Circle, Mokau Bay

Lately I have been thinking about the importance of motif in our photographs, and this has been becoming ever clearer as I do more and more creativity and design workshops.

I still remember a conversation, albeit a brief one, which I had some years ago, with Craig Potton, the photographer and publisher. I hasten to add that he and I are in agreement on some things, but not the depiction of Nature. Craig is an OSF (Old School Filmie) and I have embraced digital (although I still love film) for the amazing possibilities it has to offer (does that make me a NAD (New Age DIgie)?). Craig uses the most “natural” film he can get (it used to be EPR, but I don’t know if you can get that any more) because he doesn’t want to alter the outer appearance of Nature in any way. I am happy to do so, because it is the inner life of Nature which fascinates me, and it is my response to it which forms the subject of my photographs.

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Retreating storm, Fiordland

An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express himself… (an Expressionist rejects) immediate perception and builds on more complex psychic structures…

Antonín Matějček (1910) -Czech art historian

In the sense that these pictures reflect the individual ego of their creator, they are expressionistic

-Peter C Bunnell

All stories begin somewhere.

This particular one began one warm afternoon in a cafe in Martinborough, New Zealand, sitting outside in the garden area, sharing coffee and art with a good friend whose painting I admire.

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Technical bits……again

Kia ora tatou:

it has been a while since I wrote a technical post and while, strictly speaking, this isn’t one, there are a few things here that are probably worthy of note. You may want to dip in, browse and if you’re interested, follow the links.

1. In the case you didn’t know, Adobe has released camera raw 6.2 and Lightroom 3.2 Release candidate 1. For those of you who don’t know, a release candidate is your date completed version with maybe a few minor tweaks needed before it goes out. To my mind the Lightroom update is long overdue. During the weeks I’ve been away, teaching workshops, I have heard plenty of stories of Lightroom 3 going belly up, of strange things happening in importing and weird catalogue issues. I had almost reached the point of going back to 2.7. But not quite. 3.2 seems to have a lot of bug fixes (testament to the old IT adage of never being an early adopter). And yes, it definitely works better. Those of you who with the auto update function set will not see notification, so you will need to go here to download. (more…)

Marks in water, Waikaremoana

Impressionism has much to answer for. Thank goodness.

In April 1874, a relatively unknown painter called Claude Monet took part in an exhibition  held at the studio of the photographer Nadar. One of his paintings, Impression, Sunrise, was so unlike anything the art critic, one Louis Leroy, had ever seen, that he was stuck for words over how to describe it. What he saw appeared to be a random and chaotic arrangement of brush strokes, a mishmash of colour and tone which, in spite of its apparent lack of form, somehow managed to convey a sense, an impression of sunrise in the harbour. This is something the art critic had never seen before, and being an art critic, he was determined to pigeon-hole Monet, to attach a label to the painter … as art critics do. Well, the label stuck, and Monet and his associates painting in the same style, debating the same issues and attempting to resolve the same problems came to be known as the Impressionists.

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Kia ora tatou:

The books have landed. Out There South is in the country.

They will be in our hot and itching hands later this week (we hope).

We have two launches planned so far for the South Island:

The first will be at the Select Braemar Lodge in Hanmer Springs on August 30 form 1730  to 2000 ( dinner to follow). If you can/want to make it, please contact Nicky to reserve a place. books will be available on the night at a discounted price for a signed copy.

The second launch will be at Annie’s Wine bar in the Arts Centre on Wed Sept 1 at 1730-2000. Contact Linda to let  us know about catering…

Why not come along, bring 200 friends and join in the celebration?

See you there

Tony and Chris

Warning: Opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the writer. But they might be….

World's smallest holiday home, near Twizel

Art has to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design for a bus.
-David Hockney

You had to be aware that I saw that photography was a mere episode in the history of the optical projection and when the chemicals ended, meaning the picture was fixed by chemicals, we were in a new era.
David Hockney

Kia ora tatou:

I have been thinking.

Again.

It has come about as a result of watching what is happening in photography and the changes afoot, at what the old school guys like me think and what the young ones are doing.

Case in point:

And my thoughts are crystallising at the moment. Well, for a time, anyway…

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Kia ora tatou:

I saw this image at Wedderburn, when Sue ( who has done a number of my workshops) and  I were discussing the direction her work was taking . She is in her final year of a degree majoring in photography at UniTec.

We talked about the work and I asked if she would be willing to share it with all of you. She agreed and I am thrilled. The work has continued to  fascinate and intrigue me, perhaps because in a way we are (vaguely) heading in the same direction. I find it intriguing, because it asks more questions than it answers…

Hi Tony,

Here is the photomontage image of the Dream. I’m still quite astonished that you want to put on your blog, but also delighted, so thank you. It’s lovely to have something you have created with a lot of yourself in it to find favour with others, and often unexpected.

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Alan Blacklock (1946-2010)

Kia ora tatou:

Last Wednesday night my good friend Alan Blacklock passed away, after a long battle with motor neuron disease.

Some of you will know him, and those of you who read the comments on the blog posts will have known him as the OSG. I can now safely reveal that OSG stood for Old Scots Git  (it was his idea!). His curmudgeonly comments were much appreciated.

I first met Alan on the initial Wedderburn Workshop in 2007, and we quickly became mates. OK, we smoked too much and drank too much single malt when we were together, and sometimes the truth seemed to slide conveniently by us, but that is what happens between friends. (more…)