Filming has now wrapped on Terry Finocchiaro's latest short piece "Once Belonged" and it is currently in the post production phase.

This year I was asked to do the poster composites for the film so arranged a shoot with the 3 main cast members who will be appearing on the IMDB cover.

The lighting was in place already so I thought I may as well grab a few head shots for promo while they were all there.

Below are the Black/White samples from the 3 main actors in the production.  Amie Smith (Sandra), Sam Pini(Anna) and appearing in his second role for Sienna productions is Giacomo Pandini (Nat)

It will be a few months yet before the film is ready for the independent circuit, it is in the final stages of packaging to send ready to have the musical score composed and written for it.

From L-R Sam Pini, Giacomo Pandini, Amie Smith















The film's IMDB stub is up for anyone keeping an eye out for updates, you can find it at this link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3769184

A Royal Australian Air Force KC-30A sits on the tarmac at Darwin - Pitch Black 2014

While the recent Pitch Black exercises were a great display of fast military aircraft and a spotters haven for a whole bunch of aviation enthusiasts with ridiculously long range lenses I found myself snapping off photos that were just too similar to a lot of other images I could see populating the same social media feeds I was posting in.  Although there were some obvious styling differences in the use of natural light direction and settings tricks that I have picked up from doing motorsports photography the angles and composition were very much the same.

Wanting to be able to share something different I jumped at the opportunity to get on base and slow the shooting process down.  I wanted to get plenty of detail that would hold up under scrutiny when zoomed on a computer screen or TV rather than just glanced at on a mobile device.  I also get a kick out of people saying they've printed one of my free releases so of course I was going to go for something high-res too.

All of the images I had seen from Pitch Black this year were single frame shots, resolution is limited by the maximum possible pixels the camera will handle ... enter the panorama. The KC-30A tanker was a perfect subject for this, it's long and relatively large.   I stood back a fair distance and used the 70-200 zoomed fully in to avoid too much distortion around the edges of each shot.  Oriented portrait till I could fit in the tail meant plenty of details would be picked up on a zoom.  In all seven portrait shots were stiched together to achieve this shot.

It is available totally free for download and may be shared freely to friends or on the web : http://goo.gl/kvNvhL

The faces of  Maclean Motorsport L to R - LeAnne Noelle Key, April Vaughan & Alexx Mudd

The Maclean Motorsport Girls are a familiar site for anyone that has been to the Hidden Valley drag strip to watch a major meeting (or watched it televised). When the girls come out they are a sure sign that the fastest cars are about to make an appearance.

Long before you hear the roar of the Top Alcohol Funny Car the girls are on the track as the promotional face of the racing team, representing their sponsors and adding to the incredible spectacle that always goes hand in hand with the 'big boys' of drag racing.

 I caught up with the girls to get some promotional team shots for Maclean Motorsport at the 2014 ANDRA Drag Racing Series, this year the line-up of Alexx Mudd and LeAnne Noelle Key also included Monster Energy girl and regular Zoo model April Vaughan.



Stay tuned because I will have another shoot with April Vaughan, one on one in the studio being published very soon.

Mindil Beach comes alive with the public fireworks display on Territory Day 2014

Territory Day, for most of us locals it's about the fireworks.  It means a great deal more of course, Territory Day marks the Northern Territory's anniversary of self-governance, it is also a day we welcome new citizens as they pledge their commitment to become fellow Australians citizens in a citizenship ceremony.  As a photographer though, the bits I like to capture are obvious, besides flashy shiny things catch my eye!  Who could help it?

Sky divers open the festivities at the Mindil beach display by dropping in with the Territory Flag - photo +Auki Henry