We knew it was in the pipeline, the Australian Dive Team had wanted to get their star athletes photographed for a recruitment drive and we were gonna shoot it. My representitive Luke Boman had shown my book to the right people and everyone was excited. Great!
The problem was when. When were we gonna get the whole squad at one place from all over Australia? We got the call on Saturday while I was on a forklift shooting down from above in a hangar we had painted black to form a giant studio. “Can we do it Monday?” yelled Luke. I said no, then yes, then yes, then no. Not because it was too rushed, but because before he yelled out the date he told me that the whole squad was together because it was during a national competition. I hesitated because I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to deliver what we said we would during a competition. I wasn’t just gonna shoot from the sidelines, they could get anyone for that.
I knew there was gonna be one question that would tell me how much access I could have…”can I use flashes?” Luke relayed on the phone…the answer came back yes, huh, I thought, cool.
We turned up Monday morning, sure enough, everyone was there. I met with Mary Godden the CEO of Diving Australia and was briefed on the day’s format. My first question was “where CAN’T I go?” She said, “you can do whatever you like, just dont stand in front of the judges.”
We set up speedlights in one corner where we would line up the athletes, and during the events I roamed around. I chose to shoot from the diving platforms for the mens heat, and shoot the underwater shots for the womens. The shot of Matthew Mitcham was taken while we were both standing on the 8 7.5 meter platform, he stopped and asked if I could read the scoreboard. I couldn’t, my eyes aren’t too good. He dove off and scored 3 nines.
Everyone was very cool, relaxed, and we had a good time. Big props to Jarrod Casey who assisted during the shoot and to Mary Godden and her staff for having me.
Of course the biggest thanks goes to all the athletes: Ethan, Briony, Alexandra, Matthew, Melissa, Scott, Olivia, and Sharleen. It was great working with you guys.

You can view the rest of the days work and connect on Facebook here

Brief technical info for us nerds:

Equipment list: Canon 1DsMkIII, 17 – 40 F4L, 50 1.4, 20 2.8 and 70 – 200 2.8IS, 3 speedlights, shot all action at 1600 ISO, portraits at 100 ISO

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