sonny photos

Spirit Of Youth Awards aka SOYA

Back in Sydney, and straight for a night of awards and shop openings, first on the list , the Qantas sponsored SOYA. Great initiative for young emerging talent to get some cash, free qantas flights, which no doubt will give them a leg up in their career
2007 SOYA fashion winner, Ben Pollock, tells us a bit how the mentoring programme that comes with the awards has helped him, he now has a succesfull label called Friedrich Gray ( click here to see my shots backstage from his last show back in May )
The Zimmerman sisters announce the winner of this years award
But first, the candidates, Romance Was Born, Gary Bigini and Arnsdorf
And the winner is Anna and Luke from Romance Was Born, congrats guys, now look out for the next issue of KAREN magazine ( out end this week ) with a shoot I did with Rachael Rutt and clothes from their latest collection ( here's another look at their 2008 collection )
Rachel Ward announces the winner of short film, Kasimir Burgess
And Nirrimi Hakanson wins the fashion photo prize ( how good is this photo, check out her other work -only 17y.o. ! )

Australian Surf Movie Festival or ASMF

My friend Tim Bonython , has his surf movie festival on again this year at the Palm Berach RSL club. But first to Palm Beach for dinner, and what beautiful light
Nothing beats a good fish & Chips
Waiting for our meal at the Palmy fish & chips shop
After dinner, off to the RSL for Tim's surf movie night, here he is setting up the projector, room slowly filling up

Before the night gets under way, Tim has a brief chat about what he is about to show us tonight
packed room


And then we are treated to a little acoustic session by Nick Saxon from Newcastle, and he's not bad, check the grommets
Nick did another session during intermission as well
before the big waves, lucky door prizes, and lucky us, Belle won a little goodie bag, and now India wins apair of sunglasses, lucky
The deal was though , who ever had the lucky ticket, to get the sunnies , they had to model them on stage
cute, crowd loved it of course
now for the reason we are here. . . .waves....big waves
monsters
and hollow
grommets frothing at the front there I'm sure
now check this beast of a wave out. It's an outer break called Shipsterns ( shipwreck ) in Tasmania, so cold water, and solid waves, but this sequence is just hairy scary
how small is he compared the beast frothing behind him
but wait, check this little ( big ) step building up in his path
n o  w a y  !  !
total silence in the room, as the crowd is gobsmacked
Airborn ! This would have to be up there with someof the sickest, heaviest wave Tim has ever got on footage
awesome. Thanks Tim for another awesome night of entertainment. And all you surfers out there, what am I saying, you don't even have to be a surfer to appreciate this footage, all of you out there, do yourself a favour and check out Tim's movie.
Here's a list of Venue's
Byron Bay The Great Northern Hotel | Wed 4th Nov 8pm
Milton/Ulludulla Theatre | Sat 14th Nov 8pm
Newcastle View Factory | Sat 28th Nov 8pm 
QLD
Coolangatta Sands | Thurs 5th Nov - 8pm
Kirra Surf Stock Festival - Currumbin | Sat 7th Nov 7pm
VIC
The Astor Cinema | Tues 10th Nov 8pm
The Espy | Wed 11th Nov 8pm | 18‘yrs ONLY
The Espy | Thurs 12st Nov 8pm | 18‘yrs ONLY
SA
Streaky Bay Hotel | Thurs 19th Nov 7.30pm
Semaphore Odeon Star Cinema | 20th Nov 8pm
Adelaide Mercury Cinema| Sat 21st Nov 6pm & 8pm
But to be sure , check Tim's site just check the site for dates and also for the trailer, it will have you wanting more

A Shaded View On Fashion Film Festival

Tim Bonython

In the meantime, my friend Tim has just put up this 5 minute clip from his latest Tahitian Trip to Teahupoo. The size of the lip of these waves is incredibly, and powerfull, wouldnot wnt to get hit inthe head by one of those. If you want to see some epic waves, including Laird Hamilton getting barreled on a stand up paddle board, body boarder serioulsy eat it after the over head helicopter shot , then clickidyclick here