Eleanor Catton in the Winter 2012 edition of The Denizen magazine

…and I have to say, I’m really pleased to see they’ve used it in pretty much the exact way I had in mind when I was shooting it: as a double page spread, with the text overlaid on top of the space to the right of her.

I’m often picturing the image in use even as I’m taking it, so seeing a layout like this come to pass (and bear in mind, these were general PR / publicity images for Ellie, the magazine didn’t contact me with an article in mind) is great.  Nice to know someone could see what I was thinking at the time!

And since I was just telling someone about the Luminance app, this one’s processed with it (instead of my usual Snapseed, I mean).

Sydney Architecture, Morning Sun, taken with the Fuji X-Pro 1 and 18mm f/2 lens. (ISO: 200 Aperture: 8 Shutter: 1/950 Exp. Comp.: -0.7) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Velvia 50 preset.

Even smaller & lighter than the 35mm f/1.4 lens, the 18mm f/2 seems quicker to focus – but of course is a much wider angle of view (equivalent to approx. 28mm on a full-frame 35mm camera), which means less apparent depth of field than you might think you’d get from an f/2 lens.

Still, it’s a great little lens in use, and delivers the goods as far as image quality goes – and even when pushed pretty hard, doesn’t flare too badly – as you’ll see from a couple of images where I tried to make it fail!

One thing to be aware of that I’ve found – with the 18mm, the X-Pro 1 uses the full 0.37x field of view in its hybrid optical viewfinder.  In practise, what this means is some pincushion distortion in the actual viewfinder, which of course isn’t actually visible in the image itself, it’s just the viewfinder magnification you’re seeing.  So you’ll think your verticals are bowing inward towards the top & bottom of the frame, when in fact they’re fine – but it does make it slightly trickier to get your horizons level when you’re trying to line up gridlines with verticals in your field of view.

Fortunately, Fuji have provided a built-in horizon line you can enable in the OVF, so if you’re having recurring problems with it, just turn that on…problem solved.

Images follow – again, these are tweaked .jpgs from the camera, using Alien Skin Exposure 4 just to make me happy.  Enjoy!

Triangular Building, Darlinghurst Road (ISO: 200 Aperture: 2 Shutter: 1/1900 Exp. Comp.: -1.3) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Lo-Fi NPS 160 Creamy Pink preset.

Lens Flare Test, Darlinghurst Road (ISO: 200 Aperture: 2 Shutter: 1/3000 Exp. Comp.: -0.7) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Lo-Fi NPS 160 Creamy Pink preset.

Spiritual Rejuvenation, Oxford St (ISO: 200 Aperture: 2 Shutter: 1/640 Exp. Comp.: -0.7) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Lo-Fi NPS 160 Creamy Pink preset.

Local DJ, Oxford St (ISO: 200 Aperture: 2 Shutter: 1/2700 Exp. Comp.: -0.7) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Lo-Fi NPS 160 Creamy Pink preset.

Oh Shit We're Closed! (ISO: 200 Aperture: 2 Shutter: 1/550 Exp. Comp.: -0.7) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Lo-Fi NPS 160 Creamy Pink preset.

We Grew Here, Surry Hills (ISO: 200 Aperture: 2 Shutter: 1/2500 Exp. Comp.: -0.7) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Velvia 50 preset.

Church Office, Surry Hills (ISO: 200 Aperture: 8 Shutter: 1/350 Exp. Comp.: +0.7) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Velvia 50 preset.

Obscured Ferrari, Surry Hills (ISO: 800 Aperture: 13 Shutter: 1/30 Exp. Comp.: -0.7) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Velvia 50 preset.

Easter Bunny with Lens Flare, Surry Hills (ISO: 200 Aperture: 11 Shutter: 1/85 Exp. Comp.: -0.7) Processed with Alien Skin Exposure 4, Velvia 50 preset.

Gloria Jean of Sydney, taken with the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 and 35mm f/1.4 lens. (Camera data for those who like it - ISO: 200 Aperture: f/2 Shutter: 1/240 Exp. Comp.: -0.7)

Been roaming around Sydney the last few days with the Fujifilm X-Pro 1, just trying out the lenses to see how they look, and how the camera works in the hand.  A few minor notes on it, compared to the X100 I had previously…

- it seems snappier, and the menus are better organised (yay!); that said, the way the buttons are arranged on the back is a little different, and I find it harder to hit the AF-L when manual focussing.  (That activates the autofocus temporarily, you can then do a manual focus touchup if you want.)

- my thumb does however regularly find the View Mode button, when I’m holding the camera; so suddenly I keep not seeing things in the display when I’m expecting to because I’ve accidentally switched something off.

- at times, the AF has difficulty locking on to a small subject in the foreground, if the background is higher contrast.  Also, the AF patch is pretty large, so when shooting at wide apertures on these fast (fast!) lenses, it’s hard to be sure which actual part of the image is going to be totally sharp.  So, it pays to take a few images – in fairness that’s often the case with SLRs as well, though.  If focus is critical, cover your options!

- as with the X100, when the camera first came out there wasn’t support for the Raw files in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom.  Fortunately, though, the .jpgs look AMAZING and are pretty great to work with.  Metering in camera is great, auto white balance is pretty good too – so you can do quite a lot with them even without Raw conversion.  (The image above was shot on the camera’s Provia setting, but I added a bit of saturation with Alien Skin Exposure 4′s Velvia profile – so it’s not actually straight from the camera, if anyone’s wondering!)

- for whatever reason, the lens hood keeps coming off in my bag; and, if you leave the rubber lens hood on the camera with it on your shoulder, you WILL lose it.  I heard it hit the ground, so I’ve still got mine – but it comes off easily.  Put it in your pocket!

All that said, I’m pretty happy with it – and it’s taken me several days (admittedly not shooting ALL the time) and about 700 images to kill the battery for the first time.  But I had a spare with me, so no big deal there.

Still a big fan of the hybrid optical viewfinder, especially being able to review what you’ve just captured without having to take the camera away from your eye – probably my favourite feature of the camera!

This image is from a couple of days ago, but I tried out the 18mm f/2 lens today a little so I’ll post something from that a little later – but really impressed with both lenses so far…

New Zealand International Arts Festival 2010 - The Arrival

Again – another great thing about working on the NZ International Arts Festival is when a show sneaks up on you completely.  I knew little about The Arrival or Red Leap Theatre when I went in to photograph a dress rehearsal, but I came out wanting to see a lot more of their work.  I haven’t had the chance since then, but one of these days I will, I’m sure!  Great, great show – and an interesting New Zealand theatre company…

So – we’ve counted down to the launch, it all starts tomorrow at dawn (yes, DAWN).  Look forward to seeing you all at the Festival Club some night, I’m sure!

Black Watch cast at the New Zealand International Arts Festival 2008

One of the truly great things about being the photographer for an event like the NZ International Arts Festival is the stuff you find out about, outside the actual shows themselves.  The cast of National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch spent their time in Wellington learning the traditional Ka Mate haka that had welcomed them here when they first arrived, so they could perform it to the audience after their closing night.

I think when they started, it was a bit of fun that they could do as a warmup before each show; but by the time they got to the night they were meant to do it, they’d really started to grasp what it means to New Zealanders, and they got extremely nervous about doing it properly in front of a room full of people who KNOW how it’s done.  So, naturally, I crowded in at the back of the auditorium after the show, along with just about everyone else from the Festival office to see how it went…

I think you can see how they did – even if they’d got the words wrong (which they didn’t), they’d have got by on pure passion.  Good on you, lads.  And, welcome back!

Tea: A Mirror Of Soul

Continuing from yesterday’s image – this one’s from the 2006 New Zealand International Arts Festival, and is from Tan Dun’s opera Tea: A Mirror Of Soul which featured him conducting the NZSO, in the Michael Fowler Centre.

It’s an interesting work, which involves a lot of paper – from memory, at one stage the orchestra don’t play at all, but turn the pages of their scores back and forth very quickly.  You can imagine the sound of about 95 people doing that at once, I’m sure!

It also featured three huge strips of paper hanging from the roof of the MFC, which were used for percussion by three musicians positioned below them – which made for great silhouettes when the paper was lit.  You can actually see the paper crumpling where it’s just been hit, by her left hand…

The Overcoat

I’ve decided this week, in the lead up to this year’s NZ International Arts Festival, to show one image from each of the previous years I’ve photographed. So – here we are, starting in my first year as official Festival photographer, 2004, with a show from my home town of Toronto: The Overcoat, by Morris Panych.   I’d seen a few of his shows before – the hilarious Vigil and 7 Stories, at very least – but this one, he’d written an entire show without words.  Worked well, I thought!

It was nice to have an old friend from university in the cast, too – way too few people come to visit, this far from from home!

And as a note for the photographers – yes, I am taking the opportunity to re-process the original raw files – from a Canon 10D in this case – using the most recent version of Photoshop, and all the noise reduction / colour tweaking / contrast adjustment techniques I’ve learned in the last eight years.  So glad I didn’t just shoot .jpg, back then!

Angel Place, Sydney

I came across this installation in January while I was over in Sydney for their festival; this was just outside City Recital Hall where I saw Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau the night before.

As with so many things in life, I don’t know what it means, but I like it!