Kia ora tatou:

A few years ago, I was teaching a workshop in RAW at Canterbury University. In the class was a quiet Taiwanese whose pictures blew me away. There was an elegance and simplicity to them, a sense of balance and restraint that was utterly divine. We got to talking.

Since then the friendship has grown. We have travelled together, photographed together and talked about the art of photography a lot. I don’t see Ray that much or as much as I would like. He is a dentist by trade, and spends term-time up in Taipei, working the sort of hours that a Kiwi dentist would never countenance, to support his family back here in Christchurch. His wife is a wonderful painter, whose work has the same glorious balnce as his photography. Every school holidays he returns to be with them for a few short weeks. Not a life I would like, but a measure of his dedication to them, and his quiet integrity. I hold him in the highest regard as a person and photographer. (more…)

A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is
transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an
opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph.
All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.
::: Richard Avedon :::

I am always interested in what we miss when we try to focus
on what we see. For example, when you take a photo you will
always feel a bit disappointed after the exposure, because it’s
never representing what you perceived when you took it.
::: Peter Doig :::

In European art the portrait has been around a lot longer than depiction of the landscape. (more…)

Seagulls pivot and pinion on the edge of the wind

Draw quivering wingtips through the air

Soft fingers through Tawhiri’s hair

stitch sky to land

and brand the morning light

with blue and golden promise.

Messengers all,

envoys,

bearing Rangi and Papa’s pledges

To each other.

Kia ora tatou:

Never let it be said that I ignored those of you (misguided souls?) who espouse the cause of Nikon.

The Canon-Nikon race to release new models seems to me to be a bit like watching two racehorses at the starting gate and wondering which one will break first. Well, it was Canon. Now Nikon have released details of their 2 flagship cameras, the D300 and D3, the latter with a 12Mp full-frame sensor and a whole lot of cool features, including a 930 000 3″ LCD on the back and a built-in spirit level for those of us who have trouble getting our horizons level ( how cool is that?).

There are heaps of new and wondrous things.

You can read about it here.

There. I have done my gear posts for the year. Now back to core business…..

Ka kite ano

Kia ora tatou:

It has been some time since I posted on the subject of the environment, a subject about which I am passionate and not a little concerned. I guess my artist’s statement, a text I revisit from time to time, which is still the source code for my work, sums it up for me. it is about using such talents as I have to do what I can.

In the debates on the Lammermoors, a number of you commented on how you could make a difference. Judging by the response to my posts, there is plenty of passion among you as well. I think it is important to do whatever we can and not to feel that because our efforts are infinitesimal, that they are of little or no value ( alot of negative statemants there). They are of value. If each of us makes an effort, however trivial we might consider it to be, then collectively we can make a difference.

We owe it to our tamariki and mokopuna to do so.

(more…)

Kia ora tatou:

Apparently we Canon users are about to get a feast…if the rumours are to be believed!

First up, supposedly due for announcement any day now, is the Canon 40D, which will have a 10.1Mp sensor, Digic III engine, 3.0 LCD, built-in dust removal,improved shutter life (>100 000 shutter cycles, etc) and a new sRAw mode. Read more here

Then is the 5D2/6D.. supposedly 16 Mp, Digic III engine, etc etc.

No doubt many of you will be foaming at the mouth over the new 1Ds III. If you subscribe to the Grinz, you will have heard about it. Apparently the facts have been leaked on Amazon. here are a few mouth-watering things to lust after…

• 21.1-megapixels
• five-frame-per-second (fps) shooting rate for bursts of up to 56 Large/Fine (21-megapixel) JPEGS or 12 RAW images
• Dual “DIGIC III” Image Processors
• 14-bit Analog-to-Digital (A/D) conversion process. Able to recognize 16,384 colors per channel (four times the number of colors recognized by the EOS-1Ds Mark II Digital SLR camera’s 12-bit conversion capability)
• Live View
• a three-inch, 230,000-pixel wide-angle LCD display screen. The TFT color liquid-crystal monitor features seven user-settable brightness levels and a wide, 140-degree viewing angle, both horizontally and vertically.
• EOS Integrated Cleaning System-ie shake the dust off-wouldn’t that be great!

• the shutter of the EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital SLR camera carries a durability rating of 300,000

knowing how keen you all would be to see what one will look like, I hunted the Net and came up with this image…

Now would I lead you astray?

ka kite ano

Update:

Well, I wasn’t far away. Canon announced 3 new cameras yesterday: a Canon G9 ( 12Mp +RAW); the 40D (10Mp, 6.5fps) and the BIG BOYS’ TOY, the 1Ds Mk III.

Read about it here

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”

Edgar Allen Poe

Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

-John Donne

It was a morning like any other. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

If you wondered about customising your copy of Lightroom , seek no further.

Lightroom Extra offers a huge range of presets you can plug into the Develop module, along with templates, identity plates and more. It even has images to customise the panel ends.

I really like the pirate flag. I am not sure why…

Foir those of you creating larger Libraries, it is recommended that where possible, you split these into separate catalogs. It would appear that ticking the “write into xmp” in the catalog settings can slow LR down. The gurus also recommend you tick the “render standard previews” box wshen importing, to avoid putting your machine under pressure.

To find out more check the Adobe Lightroom forum.

Ka kite ano

The day started at the summit and then went downhill..

I checked in to Alaska Airlines at Sitka Airport at 0800, in plenty of time to get my boarding pass, to have breakfast and relax. Or so I thought.

As I loaded my luggage onto the ramp, I asked the Air Alaska people whether they did fragile. I am used (or becoming so) to Air New Zealand, who insist on putting everything in the hold. Why? What is in the case? On an impulse, I inflated the value of my gear. About $50k of camera equipment, I replied. Oh, we don’t insure electronics. You had better take it on the plane with you. I didn’t point out that I was about to put 16kg in the overhead locker. Are you sure? I asked. Absolutely. Please take it with you.

No Problem. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

1. The last few weeks have been hectic and travel-filled. After a couple of days to recuperate from the trip to Alaska, we headed south for the Maniototo for the Wedderburn workshops, two weeks of intense working together to make great images. The quality of the work the crew produced was stunning, and in the next week or so I hope to put up some of the work on line for you all to enjoy. It reminded me that teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin, and I hope that those who attended got as much from it as I did.

2. The trip back from Alaska was one of those things you see on a TV reality show, and a reminder that the best-laid plans of mice and men…more about that in a coming post, on why I love my Airport International, and why I am now an even bigger fan of Thinktank Photo gear.

3. A highlight of the second workshop was finding out about a photographer I hadn’t heard of, Anthony Rupert Sedgewick-Effington, who style is diametrically opposed to my own. In a way, he is a kind of alter ego, and in discussion, we agreed he should put his point across. He has agreed to write a post from time to time and show some of his work. I know a number of you are waiting with bated breath to see what he will offer…

4. I am in the process of putting together a raft of workshops over the next few months, and we are already planning the workshops for next year. Please keep an eye on the workshops section of this site.

5. I know there are a large number of you who read this ezine who are not on the database for my newsletter. It come out from time to time and often includes stuff that is not on my ezine. If you have never received a newsletter, and would like to do so, please go here and fill out the form. Conversely, if you are on it and want to be removed, then please let me know. I don’t do spam.

Ka kite ano