Events

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Hungry?

As a photographer, you often run all day, ending up rushing into the next MD just to get something in your stomach. Not so if you shoot for the Gold Box Restaurant Challenge. I was invited to fly to Mackay Queensland to be part of another of their exciting events, and the food was amazing!

A feast for eyes & stomach…

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Nikon Super GP

Last weekend I took the brand new Nikon D3s for a spin at the Nikon SuperGP on the Gold Coast. What a camera… pretty impressive, I must say! I will post some hands-on reviews of this amazing new camera soon. Before hand, for more information, visit the Nikon D3s Miro-Site.

Instead of posting just a few shots from the event, I thought, I’ll put a little video together…

Even better, watch it on YouTube in HQ and full size.

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

Female and Nuyou
Longest Orchard Catwalk ’09

Yesterday, I was invited to shoot at the Female and Nuyou Longest Orchard Catwalk ’09 on Singapore’s famous Orchard Road.

The Female and Nuyou Longest Orchard Catwalk ’09 (organised by SPH Magazines) is Singapore’s longest catwalk, and was held to kickstart Orchard Reloaded, a brand positioning campaign by Orchard Road Business Association in partnership with Singapore Press Holdings, and supported by Singapore Tourism Board.

Over 70 international models presented the latest fashion from DKNY, GAP, Banana Republic, Jimmy Choo, Diesel Blackgold and Coach. This is the seventh year that the two leading Singapore fashion & beauty magazines – Female and Nuyou – are holding their signature catwalk collections event. Following the success of last years event at Changi Airport, yesterdays 163 meter long catwalk along Singapore’s busiest shopping belt, Orchard Road, has clearly set yet another milestone.

A big Thank You to the entire team from SPH Magazines for the friendly invitation to your fantastic event!

SPH Magazines Online: www.sph.com.sg
Female Magazine Online: www.femalemag.com.sg

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Quiksilver Pro

As promised last week, here are a few impressions from the Quiksilver Pro Surf Championships.

Gear: Nikon D3X, Nikon 600mm F4.

Monday, March 9th, 2009

Day On The Beach

While shooting events like the surf championships, I love to turn the camera away from the official action once in a while. I like these “behind the scenes” shots, they complete the story.

Here are a few of these impressions from the  Quiksilver Pro event: Two boys following the action from a wall, a camouflaged photographer (click to see the entire image), a boy eager to learn how to surf, a surfboard ready for action and a happy dog, sprinting up and down the beach, following the surfers in the water…

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

Roxy Pro Surf Championships

Over the next few days, I will be shooting at the Roxy Pro Surf Championships on the Gold Coast.
Here are a few impressions from today’s competition…

Gear: Nikon D3X, Nikon 600mm F4.

Friday, March 6th, 2009

D3X goes Surfing

Over the last few days I’ve been shooting at the Quiksilver Pro and Roxy Pro International Surf Championships at Duranbah Beach and Snapper Rock, Australia (I’ll be sharing some of the shots from these events in a separate post).

For these events, NPS (Nikon Professional Services) have sent me a brand-new Nikon D3X, to try out…

If you’re a Nikon Insider and know your cameras, you might ask: “Why use a D3X for sport?“. The answer is easy: “To truly test a camera, you have to push it to its limits“.

The D3X has produced amazing images in the studio, 24.5 mega-pixels with impressive colours and contrast. This makes the D3X a brilliant candidate for studio work (fashion, still-life etc) as well as landscape photography. For sport however, the D3 is faster (frames per second) and has a better high-ISO performance, and for any night shoot, stadium- or indoor event, the D3 remains unbeatable. For a day event however, the extra pixels of the D3X can produce amazing results, and as I rather anticipate the moment than to shoot in burst, I had an absolute blast shooting with the D3X today. The amount of spray, water drops and fine detail i was able to capture during these surf championships is simply astounding.

Is the D3X worth the price tag? I guess, if you ask this question, you’re probably not the right candidate for this camera. If you are a pro fashion shooter, you’ll have this beast paid with the next assignment, and you will enjoy the advantages (and ease-of-use) of a DSLR with the resolution of a medium format camera. For me personally, the D3 remains my favourite as an all-around body, however I must admit, I am very impressed by the details this camera captures!

I’d like to thank Robert and his team from NPS (Nikon Professional Services) Australia for their continuous support. You do a terrific job, and I truly appreciate it. Thank you!

Photo above:
Shooting at Roxy Pro. Photo by Mohan Mali (website).

Photos below:
L: D3X test shot: “Moon” (Gold Coast, late afternoon)
C: Explaining the feature of the D3X at Quiksilver Pro (Photo by Mohan Mali)
R: Another photo of me at Quiksilver Pro (Photo by Mohan Mali)

Gear: Nikon D3X with Nikon 600mm F4, Hoodman Loupe (hanging on Manfrotto Tripod), and – very hightech – a no-brand towel for sun protection (not fancy, but effective).

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Federer, Nadal & Co.

After the first few days at the Australian Open in Melbourne, it is time to update my blog and share some of the shots from the last couple of days.

While walking from Rod Laver Arena to Hisense Arena, a spectator asked me, how much fun and how much stress it is to cover such an event. The simple answer is: Taking photos is always fun for me, regardless of the stress involved. What might make the Australian Open more stressful than other events are the long hours and the miles you have to cover, to see it all. Beside the 3 main courts (Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena and Margaret Court Arena), there are 21 more courts at Melbourne park, and especially in the first few days, several top-seeded players are playing simultaneously on various courts.

On Monday, I arrived at Melbourne Park at 9:30, to meet with my friends at NPS (Nikon Professional Services), play started at 11 with Andy Roddick (USA) at Rod Laver Arena and closed after midnight with Roger Federer‘s win against Andreas Seppi from Italy. Back at the hotel at around 1:30, it was time to upload (and backup!) all images of the day to the laptop, make initial selections, enter meta-data and keywords, headlines and captions, then upload the “money-shots” to the various agencies and international publishers. At 4:45 it was time to hit the sack. Day 1 of 14.

As a summary of the last few days, I covered the matches of:
Roger Federer (SUI), Rafael Nadal (ESP), Andy Murray (GBR), Andy Roddick (USA), Novak Djokovic (SRB), Marat Safin (RUS), Ana Ivanovic (SRB), Jelena Jankovic(SRB), Dinara Safina (RUS), Daniela Hantuchova (SVK), Serena Williams (USA) and the Australians Lleyton Hewitt, Jelena Dokic, Samantha Stosur and Casey Dellacqua.

Here are a few of the shots (some thumbnails include more than 1 image):