A common question is why is there such a price difference when searching on the internet. Firstly, you will need to understand the difference between Australian distributed & grey imports. It’s exactly the same equipment, just cheaper for a few reasons:

NOTE: Most manufacturers warranty is only valid in the country of distribution. This means that if something goes wrong with your grey import, you will need to send it back to the country of distribution to have it repaired under warranty, or pay to have it fixed locally.

I have bought both locally distributed equipment as well as grey imports. I like the idea of a shopfront, talking to a sales person, playing with something before you buy it, knowing who’s door to knock should you have a problem, and most importantly, knowing that if my equipment breaks down I can go straight to the distributors service centre at Lidcombe and have it looked at almost immediatly.

As for retailers that sell equipment covered under local warranty, here is a few I’ve used myself:

But as I said, I have also bought grey stock, sometimes the price difference is just too much to justify paying for the local product. Here is some places I’ve used to buy grey stock.

Bought direct from overseas supplier:

Local Importer:

When buying from overseas, always take into consideration the costs associated with bringing into Australia, freight, insurance and of course Customs & Duties.

If you can’t decide what camera to buy, don’t ask me (I’m biased), make use of the best camera resouce on the internet, Digital Preview.

If this information is usefull, or you have any comments that can benefit readers, please use the feedback option below.

The young man looking happy & content.

Some back to basic framing, making use of negative space.

Finally, he had enough.

So, his parents stripped him & we got some nudies.

The service soon started and Angel-Rose was distracted by the flash on my camera, gave me some good eye contact.

The godfather has his hands cupped filled with oil, the priest dipping his finger into the oil anoints the face, chest, mouth, nose, ears, legs and feet in dedication to the service of Christ. Grand-mum holding Angel-Rose securely. Note the way the priest is holding her feet, definite sign of experience to stop her kicking around.

Angel-Rose getting well and truly baptised.

A candid with mum just after the service.

The reception was held at GEoRGES on King St Wharf, the afternoon sun was terrific and provided a great place for a few informal family portraits.

The church is surrounded with yellow stained windows, and with the afternoon sun glowing bright the entire church had a warm natural colour to it. This changed my style of shooting for the service, more to what I like, using the available light to capture the image and the flash is just for a little boost.

When the very first shot of the day looks like this and I only guessed the exposure I know I’m going to have a good day.

A quick formal at the entrance while waiting for the Koumbarie & guests to arrive.

In almost a mirror image of a photo I took a few weeks ago at Ioanna’s Christening, the god child & godparent exchanging a look during the service.

The oil is poured into the Godfathers hands in preparation to anoint Dean.

Dean having a wonderful time in the baptismal font.

A very quick lesson on cropping & making a few basic changes.
A good image like this.

Turns into a gorgeous one like this.

Dean’s first offering, a lock of hair.

A Christening cake in the shape of a christening box made by Sweetart.

A couple of heroes from Superheroes Inc showed up to entertain the kids.

When I did the “first run” processing the images, this candid caught my eye.

However after going through all the images, I’ll leave you with my favourite for the day, the mood and emotion in this one is a standout.

It looked great under the coloured balloons used to brighten up the place.

The level of detail was amazing, check these out.

Sweet Art Cake Design
Phone: +612 9361 6617
Web: http://www.sweetart.com.au/

They told the kids stories of amazing adventures.

Kept them in awe with their tales of courage.

Played hide and seek with them (not many places to hide in a restaurant).

Played games with them.

Painted their faces?

and of course, every kid wanted their photo taken with them.

SuperHeroes Inc
Phone: 9326 4686
Mobile: 0412 477 733
Web: http://superheroes.com.au

During the service of the Catachumen I liked the way everyone including the baby appeared to be reading the prayer book.

Picked up some detail on the bottle of oil, those are Katerina’s initials which also appeared on the cake made from giant alphabet blocks.

The actual christening with the baby immersed in the baptismal font.

When publishing images on my web site, I always have the dilemma of keeping the size and quality of the images at an acceptable level and at the same time showing photographs the way I’d like them to be seen. The tragic consequence of this is the level of detail I cannot show. Here is the above photo at 100% crop, I love the water droplets falling off Katerina’s head and the ones caught in mid air around the Priests hand.

A bit of mayhem while Katerina was being dressed, hands everywhere.

I like the framing and shallow depth of field in this photo. I’ll also use this as an opportunity to explain what is happening. Towards the end of the service, the priest places his hand on the baptised child’s head. This tradition goes back to when Jesus was baptised, and the touch has been passed down since then to all those baptised through all the generations over 2000 years.

The reception was held at the Lakes Golf Club where the balcony and the fairway provided a great location for some family portraits.

Taken in the backyard of our home, there’s a number of items of interest in this photo. It would have been taken Easter Sunday, a day Greeks celebrate by cooking a lamb on a spit. The spit itself consisted of a souvla, and everything else was made from items scrounged around the yard. The fire was enclosed in concrete bricks, the souvla itself was held up by two iron bars tied together with wire, the old “hoover” bottom right used to blow air onto the coals to speed up the heating process. A couple bags of coal (bottom left) in readiness to keep the fire burning. Most importantly, even at a young age I knew how vital it was to keep hydrated when cooking, the amber ale even back then was my choice of beverages.

Lamb Spit is one of my favourite foods, actually any bit of meat cooked on an open flame makes me act like Pavlov’s dogs, but lets not go there now. Moving forward 30 years to today, I’ve decided to document & photograph the entire process, I’ll call it my Greek Easter Lamb on a Spit recipe.

Firstly, get yourself a lamb (stating the blatantly obvious), however there is a few things to look out for. You don’t want one that is too fatty, however you do want it to have good thighs & shoulders, with plenty of meat on them which of course comes with a bit of fat, so there is a bit of a balancing act between meaty & fat. I proudly support our state farmers from New South Wales. My butcher can actually order lambs from Mexico Victoria (south of the border) if we wanted to.

From here on, I will refer to “the lamb” as Terry. Actually, every lamb on a spit I cook is called Terry in reference to a great league player that had his prime in the 80’s.

First thing I do is clean a whole head of garlic (you read that right, a whole head, not just a clove) and slice them into thin wedges. Soak them in olive oil, salt, cracked pepper, and to give it a Greek / Australian flavour, both oregano & rosemary.

Rehydrate - Crown Lager

Terry comes in at just over 14 kilograms, lay him out to prepare. Ideally you do this the night before to let the marinade soak in. Lay Terry out on a table, and make sure all you hardware is washed & dried.

Mount the fork into the shoulders, then tie the front legs into the frame.

Force the U bolt into the middle of the back, then tie it off with the wing nuts. Notice at this stage I have also thrown about 3-4 handfuls of rock salt into Terry’s cavity.

Mount the rear legs onto the frame.

Now throw a few whole lemons and onions inside the cavity and get ready to stitch Terry up. Before you do however, grab a handful of the garlic mix you created and massage it into the inside walls of the cavity, leave the garlic bits inside.

Many people use wire to stitch Terry up and tie him to the frame, in my opinion I think there are health risks with having food in contact with bits of wire you buy at a hardware store and exposing it to heat for 4-5 hours. I use a quality cooking twine and the hardware is all stainless steel.

It’s pretty obvious why I’ll never be a surgeon.

Rehydrate - James Boag

Now comes the fun bit. Using a sharp knife, cut into Terry at an acute angle just below the skin, and shove in a piece of garlic. Use your fingers and stick it in as far as it goes, doesn’t matter if you crush the garlic, all the better.

Do this on all the meaty parts, shoulders, thighs, neck and on both sides of the spine. If you run out of garlic before you run out of places to stab Terry then you’re doing great.

Once you have finished with the garlic, you should have a bowl of olive oil with the herbs left. Pour this onto your hands and massage Terry’s entire body.

Your needle may not be stainless, if that is the case, after washing it wrap it in a napkin soaked in olive oil & you won’t have a problem with it next time you need to use it.

Rehydrate - Cascade Premium

Get Terry out of the fridge at least a few hours before you start to cook him, ideally he should be at room temperature when you put him on the coals.

The first hour is the most critical, have Terry up high and keep an eye on him. If too many juices are flowing out then the heat is too much and you need to back it down. Ideally, you will have drops of juices falling off for the entire cooking process, around 4-5 hours.

The secret to a great lamb spit is to C O O K I T S L O W L Y , ensuring the juices are still in there until the end so that it doesn’t dry up.

In about an hour, you need to get the blessing ready. In a bowl, mix 50/50 freshly squeezed lemon juice with olive oil, and smother it with salt, cracked pepper, oregano and rosemary. Use a stalk of oregano (or basil) as a basting brush.

Rehydrate - Hann Premium

Now every 20 minutes or so, bless Terry making sure you get plenty of blessing on the meaty parts of his body.

Something I should have mentioned earlier, however it’s more noticeable in this photo. Terry is pretty lean around the ribs and stomach. For this reason the coals are mainly placed at the two ends of the spit where the meaty parts are, the heat generated from the ends is enough to cook the lean parts in the middle.

Rehydrate - what was I up to?

Terry with a beautiful tan, and the meat starting to come off the bone, mostly noticeable around the shoulder blades, shoulders and thighs, he’s just about ready.

My watermark hides the coals, but I do use real charcoal for cooking, not those artificial petrochemical ones created in a factory. If Terry makes the ultimate sacrifice for my culinary delights, the least I can do for him is to sacrifice a tree or two to get real charcoal to cook him.

Get Terry off the fire and start hacking into the carcass. Ideally your guests will have grabbed plates with salads and fillers and will be grabbing bits of lamb as it’s being cut, it’s best when served hot & fresh.

That t-shirt reminds me, it’s time to re-hydrate (my face wasn’t red because of the heat).

One of the disadvantages of being bi-lingual is not being able to find a single word in English to match a word in Greek, the expression for what you see in this image (and what it tasted like) is LOUKOUMI. If you don’t know what that means, suggest you grab a Greek mate and ask.

Huge thanks to my beautiful wife who as usual looked after EVERYTHING else while I only looked after the meat, her efforts are fantastic.

Now since this is the first recipe I’ve ever posted, I would love to hear some feedback. Use the comments / leave a reply on this post. Link to this page (http://blog.johnkapaniris.com/2008/03/01/lamb-spit-greek-easter/) if you have a website or your writing something in a forum. If enough interest is shown, I will start to post some more of my recipe’s. The next one I have in mind is a joint effort I make with my wife, Stuffed Lamb Fore Quarter which is cooked in a Weber barbecue. Bet you haven’t heard of that one before?

I also like how godparents come up with different ideas to deliver all the bits & pieces required for the service. Ioanna scored herself a great timber doll house in addition to her new outfits, talk about lucky.

If you follow my blog, you know I love capturing candid moments, and this one of Ioanna and her godfather exchanging a look during the service is one of my favourites for the day.

It should come to no surprise to find a black and white photo of the baby in the baptismal font. Check out the other dozen or so photos similar to this one from other Greek Orthodox Christenings I have covered.

I have done pre-wedding shoots in the past, however this is the first time I’ve done a pre-christening shoot. Ioanna’s mum Katerina wanted to give the guests a little thank-you / memento of the day. I took a few dozen photo’s in a couple of different outfits, one was the actual outfit Ioanna wore to the christening. Katerina picked two of her favourites & I created a template for her to create these little thank you cards that looked great next to the boubouniere.

Did you notice the candy in the jar? Talk about attention to detail, a little pink heart surrounded by the word IOANNA.

Soon the service of the Catachumen began where I managed to capture the page with the image of Mary & Jesus on the page next to where the priest was reading from.

The baptism itself, William immersed in the baptismal font.

William showing of his two tiny teeth.

With the first glance at this photo I was disappointed by the fact that the second priest got partly in the way of the photo, however, I was also pleasantly surprised by what I had captured, and yes, I admit, it was a fluke. William and his godmother were standing in the only direct sunlight that was coming into the church from the window, the way they glow and the shadow they cast on the floor gives them an angelic appearance.

Family social events is a great place for relatives and friends to catch up, and an even better opportunity to grab a photo with them. This one of Joanne and her two sisters with the afternoon sun providing a rim light over their shoulders is one that would proudly be displayed in their parents home, (at least I think so).