Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

What a year it's been. Revolutions, Earthquakes, Tsunami... I can understand anyone looking forward to a more settled 2012. I've had a year of changes myself - plenty of work and growth as a photographer, a book project to stretch me, and a new business involving lots of video shooting on my DSLR's.



To see the year out, I'll be playing with my band Bluestone in Dunedin's Octagon tonight and I'm looking forward to it. Soon I'll be camping with family at Glendhu Bay, Lake Wanaka, near this delightful spot at Diamond Lake. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures to share while there, and a trout or two on my new fly rod.  I also hope that despite the upheaval everywhere that your 2011 has been good, and that your 2012 is even better.  See you then.

Yellow Eyed Penguin

Thanks to some very special friends, I was able to get close to some nesting Yellow-eyed penguins and their chicks last week.  It was a privilege to get this close to the world's rarest penguin and I'm so lucky to have them just 15 minutes from my back door. I was shooting video for a special project, so here's a very, very brief taste.



This is just one of the species Martin Bailey and I plan on showcasing on our Southern New Zealand Photographic Tour next April. I do hope you'll join us.

Closed Set

If only I could show you the pictures from my latest shoots. In due course I can, but you'll have to wait until they're published first, since they were for the Fortune Theatre's 2012 Season catalog. What I can show you is the closed set below for one of the productions. Closed because one of the plays features quite a bit of nudity so my wonderful models were baring all for the shoot. Another revolves around the invention of a certain ...personal device - and I ain't talking about your iPad. Needless to say once the ice was broken, we all a lot of fun during these shoots.



As you can see I was shooting with my big strobes and softboxes and a few camera flashes for lots of big, soft, flattering light, and had the camera tethered to the laptop running Adobe Lightroom so I could show the creative director what we were getting.

If the shoot is anything to go by, next season at the Fortune will be highly... stimulating. And as Al Swearengen says, that's all I have to say on the matter.

Moving Pictures

Once again I've been so busy with a number of other things that I haven't had a lot of time for my own photography lately. Hopefully the Xmas and New Year vacation will remedy that. The new startup business I'm involved in is starting to take up more of my time, and while I can't say too much about it for now, it is picture based - its just that the pictures happen to be moving ones. So in lieu of some lovely stills, here's a very little taste of the motion pictures I'm making.



All rather exciting. I haven't stopped shooting stills completely though. In fact I've a theatre shoot next week that proves to be very interesting. More anon.