Welcome to The Amazing Picture Factory.
Based in central Victoria, the Amazing Picture Factory has
been running since 1982 and is a photographic specialist.
Not only do we shoot photos of events, weddings, portraits,
news, sports and almost anything you need, but we are also video specialists in
conjunction with ITC Productions we offer a full digital image and video
service anywhere you need.
Travelling literally anywhere required,.. even world wide.
Ben Longden, the principal photographer of The Amazing
Picture Factory was given his first camera when he was six, and he developed
his first film aged nine. it was from a Kodak 127, and yes, he still has it.
He went to TAFE to further his skills, but on the first day
was appointed darkroom teacher.
In 2001 he went to La
Trobe University at Bendigo, but was told he should be applying for a teaching
position – alas, none were available.
Turning professional in 1982, only because a friend asked him to shoot her wedding, and than another.. and another.. so, his accountant said to turn professional. Then one day, he gave the heads up to the Parkes newspaper editor that a major event was happening.
The editor said he had no one to take photos, and gave Ben a roll of film and a briefing.
A week later the newspaper had a new weekend sports, news and social photographer.
Ben has shot news pictures for
a number of newspapers such as The Parkes Champion Post and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph for nine years, The
Sydney Morning Herald, Dubbo's Maquarie Publications and Lithgow's Western Newspapers. For several years he mentored journalists
throughout the central west of NSW on how to get the best results possible.
In 1994 he moved to Echuca, Victoria and worked as chief
photographer at the Riverine Herald for eight years before branching out and
shooting television news.
Now it’s your turn to take advantage of his photographic
experience.
So how much experience do you have?
A fair question. Folks can talk it up as much as they want, but can they prove it.
In these days of digital cameras and photoshop, even a novices are calling themselves professional photographers. In his own words..;
I was given my first camera when I was six, and I developed my first film aged nine.
Turning professional in 1982, I shot news pictures for a number of newspapers such as The Parkes Champion Post and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph for nine years, The Sydney Morning Herald, Macquarie Publications and Western Newspapers. For several years I mentored journalists throughout the central west of NSW.
In the late 1980s I went to TAFE to further my skills, but on the first day was appointed darkroom teacher.
In 2001 I went to La Trobe University at Bendigo, but was told I should be applying for a teaching position – alas, none were available.
In 1994 I moved to Echuca, Victoria and worked as chief photographer at the Riverine Herald for eight years before branching out and shooting television news for the Nine and WIN Networks since 2003.
In late 2017 I started working as a full time news camera operator and editor with the WIN network , before returning to the full time world of freelance news for the ABC, SBS, Seven, NINE and Ten networks.
In late 2017 I started working as a full time news camera operator and editor with the WIN network , before returning to the full time world of freelance news for the ABC, SBS, Seven, NINE and Ten networks.
Im lucky. Friends have emailed me with photos they have shot of me at work in the
early and mid 1980s.. when I used to wear a suit to the office as well as weddings.
The first is of me at a wedding in Parkes (Central West NSW) with my wedding rig... two Pentax ME-Super camera bodies (each with drive) with a 35-70 zoom on one, and an 80-200 on the other. Both fitted with Metz CT-45 flashguns and a bag full (well, ten rolls of 36 exposure Fuji Velvia film).
Im holding a Gossen Lunasix F light meter (and flash meter) working out the light - and flash power settings.. ahh the days before TTL flash metering!!!
You had to work out the exposure BEFORE tripping the shutter, decide if fill flash was to be used, and then work out the flash power setting required to fill in shadows and keep the shot natural looking...
I still have the flashguns and the Lunasix F... but as I would wear out the Pentax's shutter mech every six months, they were replaced by Nikons. Which by the way are STILL going!
I was working freelance for the Parkes Champion-Post newspaper at the time. That's in addition to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph
The camera on my shoulder is a motorised Nikon F3 with a Nikkor 300mm f4 lens - which I stupidly sold to buy a 400mm lens. In my hand was another motorised F3 with an 80-200 and Metz 45-CT1 Mecablitz flash.
I still have one of the F3 bodies and the 80-200 f2.8 ED... AND the jacket!!
The amazing thing is the 80-200 f2.8 is one of the sharpest lenses I have ever used. Jen has a new 80-400 ED VR, and its just as sharp as that - 25 or so years down the track!! Oh, and it works perfectly with the current generation of Digital Nikon cameras.. with AF!
And the latest news is I bought one as well... which is now my primary lens, with a second body holding a VR AF 18-55, while the 12-24 sits in the bag for special occasions.
The Parkes Champion Post darkroom.. The min enlarger is at left, and mine is at the right.
To get the dots on the print, the baseboard is made of a vacuum bench. Literally a thousand holes drilled into it, with a vacuum cleaner attached underneath.
The Lithographic paper was placed in position and a 65 DPI dot screen - an A3 sheet of film with dots on it was placed on top, then the vacuum switched on to get good contact between the lith paper and the dotscreen.
The exposure was made and then the vac was switched off.. and the paper processed in a machine that would take 30 sec to deliver a result.
When I started there, I had taken over from someone was was taught the film was developed for six mins, fixed for four and then washed for ten before drying. Not a bad recipe,.... for disaster, as the films were so inconsistent, and on a seasonal level..
My mentor Con Diamond noted over the years that photos shot in spring and autumn looked OK, while those in winter were bullet proof, and summer was non existent.
The root cause, I discovered was the temperature of the solutions as well as their age. six minutes was fine, provided the solution as at 20 degrees... and as the darkroom was in the rear printing area of the shop, and open to the elements, the solution temp varied with the season. Not only that but the chemistry was not refreshed.. just reused day in day out and maybe dumped once a month.
I used the Ilford temp compensation chart (which I still have)and fixed the problem immediately.
The photographic quality of the paper was now assured to be the best in the group.
And with Con Diamond's mentoring, and the encouragement of the staff - and feedback they received, I was let loose.
In early 2019, I made the trip back to Parkes, not once, but TWICE. the second time for a Champion Post Reunion, where I was at long last able to say some words to the editor, Roel ten Cate, who hired me.. Words I had been wanting to say for over 20 years.. Thank you for giving me a break, and taking a chance on me.
During that reunion, I was able to visit my old darkroom.
it still has the pungent odour of Fixer... and despite it lacking the enlargers, processor and vacuum pump, lots of my old photos were still on the walls.
My Mentor
When I picked up the camera in the 1980s, I bought an Pentax ME Super from Diamond's Pharmacy of Parkes. It cost me $350.
An expensive purchase, yes, but one that opened up an enthralling hobby and a reluctant career.
Within weeks, of buying the camera I was a regular at Diamonds, and became a member of the Parkes Camera Club.
But it was Con and Betty Diamond who were to have the biggest influence in my life.
Not only did he become my photographic mentor over the next 20 or so years he was also my second dad.
He would encourage me to explore the combinations of aperture and shutter to control depth of field, and also their varying effect with telephoto lenses from 16mm up to 400mm.
While my dad taught me the basics - the ASA-aperture-shutter relationship from the age of six, and taught me to develop and print black and white prints, it was Con who encouraged my creativity.
In January 1982 I was asked to shoot a friends wedding. I would love to post a pic here, but.. she has the negatives! Rightly so. I believe the negs belong with the client.
A few months later I spoke to Roel ten Cate (pronounced Role Tencarter) who was the managing editor of the Parkes Champion Post newspaper about a major function happening on a weekend.
He said he did not have a weekend photographer available, but if I called in and picked up a roll of film, he would see if he could use any of the pix I shot.
A week later he had a new weekend and after hours photographer, Me.
Hardware
The Pentax ME Super with 2fps autowinder.
It was badly let down by the dog clutch connection bending away from the camera body when the grip was used with any lens longer than 50mm. metering was centre weighted.
The Nikon F3 with MD-4, a 4fps motordrive and 8x AA battery pack.
While the motor was great for sport action, it was having eight AA batteries in the grip that boosted the cameras reliability to 100%. As well as a grip that really fitted my hand.
I fitted it with a different back that stopped the automatic rewind (yes!!!) and left about 1cm of leader out of the cassette to make life easier loading spools in the darkroom.
One of my favourite pieces of machinery. The Nikon F4E, with its eight AA battery grip. the motordrive was built in, and Nikon sold this camera in three variants; the F4 without any battery grip, the F4S with a wedge shaped six AA battery grip and to give it the ultimate in reliability an 8 cell grip: The F4E version.
The handgrip must have been made for me, as it was so comfortable to use.
The handgrip must have been made for me, as it was so comfortable to use.
This camera featured full AF as well as matrix metering, and when used with the Nikon speedlights gave me the best opportunity to work on composition, rather than doing the exposure and fill flash ratio math... the flash synch speed was upped from 1/60 to 1/250.
Oh... and all cameras still work!
The glass...
The Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 ED lens. just like any other 80-200 but with a max aperture of f2.8, lightning quick autofocus and razor sharp Extra Dispersion (ED) glass. Ive used this for close to 25 years and its just as good as the day I bought it. And it works brilliantly on the current crop and full fame digital Nikons.
Weighing in at a couple of kilos the Nikkor 400mm f3.5 ED manual focus lens is a great lens for sport such as AFL, NRL Cricket and yes.. airshows. Its manual focus and you reeeally have to be critical with the focussing. for most things you need it sitting on a monopod, but with airshows you tend to get a sore shoulder, as the camera and lens comes close to five kilos.
The filter at the front is 160mm, and the UV filter cost me $350 in 1994.
I bought this from the Adelaide Advertiser who bought it especially for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and once the games were over... they wanted to sell their gear.
And introducing the newcomer...
The Nikon 80-400 f3.5 AF VR lens.
This lens is a tad lighter than the 400mm fixed lens, but is fitted with AF and vibration reduction, meaning that you can track a moving object and have a slower than usual speed and have a higher than average hit rate giving results like this..
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A little bit more about The Amazing Picture Factory..
When out and about on assignment we frequently get asked "so what newspaper do you work for?"
Many folks are unsure of the camera and assume its just a newspaper photographer with a stupid big camera.
For our stills work, we exclusively use Nikon (film and) digital cameras with their renowned optics, including the sharpest there is; ED glass.
STOP PRESS!!
We are now full HD, following the arrival of the TWO new Panasonic P2HD cameras that will shoot 1920x1080 HD at 100Mbps and 50 frames a sec.
For Video work, we used to use Sony Broadcast cameras such as below, but with the arrival of the HD cameras, things will still be much the same.. but in HD.
These two video cameras are what we use for our weddings, corporate and deb balls - and yes, news.
We do a lot of work for Nine news and have Seven news on the books as well.
Even TEN News AND the ABC send us out on stories for them!
*ALERT* techie stuff ahead.
This is my favourite camera. the Sony DSR570WS. it has the same three CCD, 2/3 inch chip as the legendary DigiBeta (THE Gold standard) and puts out an image that is simply stunning. Mind you, the other camera off to picture left is identical! All our gear is fitted with radio receivers for the range of microphones we have as well as our portable audio mixing desk for special events.
One of our achievements is a documentary on the Echuca Wharf refurbishment, especially where it came to filming the move of a 30 metre long shed from one end of the wharf to the other.
The shed before it was moved to the left of picture..
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