Brendan Maunder Photography – Page 3 – Event and Portrait Photographer

Blog

What Is In A Badge????

When you own a Ferrari, it’s not about how hot the car is, the deep rumble from the exhaust as your accelerate away, nor the way the people stop and stare as your drive past…. It is all about the badge… 🙂

It is interesting when you photograph things like Ferrari’s, BMW’s, jewelry, watches, etc, things that have been photographed thousands of times before.

How do you make it look special?
How do you bring the feeling and passion to what is just an object?
How to you stir the feelings that are deep down inside of people looking that something they already know and understand?
How do you take a photo of something that has gazillion photos of it already and make it look new???

For me, the answer is in the lighting, composition, and just going outside of the box. 🙂

Ferrari Badge

The lines and shape of things can say a lot. Capture them.

When shooting things you have to make sure you get a variety of shots. I start with the basics to ensure I get the shot and then move onto other ideas once I know I have the images in the bag.

The Love And The Passion That is Farrari

The Love And The Passion That is Ferrari

Using a bit of darkness can put a bit of mystery into a shot and make the viewer’s mind work a bit harder keeping them drawn into the image longer.

Darkness can be your friend

In the next two images, I changed my camera settings so that the subjects in the background were our of focus while the subject in the front was in focus. This brings the attention to the subject. I could have focused on the person at the rear to blur the person at the front to give the same result.

Shallow depth of field brings the attention to different subjects.

Product photography, when mixed with portraits, can be a very effective way to get your products out there. If you want to know more drop me a message. My details can be found on my contact page.

Don’t Let The Rain Scare You!

A lot of photographers run away from the rain and the dark clouds. I am not one of them. The drama in the clouds the extra saturation in the landscape and the clean air always make for fantastic photos…..

Sure you might get wet but we are not made of sugar and you will survive.

The dark clouds formed and the rain started to come down so I jumped on the bike to chase the light like you only can on a BMW RR 1000s super sports bike and I must say I love the results. <3

So next time when the rain starts so falling go hunting for great photo ops… you will be surprised where you will find them.

BMW RR1000S in the rain enjoying the sunset

Ferrari’s are HOT!!!!

What a freaking awesome shoot today… Man, it was amazing… I had two super hot models, with outfits that were amazing, makeup that was on point like you wouldn’t believe and a freaking super hot Ferrari…..

The best thing is that I also had the photographic gods on my side as they gave me lots of cloud cover to get some really stunning images. <3

Here is just one of the heap of portrait and car images we captured. I know you are going to love it as much as I do.

Ferrari Couple

If you are looking at getting married or just after a one of a kind photo shoot like this, drop me a line from my contact page. 🙂

Wow look at the weather!!

After a few weeks of on and off, rain and the days getting cooler it is great to have a day where the sun in shining and the air as still the sun is bright.

What are you waiting for???? Get out there!!!!!! Let the sun touch your skin and breath deep to take in the world around you….. Oh and don’t forget to take photos. 🙂

Breath Deep And Take in The Fresh Air

Dark To Light and Light To Dark

One of the great things I love about shooting sunsets and sunrises is that they are always changing but still the same. They bring their own feeling to the shot and the random formations that the clouds and sun bring is always mesmerizes.

The darkness is so close to the light but everything is still visible and to be able to have such contrast next to each other is truly beautiful and breathtaking……. To think most people don’t even release this is just outside their door or window and all they need to do is to stop and take a few minutes to watch this and I must say, for me seeing this puts life back into perspective.

What will tonight’s sunset bring and are you ready to watch it?

Light To Dark

The Light Within The Storm

Hey, can you see that…. Yes that my friends is the end of the year fast approaching and boy what a year it has been.

This time of the year can be very stressful for a lot of people for many reasons but let me just say that within ever storm there is light and the sunshine at the other end. So as we get into the silly season do take some time out to think of others. <3

This photo was taken looking over Lake Burley Griffin here in Canberra after a light storm rolled through the area a bit before. It is made up of about 40 individual images to give this final image.

All my images are for sale and can be found on my on-line store and if you want to learn how to take these types of photos I conduct a one-on-one workshop and will be posting up a few workshops over the Christmas break so stay tuned.

Sunshine through the storm

Brought To You By..

Tonight’s sunset while it is lacking clouds it is has a feeling of a new beginning which fits tonight’s sponsor as tonight’s sunset is brought to you by…..

There goes another weekend as tomorrow is the start of another working week for those of you that work Monday to Friday. 🙂

Hope you are having a great Sunday night and getting in some relaxation before its back to work.

Do you have anything planned for the week ahead?

End of another weekend sunset

Oh So Many Posts In One Day…

Yeah, I know I don’t want to overload you guys with post but WOW….

Look at this sunset!!!!! Fair dinkum it is freaking awesome. Man, I just love this time of year. It is warm but not hot, you can have your doors and windows open and don’t need air conditioning but the best part is are the sunsets. They are truly spectacular!!!!!

WOW – What a sunset???

Nailed It!

A weeeeee bit ago I was doing a fashion photo shoot, while the model was getting changed I thought I would give this modeling thing a try and you know what???????

I think I nailed it!!!

What do you think?

Where photographer tries to be a fashion model.

Hey Did You Catch The Sunset On Monday?

If you didn’t catch it I did and here it is.

What do you think?

Worth the wait?

Want more?

Do you have any shots that you want to share?

Monday Sunset

Well That Ends Another Weekend

As the sun sets on this Sunday night I empty my cameras, recharge my batteries and relax.

It has been a busy few weeks, busy with lots of behind the scenes things so it was nice to just chill out and take in the beauty of the world that is around us.

Chill Sunset

Cancer Doesn’t Kill Anybody!

The amazing and fantastic thing about cancer is that no one actually cares until it kills a loved one, and then they seem to care.

I would almost think it’s hard to believe in this day and age and certainly, as you get older that you have not met or been touched by someone that has been lost to this deadly and unforgiving disease. Cancer doesn’t care whether you are black, white, Christian, Muslim, American, male, or female. Cancer will take your life, it will take the life of your loved ones and it will take the life of the people you know. It is unforgiving it is the black plague of our society and kills thousands of people every year.

There are different variations of cancer as we all know and each of these has different degrees of severity and in left untreated, they will all take your life.

Tomorrow is pink ribbon Day, this is a day that brings awareness to breast cancer to encourage people to get checked and also self-check. It is also a day of fundraising which I must say and it should go without saying it is more important now than ever.

Yesterday in Canberra the motorcycle community banded together as they do around the world to support this cause. They gathered at old Parliament house and road to Bungendore while raising much-needed funds along the way. While I didn’t attend this event I have friends which did and I also have friends which are suffering from cancer which also rode in this event and it was great to hear the fun that these people had in banding together to support such a cause.

So if you can do one thing tomorrow bring awareness to breast cancer and in particular pink ribbon Day. Go to work dressed in pink, by a ribbon or just open up a conversation that hopefully will encourage people to get checked.

Help us to reach a goal and fight cancer and help us to kick cancers arse because without your help it will take the life of someone you love.

Pink Ribbon Day

Strange Birthday Party and Birthday Party Lights.

I must say as an event photographer that gets to also travel where ever the events are, I attend all sorts of parties but yesterday was a first for me. While it was a party it wasn’t for anyone but for the 1st birthday of FRoC (Female Riders of Canberra).

These are a bunch of motorcycle riders that just wanted to have a club for the ladies and it was their first birthday yesterday so why not get a portrait photographer to come along and get photos of the ladies with their bikes as a way to celebrate?

So that is what I did. 🙂

This shoot was different, though. I knew the ladies wanted to get shots with their bikes and I know they would want the best lighting possible and I knew that my largest softbox was only 90cm x 90cm that is great for single or couple shots it isn’t really big enough for things like people and bikes unless I gang a few of them together.

Having done that a heap I wanted to avoid it as it brings in its only problems and as I also want to start to photograph the larger object or using a single light source I bit the bullet and bought a new 190cm Elinchrom Litemotiv and to say it is huge is an understatement.

Elinchrom Litemotiv 190cm used to photograph multiple motorbikes in full midday sun.

It is fair to say after using it for this shoot and the amount of light and quality that this pushes out in full midday sun, this is now a valuable part of my portrait and event arsenal.

Throwing my assistant in to be my model while setup the lights.

As you can see from the image above there is very little shadow and it is almost impossible to see any bright patches on the grass from the massive 190cm Octa. Very nice I must say.

Some more playing with this new softbox is on the card in the coming weeks to see where I can push it, which I will add should be a lot of fun. 🙂

What’s The Time?

Talking with a client today about product photography got me all inspired to whip out the lights and one of my watches for the sole purpose to photograph it and produce this little video for you. So sit back for the next 60 seconds and enjoy the excitement that is post processing a watch. 🙂

Do make sure you watch the video or boy oh boy you will be missing out big time.. hahahahaha Ok Ok Ok I have almost drawn out all my time/watch jokes but watch this space as I can get one last one in here just in the nick of time.

Quick watch edit

RIP Max “Tangles” Walker

Today Australia is morning the lose of an Australian legend – Mr Max “Tangles” Walker. He was one of our best cricket bowlers in the 1970’s and although I am not really into much sports as an adult, I have fond memories watching cricket as a kid as it not only kept us off the streets but allowed for mate ship and bonds to grow that were and are life long.

Well today he bowled his last ball and is now an umpire in the great cricket pitch in the sky.

He was one of the boys and a real Aussie block even after spending nearly all his life in the spot light in cricket and then TV broadcasting. He had an infectious smile and a personality made everyone turn their heads when he entered the room.

Cheers to you big fella, may your eternal life be filled with hat tricks and you be surrounded by golden ducks. 🙂

Max “Tangles” Walker and I

Boy that was fun….

A day in the sun chasing the riders down that were participating in this years Distinguished Gentleman Ride, leap frogging them along the route from Fyshwick, up to Black Mountain, then off to the National Arboretum and then for a quick stop into the Governor Generals residence to say a quick hello to his excellency, General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd). I must add what sort of an event photographer would I be if I didn’t let him get a photo with me. 🙂

It was a great turn out with the Canberra ride raising $30,000 – Everyone should be very proud.

His Excellency, General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) taking time out to get a photo with your truly.

Canberra Australia – 25th of September 2016. The distinguished gentleman ride is sponsored by triumph and was held on a sunny day here in Canberra. This is a charity ride, whether riders pay to participate with all funds going to prostate cancer research. It started off in Fyshwick ACT progressed to Black Mountain, National Arboretum and onto the governors generals residence before the riders headed off to the Kingston hotel for Raffles and an afternoon drink.

Riders brief before we leave.

Not sure what the names mean but I feel there is some importance there

Government House in Canberra – His Excellency, General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd)

Canberra Australia – 25th of September 2016. The distinguished gentleman ride is sponsored by triumph and was held on a sunny day here in Canberra. This is a charity ride, whether riders pay to participate with all funds going to prostate cancer research. It started off in Fyshwick ACT progressed to Black Mountain, National Arboretum and onto the governors generals residence before the riders headed off to the Kingston hotel for Raffles and an afternoon drink.

Calling All Distinguished Gentlemen

Well it looks like it is time to get my stuff ready to once again photograph the DGR (Distinguished Gentlemen s Ride) here in Canberra. It is one of those events that is not only a fantastic photo opportunity but you get to see some of the crazy outfits and bikes that I am sure only come out of the shed this one day of the year.

Last year it was filled with lots of dapper and class so I expect this year to be the same. For anyone that wants to come along it starts off at Joes Motorcycle in Fyshwick for breaky and then they head for a casual and gentlemen like ride around town before ending at the Kingston pub where things kind of lose the dapper. lol

If you see me wondering around slinging a camera of two, say hello and I will promise to get your photo. 🙂

Canberra Australia - 27th of September 2015. The distinguished gentleman is ride sponsored by triumph was held on a sunny day here in Canberra. This is a charity ride, whether writers pay to participate with all funds going to prostate cancer research. It started off in Braddon ACT progressed to the National Arboretum and then on to mount Stromlo roo group photo was taken before the writers headed off to the Kingston hotel for Raffles and an afternoon drink.

The distinguished gentleman ride

Say Goodbye to the Snow!

I would love to hear what you think of this image?

With the onset of spring and hopefully warmer weather, it’s a great time to go back to process some of the images I captured over the colder months.

This photo was taken as the sun was rising and hitting the Brindabella mountains as seen from my backyard.

The whole week was cold but not quite cold enough to get snow here in Canberra but it was cold enough to keep a good dusting of snow as you can see.

Snowcapped Brindabella mountains

I figured if I can edit this photo I may as well record it so you guys can get to see the process and hopefully it will help you to improve not only a landscape photography but also your post processing.

Of course, if you want to learn more about landscape photography and post-processing keep an eye out for my workshops or send me an email.

Now onto the weekend. 🙂

New Bulbs Will Help!

You ever get that feeling when you are out on location shooting and your studio lights stop doing that flash and POP thing that you have grown to love????

I have and it’s not a nice feeling especially when you have people standing in front of said studio light waiting for the blinding flash…

Lucky for me (ok ok ok not really luck but more planning as I like to be prepared for just about anything and have a backup plan for my backup plan) I have backup lights so I can swap them out for new ones. 🙂

The trick to this little plan is that you have buy replacement bulbs and when they are 200$ each you tend to put it off for as long as you can. So with the splash of 800$ I now can replace my old bulbs and have some spare as a backup plan. 🙂

All I can say due to the cost of each of these bulbs I am glad they last more than a few shots.

Elinchrom Replacement Bulbs

Put Your Hands Up If You Love Gala Events and Conferences!!!!

I think it goes without saying that my team and I love Gala dinners. 🙂

Once again we had the opportunity to photograph the state iAwards Gala dinners and had the pleasure to photograph the national iAwards and Gala Dinner for AIIA (Australian Information Industry Association) at the MCEC (Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center) which included the conference during the day dedicated towards innovation.

National iAwards 2016 – One of the great parts about my job is I get to follow leaders in lots of industries and on the odd occasions I get photos with them.

2015 was a great event and this year did not disappoint, if I was being honest I think this year was better. 🙂

I don’t know about you but where else do you find the industry leaders in the ICT take time out of their busy days to talk about innovation? I must add I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the major supporter again for this year was the Victoria government. Too bad the rest of the country doesn’t follow their lead and start coming up with real plans on expanding our ICT capability through innovation.

National iAwards 2016 – The other two members of our team taking peoples photos before the Gala Dinner.

My teams day started at 8am when we started packing our gear and heading over to the MCEC from our hotel room which I must admit wasn’t that far as we stayed at the Hilton which is effectively the same building as the MCEC so it was a short elevator lift down to level one. 🙂

National iAwards 2016

This year we decided to do things a little different and instead of processing the images after the event one of the team would post process them on site and have them ready for the iAwards organizers to use for social media, while myself and my other photographer covered the different area of the event. In general it seemed to work well with images come from the photographers and moving through post with not many issues which was nice.

National iAwards 2016 – Me photographing the handing our of the the awards

As the day moved through the conference, VIP lunches and into the Gala dinner my team sat back for a bit to take stock of the day so far and I think it is fair to say that not only were we having a blast but the information that was shared with the people that attended the day was outstanding. I think we all had a new appreciation for innovation and some of the amazing things that are happening in the ICT industry across the nation. very very cool.

National iAwards 2016 – Do you think they have enough screens?

The break in the event also meant that it was time to setup the portable studio against the media wall before all the crowds flocked in as we were setting up in the reception and pre-gala drinks area which is nice as we attract a heap of people to get their photos take. 🙂

Last year we had David Huey “Hueys” as the MC, this year we had the please of photographing Shane Jacobson www.shanejacobson.com.au (aka Kenny – The Dunny man) and without sounding a bit biased I can say he is really a great bloke. Not only did I get to photograph him on stage but I followed him around chatting and watching him interact with the people that attended the Gala dinner. He was more than willing an open to make everyone feel at home and was super dooper accommodating to my photographic needs. One of which is a selfie with me. 😉

National iAwards 2016 – Get down low and go, go, go

The night went off without a hitch…. oh… that was until the got to the pointy end where the person that won the $50,000 prize money had already left for the evening as she had a 6am flight. hahahahahahaha Someone in the audience had her number so Shane was trying to get her on the phone to let her know….. but no answer.

National iAwards 2016 – The team

Talking with Shane after we were both bummed that the winner didn’t answer as that would of a hoot to get her on the phone and add to was already was a very entertaining night. Oh well. They did get in touch with her and she did come back for her official photos.

National iAwards 2016

Well we knocked off a bit after midnight, went back to the hotel room to process the media photos for the 6am deadline which only took me until 4am as the post processing during the day saved many hours.

National iAwards 2016 – Having a bit of fun with Shane Jacobson while a video was running in the background.

At the end of what was a 20 hour day it was time to hit the sack and wake up early to pack up and head home. My other photographer go a flight out at 6am so I said good bye to him at 3am so he could get to the airport. 🙂

National iAwards 2016 – Packed house and WOW what a room and setup.

Lets bring on the after party… hahahaha

National iAwards 2016

I have to admit the lighting and the volume that these lights have was fantastic. The give sooooo much feel to the room and for a room this size it was a mighty feat to get them to be so effective without fogging out the entire room.

National iAwards 2016 – After party band

At the end off all that it was time to have a nap and that my friends is the day in the life of a corporate conference and gala event photographer. 🙂

‹ Prev 1 234 5 6 Next ›Last »