But it was long ago and it was far away, oh God it seems so very far

And if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car

And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
-Meatloaf ( from the Bat out of Hell album)

Kia ora tatou:

Every year Christmas catches up with me, appears to spring an ambush and gets me every time. For all it  seems to be in front of me, in point of fact it has been creeping up in my reareview mirror all year.

It is a time for family, a time to remember, to take stock, to reflect on the significance of this day in the year.

For some of us it will be a time for family, for giving and sharing. For some of us it will be a time to reaffirm or reinforce our faith. For others it will be a grind and a time of suffering. But it has caught up with us and is running alongside in the outer lane. Tomorrow it will drop back, out of sight, for another year.

But it is a time of hope and a time to reflect on a great Truth. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

As many of you know, I will be in the Maniototo for the next two weeks, teaching my annual workshops down there. This means that heavy-duty posts will be few and far between (broadband pretty much isn’t down there). However… here are some links you might like to follow….stuff to chew on…

The Photographer’s Guide to the Eye

What science is learning about how we see can help you take more compelling pictures. Mary Jo sent me this link, and I offer it here. Over the next couple of weeks, in a quiet moment and armed with a glass of Central Otago pinot noir (Rabbit Ranch), I intend to start thinking this through…

PNG- The new Tiff/Jpeg?

If you have ever wondererd what .png stood for and why you might want to use it, have a look here. A lot of information and the start of a new hunt…

What do with that obsolete DSLR?

Simple. Convert it to shoot infrared… Find out more here.

Dynamic range beyond your sensor’s abilities?

HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging) could be an answer. This article (printable) gives the fundamentals of HDRI and how to approach it. Of course there is more to it. Much more…

The EOS 5D Mark II/7D/3D

Those of you interested in The 5D replacement might want to check out this link. Either way, I am picking the next couple of weeks for the announcement just prior to PhotoKina, with release in New Zealand shops around Xmas for the lucky few.

If the posts have been a little few and far between, it is because I have been doing a 360 review of what I put up, along with trying to keep up with commercial pressures. I always appreciate feedback, so I am asking for it here.

Please help me out.

I could write all sorts of stuff, but I want to keep to photography, or matters associated with it. So I have been sifting through it, looking at what draws responses and what does not. Anything to do with camera clubs seems to have drawn a response, particularly the post on this year’s submissions. They will have to go on hold; I am no longer a member of the Board-for the short-term, I am informed. No, don’t ask.

I tried a review of different raw converters, and I confess, it was not my finest work. Doing it was like eating Weetbix without the milk and sugar! Anyway, Phil Askey does it way better. So I am going to keep my thoughts to myself-unless asked.

I put in the geek stuff because I think we need to remember that our computers are critical to what we do. Ok, and I am a technophile…I admit it. So there. (Stop chortling, Andrew Spencer!)

So what should I write about? Maybe you can tell me the posts you like and the ones that don’t.

If there are things missing that you would like to see, then say so. I will take it on board.

Things I won’t do include:

1.       The great Canon vs Nikon debate. They are both fantastic cameras.

2.       Do DPreview-type reviews. I am a photog and they are way too boring to do…making photographs-now THAT I am interested in!

I am about to try a new category, describing the making of an image from concept to finish and including the CS3 techniques I used. I hope this will be of some use. There in the next day or so.

Lastly, I am due to take delivery of a Canon ipf 6100 ( 24″ wide) large format printer on Tuesday, all going well. I have got so frustrated with the work done for me so far, that I have decided to do it myself.  If any of you want some BIG prints, then let me know.

Again, give me feedback.

Please.

Kia ora tatou:

From the Department of spy vs spy…

I frequent an amazing site for photogs, designers and the like ( should that be ilk) called Creativepro ( curiously enough) and get their newsletter most days.

In today’s issue, something that may give us all food for thought and pain in our wallet…if we are early adopters… see below!

On the subject of unburdening your wallets, there is a review by Ben Long on the Canon 450D. According to him

This $799 SLR camera is a very smart upgrade to the Rebel line. So smart, in fact, that it’s treading on the heels of the mid-range Canon EOS 40D… You can read more here (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

1. For those of you wondering where Letter to Marthinus has gone, blame it on web gremlins, specifically those residing in my site. I have sent the site off to the repair shop to have an engine upgrade (an under-the-hood thing) and a little minor surgery.With a fair wind following, it should be back in a day or two. Many thanks to that infernal nuisance Dia Bolical for sending me a copy and correcting a few minor technicalities (he/she/it is like that).
2. You may have noticed that I have changed Ezine to Blog in the subheader bar. There is a reason for this. As I see it, everybody knows what a blog is these days (they didn’t when I frst put this site up) so it seems better to call it that.
3. You may have noticed that the digital archive header has been replaced by the heading online gallery. Over the last couple of months I have been working to put in an online gallery, where I can sell prints, work from events and weddings and limited edition portfolios. It should go live in the next week. There isn’t much to see at the moment, however, since it isn’t yet connected to the backend. If you are a newsletter subscriber, I will make a grand announcenment next week when MailChimp have finished their upgrade.
4. If the posts have been a little few and far between, it is because I have been on the road, doing workshops around the country, including one for Auckland Camera Club in the Bay of Islands. It wasn’t easy being there and having to force myself to look at the landscape! I will be away over the next few weeknds teaching in Rotorua nd Marlborough, so the posts may dry up ofr a week or two. My Apologies.
5. Speaking of which, if you live in Christchurch and are interested in studio photography, I will be running a couple of 2-day workshops for 4 people, teaching lighting and use of studio flash for portraiture. First come, first-served.
6. There are still a couple of places left on the second Wedderburn workshop if any one of you were thinking of coming. Eight students, glorious landscape, fine food (and wine) and stunning photography.

Noho ra mai

Kia ora tatou:

I have recently updated Letter to Marthinus.In the process I successfully managed to delete the old version when saving!

D’Oh! I hate it when that happens.

I am kind of hoping that among those of you who follow it, somebody may have saved a recent version of it and would be willing to email it to me so I can rebuild it.

In anticipation….

Kia ora tatou:

Firstly, my apologies to all of you who have suffered having to visit and see nothing new on the Ezine over the last couple of months. If it hasn’t been commercial work for my clients or weddings ( subtitle: how I came to love spending summer in front of my screens), it has been workshops and, last week, the PSNZ Honours Board. My absence was sternly drawn to my attention last week by one of you and I was reminded of my responsibilities. believe me, I am only too aware of them…For those of you who have emailed me and not received a reply, I am just starting on the list ( 75+) so I should have caught up over the next few days.

I hope to be much more regular with my posts. Things I am working on include a review of Lightzone, a curious image editing program that seems at the moment to be a cross between PhotoShop and Lightroom, only different, a further essay on previsualisation, why I am still in love with my Sony R1 ( I have just reprised it from my son’s unwilling fingers after a year), sharpening (the art of), and anything I happen to think of along the way. Let me know if there is anything you would like brought to the surface.

It is that time again. Newsletter, I mean. I am just working one up at the moment, so if you are not on my mailing list (238 of you are) and you want to be included in the mailout, make sure you sign up. It is an easy 2437.025-step process (LOL) and you can do so here. It should go out this weekend.

There is a rumour floating around that 2008 was the last Freeman Patterson workshop to be held in this country.

This is not true.

Sally, Freeman and I are already planning the 2009 workshops, which will be held in Akaroa in February, 2009. At this stage that is about all we have to say (since that is as far as it has got to date ) but Freeman has already booked his ticket, so they will happen. If you would like to be kept in the loop, drop an email to workshops@thistonybridge.com , and we will keep you in the loop. The workshops will be run under new management  and we are in the process of setting things up. Places are limited to 15/workshop and one of these will be purely digital, while the other will have a film processing option available. There will also be a 3-day digital intensive before the first workshop for those of you who need some learning in this area.

Ka kite ano

Kia ora tatou:

If you are a Lightroom or CS3 user, you need to read this post

If you opened either in the last day or two, and they prompted you to upgrade to LR Version 1.4 or ACR 4.4 and you did, then you need to read this article .

Adobe have withdrawn the update so if you haven’t downloaded it, no problem.

For those that have, full instructions on how to regress are given on the developers’ blog .

Anyone would think that Adobe are now owned by Microsoft.

And guess who upgraded to 1.4 earlier this afternoon???

Ka kite ano

PS: I am writing this on my laptop, while the desktop chews its way through installing Vista Business Service Pack 1….I may be still usng the laptop tomorrow…..

Kia ora tatou:

As some of you know, I have been in Auckland for the annual PSNZ (Photographic Society of New Zealand) Honours Board awards. This year there were a massive 98 submissions to work through in the 3 days we had allocated! Thursday was a particularly big (13 hour) day….

We finished yesterday afternoon and I flew back to Christchurch last night.

Two years ago, when I joined the Board, I posted this back in the archives. It seems timely to bring it back up to the surface and give you the chance to have another look, rather than hunt for it in the basement of my Ezine. I have made some minor edits, but it remains largely the same..( you may wish to read the original article-still there-note the alterations and draw your own conclusions…) (more…)

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:

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

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:

I will be publishing a newsletter in the next week, which will go to those on my mailing list only. It will provide advance notice of my workshops for 2008, including New Zealand and the United States. There will also be one or 2 articles which will not appear on this website.

If you are not on my mailing list ( that is, you haven’t received one for at least 2 months), you can sign up here or here.

Ka kite ano

Kai ora tatou:

When I first opened that website as you see it, back in January, about 17 000 people had visited my blogs.

Since then the number of visitors has grown , and finally, today, it happened.

The 100 000th ( try saying that without lisping!) hit.

My deepest thanks to those of you who visit and comment,my deepest thanks to those of you who come from time to time and have a look around. My next milestone is 1 000 000 visitors .

I try to be relevant and useful, so any feedback is always welcome and appreciated. Hell, I will even publish abuse!

m

Nohora mai ra

Kia ora tatou:

Further down in the archive, there is a post about my friend Ray Cho, who spends the school term practising (when do practitioners ever do it for real?) dentistry in Taiwan, and the holidays down here with his wonderful family.

A few weeks ago, he was back, we caught up and made some photographs together. Always a joy.

He had brought back his Nikon D70, converted to shoot infra-red. He showed me this image he made a couple of days before, while in the grounds of Hagley Park, Christchurch’s equivalent of Central Park.

Ray is an extraordinary photographer, hugely-talented but quite self-deprecating. He showed me this image and I was blown away (he doesn’t think it is that fantastic….).

Look at the ducks. If ever there was an example of perfect timing, of Moment, this is it.

And no, he didn’t PhotoShop them in.

Ray doesn’t do that sort of thing.

Yet another reason I hold him in such high regard.

Ka kite ano