Portrait of a Bodybuilder - Daniel S.

Had a great time photographing a bodybuilder - Daniel. This is the result of two years of dedication, tough exercise and dietary regimes, lots of chicken, tuna and eggs. Well done Dan!

Shot at the Doherty's Gym at Flinder Street, Melbourne, a location studio setup with Lastolite background, one strobe light, rectangular soft-box and flash as remote slave. The challenging part of the shoot was carrying everything to the location. Despite the backdrop was mounted on the window frame and there was some light penetrating the muslin, the strobes were strong enough to flood that.

Here is the final results. Enjoy!

Doherty's Gym with Daniel S. in B&W

Here is Black and White Edition of the Body Builder, Daniel S. shoot at the famous Deherty's Gym in the CBD at Flinders Street, Melbourne.

Doherty's Gym with Daniel S. in Colour

Here are several pics of Body Builder, Daniel S. taken at the Doherty's Gym in the Melbourne City at Flinders Street, in colour. 

Australian Formula One Grand Prix 2011

Excuse me for not writing in chronological order. Anyway, went to the Australian Grand Prix sponsored by my employer and AT&T Williams which gave me access to their corporate box. What a fantastic experience!

I have been to the race before, on a Friday, the Formula 1 practice day. With general admission, that is without access to grand stands and pit lane and corporate areas, tickets are fairly cheap. This time, it is a Thursday, which unfortunately is not even a practice day hence there was no F1 action on the track. Anyway, we did get to do a pit lane walk and was even able to get just into the Williams team area without actually getting into the garage. One more thing, it was a really rainy day also! -_-;

Photographically, unless you have a media pass, I think I prefer to be on the ground where I can find some higher vantage point or gaps in the walls where I can get clear view of the cars and the track. The corporate box, which right on top of the pit lane, is all behind fence and even the roof is still not high enough to get over the fence. Unless you really want pit lane actions, otherwise it won't impress.

Enjoy! :)

Here is the Williams team garage.


View of the Ferrari pit lane from the roof. They spend lots of time practising pit stop that day.



I hid in the Loreal tent for a while when it was bucketing down dogs and cats. Thank you so much for letting me in and the show bag. Apart from the Infallible range for products for women, Loreal has a strong focus on men as well this year. For example, the Loreal Hypdra-Power Skin Energizing Gel Cleanser which claims to invigorate skin and deep cleans. It does work!! I tried it myself! :D



I hope this doesn't mean I am old. I really like the second car in particular, so sleek! :)





Not sure if my judgement is influenced by Transformers.. I quite like the Chevy Camaro. May be the same applies to the trucks also.. At least I can get close to these team trucks. ...No, they did not transform on the day but I am sure they can! :D

Pink Ribbon Day - Water Polo Match

What a fantastic privilege I had to photograph at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) on Pink Ribbon Day, for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Thank you very much Stacey!

This year, several Victorian Water Polo clubs joined forces to help raise funds for breast cancer research, prevention and support services in an effort to acknowledge and support the many fine female athletes this great sport encompasses.

I don't do much sports photography. So, this was an amazing opportunity to develop skills and contribute to a very worthy and important cause.

On top of the water polo matches, one of the biggest star on the day was the Hummer limo. It is the biggest Hummer in the world and it has to be pink for Pink Ribbon Day!

Needless to say, it looked awesome outside as well as inside. Just to name a couple, it has two large flat screens, laser lights everywhere including the floor and sits 24 people. Check this out for more information.

Overlooking the city skyline, the MSAC is a pretty special place!

I was very impressed by the power and accuracy of the athletes.



It can get pretty wild out there!





Amazing how far they can leap out of the water! I had to duck several times while standing behind the goalie. :P

FIFA World Cup 2010 - Theatrical

Pretty disgusted with some of the theatrical soccer fakes this year in the FIFA World Cup 2010.

In particular, by the sending off of Brazilian great Kaka after Ivory Coast's Abdelkader Keita wildly exaggerated the impact of a little shove by Kaka, falling to the ground clutching his head...

Shame! Shame!! SHAME!!!

Here is my little canine friend's interpretation of the act - peeping with one eye watching what "score" the referee would award him for his performance!

Personally, I think the almost automatic yellow and sometime red card penalty to the accused is encouraging these cheats.

I suggest this new rule: The poor injured player/victim who falls to the ground, covering his face, leg, foot, whatever, crying in agony is sent off on a stretcher for a compulsory injury time of 20 minutes. The offender is given a yellow or red card or a word of caution per the referee's discretion. If the victim miraclously recovers, jumps up and lands on to his two feets, then "Carry On!" and no card is issued.

What do you think?

2009 Corporate Dragon Boat Challenge

With 10 companies participating, at the water front of Docklands, on a beautiful 27 degrees day with the hot sun shaded by light clouds and a light cool breeze, it was a wonderful day to have a dragon boat race!

I have never participated in one... not that I actually took part to row this time around, but doing my thing with the camera. It was an amazing event for me personally and ironically because I originally come from Hong Kong where dragon boat race is a seasonal event! :P

It was a short course of about 2 minutes run, 20 rowers in the boat working with a drummer in front and a steerman at the back.

The team from NAB, called the NAB P&C Pirates, was 24 people strong, most if not all first timers who knew little about dragon boat. All they had was one training lesson on Monday, by the international dragon boat commentator, Jonathan Mayne (inset with our beautiful drummer, Kate), for an hour or so and then another hour just before the actual race 2 days later (Wednesday, 25 November 2009).

Last year, NAB came last in this race... Therefore, this year, everyone turned up not expecting much, with minds set on having a good time, and a good old Aussie attitude of, having a fair go.

To everybody's surprise, the Pirates came first in the first heat! And then again, NAB came first again in the second heat coming up with a combined time good enough to be in the final! Already on cloud 9, NAB didn't lose sight of the goal and saw a glimpse of the glory, it surprised everyone, perhaps apart from the trainer Jonathan Mayne (who told me he saw something special when he met the team), the Pirates once again produced an amazingly strong final performance and came out second, just 3.16s behind the race winner BECA, proudly taking out the second prize!

What a fantastic achievement! Well done!!

(Despite the petite size of our drummer, Kate, this girl can shout! I can only hear her from the other end of the pier as all the teams sped down the course.)

This fantastic result came albeit some very strong competitors in the race, namely BECA that trains regularly and competitively in this sport.

Here are a few frames of the 4 finalists crossing the finish line. You can just see the tail of BECA on the left side of the frame. Look at how close the 2nd, 3rd and 4th were! NAB Pirates on lane 3, KBR on lane 1 came aggreesively from behind towards the end to overtake Lend Lease on lane 4 and took out 3rd place leaving Lend Lease in 4th place.



Click here to find out more about Jonnathan Mayne. FYI, he has 38 Australian Championships under his belt todate and is the corporate event director of Dragon Boats Victoria. What an incredible man!

As I research for links and information about Jonathan Mayne, I found out Jonathan is a Christian. He attributed some of his success to his patient and encouraging attitude.

“I've been Australian champion many times, been to the Olympics, travelled the world, even got taken to a church service in an aeroplane once. Being a Christian is never boring. If you know deep in your heart that God loves you and you're forgiven, it brings with it a whole new world in that God loves you just as you are.”

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 37:23, "If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm"

Merry Christmas

Christmas has finally arrived! Happy Birthday Lord Jesus! Merry Christmas everyone. Wish you a joyous Christmas and a blessed new year.

Sorry, been working hard on the new project, StarBank R2 so there is no updates until now... on Christmas day itself... :P Anyway, I will try and share a few more pics taken lately.

First one is from NAB Technology Christmas party at the Telstra Dome. I already posted some just before but couldn't resist to post these two lovely santas as well.

Taken at the team Christmas lunch... No, we didn't just have beer for lunch. We had Pure Blonde, Stella, Hahn and Cascade. I prefer Pure Blonde, Cascade is great as well. Lots of chicken pieces from Nados (yummy and I wiped the grease off on the camera hand-grip), salads (sorry, I didn't try any), pizzas from Pepperoni's, chips (from Nandos as well), Krispy Kreme - they were called Kringle Kringle that day, wine and soft drinks.

Thank you Becky for organising the Kris Kringle with a twist. Actually, I wanted those little Japanese plates too.

Did you know that Kris Kringle is an Americanised pronunciation and spelling of Christkindl, which is Austrian or German for the Christ Child, who brought gifts to children on Christmas Eve. Christkindl is depicted as a child riding a mule and was believed to enter homes through keyholes. The presents must be very small...

To shed some of the calories we piled on over lunch, some of us went to... well, practically the front lawn of our building to play Bocce. Thank God they don't have crawls and sharp teeths. Agree John?