A few random street shots

 

Man oh man, it has been a busy last couple of months with my new job and all. However I have managed to find some time during my lunch breaks to have a wander around town and get my feet wet in the wonderful world of street photography. Its been a long time since I trudged the streets trying to find that one 'golden' moment and as you can imagine I am a bit rusty. However after a couple rolls of Tmax I managed to get myself a couple of streetshots that I dont mind looking at. Both photos were taken with my Leica M6TTL with a Voigtlander 40mm 1.4f lens. Film was Kodak Tmax 100 that was developed in Ilford ID-11 and scanned and tweaked in photoshop CS3. 

The Kamaka Ukulele Factory

Towards the end of last year I was lucky enough to find myself in Hawaii. Perhaps one of the most famous exports Hawaii has given us over the past 100 years has been a small frantic little instrument that has, in the last couple of years, gained a lot of prominence. The ukulele. The Kamaka Ukulele Company is perhaps one of the oldest ukulele manufacturers in the world, founded in 1916 by Sam Kamaka. Today the family still owns the company and Kamaka ukuleles have become famous world-wide as some of the finest ukuleles in the world (George Harrison was a big fan). I managed to go on one of the many tours Sam's son Fred takes each week of the factory and later on that week I returned to factory to complete the story. Below is just a taste of what it is like to make ukuleles!

 

 

 Fred Kamaka Sr

My first and final roll of Kodachrome

As many of you l have known as of the 30th of December 2010, processing for perhaps one of the most famous film emulsions Kodachrome finished. I was fairly late to the film photography game and most of my experience has been with negative material in both colour and monochrome. However with the deadline of processing set by Dwayne's photo in Kansas I was determined to at least shoot one roll. I actually ended up shooting 10 rolls, however 9 of those rolls were super 8mm cartridges which will be shortly cut into a short film which I will hopefully share soon.

The photos below represent a small photo documentary I did with my one and only roll of Kodachrome. At the time I was having a holiday in Hawaii and out of curiosity decided to visit my first session of roller derby. The combination of gorgeous light, brights colours and high speed action convinced me that this was the time to use my lone roll. Once I had made it back to NZ I packaged my film up and sent it to Dwayne's in Kansas. I then proceeded to wait by the mailbox for several weeks. The end of Kodachrome is a sad time for many photographers but at least we have those small pieces of film and cardboard that store our memories.

Hopefully you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

The Catlins and Seaweed

Last week I was lucky enough to be asked to direct and shoot a TV program that was based in the Catlins. Having never been there myself, I jumped at the chance to go and along with my usual gear for filming I also threw in my Bronica ETRs kit and a few rolls of Kodak Tmax. The actually shoot was rather hectic so I didn't have a huge amount of time to take stills however on the last day I managed to sneak in a few photos with the rain pouring down on me. Both shots were developed in Ilford ID-11 and then scanned and tweaked in photoshop.

Summertime and Medium Format

Well its finally summer down here in Dunedin (even though I write this in a middle of a horizontal rain storm) and I have been shooting a rather large amount of medium format film in my Bronica ETRs and my stunning new 50mm lens. The photos below are a collection of some of the random things I have gotten up to over the last couple of weeks. All photos were hand developed by myself and then scanned and tweaked in photoshop.

A New Line - Poetry and Jewelry collaboration

Okay, after several months of quick contracts and the odd freelance video work I have managed to finally finish off the photos from 'A New Line'. This was a evening where two art forms came together in a unusual tango to produce some very lovely outcomes. The idea was very simple. Several very well known New Zealand poets each had written some wonderful poems, they were then paired up with a equally talented jeweller who was then tasked to create jewelry inspired directly by the poems.

My task was not so glamorous as I was tasked to photograph the event after the organizers viewed some of my street photography work that has been on flickr for a couple of years. Like dream clients they gave me free reign for the event with one simple request...no flash! Brilliant. Time to roll out the last couple of rolls of that wonderful stuff known as Neopan 1600. Some of the lighting (or lack of lighting) made things rather tricky but below is just a taste of what the night was all about.

 

 

 

 

A colour portrait of Anna

Anna again...but this time is lovely colour, presented to you by those wonderful folks at Fujifilm :) Film was Fujifilm PRO 400H rated at 200 asa and the lens was a Leica Elmar 90mm 2.8f. Scanned and tweaked in photoshop CS4.