I recently shot the Belize 52 ft motor yacht, a luxury floating  “home away from home” that was finished to an exceptional standard.
Shooting boats in real time is always a challenge, the interior space is limited  which negates the usual lighting set up of conventional interiors and the boat is constantly moving when on the water which makes it tricky when you are doing longish exposures.

                                                    What makes it even more challenging is when the boat the camera is on is bobbing and moving in one direction and the boat you are photographing is doing the same in an opposite direction. Tripods and stabilization are next to useless under these circumstances, you simply have to rely on skill and timing to hit the shutter at the right time.

At night any boat comes to life on the water the reflections and light simply combine to create a vivid scene

Part of the brief from the client was to capture some of the finer trim and attention to detail that give this boat its distinctive class, we tried to capture at least one detail in every section of the boat.

He had set up a gallery displaying mostly landscape, he told me that for the bulk of his career he had shot what clients had told him to and he felt he was losing the passion for photography so he decided to start shooting for himself.  As he told me I could relate exactly to what he was saying. As commercial photographers we try our best to work with clients and photograph their product or service so it will tell or sell their story and I found in myself that to relax I would actually put the camera down and turn off from photography.  After talking with Michael I was determined from that point on to keep it in my hand when on holidays.

My wife and I are trekkers, our idea of a great holiday is to carry 24 kilo of food and equipment over a mountain range, preferably with no one else around, and I found this was the perfect escape for my personal photography, I don’t set out to create works of art I simply walk a trail slowly and allow nature to find me.

Sometimes I have to wait for some mist to clear or rain to stop and other times you simply look around and there it is. But the part I enjoy most of all is the silence or absences of man made noise. I can hear the wind or the water (be it running or falling) the sounds of nature, birds calling,  but nothing else.

We can sit there looking at a scene knowing that we’re the only people at that place and time to experience the show that nature gives us and that is what I try and shoot for myself, that is my photographic passion.
As odd as it sounds we try not to walk when the weather is good because that is when most people choose to walk, we look for the fringe seasons when the weather keeps people away but creates the mood, light and feel that I enjoy.

When I saw the print I was not sure where to start- it was damaged, the original was out of focus and faded but it was important to Dave. As we discussed what could be done he started to express his disappointment that he never had a good photograph with the boat under full sail and he showed me some smaller distant images where the yacht had different sail configurations.
I could tell in Dave that he had such a connection to this boat, it was a significant part of his life and these few faded photographs were all he had left and I  wanted to help him restore or recapture something from his past so between the two of us we started to rebuild his boat in Photoshop using details from different images and Dave’s recollection.

We started with the sails and rigging and literally used the original as a template to add the sail shape and detail including the stitching.

There was a “staysail” on the boat that was not set when the original was shot but we had a reference from a smaller image so we built that in at the same time

From there we simply used the original photo as a template to create new layers, building  rails, hull etc until we had the same shapes and scale that we could shape and blend to a new sharper image.

Looking at the background there was nothing to salvage, I asked where it was and he said it was in Baie de Prony in New Caledonia, I couldn’t believe it “ to quote Humphrey Bogart “of all the  towns in all the world” – I had shot a boat in that same location about 4 years ago, problem solved we had the original background or close enough to it.

For the photoshop junkies by the time we had rebuilt all of the ropes rails in  series of sub groups it had a total of 134 layers.

Mother Nature can be a kind old biddy at times, sometimes she can be an outright b#*ch, but when she works for you there is nothing more magic as a photographer to watch her perform. You quite often see the best of this in the cinema- Dances with Wolves is full of stunning lighting that special effects can never create.  The best I have seen is the closing scene of Ridleys Scotts  “The Duelist” with Harvey Keitel, Ridley must have done a good deed somewhere to get a one shot sequence that looks like it was crafted to the script…but I digress.

For me one of the keys for a good image is finding an angle or lighting that turns an average scene into something that people will either notice or want to experience. At some stage we have all stood somewhere thinking wow look at that and its the same with imaging. If what you show the average person has them turn the page or pass it by without a glance means the image isn’t working, but if you can introduce an element that has something different, a stopping power, then you have a professional image that has value.

This is a shot from the location recce done the week before.
The shot below is the same view but taken to optimise the contour of the land and highlight the foliage.

 This scene from Warner Lakes was shot during the initial  drive through and in itself is a good shot but only reflects what the residents see on a daily basis, the shot below  reflects what they experience and has the sort of stopping power a good image should encapsulate.

This shot is from another project in Port Douglas but was one of those ” Thank you God” moments- last day of a three day shoot and still did not have the money shot,  We were set up on this angle pre dawn and the weather was heavy cloud and flat with intermittent drizzle, the mountains in the background were obscured by cloud… and then it just happened! It lasted for 5 minutes and went back to crap. I sometimes tell clients I can’t get the shot unless I am there and this is an example, this shoot had been delayed multiple times because of bad weather forecasts and we eventually said lets go regardless and make it work one way or another.

Sub Penthouse before shot
Finished shot

Master Bedroom before shot
Finished shot

 Penthouse before shot
Finished shot

 Two Bedroom Suite before shot
Final shot

Shot for Riviera Marine

 Umbrella Advertising – Multiflow Pumps

 The Nikon AIPP Event- “Don’t miss it”

This is the original concept brief that I was presented with. In discussions with the agency the options of shooting at a different time of day or angle were discounted for reasons outside my control. I’m part of a team when I work for an agency hence have to work to the direction I am given.

The starting point was the base image of Sydney Harbor shot from the South Pylon lookout on the Harbor Bridge, this is where the reference shot (above) was also taken from.

Part of the brief was a cracked earth harbor floor and without a suitable image to use I decided to build my own model in our car-park, bags of dirt and clay make plenty of mud and a few days in the sun does the rest and while this gave me the base it was still a little too “outback” so I created a blending layer with sand shot at a nearby beach to give a bit more of a coastal feel.

From that point on it was a matter of trying to visualize what the harbor may look like once you pull the plug. I checked on Google but they had no images that went back to the last Ice age so for me it was simply a matter of looking at the surrounding  geography and visualizing where those lines may go.
Starting with the most obvious feature the Opera House sitting on “ Bennelong Point” I went back to nearby coastal features and looked at some headlands and grabbed a bit of a point on Stradbroke Island.

I slipped that under the Opera House and extended the seawall around the opera house so it looked as though it was reaching down to the point, in addition I added a bit of drainage run off at the same time. I have no idea if the storm water drains are there but I have seen them in other facilities in similar environments.

I used the same method for the entire harbor shore line adding or more so extending the harbor edge so it looked as though it was a very low tide. This uncovered some unanticipated issues that had to be resolved, there was a frigate moored at Garden Island. To resolve this I found some plans for hull design then recreated that in photoshop and blended with the above waterline image.

In Farm Cove, next to the Opera House they are constructing some over water decking so this too had to be extended below the waterline

Another aspect I considered was in any river valley there is still some indication of the stream and being an ex Sydney boy I knew that Tank Stream formed part of Circular Quay, to help create this I found features on a coastal beach that had, at a different scale, the style of receding stream that I could blend in to the existing harbor floor.

 Sydney Harbor is a busy place at the best of times and we decided with the agency that it should have some elements of distressed boating features without going over board
(pardon the pun), again visualizing what a boat might look like when it runs out of water. I shot some boats from appropriate angles (while I was shooting the base image) so they would look like they had settled at irregular angles on the harbor floor and included the dregs of the “Tank” stream that you see in dried out inland rivers. The jet boat was actually on the harbor the day I shot the base plate.

For the Photoshop junkies the layers count, including all layer groups, went into the triple figures.

 The end result….

To break from a traditional image of people riding the machine all smiles and arms in the air the venue wanted to create an image that simply got your attention without showing the ride it self. Roadside billboards have a very small window of time to grab your attention, extended copy is not viable so the image has to grab they eye.

The concept was this- Girl being attacked by a  Redback.

 It was agreed from the outset that the spider would be created as a 3D render, Design Solutions have a great in house artist and he created various versions until the final mechanical looking spider was created.

We discussed various ways of shooting or creating the effect of the girl falling or being pulled down by the spider. Paramount for all of us was safety and the concept of actually trying to shoot the model falling raised some OHS issues so we decided to do it as a construct, shoot a series of shots and combine the elements.

This video will show the process

Red Back Ride from Ross Eason on Vimeo.

Creating an image of a model falling from a series of static stills

And this is the end result

I have a strong view on philanthropic giving, we live in an incredibly lucky country and we have much to be thankful for. It is easy to complain and expect a lot from others but it is even easier to be complacent and expect others to help or give. I was inspired last year when so many people came out to physically help the flood victims of Queensland.

Buderim Foundation is a Philanthropic community based foundation ,we support it regularly with Pro Bono services as well as physical support where needed.

To promote a charity breakfast with  Governor Quentin Bryce

To support a charity art auction by local artist Anna Rubin

Bloomhill Cancer Care raised a little over $100,000 with a charity walk over the Kokoda Track

Hear and Say Centre imaging to support fundraising masquerade ball

Buderim Community Association, we supplied imaging for two cook books as part of ongoing fundraising for restoration of the Community Hall

The spa was set on hill overlooking the resort and from the owners perspective the outlook and the privacy the location offered were unique.

The spa is also used extensively for weddings and small conferencing as well so a sub set of imaging was shot for this market.

Although outside the original brief while I was there it was obvious the resort was missing an aspect of their product essential to their beach side location. As our practice is to try and add value to any assignment we set this shot up in a short period of time, the resort subsequently ran it as the front cover image on their brochure.