Kia ora tatou:

As I mentioned in a previous post, the battle is on.

Alan Blacklock, a dear friend and the photographer for NIWA , in Wellington, New Zealand, proposed a small competition around the subject of urban landscape. I have no problems with that, although I have to say UL is not a genre I work in very much. I suspect he does. Perhaps that is why he suggested it….

The rules are simple (until he starts winning, at which point I will begin changing them, i.e all future work is to be shot with a Canon 1-series DSLR..).

The first round is entitled:

You show me mine, I’ll show you yours.

You get to nominate the winner. No honours, acceptances or merits . It’s either him or me.

Please post your comments/voting in the comments section over the next 3 weeks. If you feel like having some club judging practice, indulge yourselves!

And without further ado, here they are.

NB, mine is the one with the traffic light…

Over the year I get to try a lot of software in the digital imaging and related computer area. Some is good and some unashamedly awful.
I felt like having a small ceremony to give an award of no value whatsoever as a way of celebrating the best and worst in a few simple categories.
So here as follows:
The Most Useful Piece of RAW Processing Software
And the winner is…. (more…)

DNG vs RAW vs Jpeg-the mission continues…

Kia ora:

in a post not long ago, I pointed out that sooner or later, I would respond to Mary Jo’s request for some sort of statement on the question of the DNG format and why you might want to use it instead of Raw or JPEG format. Well, I thought the answer would be relatively straightforward.

It isn’t.

I guess the best way to think of it is to imagine going out. late one night for a swim in a clear blue mountain stream sparkling in the moonlight, but finding instead that you have jumped into a muddy, swollen torrent. The more I have attempted to swim, the more I’ve found that I am trying to cross the Mississippi!

Nonetheless, I have kept on going, realising that the answer (if any) is as important for me as it probably is for you.

With that in mind, here is a summary of what I’ve learned to date. It is not an easy read, far from it, and at the end of this you may well be as confused as you were at the beginning, but I have done my best to try and unpack the whole vexed process.

I would strongly suggest that you do not try reading this after a full meal and a few wines. This is the sort of read you should only attempt after a light salad and half a dozen Red Bulls. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

Firstly my apologies behind and in advance. Posts over thelast and next month have been/may be a little thin. There is a reason for this.

I have just returned from a week in the Wairarapa, shooting a wedding and spending a couple of days in Wellington with Alan Blacklock, test-driving a 30Mp Phase One digital back on a Mamiya AFDII, walking the canyons and exploring the urban landscape. It was nice to be able to take a breather and just follow our photographic instincts. An example is posted above.

That said, the next 3-4 weeks will be quite intense for me. I have a book to finish, workshops to finalise (there is one in Capetown beginning construction) five minor shoots and three major multi-day ones, along with 2 weddings (no funerals, Hugh couldn’t make it), so I will be fairly occupied. I will do my best to keep posting as and when. It goes without saying that I intend to remain as available as possible to my friends, so do not take this as a stay-away suggestion. I value you all!

However, along with a challenge being laid on the ground before me (more about that at a later time-I have just gone into visual diary mode!), Alan, in a Laphroiagic moment, proposed a contest,entitled Battle of the Old Pros (I have never quite seen myself in that light), where each of us will explore the urban landscape of our own town, Wellington for him, Christchurch for me.

We have agreed on 12 sub-categories for the cook-off. We will post our pics up once a month and you get to cast (virtual) eggs and tomatoes, if you are interested. Other little rules (I will make these up as needed to keep his weights up) include:

1. No heavy PhotoShopping. Purists rule!
2. Titles will be descriptive rather than literary. Autumn reverie and the like are the province of other photographic communities.
3. Alan will supply an explanation of no less than 15 000 words for each image; I will remain below 150.

If any of you have any suggestions (useful or otherwise), please add them in!
So herewith the first category, entitled:

You show me mine, I’ll show you yours.

Enjoy.

Ka kite ano

Kia ora tatou:

MaryJo sent me an email detailing this vital piece of photographer’s kit . I checked my diary to see whether the months had slipped by and it was April 1. Then I followed the link. I am still not sure about the date….

So I include her letter in toto..

Like shooting fish in a barrel. With a camera. Underwater.

It’s not often that I need to take pictures underwater, but it pays to be prepared for all potential eventualities-that’s why I continue to carry my trusty bat shark repellent with me at all times. Were a need for submerged photography to arise, Liquid Image’s Digital Camera Mask would unquestionably depth charge the competition. I mean, come on: it’s built into a diving mask; how awesome is that? Now you can see underwater and take pictures. That’s two things I wasn’t able to do before.

Available in 3.1 or 5.0 megapixel models, the mask takes SD memory cards (it comes with a 16MB card that you’ll fill up pretty quickly) and can even shoot VGA video at 18-25 frames per second. It’s waterproof at depths up to 15 feet, making it ideal for your next snorkeling expedition (I hear you’re quite the snorkeler)(-yes, but not in the same league as the newly-engaged-to-Tim Ann Worthy. Ooops. I let that one out…). And the whole shebang takes just two AAA batteries and has a standard USB port, so it’s compatible with both Windows and Mac users who like to spend time beneath the deep blue sea (Hopefully the PC users will leave them on the shore- MAC users will probably believe they can take theirs underwater, unless they are waiting for their 4th motherboard replacement)

Plus, have we mentioned its truly slicktastic styling? I mean, it’s so useful having your camera mounted on your head-so convenient, in fact, that I’m considering wearing this thing all the time, just so potential photo ops don’t escape me. See a celebrity on your lunch hour? Click. Something funny happens at the office? Click. Monkeys start rollerblading down the street? Fire up that video. See? This won’t annoy your friends and loved ones in the slightest.