Kia ora tatou:

I managed fewer posts than I imagined, born of the 16-hour days I have had to do to meet the needs of clients before I head to the North Island and 21/2 weeks with Freeman Patterson in Martinborough.  I have heard a vile rumour that my liver is about to take a beating from all those good Martinborough pinot noirs. Well, it’s not true. I drink water too…and coffee….

I have managed to  put a new page up, for those of you who like to settle back and have a heavy read. Look into Letter to Beth, on the header bar above. Marthinus assures me that the return volley is only days away…

Finally, I am aware that a number of you, knowing about the workload, have stayed away from me. While I am grateful, please don’t feel you need to.

My friends are of the greatest value to me.

Arohanui e hoa

Kia ora tatou:

It’s probably fair to say that for many photographers the journey through photography can be seen as a linear one. Our first interest in photography represents the beginning of that journey, and each of the achievements along the way is a kind of roadmark, a milestone similar to that which might have been found along the Appian way. As our understanding and knowledge grows, we mark it with trophies such as awards, images framed on walls, invitations to judge and possibly even exhibitions. Perhaps it is a Western thing, this idea of all knowledge and the acquisition of it being an essentially linear process.
I would beg to differ.
While I might have agreed at one time with that concept, now I began to wonder if it is something else. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

Firstly, my thanks to all of you who have kept on visiting, even though I pretty much haven’t been here for a few weeks. Over that time I have been super-busy, trying to keep up with the workload as a commercial photographer and fulfill the event briefs and weddings given to me. They are slowly coming to an end and I am beginning to have some time to reflect and pick up my E-pen again…I have a number of posts floating in the cerebral ether, so I should get a couple up before I head north next week to teach with Freeman Patterson and force the odd glass of Martinborough pinot noir past my clenched and resisting lips…It looks as if this may be his last teaching gig in Aoteaora, so if you were thinking of going…

I have been in the process of a discussion witha Canadian blogger and graphic artist called Beth. We have agreed to an ongoing discussion, which each of us will post on our respective blogs. Look for a new page to complement Letter to Marthinus in the near future.

It was great to see a number of you chipping into the Battle of the Old Pros, and offering your thoughts, even though much of it was off-topic and plagiarised the Bard (I think I may have started that one…). It was great to see that a number of you are wise and discerning, with a deep and intuitive understanding of the photographic medium.

The rest of you voted for Alan.

At this stage it appears to be something of a draw, even though my methuselan opponent has already conceded defeat . He has proposed incongruity as the next topic; easy for him when our fair capital is one large concrete ambiguity….

I await his pallid effort…

ka kite ano