Posted on 04 Dec 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
Yesterday in Auckland it was a beautiful 25 degree day. Today it’s absolutely pouring down. Which provided the opportunity to get a few more images for my ‘Storm’ portfolio I’m putting together to ultimately exhibit.
Here’s one of the shots I got, taken from the beach at Mission Bay.
Posted on 02 Dec 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
It was a beautiful night yesterday so I headed out to Piha for a surf. I only spent about 45 mins in the water as the surf was pretty poor, but I spent a bit of time taking a few photos.
This is my favourite. A little self portrait.
Shooting directly into the sun, I deliberately overexposed [...]
Posted on 28 Nov 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
I’m no post production digital whizz, preferring to capture the scene in camera as close to the final product as possible. But I am working on some stuff to put on my walls at home and a Polaroid style photo would be perfect.
I’d love to just whack the shots through Instagram or Hipstamatic and get [...]
Posted on 25 Nov 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
I’m pretty stoked to have been selected as one of the top 15 design & photography blogs in NZ by Concrete Playground for The Bloggers 2011 competition. Thanks heaps to those who nominated me. I was really surprised to be told I’d been shortlisted. And thanks to everyone that has voted for me since.
Looking at [...]
Posted on 21 Nov 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
My last few posts have explained that the two basic variables you can control exposure with are shutter speed and aperture. I’ve also stressed that the way to consistently take better images is to get your camera off its automatic setting and take some control yourself.
So let’s look at how you can take the control [...]
Posted on 20 Nov 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
The surf wasn’t so flash today but there was quite a westerly wind. I’ve always wanted to shoot kite surfers so I headed down to Walker Rd in Waterview for a crack. There were loads of people out. Admittedly I went at a terrible time of day for taking photos, around 2pm, meaning I was [...]
Read more >>Posted on 17 Nov 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
I’m keen to get your help again in selecting which image you think is better.
Last week I was back down in Queenstown. As is typical for this time of the year the weather was very changeable. One day 25 degrees and perfectly sunny, the next cold and wet. On Friday the clouds rolled in, the [...]
Posted on 30 Oct 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
I’ve had a number of conversations recently with people about wide angle lenses so I thought I’d write a quick post summarising these discussions.
The most common question is what lens do you recommend. Personally I am a fan of Sigma and all of my lenses are made by them. For my photography I find the [...]
Posted on 25 Oct 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
What a weekend it was. Without a doubt the most incredible thing I have ever been part of. The entire nation went from excitement to nervous tension to sheer ecstasy as the All Blacks overcame France 8-7 on Sunday night. I was lucky enough to be in the heart of it. I took my camera [...]
Read more >>Posted on 08 Oct 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
I recently bought a couple of amazing books. If you get a chance, I highly recommend you add them to your collection.
Mana
A photographic essay of 140 stunning black and white images by Nick Danziger as he spent a season following the All Blacks through New Zealand in 2010. This is a never seen before insight [...]
Posted on 29 Sep 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
Headed down to the Brittomart Farmers’ Market the other day. There can’t be too many other cities in the world that can source such a variety of farm fresh produce within a 50km radius of the city. Gotta love NZ right.
The weather wasn’t the best but managed to grab a few shots. Here are some [...]
Posted on 19 Sep 2011 | by Ben | Filed under Blog
I took this photo on a recent trip to Champagne in one of the vineyards surrounding the village of Epernay.
I deliberately over exposed the photo to blow out the highlights to give a summer quality to the image and applied a very shallow depth of field to draw the eye initially to the vines, then [...]
