This day was a lot of fun! Unfortunately as is often the reality in my line of work, I found myself again working in the pouring rain; however that never dampens my enthusiasm for the task at hand, although it does mean that you have to stretch your creative cells that little bit further! This series of portraits was captured at the Fosterville gold mine outside Bendigo which is operated by Canadian mining company Crocodile Gold.

This was my second visit to Fosterville, however on this occasion everything had to be shot above ground, unfortunate since given the prevailing weather conditions I would have preferred to work down a nice cosy hot mine!

The boys certainly enjoyed posing for the camera in a rare moment between the rain.

As I set up the following shots, the rain became heavier and I found that I constantly had to keep wiping the lens to keep it clear. In my chosen field, I simply cannot stop working when the rain starts; my clients are relying on me to produce images and I am always working to a deadline, so it is imperative to have a back up plan and tough weather proof equipment. The first image is still lit with flash, and yet when I glanced at the back of my camera I knew that it was as dull as the sky; as such I increased the power to my flash and overpowered the ambient light to give the impression that the image was captured at night…

Looking at the bottom right side of the above frame the rain can clearly be seen frozen by the flash.

I realised a long time ago that after such punishing shoots I needed to build into my day rate the cost of cleaning and servicing my camera equipment; I simply cannot have a dirty sensor or unreliable gear when I am interrupting the workings of a busy mine…