sonny photos

Bless'ed Are The Meek SS13/14 Fashion Show Sydney Backstage

Bless'ed Are The Meek is the label I just went out to Alice Springs for thanks to Northern Territory Tourism and shot an amazing campaign for them ( pictures coming soon ) In the meantime, you should check out these two posts again with pictures taken from the flight over to Alice and then back to Sydney from Alice Springs. And a quick look behind the scenes from the shoot......and this video Oliver Heath and Fin just put together from the shoot. 

Alice Springs > Sydney flight back

and yet another glorious blue sky day in the N.T. :-) take off, and I see the ranges and gaps I visited yesterday must be Emily or Jessie's gap on the left did not see that before ( the green rectangles ) not even 5 minutes into the flight and I'm already like woauw amazing, love it, get me back there !! :-) zoomed out again, woauw, I need a few weeks and a serious 4WD and I promise I will produce some awesome photos I mean, looking at it from up here, it's like our version of grand canyon, just looks so spectacular if you look close, you will see the river bed on the rigth is still green Saint Teresa, some 80km from Alice Springs in South Easterly direction. See-ing that know, wish I had spent an extra day ( or 4 ) driving south east :-) because just before Saint Teresa you have those shots preceding the shot before saint teresa and then after saint teresa you get this, big snaking caterpillar look close and you could imagine a mars landscape looks like the flight is taking us exactly the same way as we flew in  just can't get over how awesome it looks down there

and then the Simpson desert starts

100's of kilometers of red sand give you an idea of where I am yep same path as flight in

I wonder at what stage the Simpson is no longer and becomes theStrzelecki Desert



there are those lines again, can anyone shed light on what they are



band of cumulus clouds







topof Australia lake

Darling river one cloud two clouds flying past Cobar again

getting closer to the eastern seaboard

must be cloudy day in Sydney today that's bush fire smoke amongst the clouds, somewhere in the blue mountains airport in the middle of the photo where Jacqui took me for my birthday acrobatic flight descending Sydney in the clouds Botany Bay and cronulla beach in sydney south national park I been wanting to go to for a while now ( one day ) port hacking sand mining at Kurnell just before landing

Last Day in the Alice and surrounds ( all 300kms of it :-)

Just 10-12km out of town and we get to Emily's gap and I love this tree and you see how important these trees are in the summer to give some much needed shade from the blistering sun just amazing landscape, these long snaking mountain range, and then you get these gaps where water would flow through after the rains and as you can see by the dry river bed, no rain in a while Ollie & Fin, the video crew, stayed on with me for an extra day as well ( the rest of the crew flew back today )  to get some more location/landscape shots/footage would like to be here now one day when the water is flowing Caterpillar Dreaming Rock painting at Emily's Gap, an aboriginal story about the three caterpillars



Emily Gap from the other side on our way to the next gap, spotted this one could say it is funny, but one could also say, please, take your rubbish with you after you finish your big adventure, if every Euro tourist did this, well, then yeah, it would be a tip wouldn't it Jessie's Gap Outback pyramid at Jessie's Gap vastness to the south, I guess about 100-150km and you would be at the edge of the simpson desert broken up caterpillars ? got to love the outback and taking shots and the strange thing is I'm trying to cram in so much in one day when you should really spend a good big week out here exploring but be wary at dusk of wild life roadkill on the wide open road Corroboree Rock, a sacred Aboriginal site The rock itself is an outcrop of dolomite from the Bitter Springs Formation originally laid down in salty lakes 800 million years ago. Dolomite is a soft sedimentary fine grained rock. It is very similar to limestone except magnesium carbonate is the dominant compound rather than calcium carbonate. At the base of the rock you can see dark grey and light grey streaky blobs of 'dalmation rock'. A ring of low ground surrounding the rock makes it look like an obelisk. it's incredible how thin it is, and I read how this is pushed up by years of seismic activity after a beer at the Ross River resort, we were on our way to a ghost town, the friendly bar keep told us to check out the Sphinx, same rock formation as corroboree rock and this one too is super skinny ( I know not in this shot of course ) I became a horse whisperer for about 5 minutes, but this is as close as I got, I did have more luck with a donkey, who actually walked up to me

on our way to Arltunga Historical town, now a ghost town, some say it is the birthplace of the outback, a gold rush here in the hills prompted the South australian government to invest in this area before Alice Springs existed, and now reversal of fortune so to speak the colours one the few remaing buildings, the police station and jail :-) early airconditioning unit as we drive on, I spot this seam of white gleaming rock up on a hill, not too far off the road, I pull over and see if the boys care to join me for a trek up the hill, they opt out, but I'm intrigued and head up, not soon after, it feels like I'm walking along fields made up of broken quartz so much of it, and I'm curious as to how/why the higher I walk the bigger the Quartz

till finally, at the top. And these blocks are the size of an apartment block incredible and it runs through the hill, incredible. It did look more magical with the sun reflecting on it from the road you can see it carry on through the hills glad I walked up here to check it out, as I am impressed on our way back to Alice, I love the hues in the desert skies from the outback

Couple of Quick behind the scenes shots of my production in the Northern Territory

Packing up at Glen Helen, love the rugged shapes of the rocks around in the ranges here later that afternoon, a few shots later, we are heading to a very special and spectacular location at Rainbow Valley and all hands on deck with helping out carrying a piece of equipment ( thanks guys ) just incredible rock formation ( as this is shot with my new 14mm - read, very wide angle- you don't get the enormity of these formations in this shot ) Still life on the claypan what a great outdoor tiling on the verandah this would make :-)

Day 2 in the Red Outback, checking out more locations

Mt Nancy, just on the outskirt of the main part of town Jacqui putting it in proportion, location & model Just 30km north from Alice Springs we have the Tropic of Capricorn Blue, black, green & red stop looking at those legs, this shot is about that blue sky



one side of the road vast expanse of red dirt ( and the yellow grass is left over from all the rain they got in the middle of last year)
and dark volcanic looking rock on the other side of the road best bit of red dirt we spotted so far at the Alice Springs sports airfield complete with termite hills
Time to head back and meet the rest of the crew that should have arrived form Sydney by now. And we will already get a shot in this afternoon. Stay tuned.

Day 1 in the Red Outback, checking out locations straight from the airport

We head straight from airport after picking up 4WD hire car, left on Chamber Pillars dirt road to Ooraminna homestead, there was a red sand dune suggested to check out on the way there, but some idiots got their 4wd out and churned it all up, so not an attractive location with all the tyre marks all over the sand dune. So instead this rocky outcrop looks interesting This has a nice desolate vibe about it as well Apparently this is the remnants of a movie set, curious as to which movie was filmed here Jacqui does a little pose in the shade The happy couple, caught in a moment of not swatting at flies buzzing around their heads  :-) so it is definitely an interesting location for shoots but not this shoot love me a dead tree against the big open sky heading out to the next location now And this looks more interesting, the clay pans at Rainbow Valley