Richard Bennett's Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week Photos on-line

by Rob Kothe on 15 Oct 2003 In 1974 a young Tasmanian photographer, Richard Bennett, who had started his career photographing the 1969 Australian Andean climbing expedition, took a scenic flight from Hobart.

During the flight along the coast Richard took a few photographs of the approaching Sydney to Hobart fleet. People liked what they saw, so in 1975 Richard decided to photograph the entire fleet.

He flew out of Flinders Island, down to Maria Island, and into Hobart, capturing breath-taking photographs of the record breaking Kialoa, hence an institution was born

Richard Bennett has photographed 28 Sydney to Hobart yacht races and many Hamilton Island series. His web site, www.richardbennett.com.au has now posted the 2003 Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week collection.

Bennett's daughter Alice, who has followed in her father's footstes, commented, 'sailors all around the world are buying photos from our Sydney to Hobart collections on line. Now they can buy Hamilton Island images as well.

As our online gallery grows, visitors are finding it the easiest and fastest way to find a particular boat. We have added some extra features to our search engines to make sure visitors to our site can find the photo they are seeking. Not only can our photo database be searched, by boat name and boat type, but now searches can also be made by skippers names and old boat names.

While our site has full e-commerce facilities which allows visitors to buy photographs, posters, greeting cards and books online, we still talk to many of our clients on the phone before they make a final choice.

Lots of our clients look at our online galleries and then ring us up to discuss how a particular image will look mounted in a particular way.

While our 2000, 2001 and 2002 Hobart images are now online, that leaves 25 years that have only partial collections on line, so if customers want to find images from earlier years, we can find them and send a selection of images by email to allow them to make a choice.'

Photos from the upcoming 59th Rolex Sydney to Hobart race and the 2004 Sailing South Regatta will be online a couple of weeks into the 2004 New Year.

Richard Bennett Photography, 8 Rowlands Court, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia, 7050 Telephone +61 3 6229 2559 and Fax +61 3 6229 7725 http://www.richardbennett.com.au

A national radio interview with Richard Bennett can be heard on http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/s458086.htm