It's strange to have a photo where I'm actually IN it, along with the subjects - that's not usually what I'm aiming for! But this time, I didn't mind - I was just part of the audience in the concert, and I'd preset the camera on stage at interval, with a wireless trigger and my sound blimp...
Read More2004 was the year of my first New Zealand International Arts Festival as the official photographer (I'd been a box office manager, followspot operator & lighting technician in previous years); and while there were a number of images I really like from that Festival, this one still grabs me the most, I think.
This was also my first time photographing traditional Maori Kapa Haka performance...
Read MoreOnce, early in my career, someone gave me wise advice about photographing events: 'remember, there are two sides to every story. There's what's happening on stage, and then there's the audience's reaction to it.'
Naturally, not every event I work on has an audience in attendance - often, I'm at a dress rehearsal, with only the director & crew - but also, most of the time, the audience (deliberately) isn't lit! So the opportunity to make use of this suggestion isn't always there; but once in a while, the chance comes along, and it's great to be able to take it...
Read MoreThe Wellington Jazz Festival of 2009 was quite a different beast from the previous festivals I've mentioned in the last couple of Lost & Found posts - this time, the management of the New Zealand International Arts Festival took on the programming and running of it, so the scale of production and calibre of performers was substantially different...
Read MoreHappy Diwali, everyone! This image wasn't entirely lost in my archives, in fairness - much to my surprise, it appeared on the cover of a book some years after I'd taken it, which took a little sorting out with the publisher. But unless you own a copy of that publication (or got it from the library), you probably haven't seen this!
Read MoreToday's images are brought to you by the letter T: first, Tuwhare, the concert tribute to the great New Zealand poet Hone Tuwhare. Following on from Baxter in the 2000 Festival, songwriters were invited to create a new work using one of Tuwhare's poems, and an album and concert were created from those.
Read MoreIt's actually kinda hard to date these images from 2002, because they're on FILM - and unlike those fancy digital cameras, they don't have data in the file to tell me what day & time they were taken! But this was the day I got the film scanned and saw the results, so I think we're close...
Read More"Has it really been...ten...years?"
I remember going back to my high school reunion in Canada, and hearing the disbelief in the headmaster's voice as he looked at all of us, and it sank in just how much time had passed since this particular bunch had graduated.
Read More
