Who We Love: Roaringstorm Photography

I haven't done one of these since the beginning of the blog. It was about time I did another one. This time let me introduce Kim Lee of Roaringstorm Photography,

Kim is a roller derby photographer from Sydney. A bloody good one. When I went looking to learn how to improve my skills in this field, Kim's name and photos kept turning up.

Over the last 12 months I have gotten to know Kim, talk to him a fair bit about derby photography and even met him in person (it's as scary as it sounds). His mentorship has been invaluable to me and while I am always striving to become better and unique, Kim has made sure that the path hasn't been as daunting as when I first started shooting girls on skates (that will always sound bad).

Kim also help me become part of the conversation with the family of derby photographers world wide. It's great to be apart of a community that is friendly, helpful and full of interesting people that I would never have met before.

So if you like Derby, and want to see who I consider best in Australia, then jump over to the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/roaringstormphotography

All images © Roaringstorm Photography

2013 Goal Achieved!

One of the goals I set myself at the beginning of 2013 was to get the cover of Australia's national roller derby magazine: Hit & Miss

So we have come to December and while I have had quite a lot of photos printed within the covers of the magazine this year, I hadn't been invited to supply the cover. This changed last week when I got the email I had been working towards all year.

I got the cover for the last issue of 2013!

I believe I was grinning like a cat the got the milk when I read it.

So achievement unlocked and goal completed for 2013.

Issue 14 Front Cover - Hit & Miss Magazine

The photo is from Victoria Roller Derby League's grand final I shot in November. It features Mon U Mental, Dayna Might and Mel Fyfe.

So now to workout goal(s) for 2014. Where to next?

Vintage Shoot

We spent yesterday photographing vintage clothes with coffee, cake, milkshakes and even pumpkins for Nanna's Coffee & Vintage.

The photos will be used as an fun advertising campaign which will be, like vintage, something old being reused as something new. It's also going to be a bit silly.

We had a great time with the models Nina, Janelle, Jessica and Erin. As always Allie Hill did an awesome job with make-up.

The adverts will start appearing in the near future, I'll make sure that this blog and Facebook get updated as they are released.

Nina looking amazing, (taken using Instagram).

Roller Derby Photo Contest

Johnny Loxwheels @ Vic/Tas Tournament Long Weekend - June 2013

One of the coolest things about shooting Roller Derby is the monthly competition run by Junior (Robert Scheer), a full time photo journalist in Indianapolis and amazing derby photographer.

There are two sections that you can submit photos in to: Action and Feature. The limit is two per section and you must have taken the photos within the month of the competition.

I try to enter this every month to learn and hopefully improve. It's heaps of fun to see what everyone else enters and to see your work next to theirs. It's also means that you spend a fair bit of time comparing and trying to workout what the judges where looking for.

So June 2013 results are in and I snagged a second place in the feature section with a portrait of Johnny Loxwheels. All the shots I entered for the month where shot at the massive Vic/Tas Tournament long weekend in Hobart. I must give thanks to Carmen Jay for helping me choose my entries for the month. I had 8 bouts to shift through to enter only 4 images. It was a massive help to have another set of eyes look at my narrowed down selection.

See all the results at the flickr site:

More information about the contest can be found at:

Who We Love: Dennys Ilic

Let me introduce you to amazing photographer and human being: Dennys Ilic

I met Den Den (his nickname) at Supanova Melbourne some years ago when he presented an amazing slideshow based around the last days of Battlestar Galactica filming which he shot. Some how we became friends and I discovered someone that truly loves what he does, who he works with and doesn't tell me to get lost when I ask silly questions.

Dennys' job is pretty amazing. He has crafted a career around shooting celebraties with cameras. Not in the bad paparazzi way, but in the amazing portrait way. He has worked with some the biggest in the world, including Daniel Radcliffe, Ryan Reynolds, Amanda Tapping, Liv Tyler and more. He is also a skilled cinematographer and has been at the forefront of HDSLR filmmaking. This lead him to shoot the amazing film Face to Face which become the first cinematically released film shot entirely on HDSLRs and went on to win over 40 international awards.

What to check out: