Well what a year it’s been.

Full of ups and downs, learning curves and experiences that will forever change our lives.

PHILIP BLOOM TOUR DOWNUNDER

We started the year with a bang. Meeting once again, filming and hanging with Philip Bloom and the team which included Ric Creaser if the Pin mic heritage. Truly an honour and a super nice bunch of guys…. and girl (Sarah) Cheers. We learnt first hand the importance of shooting, editing and distributing a piece within a 48hr period as explained quite honestly by Philip to our member and editor for this project, Ben Sengsouvanh.

Please see the video we produced.
Philip Bloom Tour 2012

 FACEBOOK PAGE

Next was the creation of our private facebook page which allowed us to talk and ask questions without broadcasting it to the entire world, Direct Tweeting each other as some of us don’t use Twitter and some don’t answer mobile texts.

This was setup by Caspian Kai Pantea and has been an invaluable tool for the club so thank you Caspian.

This has also allowed us to get some perspective on some difficult shoots and to vent our frustrations.

GRADUATES

A special mention has to go out to Ben Sengsouvanh from Crisp Media Productions which he runs with another of our members Kenny Nguyen along with some others.

Ben recently graduated with a Masters in Film and Video/Masters of Arts (Creative Enterprises) and has recently taken a position at PurpleMonkey shooting weddings in the weekends.

We are super proud of his accomplishment and since graduating has been busy writing, shooting and editing short films, one of which was with one of our earliest members, Rob Easton a true technician.

So I guess we could call Ben the ‘Master of Arts’.

TOP SECRET MISSIONS

There is one member who will remain nameless that has actually appeared on 60minutes and flown to Africa to assist in reducing the senseless killing of Rhinos and Elephants for their Ivory in order to allow some inferiority complexed, tiny penised man have better sex….or something like that. Really I never.

That aside this founding member has made me very proud to be his friend. He is too generous with his time and I owe a great deal to him. We have had our ups and downs but I still love him even though he prefers women….haha gotcha.

OVERSEAS IMPORTS

Finally we were privileged enough this year to shoot Pausefest 2012…..and meet Samuel Richards a veteren (old) of 20 years as a sound recordist in NZ. It’s been great to have met him and I have had the pleasure of working with him on a couple of corporate jobs as a soundy/B camera.

So Kia Ora Bro.

This was MelbourneDSLR 2012.

Philip Bloom Aussie Tour

Facebook Page update

www.melbournedslr.com – The Website

4in1 Documentary competition

Gear review Channel

Pausefest 2012

Graduations

New Members

Saving the World

Beers and Meetups….

Your best camera is the one you have on you

Things will be changing for MelbourneDSLR shortly and for the better for all involved.

We will be introducing member profile pages, contributors, clients, videos and photo galleries.

It will be used as a database for members and users to find crew and ultimately allow us all to get work.

I will be using it as my video page and I’ll be encouraging others to do the same.

We will be grateful to Joseph and Ben who built this site to build these great additions and Caspian to continue with the graphics and animations.

There will more information on this shortly so stay tuned.

Cheers

Aaron Maguire

The digital age is upon us however I still prefer the old school world of film for certain jobs – Street photography for one…actually just street photography.

Digital photography has it’s place and I use it in my business for the quick turn-around projects and my filming work but when it comes to information in a photograph or resolution and quality, nothing beats film for the money.

I own a Mamiya RB67 and a Fujifilm GA645Zi.

These medium format cameras take spectacular photos with super sharp lenses and cost around the $500-$600 mark. The equivalent digital medium format camera would be something like the Pentax 645D for $13k.

Film photography in Australia is highway robbery compared to the US. To get a roll of 120 film processed and scanned onto disc costs upward of $40 in Melbourne compared to $12 in New York. On a recent trip to New York I was astounded at the cost of everything film. It really encouraged me to shoot so I did. About 15 rolls in 7 days. Unfortunately I returned with about 7 rolls still to be processed. I may have to invest in a 120 film scanner and a light box. It’s really sad that this is happening here.

Shooting with film can be scary when you first start out or like me pick it up again. Not being able to immediate review my photos was initially scary but I soon calmed down and now it’s like xmas time when I go and pick them up. If my roll has 30% keepers, I’m happy.

You need to have patience  when shooting film. Knowing your settings; light, f stop, shutter speed and composition need to be right, not perfect but right for what you want. Processing your own films will allow even more control but I’m not about to go there.

Film photography takes you to a quiet place. You can sit for a while waiting for that shot and people see you with a big, strange camera and leave you alone. It’s strange. The bigger and uglier your camera is, the more anonymity you possess. (although while in New York the phrase of the day by camera-geeks was ‘what kind of camera is that?’).

So if you’re thinking about getting a new camera and you’ve thought about film…do it. It teaches you respect and patience and appreciation for photography.

Don’t get me wrong, I love shooting with my Canon 7D and iPhone4. I shot all my holiday picks on my iPhone4, edited in the Camera+ app and uploaded to rave reviews on Facebook and Twitter but there were some medium format shots in there too which actually blew people away. The sad thing is they never knew it was taken with a Fujifilm GA645Zi until I told them.

FIGHT TO KEEP THE FILM ALIVE.

Cheers

Aaron Maguire

Four Paws is a highly successful dog obedience school and the brainchild of Trish Harris and her husband Stuart. They meet rain hail or snow in the west of Melbourne every saturday morning with their dedicated crew of qualified trainers.

I met Stuart when he managed the Sunshine branch of Petstock, a large chain of pet stores. I walked in one day and said ‘I shoot pets, need any photos done’? I had limited knowledge of how to work a camera and had heard people say, ‘never work with children or animals’ Since that first meeting I have made myself the regular photographer at Petstock even though Stuart doesn’t manage it anymore.

I approached Trish one day and asked if I could pop by one saturday to shoot some pets in their natural surroundings. Since then I’ve been named the Invisible Photographer by the way I fly in and out without people knowing. It helps having a 640mm lens. I shoot on my 7d with my 70-200mm i L series lens with a 2x extender which allows me to get in close whilst being about 60m away.

More recently I’ve joined up with SmugMug to sell my photos. The site seems to work really well and the support is excellent.

I’m not a web designer and even struggle with some tech talk specs about cameras and lenses however I manage to take a good photo which pleases people and myself which is the main thing to me.

In conclusion it’s been great to know Trish and Stuart and the team at Four Paws. They have really welcomed me into their team and push my photos on their Facebook page.

If you’re starting out and want to shoot animals at events, simply contact the organisers, set up a cost effective service and a way in which you can get your name out there. My way might not work for you as I’ve learnt from my competitors.

Good luck.

Aaron Maguire