Kia ora tatou:

Doc has weighed in on this argument so, rather than leave his comment buried in other posts, and because I consider it significant, I have brought it to the surface, so it can bask in the sun.

Hi Tony, as much as I avidly avoid posting my thoughts on people’s blogs given that I usually say the wrong thing, I will comment now.

I use film because as you say I have grown up with it and have developed an understanding of it. However primarily I still use film because I want to be able to make both analogue and digital prints. Despite the advances in digital printing and photoshop technology, digital prints still cant look like, and I emphasize ‘look like’ an analogue print. This has nothing to do with one being better than the other, it is simply, believe it or not, that there are photographs that cant be successfully made digitally. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

it has been raining a lot over here, so I have had time to look around on the Net, hence the new posts. I will be offline Sunday through Wednesday next week in the Tankwa Karoo. In the meantime, here a few links you might like to follow:

1. Those of you who wondered why you can’t get particular lenses, and why, when you can, they cost more, might like to read this article. makes sense to me. Even though it is US-specific, it is happening everywhere. And if you kiwis thought Canon gear was expensive, spare a thought for what they pay here in South Africa ( conversion rate: divide by roughly 5). Makes these guys look really great.
2. My favourite must-read-every-day blog is the Online Photographer. Great articles on depth of field. Guaranteed to make your brain water.
3. If you were starting to foam at the mouth and see yourself as an indie Peter Jackson with a D90/5DMkII, you might want to have a look at this article on Luminous Landscape, which clearly lays out when you really need a camcorder (or not)
4. Mary Jo has uploaded a video of her photographs of a pole dancing event. You can see it here.
5. And from the Land of the Long White Frost ( Doc’s words),the post header image, just in. Given my last two posts, I detect synchronicity and a certain delicious irony here (LOL).

Kia ora tatou:

If you read my previous post about taking the digital out of photography, then you’ve probably read the comments attached to it. I’m looking forward to seeing more of days, as each of you ways in your own thoughts and opinions. It is, after all, through debate, discussion and disagreement that we are able to redefine our own thoughts on the matter.

Out of respect for Ian, who always gives his thoughts and opinions (highly valued, if I may say so, Ian, even though it may not appear that way to you), I’m going to reply publicly, rather than putting on the gloves down in the engine room at the bottom of the post. Yes, Ian, let us go up to the deck and duke it out there.

Ian wrote: (more…)

There are days when the technique of an aimless stroll-without timetable or destination-works like a charm, flushing out pictures from the non-stop urban spectacle.

-Robert Doisneau

Last night, at dinner, the conversation turned to a discussion on photography, and photography as art, more significantly the uneasy relationship that seems to have developed between traditional photography on the one hand and the increasing use of digital techniques to move an image to a new place. While I may appear to be beating an old drum again, nevertheless I think it’s important for each of us who uses a camera to give some thought to it, and decide where we stand.

It seems to me that photography is at a crossroads. On the one hand it approaches the future with its eyes firmly fixed on the past. On the other it is attempting to cut the cords which bind it to the tradition of the medium, a tradition nearly 200 years old. Perhaps the child is ready to leave home and make its own way in the world. So where is the devil in the machine? (more…)

I haven’t shot documentary for quite sometime, over a year in fact. As I’m wont to do, I came to Africa, armed with preconceptions. And of course, eventually when I got out of my own way, they went out the window. It may be something to do with the light here.

The first week I was here, I had difficulty connecting to Africa. I think it had something to do with the weather. Every day it was grey and it rained, or thought about raining, or had just finished raining and was preparing for the next bout of rain. While the temperature was warm, the constant rain and soft greyness reminded me of being back home. Somehow the light wasn’t really Africa. I wasn’t what I remembered.

Then it all changed. The sun came out, mother Africa put on her party frock and a big smile and everything was different. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

I guess it is every photographer’s nightmare; you’re a stranger in a strange land, dependent on your equipment, and your key asset (CAMERA!) fails  on you. What do you do? 

I was to find out. 

Canon advertise the 1Ds Mk III as having a shutter cycle life of around 300,000. Certainly, with the price you pay for one (New Zealand $12,000) you’d expect that to be the case. Here, even the 5D MkII at less than half the price offers 200,000 shutter cycles! The big 1-series Canon is supposed to be bullet-proof, built like a tank and able to deflect AK-47 rounds.  (more…)

Kia Ora:

1. As many of you know, I am a big fan of plug-ins. One of my favourites is the PhotoSuitecollection from Onone software. Genuine Fractals is a particular favourite of mine, especially when I’m upsizing for an exhibition. Phototools is a collection of really valuable actions, which allow you to read a wide range of effects. Now the nice people over there have released PhotoTools Lite, which is a free plug-in for PhotoShop CSx. you can download it either here or by linking from the graphic at the top of this post.
2. Onone have also released a remote control application which allows you to control your Canon  DSLR from your iPhone. You can download it from the iTunes store. While it is Canon-only at the moment, a Nikon version is about four weeks away.
3. If you run Microsoft Windows Vista, and have your Windows updates set to do it automatically,then you will probably have noticed is offering to install Service Pack 2. Be advised: this may or may not work (it certainly didn’t in my case!). I spent a frustrating hour and a half, while it  attempted to install itself , accompanied by at least two instances of the dreaded BSOD (blue screen of death), then another half-hour while it rolled back the install. My suggestion: if you don’t know what you’re doing, stay well away, or get an expert to do it for you. You might also want to wait, since Windows 7, the successor to Vista, will be out before Christmas, and by all accounts, it is stable, speedy, and a worthy successor to Windows XP.Mac aficionados will of course be laughing their heads off at this point!
4. Oh, and on the subject of Photosuite, Onone Software have just featured me as one of their exemplar photographers. To read more, go here.

Art does not reproduce what we see, it teaches us to see.”

• book eli the movie

-Paul Klee

Sometimes, going for a walk with the camera can show us things we might not otherwise notice. Sometimes we have to get out of our own way and be open to whatever presents itself to us.

The flight across from New Zealand is long and arduous, and frankly I don’t know how the rugby teams that travel from New Zealand to South Africa or back do it. Whichever way you do it, whether it’s through Perth or the 14 hour haul from Sydney to Johannesburg, it’s a long way across many time zones. As I entered the departure gate Christchurch airport, it occurred to me that I was going into limbo, into a space where Time has no real meaning to the traveller. Even setting my watch to multiple time zones didn’t help. I was disconnected from Space and Time, merely a unit being moved through the system. I had entered a pipeline, and until I emerged from the other end, I was really in a place between. It was only when I cleared customs in Johannesburg, and was able to step outside, to feel the sun and wind, and the infinite multi-layered subtlety of smells that is Africa, that I began to feel  I was reconnecting.

My body thought otherwise. I was a smorgasbord of aches and pains and stiffness, and I knew It was going to take several days until I adjusted, and began to feel reconnected. It took a walk on the Helderburg Mountains, observing the plants, feeling the wind, and coating my shoes with the red mud that seems so strange when you come from New Zealand with its grey soil, to feel as if I was finally here. (more…)