This one's pretty self-explanatory - just a frosted window in the Opera House before the show the other night. Not exactly a prime example of how sharp this lens is, but an interesting shot I wanted to grab, anyway!
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Blog Archive
Check out some of my recent work, and my essays on Photographing The Arts!
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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Great show tonight by the young Kiwi band Broods - very impressed with them, I can see why they're touring with Ellie Goulding at the moment (and she's a fan, too). Be proud of them, New Zealand! They're going to get very big, very fast...
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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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Last one! It's the closing day of the New Zealand International Arts Festival in Wellington, so I'm wrapping up this series here. Hope it's been interesting!
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Almost there - only one day left of this look back at the New Zealand Festival over the past decade or so. Of course, the Festivals we're looking back at were winding up too, so today we've got more people than shows, as naturally there were fewer & fewer rehearsals for me to attend & photograph as the shows came to an end.
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Wow, we're getting towards the end of the Festival, aren't we! Well, there's still time for a few more shows - this one's Hone Kouka's play The Prophet from 2004, by Taki Rua Theatre; and a rare example of when I had to do an actual 'photo call' for a show, rather than being able to cover a rehearsal or show. I always resist doing that if I can, because I don't think you get the same emotional honesty in the images by getting actors to perform a quick bite of the show just for the camera; but sometimes, it's the only option.
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Today'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.
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It was a pleasant surprise to be asked to pop over to Ravi Shankar's sound check on the afternoon of his concert - I don't think I was really expecting to get a chance to photograph him or the show, but I tailed Festival Director Lissa Twomey over to greet him and spent a bit of time with them as he & his daughter Anoushka got things ready for that night. It was amazing to see him, at the age of 90, settle in and just play. Because he could really PLAY. Amazing - wish I'd been able to come back for the show!
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Another three-show day, today; this time, starting in 2004 with a production from my old home town of Toronto! One of the few times English-Canadian theatre has visited New Zealand - in fact, I'm hard pressed to think of another - this was The Overcoat, an entirely wordless work that totally won audiences over, and possibly paved the way for The Sound Of Silence in 2010 now that I think about it. (Having proved a silent show could work, I mean!)
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Four shows today - first is Cookin' (Nanta), which apparently is the most popular show in Korea and toured to Broadway just before it came to New Zealand! I remember enjoying it, but also that I had no idea the cook in the fourth photo was going to throw that onion in the air and chop it - much less that it was stuffed with glitter...!
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Two shows and a workshop, today - first is Out Of Order, from the Out & About series in 2002. Looking at the photos, I remember the show pretty well - I feel like the performer was French, but of course the phone box was sourced & branded locally so it would look normal. I feel like he didn't speak during the show, but convinced members of the audience to help him at various points - getting up on the box, then passing him his briefcase, that sort of thing - and I think it was the most popular Civic Square show that year. Certainly the crowd on the steps was good, and enjoyed themselves! (Of course, could you do a show about trying to get into a phone booth now? Wouldn't someone just hand him their iPhone, if he needed to make a call!?)
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A good selection today! First up is Indian Ocean, a band that appeared in Civic Square as part of the Out & About section of the Festival (which one year was run by a Canadian, to much hilarity in the office) - and second isn't from a show, it's the band Verona from the show Geographical Cure in the 2004 Festival, but at the traditional Government House reception that all artists were welcome to attend. A great bunch of people, and one of my favourite New Zealand bands.
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A quick couple of events today - one of our outdoor regional events in 2004, part of a series of Festival Picnics we did in Upper Hutt, Porirua and at Frank Kitts Park in town. (There may have been more I'm not remembering, too!) This one had a series of performances over a few stages, including Pacific drummers, bands, a British comedian, and - as you can see - Korean tightrope walkers & drummers! Nice to see some of the staff from that era out enjoying the sunshine, too - we all spend too much time in dark venues!
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