Community Football Wins

There were no winners or losers in the WAFFL second tier clash Swan Athletic vs. Kalamunda Saturday 18^th June, only the Community and the amateur game of Football won as the two sides fought out a memorable draw.

In an Emotional day that supported the “Luke Adams respect and responsibility Foundation “and  combined with the annual “Back to Ath” Past players day saw a crowd of 500 people descend on the McDonald Street oval and they were not disappointed.

On a day that saw rain in the earlier colts match and on a perfect playing surface the game pitted 3^rd against 4^th on the ladder and both sides knew full well the importance to their season in going home with a win.

Kalamunda seized the initiative and kicking with the aid of a 2 goal breeze bounced out by kicking the first 4 goals of the match, to lead by 23 points at the end of the first quarter.

Their clearance work was of the highest order and quick ball movement put the Swan Athletic defence under enormous pressure.

The second quarter saw the home side settle and begin to pick up the tempo and as a result the score had closed to 5 points by the time the half time siren sounded.

Kalamunda began the third term in the same fashion as the first and bounced out with determination and drive. At the 20 minute mark of the third quarter the visitors had opened a break of 36 points before the local boys hit back with two late goals that gave them some momentum and the big crowd some hope for a comeback with the breeze in the last stanza.

With a huge crowd around the Swan Athletic huddle urging the boys on, the last quarter began with Steve Qualigia and Jamie Pollock combining in the centre to set up a goal in the first minute of the quarter.

With Damon Pavlinovich in and under and Ben Kerr marshalling the defence the momentum had swung in favour of the home side.

A series of behinds then a fantastic long range set shot from Jeremy Polich saw the home side on the scoreboard 7 points in front with seconds left on the clock. A 50 m penalty in favour of Kalamunda saw late goal before the siren sounded sending the Swan Athletic team and home crowd into raptures thinking a 1 point victory was in their favour.

However a hush fell when the two goal umpires conferred and stalked to the scoreboard demanding an adjustment to the score by one extra points in Kalamunda’s favour.

Both teams finishing on 10 Goals 15 behinds each (75)

Best Players

Ben Kerr led from the front when his defence was being swamped in the first and third quarter.

Damon Pavlinovich: In only his second game of league since returning from injury was strong all day

James Sharman: does what James does best in defence strong on the tackle and committed to the contest

The colts suffered from inaccuracy and went down to a very good Kalamunda side

The reserves bounced back from being smashed by Kalamunda in the first round to record a solid victory.

This week’s fixture vs. Willetton at Burrendah reserve in a season defining game

Colts 10-30

Reserves 12-00 noon

League 2-30 p-m

One of the best parts of our work is being able to photograph the wonderful families that we meet. Families like the Brennans.

The Brennans are a beautiful family from the country town of Calingri (sort of around the Wheatbelt region if you are wondering). They requested a portrait session from me and I suggested that they do it on their property, which has some magical scenery. As the family was about to be separated for some time and they were unsure how the dynamics of the family would change, they decided now was the time to invest in a family portrait, and also since they hadn’t had one together for many years.

The Brennan’s farm is a couple of hours drive north of Perth, and in the lead up to the busy season we decided to go up for an overnight trip so we could fit in with their hectic work life. I took my wife and family with me and used the opportunity to introduce farm life to my children, who had a ball up there and absolutely loved it. I also did some documentary filming and photography around the property to document the lifestyle that this family leads. I will post the video soon so you can see they way they live on the farm.

Later in the afternoon we ventured down through the paddocks with Fiona (the Farmers Wife, as my kids call her) to look at some locations for the portraits. Then, once the workers had made their way in, we headed out for our portrait session. Unfortunately, because of the weather the canolas hadn’t quite taken off, and we missed out on those gorgeous yellow fields, so we tried a variety of other locations. As you can see, it was a wonderful idea to take the portraits on the farm. The background compliments this amazing family completely and they look so relaxed and at-home in their farm environment.

After a session in the wild radish and the surrounding area we decided to make a dash up the hill amongst the wheat as the sun began to set. The final images truly did not disappoint – they really captured the spirit of this beautiful family and we were able to get some fantastic images of them being themselves and living in the moment together.

Long before I started my career as a Professional Photographer I was a imaginative yet hopeless amateur photographer. Recently while helping my Dad clean out his shed I stumbled across some very interesting memories. One of these stored away with cobwebs and who knows what on it was my first and original SLR camera. yes this was the beast that started it all for me. Well kind of anyway. I'm not sure how old I was when I took my first photo or had my first camera, I could have been as little as 3 or 4, and I remember taking photos with a polaroid owned by my brother and with my point and shoot disposable 24 exposure camera on school camp. But this camera I guess was my beginning. I bought this Ricoh manual SLR camera for a modest $35 from a friend, thinking that it would turn my little passion into brilliance. I was 16 at the time and had no experience with SLR photography (This had a great deal to do with me mucking around in photography at school and being kicked out of the class – I will save that story for another day).
The first thing I did with my new camera was to get up before the sun one day. I rode my bike to a paddock in the swan valley which had an open view of the distant hills and where the sun would be rising from. As the sun came up I fired off a whole 18 shots of my 24 exposures. The final prints would be quiet mussing to look at compared to now as I had no idea of how to manually change the settings on the camera – That would come in time.
I persisted with Film for some years and when I began my plight as a professional photographer, and photographed my first wedding it was with a Canon film body. I think from memory I used 6 rolls of film for about 120 odd photographs. Wow how things have changed.
I was an early mover into the digital era. My first digital love was a Nikon with a HUGE 1.3 megapixel sensor. I later got myself a canon with a 4 megapixel sensor and thought it was the absolute stuff. My 6 year old son owns a 8.2 Megapixel Digital SLR and is proving himself to be a handy little photographer. he will have no idea of the massive shift we have seen since I first became involved in the industry. It will become folklore and legend.
Anyway I have posted a couple of images of what is remaining of my first SLR camera. If you still have yours post some images up so we can see where it all began for you.

Over the long weekend I had the chance for some much needed R&R (as shortlived as it might be). Even then its not a time to leave the camera behind. We gathered together as a family a couple of times over the weekend. My sister and her family came up from Bunbury and held a little birthday bash for their soon to be 3 year old son. At parties there is a lot of cameras around and plent of photographic opportunities. What I try to look for is those special, candid moments of expression and emotion that can illustrate the event and what people are feeling and experiencing. As my sister was rounding up her family to leave I caught this magic little moment when she kissed my baby goodbye. Our baby was being held by my Dad the proud Grandpop, and I hope you can see in this image the magic little moment they all shared. To me this memory is absolutlety “Priceless”PRICELESS”

One of the great things about owning expensive camera equipment for work, is that you can also have a good play around when you are not working and the boss won’t care.
In this coming year we are planning a lot more commercial style photographic work which also includes high definition video productions. To get some practice in I take my equipment out and Photograph the things around me that I do.
On this day I took my son Quad biking to a lot of vacant land. My daughter also came for the ride and so too did friend and wedding and portrait client of ours Tim. You may have already seen some of his Wedding Photos online.
Today was a little different and in between playing around on the bikes myself I was able to set up some still motion and action images. The boys did some poses for me and then they went about cutting up and even got off the ground a little for some jumps.
I carried pretty light for the day but still managed to take out my 2 camera bodies – Cannon 1DMK4 and 5DMK2. The lens used included a 70-200 f2.8 and a 35f1.4. I also carried some 580 EX speedlights and triggered them with my pocket wizards.
The images were processed all in camera raw with a couple of isolated adjustment, but otherwise they were just tweaked a little bit. By the way the little hoon on the red quad bike is my crazy 5 year old.
Hope you enjoy. Leave me a comment.

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This year we have been commissioned to travel to the furthermost place in Western Australia to Photograph a Wedding. We decided on the utilizing the opportunity to see some of regional WA and at the same time decided on offering our expertise to the country folk in the regioanl areas we pass through. During the month of July, August and September we will be travelling approximately 10,000 kilometres, we will be stopping in many of the regional towns andusing our new camper trailer as a shell on our back to provide us with comfort. By the way did I say that we are travelling together as a family. Thats right Myself, the Wife and the 3 kids and 72 days on the road. Wow this will  be experience and a half. while we are on the road we will be offering portrait sessions, commercial photography for businesses wanting to increase their profile look and will be offering short camera and photography courses and workshops for the community. As we are on a schedule we are encouraging people to book in early so that they don’t miss out on this occasion. Here is the brochure of our travel dates and some the sessions we are offering.

John & Louise were recommended to us by a friend of theirs who liked the natural style of our Photography. They are planning an intimate little Wedding in the coming months and were looking for a local Photographer to provide them with a comfortable experience on the Wedding day. They came and met with me in studio and found a wedding album package to suit their needs. We planned a pre Wedding Portrait session for them while John was back for a break from working on the mines. The pre Wedding portrait session is an ideal way to become more comfortable an familiar with your Wedding photographer and enables our clients to experience first hand what it is like to be Photographed by a professional and also a good preparation for the Wedding day. The other benefit is it allows our couples to become more comfortable together in front of our camera where they will spend a lot of time together on the Wedding day.

We decided on doing the portraits in a local national park which is quiet and cosy away from bustling crowds and has beautiful backgrounds and soft subtle light from the setting sun peering through the trees. Even though we knew on either side of us there were blazing fires in the rang of hills, we had no problem with smoke or smell.

Well John & Louise were very comfortable with each other and required little direction from  us at all as they shared laughs and smiles with each other during the portrait session. we were able to capture some beautiful little moments in our candid and natural style and both of them seemed to feel very comfortable in front of our cameras.

Here is a couple of sneak previews of the images from the day, we hope you guys enjoy them. Looking forward to Photographing their intimate casual Wedding soon. 

I thought I would show a preview of a beautiful little Wedding that we did just recently. We travelled South to the hills overlooking the Ferguson Valley. The location was Ferguson Farm Stay, a stunning little farm style location that will cater wonderfully for your Wedding celebrations. We arrived the day before the Wedding and it was breath-taking. We were able to gauge where the sun would be and come up with some exciting ideas for the Wedding day. This was the first time we had met the Bride, Kellie, and her groom to be, John. Previously we had done most of our corresponding and planning via email and phone – the joys of modern technology! This is quite common for us when dealing with country, interstate or international clients. The next day we travelled back to the Farm Stay for the Wedding. I didn’t get the greatest start to the day, however. I’d taken the kids fishing early that morning and managed to stab myself between my thumb and forefinger, but nevertheless I toughed it out and finished the day with some captivating images.

A lovely lady named Zurah brought her beautiful first born to us for our NEW baby Fusion (Video & Stills) collection. We spent a few hours filming her and she was absolutely divine. She is the total joy of her mother and is adored very much. For the session, we wanted it to have a natural look – a home life not a studio with lots of props. All the shooting was done with a Canon 1D mk 4 and the 5D mk2. The complete video will be ready for viewing soon. Baby Zidella is only 3 months old and show plenty of spirit and expression. This image of her facial when being held by her mum is a classic. We dressed her plainly and then had her just in a nappy so it could like she was just having fun in her own home – Just doing her thing. Well after a little while the little darling tired out and so we lay her down on the bed and wrapped a funky coloured scarfe around her. Her tone came to life as she lay peacefully sleeping on the bed. With beautiful skin tone and a lovely gentle light we were able to enhance the vibrant colours and also able to capture the moment in a subtle black & white print too. After a little nap, Zurah was able to take her daughter home for a peaceful afternoon. These session are mostly shot in the comfort of your own home.

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Bec & Bryan recently were engaged to be Married and after seeing some friends of theirs engagement Photos we had taken, they made contact for a similiar request. Bec & Bryan are friends on Facebook with Tim & Jess who’s Wedding we Photographed in the Swan Valley last year. We had taken them for some beautiful portraits some time earlier at Bells Rapids in the Swan valley.

When I contacted Bec about getting some portraits done, she also let me know that they are planning their Wedding at Ascot Quays later in the year and were looking at hiring a Wedding Photographer. This Pre Wedding portrait session really becomes important for both of us as it is a chance to show them my style and approach to Photography and of course what images I can produce in the end of the day. For the up coming Bride and Groom they get a chance to evaluate my Photography as well seeing if they feel comfortable with me when I have a camera in their faces, like I will on their Wedding day. The other thing it allows for is the couple to feel comfortable and natural with each other and I also get the opportunity to prepare them to pose naturally an candidly like we want them on the Wedding day. This is important as usually couples that come to us haven’t had professional Photographs together before.

For this session we chose a close location to home for each of us. This was the John Forrest national park in Swanview. After a quick get to know you and a short stroll to a quiet location, we set about to create some awesome images. Well Bec and Bryan were very suited to each other and we found some little gems from the session. As Bryan tells the story, Bec couldn’t wait for him to finally ask the question, so she hurried things along and asked him herself. Now they are planning a spring wedding later this year.

Some of the portraits were very natural and even stunning and showed some great little moments of joy and laughter between the couple. They are hoping to find a nice one for Bryan’s mother and possibly look at a signature print at the reception of their Wedding or a guest book with images from the day. That is of course if they like them. We hope they do.
Bryan and Bec later visited for a Wedding consultation interview and I must say were extremely patient as I had an awkard time of looking after my 3 kids including my grizzly little newborn. Thanks again guys.
Here is a sneak preview of the images from the session, with more to come shortly.

A much awaited new arrival, we were blessed with the safe arrival of our baby son at 10.55pm on the 11th of December 2011 after a very quick, 1 hour and 45 minute labour. He weighed in at 7 pounds and 4 ounces, sporting a full head of beautiful, thick black hair. His gender was a surprise because we’d been unable to see it at the ultrasound, and then he surprised us by being four days early (which is unheard of for us!). Within two minutes he’d had his first photo taken.

Our two children have fallen in love with him, and dote on him completely. They were absolutely thrilled to meet him for the first time, and they got to kiss and cuddle him, and hold him, much to their delight. They have adapted very well to the changes the new baby has brought into our family and are wonderful siblings.

Three months on, we have named him Jairom Michael James Desmond (pronounced Jy-rum). We are so proud and feel incredibly blessed to have another child in our family.