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!

Special Delivery

You would have noticed it's been a bit quiet on the blog front for quite some time! As you can see from the picture above there was a good reason for this. My son Zachary arrived on the 24th of September and life has stepped up another gear on the crazy front! 

I thought things were busy enough getting things prepared for his arrival, but holy moly it was just a warm up for life since he came! He's an amazing little man with the incredible ability to get everyone in the house involved in his needs!

Of course working for your self means the show must go on work wise and it's been a busy run and looking like getting even busier. Sleep? Who needs sleep!

So hopefully I will manage to get the posts going again and show some of the images I have been capturing from some great recent and upcoming projects that I am involved with.

Watch this space, normal service should resume... I use the term 'normal' very loosely!

Journeys

It was a quieter week this week so I thought I would take some time off ...only to get caught up with decorating the house! So much for downtime!

In between covering myself in paint, I did manage to continue the on-going task of processing more stock images from recent (and not so recent) trips. Its always good to re-discover shots you had virtually forgotten about and find yourself instantly transported back to that moment and place. The shot above of the road up and over the Crown range in the South Island was instantly one of those occasions! It was a crisp morning with mist hanging in the valleys and even a hot air balloon sailing away to the horizon. I had an interesting time dodging vehicles with bemused drivers negotiating the switch backs as I ran from bend to bend to get the perfect vantage point... which of course was just about the furthest point from where I could park! I really like the colour palette of this shot, the freshness and clarity of the light jumps out at you.

There are only so many hours in the day and keeping up with the backlog of images can be a bit of a challenge, but it is a great use of downtime and keeps the stock side of things growing slowly but surely.

The week ended with a whistle stop trip down to the South Island over the weekend, to finish off my recent Telecom project. I jumped on a plane Saturday morning landed at Nelson lunchtime, drove a 250km round trip to Blenheim and back. Got up at 6.30 the next morning shot 3 more locations and back on the plane to Auckland by 11.20am. It is amazing what you can fit in to 24hrs! I do love the short hop flights as you fly at a lower altitude and see so much more on a clear day and even have a chance to grab a shot out of the window. Just remember to take your polariser off first,  otherwise the double skin windows leave you with strange purple UFOs all over your shots!

A taste of the high life

Had a slightly different assignment at the end of this week. I don't get asked to do too much architectural photography but every now and then a job comes my way. This one got me into a space I probably wont have the pleasure of owning anytime soon - a luxury penthouse!

My own house has a floor area of approx 170 sqm, but these places were in the region of 400 sqm, in the centre of Auckland with panoramic harbour views! To say they have a lot of zeros in their price tag is an understatement and they sure had a lot of feaures - plush fittings, views to die for and the odd baby grand piano thrown in for good measure (how did they get that up in the lift?)

Lighting the apartments in the allocated time meant sticking with small flashes to supplement (rather than trying to overpower) the ambient light. It also meant bracketing exposures to allow for those amazing (but very bright) views through the windows. Its amazing what you can achieve with this combination, even when dealing with such large spaces. To me, an important element in this shoot was the lens. I was using a 17mm tilt/shift lens, which not only provided plenty of width to the images, but the shift feature prevented everything leaning in at crazy angles. Its a fantastic lens, but a little slow to use with everything being manual. Plus metering goes straight out of whack once you start 'shifting' of course.

I think its one of the great perks of this job, to gain access to areas you would never normally see...unless of course your get your 6 numbers and the bonus ball come up!

River deep, mountain high

Another couple of high mileage weeks thanks to the good folks at Telecom NZ. Cambridge, Matamata, Rotorua, Taupo, Gisborne, Masterton, Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt, Johnsonville, Paraparaumu and finally Wellington! Phew! This project has certainly allowed me to fill my boots with New Zealand scenery. A shame I can't say the same for the weather!

While I managed to complete my scheduled shots, It was criminal that for the best part of the first 750km, rain stopped play as far as getting landscape shots enroute. Oh well I have a few more locations to add to the 'list'. You often have to wait years to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right light. It's good to have a little black book full of locations and ideas which you can pull out each time you are heading out on the road.

I did manage to squeeze in this shot of the approach to Huka Falls between the showers. All the rain meant plenty of water flowing. It's hard to get your head around how much force there is. Even more unbelievable is that I have seen kayakers ride the falls! Sadly none on this occasion though... that would be because I had all my gear with me!.

The other shot included above is of Te Mata Peak just outside of Havelock North on the east coast of the North Island. A truly impressive slab of rock with outstanding views out to Cape Kidnappers and a rather interesting road up to the peak, which naturally I grabbed a few shots of too.

Had a rather bizarre end to my trip while in Wellington, when typically blustery weather whipped a strap into my eye. It was such a random injury, but after being in pain for 24 hours a trip to A&E confirmed a cut on the lens of my left eye. Honestly it was like having a razor blade run across my eye every time I blinked! not a happy camper! Luckily it's meant to heal itself over the next week and the pain killers sem to be working well. On the bright side my daughter is delighted that I look like a pirate!

Bring the noise

I was given the opportunity to get involved with a great project this week, thanks to my good friend Dag Young at Platform29. It was a series of shots for a Sony NZ campaign showcasing new audio products. Can't show you too much at this point, but can tell you we put noise control to the test and nearly gave a model hypothermia! Changing the season to summer had it's challenges, but despite some very wintery temperatures and changeable weather we came out with some great shots.

It was a lively couple of days across four locations, made all the more interesting with video footage being captured at the same time. Despite both Guy from Vertigomotion and myself having to get our footage from the same viewpoints, we helped, rather than hindered each other. It worked really well as far as sharing lenses and assisting each other with reflectors and lights, not to mention making things very cost effective. 

A very happy client and a great experience for all of us... except maybe the frozen model and now-hearing impaired neighbours!

From the road

Finally had some time this week to start working through the backlog of shots from recent trips away. Funny what you come across! the waterfall pic above shows a rather strange experience. Picture the scene, an out of season, road less travelled with a 30 minute hike through mud and streams to the promise of a spectacular waterfall shot - sounds like perfect Kodak moment material eh? Unless of course 3 other photographers got there before you and are standing right in the middle of the falls - very dedicated of them I thought. If you are out there guys, I would love to see what you came up with! For me it was plan B, head down river to a less 'crowded' scene to take a river and forest shot instead!

Another image I came across was this one of the Moeraki Boulders. My wife however is not impressed that it perpetuates the myth (as she sees it) that these boulders are huge! So, here's my disclaimer (confession if you like) - yes they are only just over a metre tall and most of the time they are covered by swarming tourists... but the incoming tide soon takes care of that little problem....wooo hahahaha (and other evil cackling sounds)!

Both of these shots had me reaching for the trusty ND filter... and polariser... and graduated ND filter! It's a wonder any light actually made it into the camera!

Jumping Jack Flash

Things have been a bit more local this week and the bags have stayed in the closet. Been good to regroup and have some time to go through images from recent trips. Might even get as far as putting them in to my stock library... you never know!

I finally got to go ahead with a shoot that had been waiting on the weather for nearly two weeks. The sun shone but boy it was a fresh 5ºc...I know, I know I'm getting soft! The shoot was for a business at a viewpoint that overlooked their local area. You don't get much time for this type of shoot, especially when your subjects are likely to get permafrost! Kept things simple with a couple of radio triggered Canon flashes to give the images some spark and fill the shadows. It meant we could keep things moving swiftly.

Sometimes business people need a little relaxing in front of the camera and Steve who was directing the shoot came up with a great idea. Jumping jacks, yes you read that right. Watching the photographer leaping up and down made people relax, crack a smile and had the bonus of keeping me nice and warm!

That's the bonus of putting the camera on a tripod and using a cable release. You are free to interact a whole lot more with your subject and even keep fit on the job!

When good flights go bad

I've been pretty lucky with my flights lately, but my luck ran out on Wednesday this week when a 1 hour flight turned into a 30 hour saga! Bad weather in the South Island meant planes were grounded, leaving everyone high and dry in the north.

I was lucky as I could drive back home and wait it out, but plenty of people didn't have that option. The next day I tried again and got bumped from 1.30pm to 3.30pm to 5.30pm, eventually taking off at 6.30pm - 30 hours after my original flight time. Needless to say there were many many phone calls to rearrange schedules. Bad weather can't be avoided of course, but keeping your passengers better informed would have been nice Jetstar!

I couldn't get round as many locations as I'd hoped, but thankfully my client is fantastic and VERY understanding! So it was a bit of a flying visit (excuse the pun) to Wellington, racing straight from the airport to the first location with not a minute to spare - no time to work out where 'reverse' was on the rental, so I had to park accordingly! Got the shots and finally made it to my hotel around 10.30pm...just in time to fall asleep in my dinner!

Up at 6.00am to beat the morning rush hour en-route to my next location on Willis street in Wellington. By 9.00am I had done my dash and had a little time to breathe and take in some sights. It was an awesome day to view the city from Mt Victoria, so that's just what I did and got some panoramic shots with great cloud formations.

From there I headed out to Titahi Bay with its colourful boatsheds and the wind whipping up some pretty decent waves. Followed a sign to Whitireia Park on the Te Onepoto Peninsular and what a gem that turned out to be. A single lane road out onto a headland with fantastic vistas out across the Porirua Harbour to Mana Island as well as the South Island.

The wind was absolutely howling here and actually blew me over at one point as I clung on to my tripod. It was just so wild, windy and wonderful, made even more so with spectacular views down on the windsurfers and kite surfers at the end of the headland.

I had just enough time to flatten my 'hoover head' hair down for my last shoot at Porirua before racing back to the airport and flying home, with no delays this time - Yesssss!