Junior Reporter

Junior truck photographer Thomas shares some top tips on how to take a great truck photo

Rain, snow or sun-shine, you’ll find me out and about in all sorts of weather, snapping photos of cool rigs hauling in and around Canterbury.

Here’s a few top tips I’ve learnt for a good roadshot.

I make sure my camera is on the right setting for most of my photos. I use the sports mode as I find it suits the fast moving trucks the best.

The best thing about roadshots is you can pick your background and find some really nice spots to take your truck photos.

I also look for where the sun is and try to get the sun on the front and side of the truck. This is very important unless it’s an overcast day.

On overcast days I can shoot trucks going in both directions with an even lighting.

Timing is quite important as well, as cars and other traffic sometimes get in the way.

Timing is everything when it comes to roadshots. Here’s a few of my favourites I’ve taken over the last year…

Keep on trucking! Over and out, Thomas

Reid heads out to do some earthworks with his stepdad, Ben. He saw tractors, diggers, rollers and loaders, all from a Kenworth.

Name: Reid
Age: 9
Can be found in a: Kenworth

My step dad Ben works at HDL, which stands for Hill Development Limited. They do earthworks for subdivisions. One Saturday my brother Heath, sister Lily and I got to hang out at Ben’s work.

The boss, whose name is Mike, gave us some HDL shirts and a couple of walkie talkies to communicate with.

First, we started up the 2003 T404 Kenworth 6×4 alloy bin tipper with 18-speed road ranger transmission. The C15 550hp Cat engine was super loud and my sister honked the horn, which was even louder! Today’s job was to fill in a hole with sand/ash, so we needed the Komatsu 13-tonne digger to load up the Kenworth truck.

As the digger loaded the truck, I could feel it shaking like a truck rumbling past our house. Then we backed up the truck to the hole and dumped the load by tipping the deck. Second time round I went in the digger with my step dad – it was fun to push the levers and watch the scoop load the truck.

It was cool seeing the other machinery too like tractors, diggers, rollers and loaders. I had an epic day hanging out at Ben’s work site.

Kaitlyn met up with our friends over at Rossco Bobcats, and learned all about how quick bobcats are compared to other vehicles. She also got to check out some classic trucks.

Name: Kaitlyn
Age: 10
Hails from: Canterbury
Goes to: Shirley Primary School

I recently got the opportunity to go out with my mum to Rossco Bobcats, a Christchurch-based transport company. We got to meet Rossco and his wife Wendy, as well as their mates Shane Pearson and Mark Amer, who everyone calls Magpie.

Rossco has run the company for more than 20 years. On our visit, we got to go in Rossco’s truck, which had a bobcat on the back. It looked amazing.

We also got to go in Magpie’s truck. He took us for a nice ride around Rolleston and told us all about the work he does and how he loves working in the transport sector. Magpie does a lot of travelling and says he really enjoys his job.

Shane took us out in his Kenworth truck. He told me it costs $700 a day in fuel to run a truck! Wow. He starts early and finishes by 4pm, making a full day of it.

Shane showed Mum and I around his big garage, which had a few old fashion trucks in it. I loved the L&P truck. We also saw a lot of trucking memorabilia that was nicely displayed.

I really enjoyed my morning and meeting Rossco and his mates, thank you so much for having me.

Rossco and Wendy Higgins own and operate Rossco Bobcats, a general earthmoving company that works on everything from landscaping, driveways, section clearing, and floor pads for new homes, all around Christchurch and the wider Canterbury region.

After working on a bobcat for his brother-in-law, Rossco decided to branch out on his own, and now has been operating bobcats for 40 years. The company owns three trucks, a skid steer loader, and a 5.5 tonne bobcat excavator.

Rossco says bobcats are very quick and efficient, and faster than other machines.

While Rossco is operating the machines, Wendy takes care of all the bookwork and accounts.

“She’s my rock,” says Rossco. “We’ve built the business up together and are really happy.”

Blake lives in a country town in New South Wales, called Leeton. He tells us all about his dad’s work for Guilford General Transport.

Name: Blake
Age: 10
Hails from: Leeton, NSW
Truck of choice: A Kenworth K200

My dad carts general freight for Guilford General Transport. His loads range from oversized buildings and tractors to paper and bottle caps, and sometimes he even carts dangerous goods. Today’s load is bales of wool.

We didn’t leave home until 4:30 pm in Dad’s Kenworth K200 with a 550hp Cummins motor. We had a full double load in the tautliner trailer. The load was going from Griffith NSW to Melbourne, Victoria.

After checking the truck over and making sure there were no flat tyres, it was time to buckle up and hit the road.

We drove from Leeton to Jerilderie on the Newell highway before stopping to get some dinner.

We were driving at dusk so we had to keep an eye out for kangaroos – luckily we didn’t see any, but we did see some emus though.

We passed through lots of little towns and saw heaps of interesting things like the Big Strawberry at Koonoomoo and the silo painting at Wunghnu.

We stopped at Guildford’s Shepparton depot and checked the load of wool. Because wool bales move around a lot during transport, we had to tighten the straps. We then helped our mate Billie drop his trailers and hook onto a new set.

I wasn’t able to go all the way to Melbourne with Dad on this trip because he was going to be away for the next four days, so at the Guilford’s Shepparton depot I hopped out of Dad’s truck and into Billie’s for the drive home.

The load in Billie’s trailers was bits and pieces; there were small tractors, toilet paper and farming supplies. On the way home we stopped in Jerilderie again to grab some diesel and spent the drive talking about my dream of one day owning my own truck company. We arrived back at the Leeton depot at 12:20 am where Mum picked me up and took me home to bed.