Nikon

I am honoured to be a Nikon Ambassador and SanDisk Extreme Team member.

I make my living as an Australian based motion picture stills photographer. I've worked on many films such as The Matrix, Ghost Rider, The Mummy, Mission Impossible and The Bourne films. My photographs have been used on movie posters, billboards, TV commercials, magazines and newspapers all around the world.

After an early career in photojournalism my motion picture career kicked off in small Australian TV shows and movie productions. I now work daily on big budget sets with Hollywood's A-List of motion picture studio's, producers, directors and actors.

My first paid photography job was as a Darkroom technician at the Sunday Times Newspaper in Perth. On September 22 1981 I began my professional career as a cadet at the Sunday Times in Perth. It was part of our training that we had to do an external photography course for one day a week. I was kicked out just after the introduction when the teacher told me there was no room for a photographer like me in his class after telling him I wanted to be a war photographer when asked what style of photography I wished to pursue. I always seemed to be in trouble and I was so scared when I had to go back to the newspaper and tell my boss. I can still see the proud look on his face when I told him the reason I was told not to return! 2 weeks later I won the Australian Cadet Photographer of the year award.

I spent the next decade in Newspapers with Postings in Brisbane, Hong Kong and London before moving back to Australia and making the move to motion picture still photography.

If you are starting out make sure you experiment and don't dwell on the execution too much, after a while you will find that as you and your Nikon become better friends things like framing, lighting and background will just fall into place organically. I envy the enthusiast because they have photography purely for fun!

Oh and I am one hell of a Nikon fanboy and owe my career and life style to her!

I do have quite the kit...

In the old days of film I used to carry several of the same model body for continuity, now with Digital I have several different Body models that I use for different purposes similar to how we used a combination of Lenses and Film Stock.

I mainly shoot action films mostly in very low light so shutter speed is my governing factor, I love the look I get from shooting Ultra fast primes at f/1.8 and f/2 so it's not an impediment on my style, it actually is my style but It also means it is imperative I shoot the best Glass Nikon manufacture.

The D3 is my work horse, my D300 I shoot when I need DX crop and DX lenses like the 18-200 vr, my D700 is my lightweight kit, underwater body and blimp body and my D90 is my constant companion and emergency backup should any of my gear go missing during shipping. In addition to a smorgasbord of fast primes I also carry a 400 2.8 vr, 14-24 2.8, 24-70 2.8, 70-200 vr 2.8.

My favourite lens Nikon has ever made is my 85 1.4, I pull her out of my case any opportunity I get.