa Tasmania time again and what a welcome. It was 25c at home when I left home and when I got off the plane in Launceston it was 9c, raining and blowing a gale! Still when the clouds cleared the snow on the mountains was pretty.

I'm shooting for Mazda again this year and we have a 3 car team with 2 Mazda 3MPS' and an RX8 SP Turbo. The Rx8 is being driven by Steve Glenney who won last year in an EVO. Be interesting to see how he goes in the 2wd RX8. I must say it looks pretty too, same colour as the snow.

Not so pretty was Jason White in his Lambo Gallardo although he was spectacular in full opposite lock and flames shooting out the back at media day today. When you see how careful (re.obssesive) some teams are with their cars and then Jason who drives out to Symmons Plains, thrashes it and then drives home it makes you appreciate just how tough that Lambo is. The action starts tomorrow with the prologue at Georgetown so check back for more updates as the week goes on.

swim 3.8km, then bike 180km and then go for a quick 42.2km run

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 23:48:00 +0000

1400 competitors swim 3.8km, then bike 180km and then go for a quick 42.2km run. All in under 9 hours. Think your fit? Think again!
Story coming soon.

Story coming soon

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:46:00 +0000

V8s at Bathurst to running his Daytona in Targa Tasmania

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:44:00 +0000

Andrew Miedecke is a famous name in Australian Motor racing circles. From V8s at Bathurst to running his Daytona in Targa Tasmania Andrew has been racing for years. His son George is also a pretty good driver as well!

Anyway Andrew has a large Ford, Mercedes, Chrysler Jeep dealership and I had to shoot him and the truck for Driveline magazine. It was pretty handy that I also had lots of pictures of Andrew from Targa Tasmania as well.

Bit better than a passport booth eh?

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:43:00 +0000

No matter where you are every town has lots of real estate agents. It's pretty tough to differentiate most of the so marketing is hugely important. One of the new guys on the block is Peppertree Real Estate and they wanted some staff shots that were a bit different to the normal agent portraits that look like they were taken in a passport booth.

One of the things I specialise in is portraits but in a very relaxed casual style on the beach etc. We were originally going to shoot them in their offices which were nice but I'd recently been in the new Mercure Hotel and noticed the very cool foyer. So off we trekked cameras and wireless speedlites in hand and these are the results. Bit better than a passport booth eh?

You should have seen it on Boxing Day

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:42:00 +0000

If you've got a spare $10 milion knocking around and you are looking for an investment I've just shot rather a nice servo on the Pacific Hwy for Savills in Brisbane. It features all the major food groups, McDonalds, KFC and the Koolabah Tree Cafe.

Obviously it always looks good to have the food court full in photos so I asked the manager of the McDonalds "when was the busiest time?" "You should have seen it on Boxing Day" came the reply. Not sure my clients could wait until then.

I've got a plane booked so I will be back to shoot some aerial stuff next week.

another 2 million km's easy!

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 04:41:00 +0000

Hino trucks rang and asked me to drive down to Taree and photograph a truck that had just done 2 million km's and its 2 owners. Make sure you get a close up of the odometer showing the km's they said.

The Bourke brothers have a very busy transport company and a large fleet of trucks. It turned out that they actually had 2 Hino trucks at 2 million km's. But the only problem is that the odometer did not show the km's and had reset back to zero.

So if you are in the market for a small truck the Bourke brothers had just bought some new Hino's to replace the high kilometer ones and they are on the market. According to them they are just run in and will probably do another 2 million km's easy!

I would have had difficulty walking over

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:40:00 +0000

It was great to shoot some 2 wheeled action again as the Yamaha Australian Off Road Championship came to Port Macquarie. It was a terrific weekend and I got some great shots. The was lot's of mud early on but with the fabulous weather it soon dried out and the were big clouds of dust in the air.

There was a really tough technical section made up of big concrete pipes, blocks and large rocks that I would have had difficulty walking over let alone riding. Then they raced around part of the motorcross track then off into the bush for a while and then back around again. For 2 hours! The riders even had to refuel the bikes without assistance.

These are some seriously tough and fit guys and girls. Reigning champ Chris Hollis on his Husqvarna was the local favourite but mechanical problems slowed him down. Former world enduro champion Stefan Merriman, part of the Ballard Yamaha team, won the main pro event.

It was also good to get a big shot on the front page of the local newspaper and a couple more on the back page as well.

" When is it back in the Depot?" "Friday" "#@%$#"

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:36:00 +0000

I've done several shoots for Mercedes Benz trucks & Driveline magazine over the years but this was definately one of the hardest. Talk about rush job. I get the call Friday to shoot the truck on Monday Afternoon about 150km's north of where I live. Usual stuff truck unloading, detail pics, that sort of thing. The shots then have to be in Adelaide for a Thursday deadline. No problem there then until I get the call Monday saying the truck is still waiting for a load of beer in Brisbane.

"What times it arriving back at the depot?" "2.00am" "What time do start unloading it?" "5.30am" " When is it back in the Depot?" "Friday" "*#@*%$#"

So a very early morning trip up the highway to arrive in complete darkness. It was a bit of a challenge trying to light a big truck & trailer with remote speedlites in a dark warehouse but the shots turned out pretty well in the end and when the sun did finally come up we got some really nice early morning light as well.

Shoot across the face of the wave

noreply@blogger.com (Redline Photographics) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:39:00 +0000

Fabulous waves for the first Port Macquarie Surfboard Riders Club competition of the year. Lighthouse Beach really turned on the waves. Competition was tight and I was really pleased with the shots.

I've just created a website for the club so check it out HERE to see some more shots from the event.

I never cease to be amazed at some of the younger members of the club. Check out 8 year old Jack Germain. These guys shoot across the face of the wave as they are so light!