Shooting Basketball Portraits as the Big V Season Starts
The Big V and NBL1 basketball seasons are now underway in Victoria, and the Melbourne Sports Photography team have been busy shooting action images and player portraits.
Recently Melbourne Sports Photography founder, Craig Dingle, worked with Surfcoast Baketball's Dexter Graham. Craig and Dexter created images together last year in a studio setting, and this time combined on an outdoor court in St Kilda.
The very bright sunshine made for some challenging lighting conditions. The challenge was met using high powered strobes which over power the sun to create some dramatic portraits.
Craig and Dexter seemed to really enjoy the shoot - it might not be the last time we see them work together! All the best for the Big V season Dexter, see you next time!
Hawthorn Cycling's Hanging Rock Handicap
It was Melbourne Sports Photography's pleasure to be involved in the 2024 Hanging Rock Handicap cycling race. This is a women's only cycling event hosted by the Hawthorn Cycling Club, and for the second year Melbourne Sports Photography founder Craig Dingle headed to Hanging Rock to photograph the event.
The weather on race day in 2024 was terrific. A cool morning with fog over Hanging Rock gave way to a warm sunny day ideal for fast racing.
A field of around 70 set off in a series of groups based on their cycling ability - designed so that ideally all the groups come together approaching the finish.
The handicappers are likely to be pretty happy with their efforts in 2024 with the 'scratch group' of the strongest cyclists not quite catching the other cyclists.
Thank you again to Hawthorn Cycling for asking Melbourne Sports Photography to photograph the event. If you would like to see all of Craig's images from the day, head to Hawthorn Cycling's Facebook page.
To Hawthorn Cycling and all the participants, congratulations on a great event. We hope to see you again next year.
ANZAS Ice Skating Images
Skaters from the ANZAS ice skating competition in February 2024, your images are live on the Melbourne Sports Photography website. Actually, as many of you know, they have been live for a week now ... and we are just catching up with writing a blog post!
The galleries are password protected, with passwords available from Ice Skating Victoria.
If you would like to view and purchase images, please do so promptly, as the galleries are open until 7 March 2024.
Thank you to everyone for making Craig and Bianca feel welcome as part of the ice skating community. We look forward to seeing you and these terrific costumes at the next event.
Creative Sports Portraits for Media Days
An area of focus for the Melbourne Sports Photography team already this year is expanding our creative portrait offerings. These are available for club media days, teams, and individuals.
Recently Kaitlyn joined us as we tested out options including using new backgrounds built by the Melbourne Sports Photography team, and using light wands to create light trails.
These images are really unique with every image different from each other. The effect is created in camera using coloured light wands to create patterns and shapes behind the subject. Here we used plenty of pink to match Kaitlyn's outfit. The colours can be tailored to match or compliment the colour of your club.
Bring on the gold background! This image was created using a background which Phil and Craig built. While it's a little bulky - making transport a challenge (!) - once on site it is quick and easy to assemble. The gold colour is going to look striking when players are in their playing uniform. We also have a silver version of this background and are looking for a club to try it out on.
If you'd like to discuss options for Melbourne Sports Photography's media days and creative portraits, please make contact with Craig. Details are on the contact page here on the Melbourne Sports Photography website. Have your club stand out from the pack with creative sports portraits.
Melbourne's Summer of Tennis
Melbourne's summer of tennis is well underway and Melbourne Sports Photography's Craig Dingle and Sally Jacob were both on hand to shoot the Kooyong Classic in the second week of January.
This is one of the lead up events prior to the Australian Open, where the world's top tennis players seek valuable match practice and the opportunity to acclimatize to the Australian summer.
This year the 3 days of the Kooyong Classic were all warm days - in the mid 20 degrees celsius up to the early 30's. The players definitely got a touch of summer heat and the type of weather which is common for the Australian Open.
The standard of tennis was strong, and the event was well supported by Melbourne tennis fans.
Photographers have access to one side of the court, being able to sit close to court side to capture the action.
If you are in Melbourne next January, consider heading down to the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club on Glenferrie Road to enjoy some top action prior to the Australian Open. And look out for the Melbourne Sports Photography team sitting courtside!