I was recently contacted by David Wilson of the Oamaru Ordinary Cycle Club to recreate a photograph from the 19tyh century.
For those readers unfamiliar with Ordinary Cycles, another name for them is “penny farthing”. I’ve been a member of the club for some years, but ride a safety bicycle on club events due to my hope of reaching old age.
The Victorian Heritage Celebrations here in Oamaru asked for recreations of Victorian photographs. You can read about the details here.
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Audio visual training in Rangiora
This Sunday the 31st July I am giving an audio visual training in Canterbury for the Rangiora Photographic Society.
In May of this year I was fortunate to be able to attend the Trophée de Paris, and the organisers kindly gave me a lot of teaching materials including the training from the Dipartimento Audiovisivi della FIAF.
We should have a lot of fun discussing what makes a good audio visual and looking at some of the top examples from around the world.
Details are at: http://www.rangioraphotosoc.org.nz/calendar/111
How much detail will a Fuji X-T1 sensor give?
Last month I tested all my Fuji lenses for sharpness across the frame and for de-centring. I had printed off some star charts and the image below shows their layout on my lounge room wall using an idea I got here.
New portfolio: St. Luke’s stained glass windows
During 2015 I’ve been working on photographing the memorial stained glass windows in St. Luke’s Church here in Oamaru.
St. Luke’s is a category one historic place.
Getting feedback on your photographs
Very few artists have emerged from a vacuum. If you attend classes either privately or at art school you can expect to constantly get feedback on your work, for better or worse. But what about the rest of us? Here are some things that have worked for me.
Life catches up with us sometimes.
It used to be “be careful what you wish for”. Now, apparently it’s “be careful what you write”.
Shortly after last month’s stern warning about not taking competitions seriously, I received an email from the Tauranga Photographic Society congratulating me on being awarded champion in this year’s audio visual salon. The results are here.
My thanks to the organisers and judges. With that number of entries it is not a task I would want to do.
I’m looking for a way to make the entry available through this website, but first are a few technical issues to work through.
Learning to photograph and the value of competitions.
Many people ask me about the usefulness of photography schools, photography workshops that will take you to “the next level”, and competitions.
My opinion is don’t take them too seriously.
They will certainly help you become a good photographer, and they will certainly prevent you from becoming a great one.
A talk on heroic age of Antarctic photography
Late notice I know, but I will be giving a talk tomorrow (Sunday) at Adventure Books here in Oamaru at 2pm on the heroic age of Antarctic photography. It is part of the Outside Art Festival and I will also be covering some of the history of photography, much of it generally unknown. The great Polar photographers didn’t appear out of a vacuum, and the technology of that time and its history helped shape their vision and what was possible to do.
Three courses coming up starting this month
I’m offering one guitar and two photography courses for this year’s Sustainable Skills Summer School run by Transition Oamaru and Waitaki District.
Here are the dates and details: