Kia ora tatou:

Sometimes the stories around here are massive and mind-boggling, tributes to big money and breathtaking ineptitude, sometimes they  are small stories about stubborn determination.

Welcome to Africa.

I was driving south from Port Alfred, heading to Port Elizabeth and thence to Tsitsikammer for the night, when I hit the motorway, about 20 minutes north of PE. It is one of those amazing motorways with 6 lanes each side and a broad grass strip between them. You can cover long distances at the maximum speed limit of 120 km/h here and feel as if you are going nowhere.

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Kia ora tatou:

While I was mucking around in the menus, trying to avoid having to RTFM, I came a cross a couple that could be useful.

The first is C-RAW, which gives a 12 Mp file whenever you use it. Might be really useful the next time I shoot a wedding…..

The other is APS-C mode. I had the opportunity to use it yesterday in Pretoria. My good friend, Reg Botha, took me to a game park nearby, which sprawls across around 4 000 ha of the high veldt. Now the last time I shot ( rephrase: photographed) animals was 3 years ago in the Kruger, so I was well and truly out of practice.

But the animals were not.

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…But the Road has always been, and those of us who can travel it always have. The world goes on, the Road goes on-from creation to destruction, amen, for all you know. What’s your point?…

-Roadmarks ( Roger Zelazny)

Kia ora tatou:

In the last chapter of the story of a new Sony user in Africa, I talked about the camera and the files coming out of it. In this post I want to talk about the post-production implications of making the switch.

Just before I left last week, Marcus at Dove Electronics, who handle Sony cameras in New Zealand, suggested I take one of their Vaio VGN-AW37GY laptops with me. Given that I was looking for a new laptop, and I have only ever heard good things about Vaio’s, I readily agreed, on the premise that I was free to bag it if it didn’t perform. He agreed ( but seemed a bit too confident, so I resisted the temptation to put money on it), so late last Thursday I picked it up, and started throwing software at it.

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Kia ora tatou:

I have been in South Africa a few days now and have had time to try out the camera and lenses, along with the laptop loaned me and revisit my workflow. So I intend to write this review in two parts: in the first part what I am learning about the Sony and the way it works. In the second I will write about the laptop and the effects of using it and the impact on my workflow.  As many of you know , I have been a Canon user for around 10 years, and in most of that time I have used 1-series  Canons, with the latest being the 1D Mk III and 1DS Mk III. So I have a body of fore-knowledge which needed to be rebuilt. This review will tend to compare the 2 systems in places, as it gives me a better idea of what the 24.5 Mp Sony A900 delivers relative to the Canon.

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Kia ora tatou:

Those of you  interested in how much of the market is taken up by each brand might be interested in this….

Photoscala has posted an interesting Gain & Loss analysis of the worldwide DSLR market, for the period 2006-2008. According to their findings Canon, who were the undisputed worldwide leaders in 2006, have lost 9 percentage points and barely managed to keep their number one position against Nikon, who have gained 4 percentage points in the meantime. The biggest winner is Sony, who managed to more than double their market share, and took the third position from Olympus with ease. The rest of the market is devoid of any major changes, although Panasonic has managed to double its share, partially owing to its introduction of the DMC-G1 (which is, technically speaking, not a DSLR, but is nevertheless included in the figures).

Nota bene: Photoscala warns that these numbers, which were derived from multiple sources, are to be taken with a grain of salt, but allegedly “the tendencies have been captured quite accurately”.

Kia ora tatou:

This evening this  arrived from Jenny Couldrey, who was not only on the workshops,  she did a fabulous job of organising it. Thanks, Jen!

Back story

Waikaremoana let me in when I became conscious and the Crystal Lake drew me very strongly, I made picture after picture in a short space of time; the lake was like a kaleidescope, changing second by second as the winds and sunshine skipped and played with the surface. Waikaremoana had been like that since we’d arrived, showing an ever changing face, not once holding still long enough for me to grab hold; like quicksilver, the essence kept slipping through my fingers. Only that morning we’d been up on the bluff – buffeted by the winds and the rain; I could hardly stand, feeling as if I’d be blown away like a withered autumn leaf at any moment, on my knees, bowed in subjugation before the force of Tawhirimatea while I made a futile attempt to record what I was feeling. The song of the Universe energised me and allowed me to become part of the place. Later, at the small jewel of a lake it felt as though we were in another world, wind whipping the tops of the trees and the sunshine altering the colours constantly. As I watched the sun and the wind danced together, choreographing the landscape for their entertainment, one minute a sparkling and upbeat rhythm, next a dark and intense dirge. The surface of the water shapeshifted and I tried to hold it again in vain.

As I was finishing up for the day, feeling quite exhausted, I photographed my way back to the vehicle just allowing my intuition guide me. Several times I stopped and those images now tell an interesting story of what I was feeling rather than thinking. Almost at the end of the track something in the small stream to my left stopped me in my tracks and, hanging out over the stream straddling a ponga, totally oblivious to the discomfort and precarious nature of my position, I made many images. It wasn’t until later that afternoon that this one leapt from the screen. I knew exactly where it had come from and exactly how to release it. Out of the darkness into the light, Taking Flight, the Song of the Universe echoing in my head. Waikaremoana had allowed me in because I was present and listening.

I am still reflecting upon the time we spent at Lake Waikaremoana during the Innerlight Workshop and in particular my own response to the place and what it revealed to me.

Waikaremoana doesn’t come easily. It is a place of mystery and history. As you drive in, you sense there are stories in abundance, secrets waiting to be heard-if you are open to them. There is an abiding feeling of being surrounded by the mystical, and the magical. It’s really impossible to say just how special the place is, how utterly unique and parallel-universe it can be. You have to be there. From the feedback I’ve been receiving, all of us were profoundly affected by the few days we spent there, in different ways and to different degrees. All of us grew in one way or another.

Like a number of the others, I struggled for the first day or so, until on the second morning, it was as if I changed gears and began to get more in tune with it. To channel it. I’m not sure whether it was the mountains, the relentless rivers or the lake itself. I’m not sure whether it was the light dancing on the water or the movement of the wind across the lake. It may have been the deep green mystery of the forest. Or it may have been all of those, separately and in combination. But the place affected me in a way that no other place in this country ever has, including the primordial brooding of Fiordland or the breathless openness of the Maniototo. Waikaremoana took me under her wing and began to whisper in my ear. And I wanted, I really wanted, to hear everything she had to say.

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Kia ora tatou:

This morning I received this email from Eva Polak, who came to do the Waikaremoana workshop… I asked her permission to publish it and she agreed.

My deepest thanks, Eva.

Hi Tony

I would like to share this with you. Perhaps I wasn’t too excited being at the lake and gave you a hard time. But now I can see that it was a very important time for me.

For the past week I have had such a need to write it down. I never felt anything like that before. Maybe I have to make sure, that I’m not going to forget.

I think I may even go there again.

!

Eva (more…)

In the clarity of wilderness light, my mind and my heart are soothed and uplifted by the serenity of creation. These are the landscapes of, and for, my spirit.

-WILLIAM NEILL (From Landscape of The Spirit)

What can I do in the morning?

I can put on my coat;

I can make a cup of coffee;

And light a cigarette;

I can kneel down like a camel

On the grass beside the fence;

I can eat and walk and sleep;

-James K Baxter (from He Waiata o Hemi) (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

It’s that time of the year, when the rumours turn to fact…or not…

With something  called IFA around the corner ( another trade show, I think) the manufacturers are rolling out their new products. Samsung, Casio and Olympus have released new toys ( sorry, tools) but they look so underwhelming, I won”t go into them here…..

The two things which have the Bridge Salivation System (BSS) in full werewolf-slaver mode are the new Canon 7D, specs for which include:

* 18MP APS-C CMOS sensor

* 8 frames per second continuous shooting

* 1080p HD video recording with manual controls

* 3.0 inch Clear View II LCD screen with 920,000 dots

* 19-point AF system (all cross-type)

* 1.0x magnification and 100% coverage viewfinder (more…)