Mark Greenmantle Photography

With laws and restrictions constantly on the rise against photographers, we’re finding work hindered by new legal or social issues every month. Take a read of the following links, and if you can, take action against the worsening trends that affect working photographers.

A rally against new restrictive laws will take place near Campbell Cove in Sydney Harbour on Sunday, 29 August, 2010 between 10 a.m. and 12 noon. Photographers are encouraged to turn up with tripods and cameras to protest against the treatment received when photographing in a public domain.

http://www.artsfreedomaustralia.com/blog/

http://www.photoreview.com.au/news/events/aipp-joins-arts-freedom-rally.aspx

Ken Duncan is selling shirts for the rally: http://www.kenduncan.com/index.php/product?code=TAFA-XL

Sinar has announced the ‘p-slr’ system that allows DSLR owners use their camera bodies as digital backs with the company’s view camera system via an adapter.  This would allow for greater perspective control for architectural imagery for DSLR users than is currently available via the standard Canon or Nikon tilt/shift lenses.  Shown below is a D3 mounted on the Sinar system.
Announced to be shipped stateside and in the EU this August, unsure however on availability in Australia for the time being. Definitely going to be landing in my wish list for commercial photography tools.

Sinar DLSR adapter for about $2,096.09 AUD

I previously posted that Northern Brisbane Rollers have their next roller derby bout on August 14th but it’s actually a whole LOT better than that!

The NBR Diner Might Dolls and Love Rockettes are in for a big one! Brisbane City Rollers and Gold Coast Roller Derby have come to the party in a MASSIVE double header!

Saturday, August 14 sees the Diner Might Dolls take on Brisbane City Rollers. While the Love Rockettes challenge Gold Coast Roller Derby. Doors open at 6pm.
Tickets go on sale this week. Available at www.ticketek.com.au
STAY TUNED DERBY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Make sure you click attending at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=105322579522814&ref=mf

Nearly 200 photos from the previous bout are currently on my facebook gallery for the event. Watching the derby players tag each other has been almost as fun as taking the shots.  The inter-team camaraderie is very entertaining.  Stay tuned for the best all girl full contact roller sports, Greg Morgan and I will be shooting for Northern Brisbane Rollers again so give me a yell if you’d like to arrange shots with the team on the night.

Northern Brisbane Rollers Roller Derby Bout #3 at The Brisbane Convention Centre

There’s been a plugin available for WordPress that allows bookings to be made via the website and the advanced versions allow for Paypal payments and lots of customization.  The point of it is of course to make the call to action easier and safer for my photographic clients. I want to of course ensure that this process is done securely and with the greatest of ease.  Give the calendar a try, it’s currently only a form of easy contact that shows bookings and no payments are available. Should this version work securely, I will consider purchasing the version with Paypal integration and more suitable customization.

To kick this into gear, I’ll take 20% off regular bookings until the end of May. (Wedding photography prices and commercial photography are always calculated case by case depending on client needs or licencing)

Don’t hesitate to enjoy this discount, book a family portrait, model folio, pet photography or band shoot now!

History Alive is coming up surprisingly soon.

For those who have yet to attend, you’ve been missing out. History Alive is a multi-period re-enactment event where in one weekend you can watch battles and tournaments on the field from over 2000 years. The location, Fort Lytton. MAP HERE.

I’ve been running the photographic team for the last few years at HA and each year I try to capture something a little different.
Here’s the flyer for this year’s event. Click on the flyer to see the HA home page.

Adobe CS5 is officially released Tuesday, can’t wait to see the new features!!
I am only posting from the android tonight so I will wait till tomorrow to post up some pics.

It’s been a huge week at work at Diglab and the madness of Easter has fallen upon us again. I do wish I’d taken the camera with us today as Violet and I stopped in to visit family and it turned into a massive feast with family I don’t get often chance to visit.  The four days off though are certainly welcome and gave me a little time to share some random shots of late. Enjoy.   =)

I’d love to retire my main gig lens, the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 sometime in the next year and Nikon have FINALLY given us something worth spending the cash on.

from: http://www.photoreview.com.au/Nikon/reviews/cameraaccessories/afs-nikkor-24mm-f14g-ed-lens.aspx
Claimed as one of ‘the most hotly anticipated lenses in recent memory’, the new AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G ED lens has been designed for professional reportage and landscape photography. With its large maximum aperture and wide field of view, it features a new optical design that provides high image quality, minimal distortion and excellent edge-to-corner sharpness, especially at wider aperture settings

Thank you Nikon, it’s been a long wait for this beastie!

Mark Greenmantle Photography is now viewable via your mobile device. I’m still testing the different code for functionality and style but the essentials are (for now) up and running.

In other news, I’m looking forward to seeing the advances to Adobe Creative Suite when the shiny new CS5 is released in October this year. Fingers crossed that we might be able to test the beta version at Digilab Professional where it would certainly get a very good workout. Recently the newest version of Adobe Lightroom 3 beta2 was released for testing and it’s certainly winning me over, despite what seems to be a memory problem or gremlin in the code. My work copy had an issue with my Wacom drivers and other Adobe forum users reported the need to update drivers. Oddly though, I was using the latest Wacom driver. Using identical system setup here at home I’ve had less hassles and use the same drivers. *shrug* It’s a beta, these things are expected. Available here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/

Keen to hear anyone else’s experiences with Lightroom bugs using the new beta. And here’re a few photos:

Apologies for the long hiatus from posting on here. A month ago I started work at Digilab Professional and am now kept very busy as production manager there. I’ll be back to posting shots on here fairly soon.