Craig Lowndes steers his Holden V8 Supercar around the Townsville track

Yesterday was race one of the 2010 Townsville 400 and Jamie Whincup once again finished first.  I took the opportunity to set the 5D MkII (with 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM) down to shoot a quick demo 1080 24p HD video of the first lap from turn one while I was shooting with the long lens.  Here’s a quick look – feel free to click here to watch in 720p or in the full 1080p res!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy the Top Gear video below AND a GREAT 4 part series of a National Geographic documentary on building the Bugatti Veyron

Top Gear’s James May at 407km/h

Click here to view the embedded video.

National Geographic documentary (Part 1 of 4)

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National Geographic documentary (Part 2 of 4)

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National Geographic documentary (Part 3 of 4)

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National Geographic documentary (Part 4 of 4)

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Calendar links – [XML] – [iCal] – [HTML]

Using Outlook? Try clicking the iCal link to add this shared calendar to Outlook (more info here)
Using Google Calendar already? Easy, just scroll down to the bottom of the calendar below and click the + Google Calendar icon
Using iCal? Easy, Just click the iCal link above

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Calendar links – [XML] – [iCal] – [HTML]

Using Outlook? Try clicking the iCal link to add this shared calendar to Outlook (more info here)
Using Google Calendar already? Easy, just scroll down to the bottom of the calendar below and click  the + Google Calendar icon
Using iCal? Easy, Just click the iCal link above

Click the photo to view the full pdf

“Want me to carry your bag for you?” is a request I get a lot – one that almost always follows the question “What are you up to this weekend?” Especially in Townsville during the NRL season.

I’ve been photographing sport since I first joined the (then) Townsville Sun’s NBL franchise as their team photographer in 1993.  I’m really chuffed to still be working with them now but my, how things have changed over these 17 years.  It’s a similar story with the North Queensland Cowboys – I started with them in 1995 and still photograph many of their training sessions and all of their NRL matches.

During this period photography has gone through major changes since Louis Daguerre invented the Daguerreotype in the mid 1800s.  Digital photography is now the norm. And what a godsend it is!

Until mid 1999, everything I shot was on film and the majority of my sports photography was shot on 35mm FujiPress 800 film.  When shooting NRL matches at night or NBL games indoors I would push this film to 1600 (by underexposing a stop) and then slow down the processing to allow the film to overdevelop by a stop to bring life back to the thin negative.  This was pretty commonplace as it allowed snappers to increase shutter speeds to a minimum of 1/500 with our f2.8 lenses wide open.  The downside was increased grain but with most of the images appearing in newsprint it really didn’t matter that much.

Processing?  At the stadium??

That’s right – a night covering a match always involved two unusual options.  Either find a local minilab near the stadium and offer enough cash for them to stay open until about 11.00pm on a Saturday night; or take a small processing kit to the stadium and have someone stand guard at the toilet door while you fumbled your way around in complete darkness trying to load and process film.  This was definitely the worst choice as the ‘aroma’ of toilets combined with that of the processing chemicals made for a VERY unpleasant evening at the footy!  To cap it off picture editors were often yelling for pics even before the match had started. That meant I would generally have to shoot the first 5 minutes of action, jump in my car and race to the lab where they would develop and then I would scan and upload about 8 pics (at a snail’s pace) and then race back to the stadium to continue shooting.  As you can imagine it was even worse if I were processing at the stadium!

Generally, I would shoot about eight rolls of film during a match, so I had just under 300 pics to pull off around 25 winners.

With all that in mind it’s hard to believe we still whinge and whine about how a particular memory card reader is a minute slower than another or how the white balance on one camera is slightly better than another.

While it isn’t an easy job it has become a lot more refined over the past 10 years.  I now shoot between 800-1200 pics during a match and have my first set of six pics uploaded and on the picture editor’s desk by the 10^th minute of the match. The picture desk would receive another 10-15 pics at half time and then another 15-20 after the match.  This is thanks to having my laptop set up on the sideline with a lightning-fast 3G connection.

But it’s not just the method of processing and getting pics transmitted that has improved – the gear has as well!  We can now get thousands of pics out of a single battery charge, we can store thousands of hi-res images on a card and we don’t have to really worry too much about things like white balance and perfect exposure.

Sounds pretty easy doesn’t it?

Well, keep your eye on a sideline snapper next time you are at a big match and you’ll see that there’s a lot more to it than just pushing a button!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fair enough question but I knew all along what I was doing.  Like most iPhone owners I have a data plan on my phone and mine is fantastic.  It always works well, the coverage with Telstra (Australia’s largest telco) is awesome and the speeds are great.  I tether my iPhone to my MacBook Pro a LOT (to send photos and use the internet whilst on the road) and even though we pay high data prices in Australia (about AUS$70 for 6GB) it is money well spent in my opinion.

What really sucks though its that Apple have not allowed tethering between iPads and iPhones as this would impact on sales of their 3G model.  So therefore the average punter will buy a 3G iPad and pay for two separate data plans for both their iPhone and their 3G iPad.  Ridiculous I say!

So, here’s how to get around that problem easily.

1. ‘Jailbreak’ your iPhone
2. Install MyWi application (available in Cydia {which will be installed as part of your jailbreak})
3. Run MyWi and create a WiFi access point
4. Connect your iPad to this access point

All sounds pretty easy?  Well it really is that easy.  MyWi works by creating an access point out of your phone’s 3G connection.  You then connect any WiFi device to this wireless network  just as you would connect to any wireless network.  Other users can also connect if you/they wish or you can add a security key to ward off most leechers.

I used the new “Spirit” untethered jailbreak which is amazingly easy to apply.  Find it here.  Once it is applied you will find a new “app” called Cydia on your phone.  In Cydia search for “MyWi” and install.  Easy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cydia and MyWi on iPhone 3GS

MyWi application on iPhone 3GS

A couple of things to watch out for. When you jailbreak with Spirit it may (depending upon the version of Spirit available at the time of downloading) wipe all photos and videos from your camera roll.  It wiped all mine but like any good photographer I had them all backed up on my desktop computer.  Also, MyWi will suck the life out of your battery, which is understandable considering the job it is doing.  Always give some thought to power availability when using this.  Also, don’t blame me if anything goes wrong and your phone ends up as useless as a paperweight.  It seems as though literally tens of thousands of people have successfully used this jailbreak but don’t blame me if you’re the one who has a bad experience

Have fun guys!

Click the photo to view a larger version

After reading a bunch of early reviews I was quite worried that typing on the iPad would be a real chore however it couldn’t be further from the truth.  I shot a quick video on my iPhone to show just how well it actually works!

Click here to view the embedded video.