Sylvia Tops
With summer coming to an end, it was time to head out and catch some sunshine. Click here for the full photo story.
Buckland Peaks
Sometimes, you really need a timeout in the mountains. After building a house for the last half year, it was finally time for some fresh air. Click here for the full photo story.
Review: Fujifilm GF 30mm f5.6 T/S
Good things take a little longer:
An evening with Fujifilm’s GF 30mm f5.6 T/S Tilt Shift lens
The lens that the Fujifilm fan base, including myself, has been lobbying a perceived eternity for, has finally arrived: The new Fujifilm GF 30mm f5.6 T/S lens fills a hole in Fujifilm’s lens lineup, that has been bothering architectural photographers for a long time. It shifts, it tilts (if you’re into that kind of thing), and it finally allows us to use native glass to chase those perfectly parallel verticals.
Three Places
Data and Backup Management for Architectural Photographers
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: We did not become photographers to worry about mundane issues like data management, right?
It is an incredibly boring topic, and I should know. Before my career in photography, I was an IT systems engineer for 15 years. Keeping data safe was half my job. My years in the industry also gave me insight into what happens to businesses (yes, you too are a business) that lose their data. It’s not pretty.
Lightweight Tramping in New Zealand
Working for myself comes with benefits that I occasionally need to remind myself of. The other day I had to jog my memory when I noticed a weekend tramping trip wasn’t an option, but that a quick mid-week getaway was available to those of us with a flexible schedule. Yay!
As I gathered my gear, I mentally reviewed the changes I had made to my tramping kit over the past year. My goal was to reduce neck and back pain that had been plaguing me for many moons. I have been reviewing these changes over a few trips, going through various iterations of equipment that brought me ever closer to my dream setup.
Bald Range
Woolshed Hill
A man on a mission, a quick solo adventure to check out new gear and old bones. You can find the full slideshow here.
Faust & Mole
When the Libretto and Ella Ranges beckoned in autumn 2022, we heard the call. Click here for the combined photo story.
New Beginnings
Three years ago my battery ran flat. To be honest, it had been an ongoing process over many years. Every tramping trip felt a little less inspired than the previous. An hour into trips I would be longing for my sofa. With my back hurting and sweat stinging in my eyes, I wondered why I was doing this to myself.
I had come to the end of a years-long trend of diminishing returns. Adventuring around New Zealand had once been a reason to move between continents. A decade after my relocation I felt jaded. Every trip a stale rehash of its predecessors. Been there, done that.
The Ergonomics of Shooting Solo
Working Without an Assistant in Architectural Photography
When I first started in professional photography, I was operating on a shoestring budget with no clients. In those early days I was working on the worst-case assumption that it might take years to make the business viable. To stave off starvation I kept expenditure to a minimum. Working as a total newbie in what counts for a medium-sized city in New Zealand, squeezing an assistant out of the budget was something I didn’t even consider. The money would have come straight out of my mostly empty pockets.