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Posts in Photography
Vale Willem Wassenaar, Dutch - Kiwi director

There's a lot of sadness in the New Zealand theatre community at the moment, as news goes around of Willem Wassenaar's passing in Holland on the weekend.  I met him a few times around town and at the New Zealand International Arts Festival, and photographed him at least once - leading a SchoolsFest workshop with a group of actors from The Walworth Farce in 2010.

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In Praise of Variety at the Kage Collective Chronicle blog

Just wanted to mention I've posted a new essay at the Kage Collective blog, Chronicle; I elaborate a little on a post I did here a couple of years back about the Hasselblad X-Pan (still one of my favourite cameras!), and the potential I could see in the Fuji X-Pro series expanding to include a super-wide panorama camera - this time though, I'm looking at a few different shapes & formats I've used over the years, and the benefits of trying different frames!  Have a read - hope you enjoy it!

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Lost & Found #5: Oriental Rongotai player in Miramar New Zealand, 2006

Today's Lost & Found is another Canon 85L f/1.2 test with the 1Ds Mark II - I happened to walk through Miramar one afternoon when there was a rugby game on, and got to the corner of the field - just as they finished. I'm not sure now if they won or lost, but he looks happy enough with the result!

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Lost & Found #4: Civic Square, Wellington New Zealand 2004

Today's Lost & Found is another testing outing - this time with the Sigma 12-14mm lens, which was relatively new in 2004.  Of course, this is on a slightly cropped camera body, the 1D Mark II, so it's effectively more like 16mm - I shot a few on film (remember FILM?!) that day too, just to see what the difference was like. 12mm is quite wide, it turns out!

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Lost & Found #3: Dancing Dog, Waikanae New Zealand 2006

Funny how many of my lost & found images are from trying out gear - often I'll get something new, go a bit mad with it testing things, and then move on to using it for work without ever really giving much attention to the test shots.  But some of them I really like, now that I do look!

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The Bombay Royale at Sydney Town Hall (with Fuji X-Pro 1 & 56mm f/1.2, 18mm f/2)

The Skipper. The Mysterious Lady. The Tiger. A...unicorn?  A concert by Melbourne band The Bombay Royale is always an interesting event, so when I heard they were going to open for Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings recently, of course I booked right away!

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Vale Eoin Young, a great New Zealand motorsport icon

I was sad to hear of motorsport writer Eoin Young's passing this morning; I can't claim to have known him long, in terms of his illustrious career, but I first met him twelve years ago when he brought the recently-retired voice of Formula One, Murray Walker, on a book tour of New Zealand. They were a great pair on stage, prompting each others' memory as needed (with a bit of assistance from his great friend Michael Clark), and made for a very enjoyable event.

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March In August rally at Hyde Park, Sydney (with Fuji X-Pro 1 & 56mm f/1.2, 18mm f/2)

This weekend saw thousands of Australians take to the streets of cities across the country to protest the Tony Abbott / Liberal coalition government's cuts to Federal spending in areas like education, health, the public sector, science and the environment, as well as their stance on immigration.  Sydney was no exception - and the march, starting and finishing at Hyde Park, featured a brief concert by local band The Jezabels at the conclusion of the event...

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Congratulations to Helpmann Award nominees, Robyn Nevin & Angels In America!

Just wanted to say congratulations to Belvoir Theatre for their nominations in this year's Helpmann Awards for their production of Angels In America, which I photographed for them last year - well, I did Part 1: Millennium Approaches, anyway! I really loved this production a lot; oddly enough, I wound up seeing Angels two and a half times last year, having booked tickets for the full show at Belvoir before finding out I'd be photographing Part 1 as well, and when I found out it was on in Toronto a month later, I went to see that as well.  I know, I got carried away - but honestly, I enjoyed everything about Belvoir's version better: cast, costumes, set, sound design, lighting, the lot.  So, I'm glad to see it make the list this week.

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New Lens Testing: Winter Light on the Streets of Surry Hills, with the Fuji X-Pro 1 & 56mm f/1.2

All right, I finally bit the bullet and got the Fujinon 56mm f/1.2 lens I'd been thinking about for six months or so, to replace my 60mm f/2.4 Macro.  That's still a great lens (and I have one spare, if anyone's looking!), I just prefer something with a little more speed & easy focusability in low light for the kinds of things I tend to use it for.  I also just really like shallow depth of field - or at very least, I like having the option if I want it...

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Kyary Pamyu Pamyu at the UNSW Roundhouse

So...this is a concert I went to on the weekend, featuring J-Pop superstar Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in her first Australian appearance.  In fact, the first time she'd crossed the equator, she said!

I had just been intending to go and enjoy myself - I'm a bit of a fan of SBS PopAsia on a Sunday afternoon - but once I got there and started seeing the fans in costumes (who apparently had been queuing since 12:30pm for an 8pm show!), I couldn't help getting my camera out for a bit of it...!

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