NickHeaphyPhotography

Some new images made over the long weekend.

The Hidden

Picked up a new little compact (already out of date even though it is brand new) for our trip to the UK at the end of the year. Decided that rather than lugging the Hasselblad around like I did last trip, that I really needed something small. While I would love to be able to find an affordable Mamiya 6 so I could keep shooting 120 film, my Trademe watch list has come up empty. In the end the size and the square format crop mode on the Canon S95 appealed enough to get a digital compact (though I will probably take the Oympus XA with some Orwo B&W too - even though I loath scanning 35mm)

Needed to try it out, hence the Hidden series.

If anyone has a Mamiya 6 that they want to sell off, let me know.

Trying to get through my processing and scanning backlog. Found another roll of film containing shots from the Barricade series so have put up 6 new images...

Have finally gotten though scanning a roll of film from the Parking series. Rather than putting all the buildings on a single page I have decided to break the series up into individual buildings...

Have just added 10 images to MyWellington (shout out to Karim Sahai who hooked me up with the roll of Ektar 100 that they were shot on (I know is says Fuji 400H at the bottom, but not really sure yet how I am going to change the pages style sheet to reflect different film types))

I like coffee. I like photography. Wellington has a place where both of these things exist in perfect harmony. PhotoEspresso. I can wander in, drop off a roll of film ($6 for a dev only 120), or a memory stick of images, and while I wait I can have a pretty damn good coffee. The staff are friendly, they embrace analog photography (they still have a wet lab, rare in this day and age), every 5 coffees you have you get 5 free prints (I have been getting 4x4 prints made and building a physical version of Random Wellington) - what's not to love?. If the place had a couch I might never leave.

Decided to take advance of the strong NZ $ and finally upgrade my crusty old Velbon (ex video) tripod to a nice new Manfrotto 055XProB with a flash ball head. I must admit that I am not really much of a tripod user, but having dropped the cash, I now really need to make sure I take it everywhere!

To that end, I wanted a method of carrying the tripod, but I did not really want a bag to get in the way. The goal was to have a shoulder strap that I could use with the tripod collapsed down, but also with a camera mounted and the legs extended.

Visited a local haberdashery shop and picked up some D rings, slides, clips and webbing and proceeded to raid my toolbox for cable ties and electrical tape.

The D rings were attached to the tripod with cable ties and electrical tape (the idea was that the tape would stop it moving round) while the slides and clips formed a strap that would stop the legs opening while I was carrying it. The shoulder strap was donated from an old laptop case.

Overall it works pretty well, might have to rethink the upper attachment as the D ring tends to slide around under the electrical tape when the head is not oriented with the D ring up, but not bad for $8 worth of parts.

Was a cold rainy day when we visited the World Press Photographic exhibition today. I probably should have realized that the depressing day outside would have been reflected by the imagery inside, based on mans disregard for each other and our propensity of enjoying seeing the misery of others.

Don't get me wrong, not all of the images were of war and natural disaster, however there was a significant percentage. The images of course were amazing and very sobering. I can't imagine what possess a photographer to want to go into these places to make images (though if you have not seen it, War Photograper does give some insight)

Well worth the $5 entry fee. On until 7/9/2011 at the Academy of Fine Arts

Have finally added most of the pending Polaroid images to Pieces of You.

I do have a bit of a plan forming in the back of my head for an evolving exhibition of these images, with the plan to have the camera setup in the exhibition space and as people come in, they have their photo taken and the new image added to the wall, so the exhibition will grow over time.

Only problem with this plan is that all my holiday time is booked to go overseas at the end of the year, so it might be something to aim for next year.

I have spent a bit of time today tiding up the website. I hope I have not broken anything.

The major change is that I have removed my photoblog that I started quite a few years ago. I have been trying to concentrate more on series of images rather than individual images, so the photoblog has been a bit neglected of late. In the end I decided that I would kill it completely, and any individual images that I liked I would put up on Flickr

As some will already know, I have recently moved to Wellington from Christchurch. It was pretty sad to leave the broken city (we moved for work, rather than to get away from Earthquakes) and the guys who I used to shoot with - in an effort to get to know the city better I have been wandering with the camera.

I have also put up a new series on car parking in Wellington. Wellington is a pretty crazy place for parking (compared to what I am used to in Christchurch anyway) and I have become more conscious of this since my work office moved into the central city and I now don't have the luxury of a permanent car park. Probably good for me as I am working the 30min to the office in the morning - though listening to the rain outside, I can't say I am looking forward to the walk tomorrow.

My mate Dave shoots beautiful women frequency and always waxes lyrically about how amazing they all are. Whenever I read I always think that he goes a bit overboard, but I now suspect this is because I don't shoot people very often.

Having had the opportunity to shoot the stunning Anna a few weekends ago, I now think I understand where Dave is coming from. I wonder if there is small part of a photographer that falls in love with their subject during a shoot.

Shooting one on one is quite an intimate thing, especially if it is the first time that the model and photographer have met. Both have had to trust that the other is not a crazy axe murderer, the model has to trust that the photographer will represent them in a favourable light, while the photographer has to ensure that the shots are not complete crap (especially when shooting film like I was, giving no opportunity for chimping!)

I only spent 45min shooting Anna, but it was close to the perfect 45min. Sure the lighting on the day did not cooperate so there were a couple of images that I had planned that we didn't get to shoot, but other than than it was pretty perfect.

Thankfully I did not screw up the B&W film processing (always a bit of a worry)

"She's a whimsical, tragical beauty
Self-conscious and a little bit moody" - Beck

Added a new page about my DanCro Generator, a video procession application that explores the world of Daniel Crooks.