Boy oh boy what another fantastic event the Benny Wills Gala night was!
It was as I predicted – full of fun, laughter and tears. This year was different the the time I photographed this event two years ago. Last time there was only one researcher working on a cure, with no progress, this year they have 9 researchers and have grown the tissues in the lab and have come up with a way to slow down the progress of the cancer. This is an amazing thing for the families effected by this and I hope progress continues.
I setup a studio photo booth at the back of the room with some props so people could swing past when I had my lights on and get a few rando snaps and boy I did get some great shots… lol
Some of the people that attended my studio photo booth to have a bit of fun.
There was of course a serious side to all of this with the formal part of the evening with the stories and pictures of the children displayed up on the big screen.
Research is vital
Listening to the stories and watching the raw emotion spill out over the floor was very touching and showed the personal effect it has one everyone.
Welcome the VIP’s
All in all I think it was a successful night and I cant wait for next years gala event where i will once again offer up my time for free to support such a cause.
If you want to have a look at all the photos of the night you can see them from the events menu on the left hand side of this screen.
NOTE: If you find yourself in them you have my full permission to download and use these images for your personal use. 🙂
As I iron my clothes, charge my batteries, format my memory cards and back my bags for tonight gala ball I ponder at what memories I will capture tonight. What people will I meet and what amazing stories will I hear.
The night is bound to be full of lots of laughter and tears for special young children that suffer from terminal brain cancer. As a father it is an emotional event to cover I know all the monies raised goes into finding a cure into something that strikes down the children in our community.
I must say my team seems to becoming the kings of covering gala and corporate events here in Canberra and with my team also traveling to Sydney and Melbourne we are gaining some very valuable skills and experience in this space, and not only do we do photography we also do live internet streaming of these events.
Tonight will be no exception as we will have a photographer and our vidographer at the event to ensure we capture as much as we can do the foundation can use every bit of it to give to their VIP’s while also allowing them to promote next years event and raise even more valuable money.
Whatever you are doing tonight and no matter where you are, take a moment to think of your loves ones… Hug them, tell them you love them and make the most of your time together as you never do know when they will be taken from your arms.
Before I start what I’d like to say if you can please share this post to not only create awareness but also get these images out to the people that participated in the ride as most would never even know I was there nor would they know that they can freely get access to these photos.!
Last weekend I covered the wall-to-wall motorcycle ride, this ride is a memorial ride the police that have been killed in duty.
Wall-to-wall remembrance ride
It’s an interesting ride as it starts many months before we each of the police Commissioners and over a wooden bat and tour rider for them to deliver it to the ceremony that is held at the police Memorial here in Canberra. Within each of these patterns is a scroll, this scroll holds the names of the officers that have been killed since the last memorial and it was nice to hear that none of these patterns contained any names.
Commissioners batton
The riders converge at our showground in the northern part of Canberra with a form up and create a massive convoy of bikes that is led by contingency of VIPs with their final destination at the police Memorial.
As part of the New South Wales contingency managed to strike a deal with Austin Martin and McLaren were they got to use one of their cars as a promotional vehicle with no cost to the police except for the registration and fuel costs associated with the vehicles being in the ride.
Austin MartinThe McLaren promotional vehicle for the wall-to-wallThe promotional McLaren used to create awareness for the wall-to-wall ride
As a motorcycle rider I also took the opportunity to write from here to Goldman to meet up with the New South Wales and ACT contingency and wow, what a group of people and what a collection of bikes.
I think by the end of it there were over 2000 motorcycles registered which is a great turnout and I must say a very impressive convoy to ride in. Anyone that has written in a group of bikes before should really put this on the list of things to do next year as it is fantastic and for a great cause.
Police escort for the wall-to-wall ride
At the memorial they held a brief service that lasted around 40 minutes with tributes to the fallen and the laying of the batons. It was an interesting collection of people I must say, to seem bikie is talking freely with the police Commissioners from around Australia was something of a clash in everything that I see and hear through the media, and it was great to hear their stories of mateship and how they can work together.
Wall-to-wall ceremony
watching some of these people places batons and looking into their eyes you can see the pain never fades, the loss of a loved one at any time is devastating that loan one that is taken for doing their job. A perfect example of this is a family that was there with their generations to remember their lost love one.
New South Wales police Commissioner Andrew Scipione with the family that had lost someone in the line of duty
As the memorial finished and people when about their way a lot took the opportunity to have a look over the names on the wall of remembrance and if you are in town to take some time to go have a look as it is a solemn wall just as the wall of remembrance at the Australian War Memorial is.
People showing their respects and looking at the names of the fallen on the wall of remembrance
If you want have a look at the photos you’ll find them by clicking on the events menu on the left-hand side of this page where you can freely download and keep a copy of any of the images for your personal use and give these away freely as a sign of respect on my way, be it small of giving something back to the people that sacrificed everything for our safety.
A portrait session I did some time ago where I got to capture a whole heap of new faces with some terrific looks and talent.
The original image of the image below was submitted to the client with limited amount of postprocessing as they required it to be as close to as shot as possible as it was being used for their assessment in their make-up course. Now me being me I tend to go back through my images and play around with different ideas and postprocessing and this is one of those images.
Photographing at the Canberra Makeup Academy for one of their assessment nights.
Boy what a week. Two major events completed in two different states, it took three of my photographers including myself and our assistant but WOW what a awesome week…… It was sooooo worth starting at 8 am and finishing way after midnight for almost the entire week.
Met a lot of really interesting people over the last week with one of them being Dave (Hughesy) Hughes as he was the MC at the iAwards and what a great entertainer he is. The crowd just loved him to bits and he kept the action going to schedule.
Mate!!!!!!! Just hanging with Dave (Hughesy) Hughes at the iAwards
I just love event photography as I always get to meet a whole heap of new people but at the iAwards I had the opportunity to also get to meet a heap of CIO’s and managing directors for companies like Microsoft, Intel, Optus, Telstra and Deloitte, along with a heap of small business owners.
With around 6000+ photos to work through from the event which should keep me out of trouble for a little bit – be it a day or so.
If you are looking for an event photographer for a major event drop us a line as we have the team that will ensure you get the shots even under the most difficult situations. It doesn’t matter to us where your event is as we do travel or how large or small it is as my team will size up or down as you need. 🙂
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