Jason Dorday photographer. News, Updates, assignments, latest shoots.
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Dispatches is the working diary of Auckland-based freelance photographer Jason Dorday. Please feel free to RSS, or subscribe with the email news feeder for weekly updates.
I have recently started shooting the New Zealand Herald Motoring covers.
One of Kate Rodger, TV3’s entertainment reporter with her Mini, and Sara Tetro, Director of 62 Models and personality behind New Zealand’s Next Top Model with her customised Audi.
The shots were taken on a Nikon D3s with a AFS 70-200 VR II lens and a reflector. The details shots were snapped on a 50mm 1.4 Nikkor lens with a Neutral density filter attached. They cut down the amount of light getting through to the important bits and lets you shoot on very low depth of field in bright light.
I have started a new collection of pictures on my web page under the title ‘newsmakers’.
It’s a retrospective collection of people whom I have met and photographed over 20 years in the business of shooting for the news media – some good and some not so good subjects! I will be adding more images from my collection that where shot on film pre-1999. These need to be scanned but subjects include Sir Robert Muldoon, Sir Edmund Hillary and others.
If you don’t recognise the subject you can see who the person is by pressing the caption button at the bottom of the page. I have been getting a few requests from people who are into camera gear to include the type of equipment that was used to capture some of these images, so I will be including that info in the captions as well.
Ruby red is an awesome new cafe in Mangere Bridge.
I have just posted a web commercial I shot for the owners. Its listed on YouTube and is been used for online and social marketing purposes.
The video was shot mostly hand held with Vibration reduction lenses. I quite like a bit of movement in video shots without sharp camera shake. The environment has a cool 50`s style jazz feel about it so we just lay a track through the clip-nice and simple.
One of the things I really like about shooting motion and video is that it forces you to slow down, compose your images, meter manually, and consider light quality a bit more.
I find using handheld light meters is the way to go for video work. The ambient light metering of a handheld gives a better overall feel of the light quality as opposed to reflective camera metering which can produce highlights and other annoying anomalies. It simplifies the process as well. I just used two exposures for the 90 second clip-one for inside, and one for outside.
Unlimted magazine interviewed Sarah Robb O’Hagan, a Kiwi who now runs the Gatorade business in the US, about succeeding with social media and cracking the US market.
For this assignment I shot an HD video clip as well as stills. Sarah is an inspiring business person and also great photograph.
The interview was conducted during a short window of opportunity at the back of the venue. Due to the time constraints, often the case with business interviews, we just had to make do with the environment we got, which wasn’t great – just enough room to use the VR 70-200. A handy bit of kit for stills and video work.
I was commissioned last week to shoot stills for an apartment interior in Falcon Street, Parnell.
I was really keen to shoot it because it used to be the part of Rick’s Blue Falcon Restaurant in the 80`s and 90`s – quite a famous spot. I remember doing bar work in our family theatre restaurant, Burgundy’s, and going to down to Rick’s now and then to get milk and other bits we had run out of!
The building itself is a stone mason’s cottage, built in 1863. Now, it’s a cool one bedroom pad and ultra-photogenic to shoot. I also shot a 40 second video clip in high definition for the client.
We used two portable speedlights with remotes to light the interior of the apartment. The video work was shot with a 70-200 VR II and a 17-35 AFS.. The former lens is amazing in that it can be hand-held at low shutter speeds. The external microphone picks up the electric hum of the image stabiliser, however, so you need to have it on an extension lead if you’re recording sound.
With all the hoopla over the royal wedding I had a dig in my archives for the last royal visit I photographed. I was shooting for Fairfax at the time and Prince William was visiting the Anglican Cathedral in Parnell while performing official duties on his 2005 New Zealand tour.
There were lots of media, including a British royal press pool — a dedicated unit that follows the royals around the world. They had the latest gear — and a lot of it — in order to cover their assignments.
Prince William was great to photograph and made a lot of effort to meet the public. I noticed, and it was an assumption, that he had acquired a new watch — an Omega Seamaster I think (007’s watch for what it’s worth). It was quite cool to see him fiddling with it like everyone else does when they get a new watch.
I anticipated a shot of him chatting to a child or something. I remember positioning myself ready to snap it. He spent a good 20 seconds chatting to the girl and you can see that in the proof sheet. This 36 frame sequence lasted 90 seconds maybe.
Because it was tight to move around and I had the right angle I managed to get a good exclusive with this frame. It did the rounds of the Fairfax newspapers in New Zealand and Australia. Great assignment, really looking forward to the next one!
