Sports

Aus Paralympians Off to Tokyo Olympics …

… a large chunk of the Australian Paralympic team left Cairns last night for Tokyo to compete in the Olympic Games… and I had the distinct pleasure of working with these great athletes on their last training sessions on Thursday. Thanks to Delly Carr who ‘dobed’ me in and Athletics Australia for the work.

These are just a small selection of ten of those many images made at these training sessions at Barlow Park, Cairns … the evening session especially challenging as the ‘light’ can only be described as atrocious !

I can’t stress how wonderfully down to earth and receptive these athletes are … many World Champions and previous Olympics Gold winners amongst them … despite circumstances which would floor most all of us. 

In these ten images we have (top to bottom… I wish space would allow me to post more) … Vanessa Low – long jump World record holder & Olympic Gold Medalist … James Turner – 800 metre World Record & Olympic Gold Medalist (left) – and Scott Reardon – 100 metre Gold Medalist (right) … Robyn Lambird – wheelchair racer … Samantha Schmidt – Discuss … Ari Gesini – long jump … Chad Perris – 100 & 200 metres … Vanessa Low – long jump World record holder & Olympic Gold Medalist … Even O’Hanlon – 100 metres (front)  – and Chad Perris – 100 & 200 metres (rear) … Sarah Edmiston – discuss … Robyn Lambird – wheelchair racer.

Wish all the team the greatest success … (as long as they don’t embarrass Great Britain 😉 )

Images © Brian Cassey, Athletics Australia 

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

Australian Paralympic team members - off the the Tokt=yo Olympics - images by Brian Cassey

 

 

Aussies Off To Tokyo Olympics …

A pleasure to have the opportunity to document … for Australian Associated Press (AAP) … the departure of just on half Australia’s Olympic squad as they left the country for the Tokyo Games at Cairns International Airport on Saturday. Sadly I wasn’t on the flight with them …

The QANTAS charter aircraft was chokers with about 280 face masked athletes and officials from the swimming, rowing, hockey, water polo, beach volleyball, table tennis, weightlifting and badminton teams on board. Amongst the masked throng was Australia’s ‘Madam Butterfly’ Gold medalist Susie O’Neill (fourth image below) … currently Deputy Chefs de Missions for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Disturbingly, shortly after the aircraft lifted off from the Cairns runway the news dropped that an official had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Tokyo Olympics athletes’ village. A worrying development for the team.

Below are just over a handful of the pics I made of the athletes departure for the (2020 or 2021 ?) Tokyo Olympic Games … the complete set of 45 images may be found on the AAP site HERE.

Images © AAP/Brian Cassey

The Australian Olympic team departs Cairns for the Tokyo 2021 Games - Images by Brian Cassey for AAPThe Australian Olympic team departs Cairns for the Tokyo 2021 Games - Images by Brian Cassey for AAP

The Australian Olympic team departs Cairns for the Tokyo 2021 Games - Images by Brian Cassey for AAP

The Australian Olympic team departs Cairns for the Tokyo 2021 Games - Images by Brian Cassey for AAP

The Australian Olympic team departs Cairns for the Tokyo 2021 Games - Images by Brian Cassey for AAP The Australian Olympic team departs Cairns for the Tokyo 2021 Games - Images by Brian Cassey for AAP

The Australian Olympic team departs Cairns for the Tokyo 2021 Games - Images by Brian Cassey for AAP

Moscow, Moscow …

MIFA - Moscow International Foto Awards - Winner Editorial Sport - 'Tomotaro on the Block' - image by Brian Cassey

… Thanks to a congratulatory Facebook post from AP photographer and mate Mark ‘Crusty’ Baker, I learnt that my image “Tomotaro on the Block” has been announced as Second Place (Silver) Winner in the ‘Editorial Sport’ category of the 2019 Moscow International Foto Awards (MIFA) … and will be shown at the Moscow Photocenter, Gogolevsky Boulevard, 8 Moscow (119019, г.Москва, Гоголевский бульвар, д.8) from the opening event on 19th June to the 24th June. (The original notification from ‘MIFA’ ended up in my ‘Junk’ folder … Thanks Crusty!)

Sadly … as much as I’d like to … I can’t make it to Moscow to see it and the other winners on show. (unless someone out there feels inclined to donate a return airfare 😉 !  … NB … I haven’t yet visited Moscow !)

As I bit of compensation, however, it turns out that I also received a ‘Highly Commended’ for another of my images … “Victims of Sorcery – Dorcas” in the ‘Editorial Conflict’ category … a combined result that almost mirrors that of a few months ago in the 2019 Tokyo International Foto Awards (see post ‘Two Up in TIFA’ here). Gratified that both these images have so far picked up several accolades between them.

The image of Tomotaro was made whilst covering the Pan Pacific Para Swim Games in Cairns (for the Canadian swim team) … whilst the image of Dorcas was made whilst working on a story on sorcery and witchcraft in Papua New Guinea for News Ltd’s News 360.

Below … the two awarded images from the “Moscow International Foto Awards” web site (click on each to take you to the full web site page) … Images © Brian Cassey

 

MIFA - Moscow International Foto Awards - Winner Editorial Sport - 'Tomotaro on the Block' - image by Brian Cassey

MIFA - Moscow International Foto Awards - Editorial Sport - 'Tomotaro on the Block' - image by Brian Cassey

12th International Color Awards …

Just a little pat on the back for the pic I made … ‘Tomotaro on the Block’ … (below) … of Japanese amputee swimmer Tomotaro Nakamura competing at the Pan Pacific Para Games in Cairns last year. The image received an ‘Honorary Mention’ in the ‘Sport’ category of the 12th edition of the ‘International Color Awards’, which was announced during a two and a half hour live online ‘Photoshow’ this morning. (and no … I didn’t watch it all.)

‘Tomotaro on the Block’ also recently won a ‘Silver’ award at the 2018 Tokyo International Foto Awards.

The ‘Sport’ category was won by UK photographer Ian Macnicol with a ‘not entirely unachieved before’ swimming image … ‘Honey Osrin’. His image also won Ian the overall title of ‘Photographer of the Year’.

The only other Aussie based photographer to get a mention in ‘Sport’ was adventure photographer Aidan Williams for his dramatic National Geographic published image made in Portugal … ‘Freedom’.

A second image … my pic from Papua New Guinea entitled “Victim of Sorcery – Dorcas” … was selected as a ‘Nominee’ (Finalist) in the ‘Photojournalism’ category of the Awards.

The Awards attracted over seven thousand entries from photographers based in seventy nine countries around the planet.

Below … ‘Tomotaro on the Block’ …  image © Brian Cassey

 

'Tomotaro on the Block' - image by Brian Cassey - winner 'Honorary Mention' 2019 12th Edition 'International Color Awards' 'Sport' category - amputee swimmer Tomotaro Nakamura 

Two Up in TIFA …

Nice start to 2019 … just advised that TWO of my images have been selected as Winners in the Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA) 2018 announced today.

The two winners … both Silver Awards … are … ‘Tomotaro On The Block’ in the Editorial Sports category … and … ‘Victim of Sorcery – Dorcas’ in the Editorial Conflict category.

The image of Tomotaro was made whilst covering the Pan Pacific Para Swim Games in Cairns (for the Canadian swim team) … whilst the image of Dorcas was made whilst working on a story on sorcery and witchcraft in Papua New Guinea for News Ltd’s News 360.

Great that the only other Australian Winner in the Editorial category was colleague and mate Jason O’Brien who also scored a Silver in the Sport category for his brilliant (and often awarded) image of the dive by French Tennis player Gael Monfils at the Australian Open. Congrats Jason … and nice to see our images side by side.

The Overall Winners in the Editorial category were … a disturbing image ‘Slaughterhouse’ by Spanish photographer Aitor Garmendia (First) … and another disturbing image because of the subject matter … ‘Donald and Hilary’ by US photographer Aude Guerrucci (Second).

There’s some great images from photographers from all around the Planet amongst this years TIFA Winners … and they are well worth the time to take a look here.

Below are my two Winners … top … ‘Tomotaro on the Block’ … bottom ‘Victim of Sorcery – Dorcas’. Images © Brian Cassey

Winner - Silver Award - TIFA - Tokyo International Foto Awards - Editorial Sport - Japanese swimmer Tomotaro Nakamura - who had both arms amputated below the shoulder at birth - looks towards the setting sun as he prepares on the block for the start of his S5 50 metre freestyle final at the 2018 Para Pan Pacific Championships at the Tobruk Pool in Cairns Australia. Nakamura won Gold. He is one of Japans most accomplished paralympic swimmers. Image by Brian Cassey
Winner - Silver Award - TIFA - Tokyo International Foto Awards - Editorial Conflict - “Victims of Sorcery - Dorcas” - from the series “Victims of Sorcery” Dorcas Nunugi recovers from a ‘Sorcery' attack in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Dorcas, accused of sorcery following a family death, was attacked with an axe and her arm almost severed. She received other axe wounds to her thigh and head. She was then tortured with iron bars heated red hot in a fire, leaving massive scars on her torso, breasts and legs. Somehow she escaped alive -many victims don’t - their bodies dumped in the river or a convenient hole. Sorcery attacks have reached epidemic proportions in PNG. Image by Brian Cassey

Honorary Canadian at Para Pan Pacific Games …

Born in England, live in Australia … so have never thought I would be considered ‘Canadian’.

However, I found myself part of the wonderful Canadian paralympic swim team last week … in the role of team photographer … at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para Games over five days in Cairns. I was presented … and wore … the tee shirt emblazoned with a large red maple leaf to prove it.

The Canadian team is full of charming characters and great competitors and it was a delight to watch and photograph their combined efforts against teams from the United States, Japan, India, Brazil, Costa Rica, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. The Canadians collected forty medals, twenty four personal best times … and one World record to Aurelie Rivard in the 400 metre freestyle S10 …  over the championships.

It was an uplifting, sobering and emotional few days … and brilliant to be involved with so many true athletes and watch the wonderful camaraderie between nations and competitors.

Arguably, however, the most emotionally charged images I made were quick grabs … whilst the Canadians were not swimming … of Japanese swimmers Tomotaro Nakamura and Takayuki Suzuki.

I had just finished photographing Aurelie Rivard win another medal when I noticed Nakamura mount the starting block for his 50 metre freestyle final … and look skyward as if to steel himself as the light bathed him. Just made a couple of frames before the moment was over. The image of Suzuki was made at the moment he lost contact with his starting block during his heat swim.

Below, © Brian Cassey, are the images of Nakamura (top), Suzuki (middle) … and Canadian Aurelie Rivard during her World record swim (bottom).

 

Pan Pacific Para Games - Tomotaro Nakamura - image by Brian Cassey

Pan Pacific Para Games - Takayuki Suzuki - image by Brian Cassey

Pan Pacific Para Games - Aurelie Rivard - World record 400 metre freestyle - image by Brian Cassey

Six weeks and the Commonwealth Games …

The Commonwealth Games is now well and truly over … the stories of triumph and endeavour (and a little controversy) slowly fading into history.

Personally, ‘GC 2018’ meant six weeks of photographic employment … five weeks around the country with the Commonwealth Games ‘Queen’s Baton Relay’ … and a further week covering the fourteen Commonwealth Games basketball events in Cairns for Australian Associated Press (AAP) including the visit of … ahem … ‘basketball fan’ HRH Prince Charley.

All very rewarding … and a satisfactory little ‘earner’..

The rest of this post was penned on my return from the ‘Queen’s Baton Relay’ stint back in January … but has been held over till now to satisfy any contractual requirements.

“Just back from a manic, chockers but fantastically rewarding full month criss-crossing Australia with the Commonwealth Games Queens Baton Relay … Thanks to team mate colleagues Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and Colin McPherson (they are Scottish but I won’t hold that against them) … and the GOLDOC crew.

Commencing on the 23rd December and running (almost literally) to the tail end of January, I travelled, in order, to Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Hobart, Perth, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Stradroke Island, Gold Coast, Townsville, Palm Island, Gold Coast, Springbrook, Uluru, Melbourne, Warrnambool, the Great Ocean Road … and Adelaide. We took in Australia’s top sporting events … the Boxing Day ‘Ashes’ test match in Melbourne, the finish of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race (including Taste of Tasmania) in Hobart, the Perth Cup (horses) and Hopman Cup (tennis) in Western Australia, ‘A League’ football Sydney FC V Newcastle at Allianz Stadium, the Sydney ‘Ashes’ test match at the SCG, the Brisbane International tennis (with Rod Laver, Roy Emerson et al), the Magic Millions beach horse run on the Gold Coast, the National Sports Museum at the MCG and the Tour Downunder cycle races in Adelaide … and climbed each of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (with Ian Thorpe), the Q1 building (322 metres) at Surfers Paradise and the roof of the Adelaide Oval. We also took the Queens’s Baton to Uluru, Palm Island, the Twelve Apostle’s and Springbrook National Park.

I met and worked with some wonderful people … athletes, baton bearers, the relay team members and myriads of people who showed great interest in “The Baton” … whilst catching up with many photographer colleagues at distant parts of the country. I also made the odd photograph or two … ”

Below are just three of those … made at Uluru, at Surfers Paradise (Magic Millions) and at the peak of the Sydney Harbour Bridge …

Images © Brian Cassey and GOLDOC

 

Queen's Baton Relay 2018 - Uluru - Brian Cassey GOLDOC

Queen's Baton Relay 2018 - Magic Millions Beach Run Surfers Paradise - Brian Cassey & GOLDOC

Queen's Baton Relay 2018 - Sydney Harbour Bridge - Ian Thorpe - Brian Cassey & GOLDOC

 

Guns & Basketball … PNG & Cairns …

What a difference a week makes …

Chalk ‘n’ Cheese …

One week I’m in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, shooting (if you’ll excuse the term) images of camouflaged ‘Special Services’ police heavily armed with automatic weapons … and the next week I’m banging away at fourteen Commonwealth Games basketball games and the heir to the British throne. That’s why I’m thoroughly rapt with the job I’m privileged to do.

The story in PNG … with words by excellent ‘News’ journalist Charles Miranda … was based on gun running into Australia’s closest neighbour in the lead up to the visits of the World’s leaders (including Trump and Putin) to the APEC conference in Port Moresby in November. The story and pics got a great run in many News Ltd mastheads around the country including The Daily Telegraph, the Courier Mail, The West Australian … and more that I haven’t yet seen.

Back in Cairns in time for the XXI Commonwealth Games and the mens and womens Preliminary and Qualifying Finals basketball games with teams from India, Jamaica, Malaysia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Canada, England, Scotland … and Australia. (Sadly … the one game featuring England was disastrous if you hailed from across ‘The Ditch’ … they were duly thrashed by the Cannacks.)

Basketball, played in a perfectly lit but sterile indoor environment, is generally formulaic to shoot … but I did spend a few valuable minutes attempting something a little different during a couple of games … including an image I was a little pleased with (middle pic below) made during the Australian win over Nigeria. A slow shutter speed combined with a bit of vertical panning …

Prince Charles also made an appearance at the basketball and, as the ‘Pool’ photographer, my images of Charley were made available to all of Getty Images, the European Press Photo Agency (EPA) and my ’employer’ Australian Associated Press (AAP). Security, protocol, time restraints and bully tactics by broadcast media meant that good images were a challenge … but I did produce what I thought a nice comprehensive set.

So … a rewarding couple of weeks work … and variety is certainly the ‘spice of life’.

Below … one of my images of PNG ‘Special Services’ officers … and just one of the published ‘News’ feature pages (The Daily Telegraph) … pics from my Commonwealth Games basketball coverage (Australia V Nigeria and Scotland V Nigeria) and the visit of Prince Charles.

Images © Brian Cassey, News Ltd and AAP

Papua New Guinea 'Special Services' police - image by Brian Cassey

Papua New Guinea 'Special Services' police - The Daily Telegraph - by Brian Cassey

Australia's Angus Brandt (left) and Nigeria's Prince Orizu contest during the Men's Preliminary Round Pool A Basketball between Australia and Nigeria at the XXI Commonwealth Games Cairns, Australia. Image by Brian Cassey

Nigeria's Musa Usman goes up to shoot as Scotland's Alasdair Fraser tries to block during the Men's Qualifying Finals basketball game between Scotland and Nigeria at the XXI Commonwealth Games in Cairns - image by Brian Cassey

Britain's Prince Charles (with former Australian and WNBA basketball player Lauren Jackson to his right) during the India V New Zealand women's basketball game at the Commonwealth Games, Cairns - image by Brian Cassey

 

 

Footy …

Twas last Friday lunch time … and the pool and bar area at Gilligan’s Backpackers in Cairns was packed with bikini clad backpackers only outnumbered by numerous Australian Rules footy players on their traditional ‘end of season tour’.

My unenviable task was to make some images to accompany a story on the ‘end of season footy tourists’ for the Sunday Mail. Seemed like every half drunk (or more) backpacker/footy player either wanted to get involved in the pics or pass colourful judgement on the proceedings … but eventually all the usual formulaic pics were in the can.

As I was about to take my leave I grabbed this frame of travelling footy players around the bar – just as one decided to check out the ‘features’ of one of the available ‘talent’. The image was ‘filed’ with the others made at Gilligan’s … but I was later reminded by the SM ‘desk’ that they are a family newspaper …

image © Brian Cassey 2014

FootyBlog

 

Two Days With Nikon …

Thanks to Steve Merrin and Andrew King of Nikon Australia I spent a great two days last week in that other northern Queensland city of Townsville.

At Nikons invitation I gave a ‘lecture’ to Townsville’s pro photographers on photojournalism and surviving therein over the decades and in todays media climate … joined the Nikon crew in an extreme low light workshop which highlighted the performance of Nikons FX large sensor cameras including the D4s and the brand new Nikon D810 … and joined the sales crew at Garricks Camera House for a special Nikon promotion and sale day. it was Nikon’s first … and hopefully not the last … event in the far north of Queensland.

A full on and enjoyable couple of entertaining days …

The numbers in attendance at my little chat (which ran well over the time optimistically allotted by Steve at 90 minutes) surprised me … and according to the feedback … was well received by the audience of ‘pros’  – portrait, wedding, commercial and the odd PJ. Accompanying my natter was a visual show of over a hundred of my images from across the decades … and a few pieces of past photographic kit.

Below are just two of the hundred odd images from last Fridays Townsville presentation. The first is an emotion charged image from that most competitive game of lawn bowls which I made in the 80’s … and secondly an image I made in the far west of Queensland in the dysfunctional indigenous community of Urandangi in 2008.

Images © Brian Cassey

Australia - Cairns - 1987

NikonEventBlog3

 

 

Finalist in the Clarions …

In gratifying news just announced two of my entries have been selected as Finalists in the “2012 Clarion Awards” – Queensland’s prestigious annual awards for the media industry.

The Finalist entries are “The Seventh Second” in the ‘Sports Photography’ category and “Soulless in Seoul” in the ‘Photographic Essay’ category.

“The Seventh Second” is an image (below) made at the Mareeba Rodeo in north Queensland, whilst “Soulless in Seoul” documents the plight of homeless in Seoul the capital of South Korea (one image from the set is shown below).

Winners of all the various categories across the media spectrum will be announced at a spectacular dinner event, organised by the Queensland MEAA, at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre on the night of Saturday the 25th of August.

Images © Brian Cassey

Ironman …

‘Ironman’ … my new pic essay of images made during the gruelling Cairns Ironman event a couple of weeks ago … has been posted to “Latest Stories” on the web site of my photojournalist collective ‘fotostrada’.

This was the inaugural Cairns Iron Man – an internationally recognised event that attracted the very best triathletes from around the Globe to compete in the tropics over a 3.8 kilometre swim, a gruelling 180 km bike ride and a double marathon run of 42.2km.

The fastest competitor finished in an astonishing 8 hours 15mins (Australian David Dellow) … whilst the slower and less talented competitors were out on the course for over 16 and a half hours !

For those only half fit there was also the 70.3 Ironman event which was only half the distance – a mere 1.9k swim, 90k bike ride and just the one full marathon run ! In all over two thousand souls participated in both events which took place in superb Cairns winter weather amidst the magical scenery of Cairns to Port Douglas.

It has cemented it’s place as an annual World class event.

Below I’ve posted just three of the twenty images that make up the essay. The complete essay can be found on the ‘fotostrada’ web site here.

When time permits it will also be added to my personal web site.

© images by Brian Cassey

“Pain Is My Name” …

For some time now one of my fondest places to see my pictures published has been the “Heart of the Nation” weekly feature in the “The Weekend Australian Magazine” – a rare image driven feature that runs ‘out of the ordinary’ photos from around Australia and matches the images with great in depth ‘words’.

Now it’s even better … the mag has had a recent major revamp … and “Heart of the Nation” has moved from a single page at the back of the book to what is often a double page spread near the front under the additional title ‘ForeWord – People & Observations”.

The new format looks sensational … and the images leap off the pages at you at about (in my old measurements) 14 inches by 10 and half inches … a size that is pretty rare in newspaper colour mags.

This weekend the mag featured an image I made at the recent Mareeba Rodeo of a chuckling horse dispatching his rider to his destiny and a face full of dirt. Great words, as usual, from journalist Ross Bilton and the two page spread as run and Ross’s words are shown below.

“Heart of the Nation” is a great window for Australia’s fantastic depth of photographic talent … and picture editor Christine Westwood, feature journalist Ross Bilton and the new magazine editor Christine Middap deserve congratulations … and the gratitude of photographers.

Pic © Brian Cassey 2011

Mareeba Rodeo Elroy Josiah Arrow

Words Mareeba Rodeo

Weebolla Bulls …

Another nice publication today in “Heart of the Nation” – The Australian ‘Weekend’ magazine weekly pictorial feature of slices of life from all around Australia.. The image of the Moree Weebolla Bulls second XV bonding in the dressing room before running out to take on fierce rivals – the Tamworth Magpies – was originally taken for a feature on Moree in Australian Geographic, but didn’t make the edited selection.

Always one of the favourite images of mine from the Moree assignment, it was a picked by Ross Bilton on The Australian ‘Weekend’ mag and Ross’s words once again compliment the pic superbly.

The tear sheet of the ‘Heart of the Nation’ page is below …