NEX6, small is cool

I had another shoot in the series for Sony New Zealand recently. This time the image was to showcase their NEX 6 camera and in a bit of a curve ball for me, they requested it to be shot using an NEX camera! No pressure!

Although it presented me with a few issues, not least the fact that I had to work my way round a new camera system, I was really excited to see how good this type of camera was. The mirrorless camera market is hugely popular and in vogue at the moment, with all the major players having models out there.

I only received the camera I was using a couple of days before the shoot and due to a seriously busy work schedule only got to sit down and give it a trial the day before. Did I mention I had no manual? Doh! Luckily I found the menus pretty intuitive and user friendly. Definitely way more features than I was going to have time to use. With the 24mb sensor being the same as in the Alpha 77 I knew that quality wasn't going to be an issue. I also had the bonus of a Carl Zeiss 24mm F2 prime lens, via an adapter which converted from the E mount to an A mount.

The location for the shot was a remote farm out in the Bombay Hills south of Auckland, home to a beautiful old sixties Land Rover we were using. This meant a seriously early wake up to get to the location in time for the early light to be perfect! 4am to be precise, thanks Dag!

So with the sound of banjos in our ears, Dag the art director, Reece our talent and myself arrived at the farm just as dawn broke. Quite a magical time of day really, the pigs in the field opposite definitely thought so, they were squealing like crazy and it was feeling more like deliverance by the minute!

The weather gods smiled on us, we got a good sunrise and after a quick shift of the Landy (read white knuckle ride for Dag) to a better position we started getting the shots at a good pace. As we couldn't get a hotshoe adapter in time to allow us to sync strobes, we worked with reflectors which also helped us work swiftly. The camera performed great as expected and I bracketed the shots to make sure we covered our bases. Within an hour or so the only complaint from Dag was that we had captured too many good images and selecting one was going to be a pain for him! A good problem to have!

Will I be rushing out to sell all my SLR gear… probably not…would I be happy to travel up the Amazon with an NEX camera around my neck, hell yes! Will my wife be letting me do that any time soon with a new baby, hell no!

Sony summer sounds

Well as much as I was tempted to post loads of pictures of my lovely new little son Zachary, I thought I better keep it about work!

Here are some of the shots I took earlier in the year for Sony NZ's new audio products. Always great to see the finished work out there, especially when it is received so well.
Bearing in mind we shot these in some very cold and wet conditions, I am extremely pleased with the summer feel we managed to achieve.

When shooting images like these with a lot of sun flare involved, Prime lenses come into their own. This type of light does give a very distinct and inviting feel to them and is a style I really enjoy capturing. Sometimes we used strobes as fill light and other times we got the result we were after with just some reflectors. To be honest at times we had to make the call on how much gear we could get set up in-between showers, and in the time constraints we had. More than once we were sent running just as we had got everything in position.

There will be some more shoots coming up soon with a similar feel to them and with spring, well and truly er… springing, the weather might even help rather than hinder us!