Last night I was invited to the Swimwear from Oz fashion launch party at Fox Hotel in Brisbane. This was the unveiling of the hot new swimwear designed by Olympic Swimmer Marieke Guehrer. Check out the photos that I took here in my Fashion Photography Gallery.

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.

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.

Last night I attended Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), modaitalia 2006. You may view the pictures in my gallery, let me know what you think.

Mark Velenton was the winner last night and is awarded with a 2 week scholarship with the world-renowned Palimoda fashion institute in Florence, Italy. Mark was one of 20 finalists on the night to present their “Italy inspired” designs to a judging panel of experts and professionals.

I was positioned in possibly the best spot for photos last night, standing in front of one of the large spotlight stands, slightly off centre in front of the catwalk. It is always good to get a in front of a stand as you don’t have to worry about blocking people’s view from behind.

I was using a Canon 28-135mm IS 3.5-5.6 USM on my Canon 20D at ISO 800 on shutter priority at 125th of a second, without a flash. This lens isn’t the sharpest of zoom lenses compared to the canon L series lenses but worked quite well in this lighting. Most of the other photographers were using a flash but I think you lose the theme of the night in the shot. Plus I wanted to get more practice manually focusing in low light. Typically you aren’t allowed to use a flash at indoor events such as parades and concerts.

Anyways, this was a big night of shooting, I took about 680 shots, and got about 500 unique and decent shots of them. There are some shots from the “modaitalia spectular” featuring designer label work late in the shoot after the students, which I shot in JPEG. All I can say is, never again! Shooting using JPEG indoors and night is extremely time consuming to edit and you usually get inconsistant grading and levels. I only used JPEG to keep memory consumption down. Never again. I’d much prefer 1 good shot than several crap shots that need lots of editing.

Check out the photos here and tell me what you think, keep in mind that you will need to order these photos from ICCI.