Buskers Festival

The Buskers Festival came around again and I finally managed to get along on a sunny, if somewhat windy, day. The organisation this year, centred in North Hagley park, was excellent though I have to say that for a sunny Saturday too many of the venues were lying idle. Nevertheless, the acts that were on display were entertaining large crowds.

"Bazza" the bronze rugby player was statuesque, until the girls came along, when he would suddenly become very vocal.

Juggling atop a pole in a high wind was not the easiest act in town:

Bus stop:

Some could hardly watch; while others did ...

Rockin it (that's a badminton racquet around his waist!) :

Spinning contortionist:

L&P famous in New Zealand:

Boy in a ball:

Events like these are good place to do a bit of 'street photography' without feeling intrusive; everyone is in a good mood and there are plenty of cameras about, so people don't tend to view photographers with suspicion. Go, for it; find a crowd-filled event and have fun with your camera :-)

The making of engine 428

Google+ seemed to like engine 428 so much that I even got a request to write a 'how-to' explaining how the picture was produced. The 'how-to' (actually a 'what-to-do'!) can be found here: http://www.fords.co.nz/downloads/428HowTo.pdf in PDF format.

Thank you to those who +1'd the original picture and I hope that you find the 'what-to-do' useful.

New Year wishes

Forsaking my usual black background for florals, I've gone for soft and subtle with shades of pink to finish off 2012.

Tomorrow is a new year, a new canvas, time to try new things: Have a great New Year everyone.
David

The emotional dimension

The goal, so I am told, is to envision the final picture before you press the shutter release; it's called having 'artistic vision'. But, I have to admit, that for me the vision often comes later on. Take this picture for example; on the screen I had a technically good, full colour, picture but it just wasn't doing anything for me. My initial vision to capture the wind-swept emptiness, had come up short.

Then I decided to make it a black and white and darken the blue sky. Suddenly it ceased to be a picture about water and sky and became one about horizon-less tones of light and dark, and cloud shapes that reflected a wind swept tree. Finally split toned with hints of blue and yellow and it became a moody, surrealistic, landscape which echoed the, windswept, desolate feeling that I experienced that day at the Waipara River Mouth. 

Perhaps it has less to do with 'vision' and more to do with 'emotion'; recreating emotion is not just about capturing visual components but presenting them in a way that elicits the appropriate emotional response.

It seems to me to be a picture that needs a large canvas ...

Favourite model

My favourite model, again. She's not quite taking direction yet, but if I follow her around long enough something good transpires ...

From Christmas day, all natural light.

Little tip makes big difference

The week before last, I attended a workshop by Trey Ratcliff. It was a great day with lots of useful information. But, it's turning out that the most useful takeaway from the day was a very simple tip about not processing all your photographs as soon as they are taken.

My habit was to return from a shoot and then process that shoot before embarking on the next shoot. This created a lot of self-induced pressure to complete processing quickly so that I could move on. The consequence was that processing often didn't get the attention it deserved, and sometimes good pictures got passed over completely. Since the workshop I have been processinga shoot quickly in Lightroom (quick adjustments only) and then moving the very best pictures into a 'To be processed' collection. Then, when I am good and ready, I can dip into that collection and process a few photos.

Without this approach I would never have made this picture from the Weka Pass Railway - it simply required too much work to complete as part of the 'shoot and process' workflow. But I had gone back and dragged it (with many others) into my newly created 'To be processed' folder where it later caught my eye. Thanks Trey.

PS. See 21 October for the original picture.

Home grown models

Photography is expensive enough without having to hire models to pose for your photos. But there's a way to get free models - get married, have children, get them married and soon you have little models everywhere. Here's one of my favourite models - Indie.

Just turn to the left ... yes, that's good. Hold it ...

Oxford Vintage Fair

Actually, to give it its full title; Oxford Country Garden Vintage Fair and Fete - at least it includes all of those words though the order may be debatable. Held on Saturday and Sunday, the first day was a bit of a washout with constant and heavy rain nearly al day. Sunday however, dawned bright and warm as the tractors started up against a back-drop of freshly snow covered hills.

One of the main events for the day was the vintage ploughing competition which while a lot of fun and certainly not a race (as you might imagine from this picture) ...

... some take very seriously.

The fete had stalls of all sorts including this 'music man' with his collection of old gramophones including the original cylinder type. I didn't realise that these unamplified devices could put out so much sound; presumably turning it down involved stuffing one's hat in the trumpet!

Altogether it was a great day out with heaps to see and do - I'm looking forward to next year.

Smell is a funny thing ...

... it can do things that sight and sound just can't manage - like evoke a memory. When I was a kid we used to live with a rail track at the bottom of the garden. It was towards the end of the steam age but I have memories of standing on the over-bridge at Kings Cross station full of steam locomotives, of camping in a tent in Scotland and listening to the night express whistling in the distance and taking a trip to Devon on a steam train.

Those memories didn't come back when we decided to ride the train today, nor when I saw the locomotive steaming at the ready, nor when I heard the whistle blow, or the engine puffing away. No, the memories came when I was seated in the carriage and a whiff of coal smoke drifted in through the window - that's what sparked the memories.

Happy engineers building up a head of steam prior to leaving Glenmark station.

Unhappy engineer telling stupid photographer to get off the tracks.

 

A428 - a 4-6-2 Pacific class locomotive built in 1909 cresting the Weka Pass.

Bird spotting

This morning's walk in the woods bagged a 'Bellbird' and a 'Silver eye' (sometimes known as a 'Wax eye'). There were also some lovely 'Fan tails' but they were moving so fast that I didn't manage to lock on for a good shot.

With the D80 I was never able to get close enough to these small birds to get a decent quality picture. Now, with the increased resolution and high ISO capabilities of the D600, I've been able to get the shots without too much difficulty (300mm lens + 1.4 tele-converter).