The Official Auki Henry

ULEGAL Crazy Burnout Car

2013-03-29T14:45:00.002-07:00

ULEGAL

Mick Brasher in ULEGAL wows the stadium in "The Colosseum"
Hidden Valley Drag Strip. Darwin, Australia

'Mad' Mick Brasher, the mad part I can certainly vouch for, I met the guy while filming this clip for him at Hidden Valley drag strip last year.

You would be mistaken though if you thought that was his daily composure I was talking about. Wild looks aside, Mick Brasher is one of the friendliest blokes you could talk to, always with a laugh and a smile not too far from his face (the guy has so many fans to meet this it is probably just as well he has such a personable demeanour).

No the 'Mad' I am talking about surfaces when he steps in behind the wheel of his crazy burnout car 'ULEGAL'. Akin to a whirling dervish when posessed, Mick and ULEGAL effortlessly create an insane dance on burnout pads across Australia. It's well known Aussie audiences love their 'skids' and ULEGAL is a crowd favourite wherever it goes.

"MAD [adjective]: mentally disturbed; deranged; insane; demented."

Aussie Bandit Wheelstander

2013-03-23T03:06:00.000-07:00

Aussie Bandit

Nigel Benson - Owner/Driver of the Aussie Bandit

The Aussie Bandit is a crowd pleasing favourite around the country. It is currently Australia's only exhibition wheelstander and is a familiar sight on the show circuit and at major motorsports events nation wide.

Owner and driver of the Bandit is quietly spoken Nigel Benson a friendly, unassuming man who you wouldn't imagine unleashes hell when he opens up the throttle down the strip in his fire breathing beast of a drag car. The last time Nigel was in Darwin was for the NT state drag racing titles last year so we got together with him to get some footage and do a little promo with him; to hopefully land a corporate sponsor and help bring the car to more public shows and events around the place.

Darwin Wet Season Fashion

2012-12-01T17:45:00.001-08:00

The Darwin wet season can be a tricky time of year to organise anything out doors. The start of it especially from any time in October onwards can be quite unpredictable and you have that false sense of security imagining fine sunny days left over from the half year of complete dry season weather.

Post storm photo shoot with Stevie Dee. Darwin, Australia

I got lucky with the recent filming of the latest hit music video to come out of Darwin "Doesn't Matter Anyway" where I actually got two consecutive days of good sunshine to complete all the scenes we had storyboarded.

I should probably say VERY lucky. The day before and the day after had heavy showers, I must have had some good karma following me about, or the band did, who knows.

More often than not though, during the unpredictable start of the season, what happened below is more likely combined with Murphy's law of 'whatever shit will happen to make things difficult WILL happen' this crazy looking storm rolled in across the Darwin water front area just 5 minute before the start of a fashion shoot I was doing for new fun city boutique Blonde Bommshell was due to begin. So it was off for an hour and a half of drinks at a nearby venue till the rain had past.

Storms roll across the sky just minutes before our shoot was to start. Panorama view from Convention Centre.

Being late afternoon, sunlight time was at a premium so we just had to make do with overcast skies and the power of the Ranger RX flash unit to warm things up ( thank you Elinchrom by the way, your products are wonderful ) but we still got some good shots which the boutique was very happy with, and so was I. Check out the samples of the beautiful ladies I worked with that day below.

Click Images to Enlarge

Slamfest in Darwin 2012

2012-11-30T21:19:00.004-08:00

Slamfest came to Darwin in August 2012 and I was approached by the team who film and produce SBS Speedweek to do the start line camera work for it.

Filming the start line at Hidden Valley
for Speedweek - Glidecam X-10/HD-4000

Of course I took the opportunity, I mean who wouldn't? besides the best seats in the house on one of the biggest horsepower shows of the drag racing season in Darwin I also got valuable experience filming for a seasoned TV show that just happens to be smack bang in the same genre we run the HighRPM series in.

I have enough steadycam experience under the belt to believe myself competent enough to use it for big events with dynamic action now, so this was the perfect time to set up the lightweight X-10/HD4000 Glidecam rig with the Panasonic AG-AC160. I got a new bit of kit just in time for slamfest. The PG-PZ remote zoom control from VariZoom which allows me remote operation of the cameras zoom functionality via one of two dedicated remote conrol ports at the rear of the camera.

I absolutely loved the gig. In terms of pure fun I was absolutely spoiled, to the point where I didn't even feel the pressure of catching the moment. Usually at these big events I have to concentrate on the big picture, ensuring all parts of the production such as mutliple angles of action, interviews, event information all make it to the edit. Instead I got to focus purely on film and capture from the start line right in amongst the smell, noise and action. Hope they ask me again next year!

Check out the Darwin round of Slamfest from Speedweek below. All my start line footage is from Lane 1 (closest to the crowd)and Ed Forman is the camera on lane 2

Doesn't Matter Anyway - Lyrics

2012-11-29T15:34:00.004-08:00

DOESN’T MATTER ANYWAY

Lyrics ©Skarlett 2012

Now i’m back to the place where it all began,
when there’s love in my heart and my head starts to spin,
but seeing as you’re so stuck up, i’m guessing that it’s just my luck.

Now there’s not a million other boys just like me that would take you away and make you feel complete.
I’m proof that dedication runs real deep,
even when love starts to run away from me.

And i’m trying so hard to give you a smile,
hoping you’d ask me to stay for a while.
every little word yeah, every little word i say,
it doesn’t matter anyway.

Yeah she tells me she doesn’t need a boy.
she wants to keep it simple; she doesn’t wanna end up like somebodies toy,
but two days later she has a guy,
and i know he probably loves her oh but for her, he would die.
I can’t believe this girl!

And i’m trying so hard to give you a smile,
hoping you’d ask me to stay for a while.
Every little word yeah, every little word i say,
it doesn’t matter anyway.

She doesn’t care at all.
She doesn’t care at all!
She never answered my call when i asked her if she would break my fall.
She doesn’t care at all!
She doesn’t care at all!

And i’m trying so hard to give you a smile,
hoping you’d ask me to stay for a while.
Every little word yeah, every little word i say,
it doesn’t matter anyway.

The Skarlett Music Video Promo Shot

2012-11-15T17:17:00.000-08:00

I've been asked a few times about this shot since it was posted as a pre-release promo for Skarlett announcing their music video "Doesn't Matter Anyway". I thought I'd include a little breakdown of the shot just to answer some of the questions I have been getting.

The photo itself is quite a simple 5 picture composite that was broken down into a photo of the alley by itself clear of any equipment to use as the major shot then four separate shots of the boys jumping so we could set up individual back lighting to let them stand out from the dark moody background.

Perhaps the most important note is that the camera needs to be tripod mounted and then once your composition and settings are correct it SHOULDN'T BE MOVED. This is so the shot does not change apart from the equipment and subject, that way it is quite easy to mask out everything except the person jumping and have it already correctly positioned against the background. Any resulting shadows can then easily be merged together so the light positioning looks natural to the human eye.

Post processing included a few curve corrections to match the individual shots to the background (being a slightly cloudy day there were slight variations in ambient light as clouds passed in front of the sun) and lots of good old dodging and burning (gotta love that stuff for the poster look).

Equipment used

Camera: Canon 5D MKIII
Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Key Light: Ranger RX Speed AS with "A" Head from slightly above and behind the camera.
Fill Light: Vivitar 285HV at Max power down low and to the right
Back Light: Vivitar 285HV at Max power

Doesn't Matter Anyway is the debut music video for Australian teen pop punk sensations Skarlett.

Australia's own "Skarlett" - L to R Lachlan Barker, Sam Weaver, Arran Barker, Jack Weaver

Stevie Dee Bikini Shoot

2012-10-09T16:38:00.002-07:00

Stevie Dee sunset bikini shoot 2012.

Stevie Dee beach shoot © Auki Henry

You might be able to tell it's beach shoot season again here in Darwin. It's that time of year that locals call 'The Buildup', the weeks between the end of the dry season and the start of the monsoon. It generally makes it presence felt by a noticeable increase in humidity accompanied by an equally noticeable rise in temperature, both perfect reasons to seek out a sea breeze to help cool things down.

The noticeable thing about this time of year is that Darwin sunrise and sunsets take on incredibly beautiful saturated hue due to environmental conditions and when you are lucky enough you can also get some dramatic cloud formations without actually having a shoot washed out by the rain.

I've been taking the new Ranger Speed AS kit out a lot lately to these beach shoots. The portability and power makes shooting directly into the sun very easy.

Here are some samples from a bikini set I did after work just last Friday with Maclean's Motorsports stunner Stevie Dee. Darwin girls love the beach and bikinis so its always a popular genre to shoot here in my part of the world.

Doesn't Matter Anyway - Skarlett

2012-10-09T16:38:00.001-07:00

Doesn't Matter Anyway

Doesn't Matter Anyway is the debut music video for Australian teen pop punk sensations Skarlett.

Australia's own "Skarlett" - L to R Lachlan Barker, Sam Weaver, Arran Barker, Jack Weaver
This project was a heap of fun to work on, I have to admit its probably the most fun I have had on a video project yet, plus I love the genre of music so it was so easy to listen to it multiple times while getting the lip sync right during edits.

I opted to shoot this one entirely with Canon DSLR's again. I have been getting a lot of practice in with the Canon 5D MK3 since I got it earlier this year so it was an obvious choice for me as my primary camera, but I still love the DOF I get out my 7D as well so it was assigned to the B camera team with the Canon 5D MK2 that was brought along by my friend Terry Finocchiaro from Sienna Productions who generously volunteered his services just for the fun of working on the project with us.

Only the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 and Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 were used. These two lenses providing more than enough variable focal length and DOF for the look we were after.

Got to say that I LOVED the fact that we did this all in the one location. A private back yard in the suburb of Bayview ( Darwin, Australia ), which made for easy set-up and pull-down on the two days of filming.

Behind the scenes fun on the set in a Bayview back yard. Darwin, Australia (click to enlarge)

Sam Weaver, the lead singer commented that Doesn't Matter Anyway was created purely out of the blue while the band were jamming. It was intended purely as a straight forward and fun song and the idea of the video should reflect that and capture an energetic party feel . Well I think we hit that mark pretty well with this video.

Since Doesn't Matter Anyway was released on line the web versions have seen a steady view count increase that suggests it is being spread by a lot more people than the bands traditional following. At the time of writing this blog entry the YouTube version of this video stands at just over 7K views and has been receiving around 1K unique hits per day on average, all without saturation of marketing . . . yet.

Nowadays whenever we do any sort of production work, whether it be video or stills I usually try to bring a couple of extra cameras along to capture the work in progress; that's your hint to keep an eye out for the behind the scenes video being released soon for an interesting little look at how we filmed the takes for this music video.

Tags: Auki, Auki Henry, Skarlett, Doesn't Matter Anyway, Doesnt Matter Anyway, Skarlett Music, Skarlett Music Video, Skarlett Darwin

@skarlettband new music video coming very soon stay tuned to blog.aukihenry.com/2012/10/doesnt… for updates follow @aukiman twitter.com/aukiman/status…
— Auki Henry (@aukiman) November 2, 2012

Seven of Nine vs The Rock

2012-10-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

I only just realised it was @therock vs @jerilryan in "Tsunkatse" - pigeons learn faster than me . . .
— Auki Henry (@aukiman) October 2, 2012

No creative postings today, just random musings. Sometimes it takes a little while for some things to sink in and this particular one eluded me for years apparently!

For what might be my upteenth time watching the Star Trek Voyager series I only just recognised my favourite action actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson up against everyone's favourite Borg, Seven of Nine aka the ever beautiful Jeri Ryan.

How did I not see this before? Watch the episode "Tsunkatse" if you get the chance, admittedly the alien make-up threw me a little, but he even gives the people's eyebrow! I should have known.

Looking for some tutelage to focus my mind, anyone's pigeons available for hire?

Pinup Shoot Rockabilly Style

2012-09-22T04:10:00.000-07:00

Golden Nobel does a 50's Pinup Shoot with Rockabilly Styling
© 2012 Auki Henry

I love 50's style, always makes for some great vintage looking pics and its a nice change of genre between the amount of glam and beach shoots I do.

I'm lucky enough to know a few of the avid swing dancing crew around town, some of whom, like Golden Nobel, just love getting dolled up and performing for the camera's (both video and still).

Golden is no stranger to performing, having done plenty of public work both for swing demo's and impromptu 'flash mob' work to help make a spectacle and spread the word about swing dancing for Darwin's best known group Swing Dance NT. Here's a few samples from my shoot with Golden and a video we shot at the same time, just because we could!

Jessica Shalders Collection

2012-09-08T14:21:00.001-07:00

Jess Shalders © Auki Henry

Voted most popular shot, Aussie Babe Jessica Shalders
TEDA Drift calendar shoot sample

Jessica Shalders, Jess to her friends, is one of the bubbliest personalities you could ever hope to meet. A complete natural in front of the cameras she proves on a daily basis the old saying 'good things come in small packages'

I have worked with Jess a few times over the years now on various shoots, both for personal portfolio as well as project work, she has even featured in a couple of videos we have produced for the motorsports scene up here with HighRPM.

A tip from me for any photographers who might be where she travels to next; try to book time with this girl! It's very easy to praise a girl as natural in front of the camera, but with Jess Shalders you get a model who really knows how to work it, the poses, the looks, even the wardrobe (if she is not being dressed by an art director).

I can't speak enough praise about how easy it is to work with models like Jess. She needs very little direction and she brings plenty of her own ideas to try to each shoot.

Here's a small sample gallery of some of the shots I've taken with her when she spent time with us in Darwin.

Australia hot babe alert Jess Shalders blog.aukihenry.com/2012/09/jess-s… BAM! #SetThisWorldOnFire follow @aukiman
— Territory Beauty (@territorybeauty) September 14, 2012

Dominating the sun with the Ranger RX

2012-09-04T15:46:00.001-07:00

Ranger RX AS Speed is all the power I need
Sunset bikini shoot at Lee Point Beach 2012

I really enjoy doing sunset beach shoots here in Darwin. Generally in my experience they are an enjoyable, non-stress session and because of the amazing backdrops nature provides you can focus most of your attention on posing your models.

The fantastic ambient lighting at sunset will give beautiful warm colour to your shots, especially in the magic time for about one and a half hours before you lose too much background light and the reddish and orange hues really show through.

I like to make my models really 'pop' from their surroundings, its just the style I like and have become recognised for in a lot of my work. Whilst in non-direct light most good flash systems will give you reasonable 'fill' during the day this can become difficult to achieve if shooting into direct sun whilst providing natural back light for your model, and remember, I like them to 'pop'!

Shooting with the portable Ranger RX kit from Elinchrom has been an easy solution to such conditions, and whilst not exactly cheap for an enthusiasts budget, if you are thinking of advancing your photography to paid shoots I found these babys will make life a whole lot easier and save you some time!

I use the Ranger RX AS Speed (with "A" Head) and the power on tap available to shoot back against a dominant light source eg the sun is a real bonus for the style I like. I still use my extra flashes to build more depth into my lighting profiles, but I could get away quite easily with only the Ranger kit and the natural sun backdrop for so many good shots.

Being an 1100 w/s kit under normal lighting conditions the actual power settings needed to cope are remarkably low, there is plenty of oomph behind the flash to make your subject stand out from the background. I have only ever needed to raise the power above half way when shooting into direct sunlight, and that's usually with a diffuse of some sort which drops the amount of light a little.

Auki Henry Photography Promo

2012-09-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

A quick Auki Henry Photography promo with Mel Bridge, thanks to Owen Elliot and Keiran Lee from 76 Pictures.

Mel Bridge 2012

Only a short post for today, I would like to thank the guys heaps for getting this footage out to me from our shoot earlier in the year with Mel. They are busy at the moment with the Australian release of their film Bathing Franky at cinemas around the country.

Owen, who is an old friend from way back stopped past Darwin for a bit and wanted to do some interviews with us for a mini feature series he has been working on, because of his busy schedule at the moment he has not been able to concentrate fully on producing the features but has generously given me this short to upload in the meantime!

Slamfest 2012 TV Commercial

2012-08-04T13:28:00.001-07:00

Slamfest 2012 is bringing the doorslammers back to Darwin

Aussie Slamfest, the ultimate show of Doorslammer horsepower from pro modified Australia comes to Darwin this month in a continuation of the spectacular dry season of motorsports we have been having here. And this year at HighRPM we have been kicked into a higher gear with the inclusion of myself and Ed Forman onto the team who will be filming the event for SBS Speedweek.

Originally we were excited enough to have been included on the start line as exclusive media to collect stock footage and features, but after being approached by AVE we are now providing the roving start line camera team.

Time to prep that gear, and find someone who can still co-ordinate HighRPM's media team as it looks like we are going to be kept real busy for this one.

Just a taste of things to come, here's the TVC we did up for the Darwin round due to air from tonight on the Southern Cross network.

Playground Workout with Amber Walker

2012-07-23T16:07:00.001-07:00

Playground Workout

A simple, inexpensive routine for a busy lifestyle
Amber Walker's playground workout

Amber Walker recently got me on board to help produce and film her instructional good living fitness series, aimed at proving to mothers that you can keep fit, active and look after yourself quite easily all during the course of a busy day without spending too much and without necessarily needing any specialised equipment. The great thing is that Amber bases all her work off her own experience, being a proud mum of two herself.

The playground workout is such a great idea in its simplicity. Have a watch and see how easy it is then give it a try yourself!

Amber Walker is a 2 times world WNBF Best Body champion. She is a popular fitness and Australian media identity and also GNC ambassador who shares her time between Darwin and Melbourne currently.

Stacey Leigh XDRIFT Shoot

2012-07-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

I love fun shoots and this last one we finished was exactly that. Yes the briefs for it were serious enough but the whole thing was just so casual that it didn't even feel like work!

HighRPM covered two briefs for this one and again both Ed Forman and myself were the attending photographers for it.

Ed was booked to do a magazine shoot with the crazy drift car "XDRIFT" owned by well known Territory drift identity, Danny Probert on the day so as a value ad HighRPM decided to send me along for some newspaper promo with local model (not to mention mad drift fan) Stacey Leigh for a late Friday afternoon session.

This year we have already done so much TV work that it has become second nature to lug extra cameras around 'just in case', so it was really no extra hassle to swap around and film a little behind the scenes while on brief. Here's our quick BTS Video with the added bonus of our US based voiceover talent Mark Eskey making us sound great ;-)

Motorsports NT Commercials

2012-06-30T16:09:00.003-07:00

Motorsports NT is the Northern Territory's peak motorsport body. Amongst other things, its role is to help promote affiliated motorsports clubs in the region, so of course it made perfect sense for them to hit up the team at HighRPM to give them a series of hard hitting, fast action TV commercials.

Grant Hammon for Motorsports NT's 2012 Ad Series

This years their advertising brief was for a mix of real event footage that Ed Forman and myself went trackside (and a whole bunch of other places) for. Nothing quite beats getting right in amongst all the action to get the creamy footage. Action it was indeed.

Over the past year we have covered a number of major events for HighRPM, events such as the Kamfari and the opening of the new Hidden Valley ANDRA class drag strip, the Australia Superbikes series as well as sending a photographer in for the Darwin round of the Australian V8 Supercar series. The Motorsports NT commercials were another opportunity for us to get in there and record some more great racing for the local clubs, and of course we got to work with race caller and local radio identity Wayne Cottle once again for our voice overs.

With separate commercials aimed at spectators, volunteers and drivers and a combined one with elements of all three together the series will hopefully have a little something to appeal to everyone.

Each of these videos opens in a separate browser window.

Hotshots 2012 Competition Voting

2012-06-25T14:43:00.002-07:00

Well, MusicNT's "Hotshots 2012" photo contest is now up on Facebook, and I've decided to throw my hand in for the peoples choice awards with the following entries of members of Darwin based musicians "Roy Mackonkey" and rap group "DTOWN-3".

If you like any of the photos why not help me on the way to winning peoples choice by:

CLICKING on a photo below and then ..
Hitting 'LIKE' for me when it opens in a new window :)

All help is very much appreciated, feel free to share this around. Thankyou in advance!

Help me win people's choice for the 2012 Hotshots music photography comp blog.aukihenry.com/2012/06/hotsho… click the pic you think is best and 'like'
— Auki Henry (@aukiman) June 26, 2012

V8 Supercars Timelapse

2012-06-14T13:31:00.002-07:00

The old trusty workhorse Canon 7D on time lapse duty
V8 Supercar Transporter Covoy leaves Darwin city

Yesterday I got a bit of a break from all the editing I somehow managed to accrue for my long service leave and went down to see the V8 transporter convoy doing its annual rounds of the city and back out down the long stretch back to Hidden Valley raceway.

I decided I'd give a quick time lapse of the procession a shot since I'd been trying to find a good location for some other projects in planning.

Now that I have the 5D MKIII as my primary stills camera I have been able to put the 7D to good use as a dedicated video and time lapse rig, which incidentally, is so much more fun than having to constantly switch configurations with a single DSLR.

Since I only need this output at 1280 x 720 I shot all frames at the 7D's small jpeg size of 2592 x 1728 @ 1 fps and resized the resulting sequence in After Effects with faux tilt shift. This resolution is more than enough and still allows for pans to add movement to your video ( see below ).

You've got mail, my mail.

2012-06-08T02:19:00.000-07:00

Australia Post can you help?

Lets hope @auspost can help with this one blog.aukihenry.com/2012/06/youve-…
— Auki Henry (@aukiman) June 8, 2012

So whose got my mail?

This is probably puzzling some of you readers who tune in for photography behind the scenes and the latest HighRPM videos, and I promise I'll be back to normal blogging soon!

However I've gone off on a tangent today with the saga of me receiving someone else's mail for the past couple of years which has culminated into the realisation that they have also been receiving mine, it's just that I seem to be missing some!

At first thought you might agree that this is an inconvenience, especially if it happens again and again.

NOT my mail , again

Inconvenience? Yes indeed, in fact I just had to re-address another two just then. As you can see by my first official notice to Australia Post below though I have been missing mail that is costing me in late fees, and that takes away from Auki's happy place!

After calling and being on hold for 20 minutes I decided I'd be better off putting it in writing for reference anyway, theirs and mine.

Here's my initial contact submitted via the Australia Post online form:

I would like to lodge a formal complaint and have this complaint followed through to a resolution, as the situation we currently have with Australia Post has now eventuated with us not receiving mail, and, in some instances cause us to incur financial penalties in the form of late fees.

Over the last couple of years we have, on an intermittent but increasingly regular basis been receiving mail intended for another address, one that shares the same unit/number as ours but a DIFFERENT street address. Initially it was thought this was an excusable one off type of mistake and the letters were sent back, with hand written note, to Australia Post for re-delivery.

HOWEVER these mistakes have continued, each time with the same outcome, a hand written note on the envelope asking Australia Post to ‘please deliver to the correct address’. (For your reference the two addresses involved in this mix up are [address removed] and [address removed])

About two months ago totally by chance, a friend who happens to live in the same unit block as this address to which all these letters should have been sent to, spotted some correspondence of OURS in this other persons mailbox as she was taking out the bins. The person whos mail we have been incorrectly receiving and redirecting. It had not occurred to us before this discovery that we were also not getting mail that was addressed to us, due to the same issue. Now with the knowledge that our mail may have been going to the other on many occasions I require someone at Australia Post to rectify this.

In the past year we have received at least two late body corp final notices that have indicated we had not paid their original notice for due fees, the original notice that we never received. I paid late fees for this. At this stage I was unaware of the problem with sorting our mail and presumed I had overlooked something. In the last two months my partner underwent surgery and was specifically waiting for her medical bills to arrive, as luck would have it, the first indication of these medical bills was a letter saying that we had overlooked paying the initial bill, my partner immediately took this second notice in to the practice and explained that due to this mail problem we are having she had not received an initial notice for payment. She did not incur a late fee for this.

This also leads me to assume that perhaps our incorrectly delivered mail is not being sent on for re-delivery by the receiver? If it had not been for our friend spotting mail intended for us hanging out of this other person's mailbox we might still be ignorant of the situation.

Today I have AGAIN received two more items of correspondence to this SAME incorrect address. I have AGAIN written a note to have them redirected and have taken them both up to the local post box for Australia Post to handle. I will also now be keeping a photographic log of any further occurrence in case you need a reference as to how many times it may happen till this situation is resolved.

Points that may (or may not) be of help to your customer service people if they follow this through.

These incorrectly addressed items sometimes come bundled in amongst correctly addressed items all bunched together with a rubber band. The postie is delivering to the correct address according to the top letter that he can see.
When we went in to the Casuarina post office to see how the problem could be addressed we were informed that we would have to take this up with the Winnellie post office as that is where the mail is sorted. Perhaps this is another alternative, but I am lodging this official complaint centrally with you to chase up in the first instance
At the Casuarina post office it was suggested to resolve this that maybe we should just get a PO Box. I will not be paying for a service that I should be receiving at my home address. Possibly one to train staff not to suggest as an alternative for Australia Post issues.

I look forwarding to hearing from someone soon regarding this.

*UPDATE Sunday 10 June 2012

Close, but no banana, our mail at someone else's address.

Just as an update, I was sent this mobile picture from the mail box at the other address that has been receiving our mail, obviously this has been blurred out for security here but that is my address on the correspondence.

I have the original image should Australia Post require it.

I have also requested that my friend does not deliver this to me. It is not her responsibility to perform the carriage of mail for me.

*UPDATE Tuesday June 2012

Thank you to Australia Post for replying to my tweet as of the Tuesday ( Monday was a public holiday in many states ).

On the same day I also received an email reply (below) back to my lodged complaint form as well, it's good to see the process has started.

I'm hoping there is a resolution in sight as I have taken to sending more important correspondence and packages to my relatives home addresses and picking them up from there for the moment.

I have to say I'm always glad to see an organistation embrace social networking as part of true customer interaction rather than just as an advertising medium.

Dear Auki

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing so many incorrect deliveries. This must be very frustrating for all concerned and i can certainly assist you in this matter.

I have forwarded this information to Darwin Delivery Centre to ensure correct delivery of your mail in future. This issue will be addressed with the delivery staff concerned and steps will be taken to ensure your complaint is addressed. . I am very confident that the steps taken by Darwin Delivery Centre will prevent a future recurrence.

On behalf of Australia Post please accept my apologies for the inconvenience this matter has caused you.

If there’s anything else I can help you with please let me know and have a great day.

Kind regards,

[name removed by Auki] | Digital & Contact Centres - eServices | Australia Post Online Services Consultant

GPO Box 9911 In Your Capital City www.auspost.com.au

*UPDATE Wednesday 13 Feb 2013

I received email notification with a tracking number this morning:

Article Number 83201136757094 Consignment Number 83201136757094
Total Articles 1
Date/Time 13.02.13 05:09:05
Current Status Onboard with Driver Location DARWIN DELIVERY CENTRE

A package is on its way! A little later I received another update ..

Date/Time	13.02.13 08:59:18
Current Status	Delivered

I assumed this meant the parcel would be waiting for me when I got home. Not so. I looked in the letterbox, the front porch, my neighbouring units letterboxes just in case .. nothing.
I rang Australia Post to confirm the delivery address and it was definitely this one, so where was the package the delivery driver had said was delivered here? I asked for a ticket to investigate and was given VH2366641

Oh dear It's happened again today @auspost. . . is it a repeat of this? : blog.aukihenry.com/2012/06/youve-… ticket : VH2366641 twitter.com/aukiman/status…
— Auki Henry (@aukiman) February 13, 2013

Angus Henry Chronicles - Sgraffito

2012-04-26T13:47:00.001-07:00

Angus Henry Chronicles Part 1 Oils | Part 2 Sgraffito

This is the second part of the series, Angus Henry Chronicles, the interview deals with Sgraffito (sometimes scraffito), this excerpt of its meaning is taken from wikipedia.

"Another use of scraffito is seen in its simplified painting technique. One coat of paint is left to dry on a canvas or sheet of paper. Another coat of a different color is painted on top of the first layer. The artist then uses a palette knife or oil stick to scratch out a design, leaving behind an image in the color of the first coat of paint. Sometimes a first coat of paint is not needed and the wet coat scraped back reveals the canvas. This technique is often used in art classes to teach the scraffito technique to novice art students."

Scraperboard is not a term many people would have heard of nowadays. What is it? Is it a technique or is it just the name of the medium ?

Angus Henry: It is just the name of the medium. The technique is sgraffito, which just means scratched work and is very old, from prehistoric times - it is used in pottery and house decoration, for walls.

"The Cricketer" was an early general
exercise piece to convey some
variety of flesh and materials
Image Copyright © Angus Henry

What was it used for and why were you taught the technique ?

Angus Henry: Until computers came along ,the only way to print a photographic reproduction in a book was to print the photographs separately and bind them into the book, or paste them in.

The only illustrations which could be printed along with the hand composed or machine composed type were those which used the same relief process, like woodcuts and lino-cuts, mounted to the same height as the type font; i.e. no greys were available, only solid black or white.

With early photographic developments it was possible to photograph a black & white line drawing and process that into a relief block. Then process engraving was developed using the half-tone block - a photograph was taken through a fine grid of diagonally crossed lines, resulting in a picture made up of tiny dots - all black and white, but the eye made the illusion of shades of grey.

These half tone screens (still used) are in different degrees of fineness, very coarse ones used for newspapers, as on coarse paper the ink would blot all over fine dots, and fine ones for quality work giving much better definition.

You can see the separate dots if you look closely at the paper. However there is still a 'greyness' about such illustrations, and for a really emphatic result scraperboard was invented, giving the pure black and white effects and using a variety of hatching and dot techniques to give the effect of greys; it was used in commercial art a lot as it was cheap to do and the result made into a relief block with excellent definition.

It was usually white (plaster) on cardboard with a black surface, or sometimes just white and the artist painted on black indian ink as required; errors could be repaired within quite broad limits by painting over mistakes, but there has to be a layer of white plaster left to scrape through to, or the clean effect is gone forever. The scraping was done with a very sharp fine steel point.

"The Vauxhall" A popular new model at the time, again the scraperboard was used to emphasise the clean, sharp technical lines of the item beyond what a photograph could do, for advertising purpose. Image Copyright © Angus Henry

Was it a difficult technique to master?

Angus Henry: Like all older art forms it required practice and manual dexterity - all the fine marks are made by hand without other help. You also had to decide how you were going to deal with tonal gradations, just as with a pen and ink drawing - stipple effects, cross-hatching, lines of varying thickness and distance apart, parallel lines or lines following the contours, etc.

What did you like best/worst about scraperboard?

Angus Henry: I enjoy the crisp, clean finish when it is well done, and appreciate the ability to patch a bit when mistakes are made. It is also a comparatively easy medium to use compared to others like auto-lithography, wood blocks, engraving etc which are very unforgiving of errors.

Worst? If not well done looks very cheap; and like ALL art forms requiring precise manual skills it can be slow and tedious, as opposed to splashing paint on a canvas.

"Portrait of a Man" this is Maurice Chevalier,
the work is taken from a photograph,
the exercise was to translate a grey, blotty
photo into a crisp, attractive likeness.
Image Copyright © Angus Henry

Once mastered is it more or less time consuming than painting ?

Angus Henry: There is no simple answer - You could do a quick watercolour sketch in 20 minutes, the ceiling of the Sistine chapel took Michelangelo several years; a scraperboard would be somewhere in between!

Angus Henry Chronicles - Oils

2012-04-26T13:46:00.001-07:00

Angus Henry Chronicles Part 1 Oils | Part 2 Sgraffito

This is the first of a series of interviews done with my father Angus Henry. The series was first published in 2008 for the art site grandinferno.net as a feature for their contemporary art audience, it briefly detailed his history and experiences being raised in an artistically inclined family and shows some examples of his formal education in the classical graphic art disciplines of the era.

Angus Henry was born in 1934 in Uddingston, Scotland to Bill and Maud Henry. Bill being an artist himself and also a theatre producer and Maude being one of Britains leading ladies of the theatre of the day, my father found himself growing up in a creative environment.

Educated at the prestigious Hamilton Academy during his younger years he received a hard, intensive and thorough education before continuing on to the Glasgow School of Art from 1951 to 1955 graduating with a 4 year Diploma in Graphic Art (honours equivalent).

From this Angus went on to Jordanhill and West of Scotland Teachers College for the Secondary Graduate Teacher's Certificate to impart his art knowledge to others.

The first 2 years at art school were generalist art studies, which by todays educational standards would be considered quite intensive. Studies included drawing, painting, sculpture, modelling, architecture, history of costume, history of design, history of art, life drawing, silversmithing & jewellery, bookbinding, weaving etc.

The last two years were specialised in areas relevant to the qualification. Angus did Commercial and Graphic as it was the only one which required a high level pass in both design and craft skills AND in fine arts (I.e. drawing and painting); the course consisted of life drawing (compulsory all through art school), lettering, auto-lithography, hand type-setting, flat-bed printing, and all aspects of basic advertising and promotional design involving fine hand lettering, posters, labels, book jackets, advertisements, magazine illustrations, scraperboard, screen printing, linocutting, material montage, etc.

In this, the first installment of my father's work I have chosen 3 of his earliest oil paintings, created at the age of 17. This brief interview highlights some of the main points of interest behind these paintings.

Click Images to Enlarge

Early studies in real life Oil Paintings. Angus Henry at 17 years old.

Were these done as projects? If so what was the aim? What techniques or equipment were you required to use to accomplish the project?

Angus Henry: All three were just course work; the male model was an oil painting done in life class; the other two were still life set pieces done as homework; all in oils. We worked VERY long hours compared to Uni students. Classes from 9 am till about 5 pm and often evenings as well, besides assignments to be done at home. (Plus an hour each way on the bus every day.)

How long roughly would you have spent on each of these (if you can remember)?

Angus Henry: Anywhere between 3 and 8 hours roughly - the wee one with the bottle would have been the quickest. As they were done when I was 17 or 18 my memory is not too fresh!

Do you like working with oils for painting? If so why?

Angus Henry: I did - but I haven't painted for years. I liked it for the strength of colour and wide physical variety obtainable, from thin oil washes to thick impasto.

In your opinion are there any pro's or con's when working with oils?

Angus Henry: It is messy, with linseed oil and turpentine to mix with the paint (my old palette which hasn't been used for almost half a century still smells strongly of them. Very slow drying, unless you overdid the turpentine, in which case the work would dry out and start cracking in a few years. Since acrylics came in most effects achievable in oils are approximately achievable in acrylics and they are cleaner and faster drying.

You cannot get the same play of tint and light that you can with watercolour, but watercolour is a medium which depends almost entirely on a personal technique. My father did a lot of it, a few of my sketches are in it but I was never very enthusiastic. Gouache or poster paints (water based but solid colour, and not thick 3D like heavy oils or acrylic) are what most of our presentation design work was done in and I think the habit and training stuck, because it is the obvious choice for design projects like badges posters, etc.

Are there any insights into your early years of art that might be of interest to the casual observer?

Angus Henry: Can't think of anything as I am not either famous or a practising artist. I evidently had enough promise for Marc Chagall to ask my parents when I was about 10 to let me go and grow up with him and his wife in his studio in the south of France, but my parents said "no, finish your formal education first". Not being a bohemian by nature I think they were right.

When Lawmakers Lose Touch - Google vs ACCC

2012-04-04T16:30:00.000-07:00

Once again we see an example of just how out of touch the processes of law and national politics are with the social and technological dynamics of the internet today. The Australian Federal Court upheld an appeal by the ACCC against Google claiming that some advertising served by the technology giant were misleading and deceptive.

The argument I have with this accusation is on the basis of WHO did the misleading and deceiving? and therefore WHO should logically be accountable?

The Issue
Take a look at this admittedly crude example below. It is a rough mock-up of the way a served google AdWords ad might look to anyone searching Google for the keywords "Harvey World Travel".

CLICK ON THE DEMO 'AD' LINK BELOW AND TAKE NOTE OF WHERE IT TAKES YOU . . .

Harvey World Travel

www.harveyworld.com.au/

A national agency offering
travel news, & special offers!

Look how easy it would have been to insert links to their own site using competitors keywords for anyone marketing for STA Travel via the AdWords program. Being an HTML mockup it is not a perfect example of course, but I used these two companies as it is one of the very same examples the original case (which incidentally went in Googles favour) was based around.

Using the same example, this image below is actually a screenshot from within Google AdWords and shows how easily you could set that particular ad campaign up to mislead someone believing they were clicking on a competitors link.

Click to enlarge | Inside AdWords

Passing the Buck
The ACCC believes that Google should be responsible for the conduct of all users submitting ads on the internet via its adsense platform, and this is exactly where they lose touch. We are talking millions of users on a GLOBAL market. What is to stop an offshore company not under Australian jurisdiction from doing exactly the same. thing?

Ironic that the ACCC should be trying to pass off the responsibility burden to Google when the ACCC is, by their search listing on Google, an "Australian government organisation responsible for ensuring compliance with the Trade Practices Act 1974" (since renamed the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 on 1 Jan 2011) Should they not by their own values be the ones chasing up the individual Australian companies who are in breach by submitting misleading advertising?

The Flawed Argument
Let me pose some examples to you to highlight the flaw in the Federal Court's ruling and why they and the ACCC are now seen to have an inability to comprehend the scope of the global internet to you.

Yahoo and Hotmail the free web based email services, these are long time favorite contact mediums for low tech "419 Scams", the infamous email scams predominantly originating from Nigeria. If an email is sent by a scammer to a person who eventually loses money to that scam should the email system that carried that letter be held accountable for delivering that email in the first place?
For arguments sake lets simplify this even more and place this in a non-internet context that the ACCC and the Federal Court might be more inclined to understand. If a misleading letter, anti competitive in nature, which is found to be in breach of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 is sent via Australia Post and reported would the ACCC be fair in assuming that Australia Post as the carrier of that message is liable?
Craig Danvers wrote the analogy in laymens terms that also seems to fit the situation in this case ". . . the government builds us roads and allows us to each buy our own car, but if we speed on those roads should the government pay our fines? . . . "

I'm sure there could be plenty of debate about semantics in all of the above examples but my Australian readers will be well aware of the trending inability of our country's many lawmakers and politicians to understand both the technical and the social workings of the internet with ill conceived ideas such as the national internet filter and the gaming classifcation farce.

Small victories for common sense however such as iinet's win against AFACT still bring hope that perhaps all is not lost in an increasingly complex electronic world where the country's decision makers appear to be increasingly out of touch with the fact that they cannot control the internet except by regulations that are far more likely to censor and cripple its vast potential.

To my thinking it is the ACCC that should be taking the responsibility for Australian companies who they believe may be guilty of breaking the rules.*

* Updated information is provided that shows the ACCC holding Australian companies responsible for these types of actions. Thankyou to Lou for providing this link to a case article where the ACCC has taken trading post to court for misrepresentation using Adwords

URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCA/2011/1086.html

Maddison Ash Promo 2012

2012-03-29T15:53:00.001-07:00

Maddison Ash is well known around these parts now. After being discovered in early 2011 she has rocketed in popularity and had featured in her first nationally televised music video (She Brings The Rain) by the end of the year as well as rating a spot as one of the TEDA Babes in their 2012 calendar release.

This isn't the bubbly personality's first time in front of my lens and with the news that she has won a spot as presenter on Australian motorsports show HighRPM alongside me it looks like we will be working on a lot of projects together this season!

Maddison Ash Samples - Click to View

Sarah Clee Bridal Shoot

2012-03-12T14:34:00.004-07:00

Sarah Clee - It's not all hard work in the studio!

The wet season here in Darwin is definitely not the time for outdoor weddings by choice, that doesn't mean you can't do bridal style shoots indoors however, if you have some sort of area set aside for a studio.

Due to the seasonal extremes in the tropics I generally like to set aside a few months specifically for studio shoots and the past weekend I did the photography for a bridal theme with Darwin based MUA Insatiable Colour.

One of my favourite models Sarah Clee agreed to work with us in this one, but she's not really off the market guys, she's just modelling the style for us so no need to worry . . . . just yet.