Ada Nicodemou with Christian Bowman

Friday night was the big night in Australia and New Zealand for the Not-For-Profit sector. I was invited to document this event by the PR Manager for the Not-For-Profit Network in Shane Tyler Greaves, who was is a colleague of mine. This was the inaugural awards and red carpet event at Warner Brothers Movie World on the Gold Coast.

Awards highlighted and recognised the achievements of not-for-profit organisations, people and projects over the past 12 months.

“Hollywood on the Gold Coast” was looking spectaular, with an empty theme park and a large red carpet at the entry for all the guests. However the rain had set in and made the grand entry less than ideal, especially for the media group.

I took 2 others who were part of my team, and due to the short notice, I decided I’d give video interviewing a stab. Bianca and Marc, who I both waterski with came down to film and shoot with me at this event.

Check out the event photography Bianca and I took down on the gold coast here.

Barry Crocker with Christian Bowman

This event attracted several high profile celebrities including Ada Nicodemou, Barry Crocker, Angry Anderson, Cosima De Vito, Andrew Mercado, Paula Duncan, Diana Anaid, Luda Kroiter, Oliver Pineda, Nerida Lee, Mike Kerry, Lynn Santer, and co-hosts of “The Shak” Kendal “Picasso” Nagorcka and Beau “Nitro” Walker plus many more.

I caught up with some of the celebrities as they came down the red carpet, and asked them a few questions about their support for not-for-profit events.

I then challenged them in a thumb wrestle on-camera for a bit of fun.

Cosima De Vito with Christian Bowman

This is the first time I’ve done on-camera interviews other than my podcasts, it was great fun and next time I’ll do my research!!!

See the video interviews with Angry Anderson, Ada Nicodemou, Paula Duncan, Cosima De Vito plus Kendal Nagorcka and Beau Walker below:

Kendal “Picasso” Nagorcka and Beau “Nitro” Walker with Christian Bowman Angry Anderson with Christian Bowman Ada Nicodemou with Christian Bowman Paula Duncan with Christian Bowman Cosima De Vito with Christian Bowman

On Sunday, I filmed the beautiful Romanian wedding of Sorin & Persida. Held at the Romanian Penticostal Church, we then did the photoshoot at Roma Street parklands and UQ St Lucia. The reception was at Victoria Park Golf Complex where they had more than 200 guests in the ballroom there.

It was a long day for me, starting at 7:30am, I didn’t finish until 11:30pm. As I was only contracted to film, Sorin’s brother Emmanual from Truly Yours Productions is doing the post production. Emmanual did an amazing photo slideshow, which was presented during the reception, I have no doubts he’ll do an amazing job on his brother’s wedding video. I got about 6 hours of acquired footage.

The photo above was taken with my new Nokia n95 smartphone which features a 5 megapixel digital camera. I don’t think its going to replace my digital slr kit just yet

This is the third Romanian wedding I’ve done, at all three they were extremely hospitable which makes the length of the job less of an issue. I look forward to my next one.

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I will be managing several initiatives, I could tell you what they are exactly, but then i’d have to kill you! Yeah but nah. I will be working with achaeus to create some innovative web marketing campaigns.

I withdrew an application to be web content manager with Catholic Education in which I had progressed past the 1st round of interviews to work for Achaeus. Gail Geronimos from Achaeus has some exciting ideas and I believe I can unleash my true potential as an online communicator with her knowledge and network of resources. I look forward to utilising my skills and 6 years of web experience to do some exciting things there.

My office is in Fortitude Valley, a really nice and relaxed environment inside with a nice view of wickham terrace and china town. Looks like i’ll be eating a lot of asian food yay!

Wish me luck!

Today I completed uploaded the new site design for the project I’ve been working on, the RSPCA World for pets online store. There were a number of issues with the original site which meant we weren’t converting enough of our customers. Whilst we thought the site was ok, we really needed to take it up a level in terms of visual design, and in particular, front page accessibility. If, for example, you just want to browse for products suited to your type of pet, in the past you would have to just browse though each of the categories of the products to get to where you want. Now you have the option of clicking on direct links to your pet type, RSPCA merchandise and the search bar is now nice and big to make it more user friendly. I’ve increased the size of all the text in the stylesheet to be at least double in size. Also, the colours are now more RSPCA oriented instead of the orange and green look of the old.

As before, our resources on this project are extremely limited, but we are all working hard to make the site of a high standard and we always appreciate any feedback to help our endeavours.

This might sound weird, but I actually feel like I’m more interested to buy from the site now even though I’ve been working on this for so long. Neo (my cat), has a lot to look forward to this Christmas.

This is the last weekend before christmas that we can guarantee delivery in time to be wrapped and put under the Christmas tree. If there are products that you may have seen elsewhere and really want, please contact us via the site and we can help you out with any enquiry.

Oh, I’ve updated a lot of the photos on the site, in particular the large one of Dan’s Golden Retriever ( Link) on the front page and Cass’ Manx kitten (Napoleon) on the Cat page, which have some tag lines I came up with. I actually have to credit Paul Cherry from Poker.com for the one for Link on the dog page, the others are mine. I wanted the taglines to highlight the fact that customers are not just buying products from a pet store, but instead from an animal welfare organisation. I wanted to make it known that ALL of it is for the animals, it is they who benefit from all our efforts at RSPCA.

Feel free to email me at cbowman@rspcaqld.org.au if you have any enquiries regarding the RSPCA World for Pets online store.

The fashion highlight this week in Brisbane, was the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Fashion Design Graduate Show. I attended the second show of three, which was a packed house at QUT’s creative industries precinct in “The Block” at Kelvin Grove. The events started on November 22 and conclude on the 24th. If you wish to find out more information about attending the last event, get more information here. View the Fashion Photography photos I took here.

This event is a showcase of the work of students from the only Fashion degree in QLD. The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Fashion) program has had great success over the years where some students having gone on to win renowned competitions nationally and internationally.

There was a combination of Womenswear, Menswear and Swimwear on show. The highlight for me in terms of presentation was the Oliver Twist theme shown by one of the students, where the models/actors put on a bit of a show for the audience.

I got myself a cosy spot at the back left in front of the catwalk, where I was shooting from an elevated position to try and shoot over the heads of those in the front row. Once again I shot without a flash, using an 85mm on Canon 20D. This gave me an effective reach of about 136mm which was ideal. The down lights over the stage caused some shadow to occur in the model’s eye sockets. Not much I can do about this besides use a flash, which I rarely want to do. Feel free to check out the photos in my Fashion Photo Gallery.

There were a few models working that night I had done photoshoots with, they included Kristin Parkinson (whom also modelled at the Swimwear from Oz launch party), Diana Rodriquez and Carmen James, all of who are part of the Vivien’s Models agency.

Make sure you check out the photos and let me know what you think. If you say something nice, I’ll send you one of the yummy snakes I got in the goody bags from the night… only yellow ones left.

Braving the cold winds which swept through the city on an unusually cold night for this time of year, Swimwear from Oz items were shown on the catwalk. The host of the night was David “Lutzy” Lutterall from Nova 106.9 FM, who showed keen support for the new swimwear label.

If you have seen some of the photos I did for Carly Faragher, you would recognise the model above, her name is Kristin Parkinson and she is a model for Vivien’s Models.

Marieke has set up an online store where you can purchase these items, support Australian fashion and check them out here – Swimwear from Oz.

Here is a photo of Marieke and myself. Secretely I wanted to challenge her to a dog paddle race at the pool… Where she dog paddles and I sprint down the side of the pool.. hold on.. I just saw her times for her backstroke, maybe she should dog paddle one handed haha.. Anyways in summary – Swimwear from Oz – it’s all in the name.

Here are some photos I took of Brisbane model Jess Ellis in my photo studio and at some locations around Brisbane city, including on Bowen Terrace at New Farm in front of the Storey Bridge, and behind Stamford Plaza along the Brisbane River.

This was my first shoot with my Canon 5D and my new favourite lens the Canon 85mm 1.8 USM lens. This combination is fantastic for portrait photos and it has provided me with the sharpest photos i’ve taken yet.

Anyways, I’d love to hear some opinions and comments about this shoot.

Last night I attended the Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE (MSIT) Fashion – Graduation Parade at the Coffee Club Pavillion, RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. I was a silver sponsor for this event and was also one of the media photographers shooting on the night. It was a massive turn-out of about 800 people, including 100 VIP guests. Erin McNaught, Miss Universe Australia and runner-up for the crown this year was the host and was looking stunning as per usual.

The parade’s features included swimwear, evening wear, mens, childrens wear etc. There were a few crowd pleasers such as Penelope Bell’s venetian blind skirt which flips from white to a pattern with a swift movent of a cord. There was also the amazing presentation of childrens wear from Ebony de Souza, with kids in fun bright colours bouncing down the catwalk.The whole event seem to be very well organised and well presented, a tribute to the MSIT’s direction and passion for Fashion in QLD.

Just like the modaitalia event, I was the only one not shooting with a flash and this time I was the only one not using a zoom lens, I was using my “nifty fifty” 50mm 1.8 prime lens. There were a few shots I took which were a little soft, but on a whole I got some great natural shots without resorting to using a flash and having harsh shadows in the background. Using the 50mm prime also gave me some extra sharpness and natural angles.

The fashion photos for the Graduation Parade 2006 may be viewed here. These photos are also available for purchase either individually or as a complete set on CD. Please email me if you wish to purchase any photos.

Today I did a photoshoot for Erin Cash of Sweat Diva, an Activewear fashion label in Brisbane. These are to replace some photos on the website and will also be used for an upcoming catalogue. Check out the photos here in my Fashion Photo Gallery.

This shoot was done at about 12pm in the middle of the day. Whilst we got some good shade near the Sweat Depot (Brisbane’s Northside), which is where Erin’s fitness studio is, the sun did move to an undesirable position towards the end. You will notice that in some of the shots I got few harsh shadows the highights.

I used the 50mm 1.8 lens on a Canon 20D for this shoot, definately my favourite portrait lens on the 20D.

The models for the shoot were Johanna and Angie. Both girls are part of the All-Australian Million Dollar Babes cabaret show. It was fun working with them both, the photos you see in my gallery are mostly untouched in terms of photo manipulation, only colour and levels were adjusted.