Jay Town

Where have you worked and over what time period?

I started my career as a copyboy with Standard Newspapers and I later did my cadetship at Leader Newspapers. After completing my cadetship, I moved to Perth for a job with the West Australian and Daily News, where I worked for three years until the Daily News was sold off, and I left Western Australian Newspapers to work on the new Daily News. After several months, I was offered a job on the Sun News Pictorial back in Melbourne. In 1990, the Sun and the Herald merged to become the Herald Sun. In 1993 I left the Herald Sun and went to Sydney to become the Sports Photographer on the Daily Telegraph. In 1995, I worked on the new publication, Sports Weekly as Photographer and Pictorial Editor (Sydney). In 1996 I joined News Limited's Rugby League competition, SuperLeague, as Offical Photographer and Pictorial Editor of the SuperLeague Magazine. In 1998, when SuperLeague and the ARL merged to become the NRL, I was asked to resign from News Ltd and resign with the NRL. I didn't want to leave News Ltd, so I moved back to Melbourne to work on the Herald Sun. I had a couple of years working exclusively on the Sunday Herald Sun, including nine months as Pictorial Editor, and I am now working on both the Herald Sun and the Sunday Herald Sun.

How did you get into press photography - what was your big break?

I had been doing a lot of casual/freelance work after leaving my copyboy job, and eventually I was offered a cadetship at Leader Newspapers. My big break came when I went to Perth for an interview (on a gamble) and rolled up just after someone had left, and they needed a photographer to move to Port Hedland for 6 months.

With no family ties in Perth, it suited me down to the ground, and solved a problem for them as well.

What is your favourite photograph of all those you have taken and why?

My favorite photo is of the moment that Tyler Fishlock was reunited with his parents after losing his one remaining eye to Retina Blastoma. This brave little boy woke up, totally blind, and said to his parents, "come closer I can't see you", and they gave him a huge hug, and he said "That's better, I can see you now". All of us had tears in our eyes.

What is the biggest change you've seen in press photography over your career?

Without doubt, the biggest change I have seen was the introduction of digital photography. We went from having to turn a motel bathroom into a temporary darkroom with kilometres of black plastic, and developing films and doing prints. These would then be put on a drum scanner that would take 15 minutes to transmit a poor quality black and white picture back to the office.

Now with digital cameras I can take a photo and send it to my iPad, enhance and caption it, and FTP it back to the office from anywhere in the world in under 30 seconds.

What was the first camera you used and what camera do you use now?

The first camera I ever used was a Minolta, 35mm fixed lens camera, but the first camera I owned was a Pentax MX.

I currently use a couple of Nikon D4S cameras, and my kit consists of a 14-24mm f2,8, a 24-70mm f2,8, a 70-200mm f2.8, a Macro 105mm, a 200-400 f4, a 600mmf4 and 2 SB910 flash units. I also have a Quadra Ranger portable studio kit with two heads and a softbox.

Website

My website is jaytown.com.au (although I haven't touched it for about a year).

I am on Instagram as jaytown1