Nes and Lucy Couple Portrait. 27.07.21.

I’ve set a task for myself to get better at the process of capturing more than one person within the frame for 2021 and over the past month or so I’ve been saying YES to these types of portraits. I’m training my eye to see composition with more people in the frame and It’s not an easy process! Moving away from capturing ‘models’ or ‘talent’ who pose so well to more everyday people has also been a focus for 2021. So now these goals are starting to overlap. I’ve always been intrigued by how different the process is compared to my commercial work, and I’m actually quite excited about this new (steep) learning curve. For this portrait session I made a mood board on Pinterest the night before, and so did my friends, and subjects for the afternoon, Nes and Lucy.

The ‘mood board’ worked well as part of the process and acted as a loose guide for poses and creative direction. We were going to head to the mountains for the shoot, but it was forecast heavy rain, so instead opted for a spot up in the Porthills instead here in Christchurch. The day leading towards the shoot time, was pretty mild and sunny, but as soon as we headed to the hills the weather changed to gusty freezing cold winds. All of us were dressed for Summer of course, and after 4 rolls, we started to show signs of hypothermia, so we pulled the pin.

Thoughts? I’m happy with the results considering I was focussing a camera from the 1950’s, posing and guiding Nes and Lucy in winds that literally punched me in the face. Also timing for Lucys hair, and their garments blowing, was also more critical than usual  in the winds. Not one to totally give up on 35mm imagery (yet), I also took a new addition to my collection up for its maiden voyage, a Canon EOS 620 from the 1980’s ($110 Trademe that seems to not have the common battery draining issue) and my favourite L series lens, the 50mm 1.2 to see if I could make some 35mm images that did not suck. The results were good overall and with a better quality negative than all other 35mm images that i’ve captured, this may invite a more positive relationship with using 35mm. The basic auto focus, while nothing like todays modern tech, seemed to work exceptionally well as I warmed up Nes and Lucy with a roll of Ilford HP5 and an expired roll of Fujifilm Reala from the 1990’s (sadly the results were shite), before heading onto the medium format buzz on the Yashica 635. I’ll never tire of ‘that medium format look’ as we managed a roll of Portra and HP5 before heading back.

I feel we don’t celebrate our successes enough as artists, but I’m not buying into that shit. I LOVE the set, and happy with my progress. I never thought that I would enjoy capturing couples too, but hey, here we are, and I love it. Want a portrait of you two? Email me. What could I have done better? Posing. Posing. Posing. I have a whole other set that was literally a hand position, or closed eyes away from being perfect! This is where my energy and observations need to be focussed when capturing multiple subjects as one. We have a second shoot in mind, and this time at the mountains, that will allow further experimentation. Next time we may even wear warmer clothes. Maybe /:

I’m also into the last 4 months of my photography degree at ARA, and I will be switching focus as from now towards the ‘major photographic project’ that will take me to completion come November. I’ll share more of that work in the coming weeks as I bury myself into the new process.

Craigieburn Forest Park and Broken River Ski Field. 22.07.21.

As I may have mentioned (ha!), I’m working on a new series out at the Craigieburn Forest Park and yesterday I headed back to see if I could make it to the snow line having run out of time on the weekend. In particular I headed up to about 1500M and the Broken River ski fields. I left a little late again so this time I hiked up the fire road access with a little more gusto than a few days ago. I also took the Rolleicord VB with me instead of the Yashia635 to check out it’s capabilities some more. This time I headed off with a few rolls of my favourite black and white film, Ilford HP5 and like last visit some Kodak Portra for good measure. I’m still investing in a better connection to this new addition to my collection, and I was intrigued to see how it performed wide open, as well as higher apertures. The Yashica635 is my desert island camera for sure, and an amazing portrait camera wide open, with swirly out of focus backgrounds. The more complex, the greater the swirl and softness.  So how did the Rollei compare? How was it above the tree line? And how was is wide open?

On the way up, this time there was no torrential rain so the light was quite typical of midday. Horrible. I avoided all scenes that had dappled light, and luckily a fair amount of the forest was bathed in a soft like shadowed by high points of trees and mountains. On route upwards I was shooting at about F5.6 mostly and the results were to be as expected. A good image focussed on fore or background elements with some minor bokeh, and when in focus there is a good amount of sharpness across that point in the scene. If you look at the running water over rocks for example, you can see a specific part (or plane of focus) of the image in focus while the rest is not. As I got higher so did the aperture as the light broke free of the shaded trees, and I was regularly shooting F11- F16 +. Quite frankly, the results are breathtaking! The image depth and clarity is quite frankly amazing on this camera. On a selection of images looking over the ranges to mountains the background, you can even see little houses and trees so clear, that I’m gobsmacked. Basically, the Rolleicord VB hits infinite very well, and with a high aperture the whole scene is in focus. This is good to confirm and compared to the Yashica635 its noticeably richer, and more imersive. Don’t get me wrong, the Yashica performs similar at high apertures too- but is still noticeably softer to the edges of frame past F11. The images captured on the Rollei don’t seem to have much edge image softness at all at mid to high aperture with most of the image in focus… so perfect for landscapes!

So how was the Rollei at f3.5? Truthfully, its hard to know! After scanning today, I saw a lot of camera shake in the images shot wide open on the way back down into the forest, because the shutter speed was also low. I’m pretty good at holding a TLR still at low shutter speeds, but not on this hike. The sun was setting on the way back to the van and was so dull, that It was a waste of a roll to be honest. Thankfully HP5 is not just a great looking film, its pretty cost effective too (when purchased off shore).

Anyway, I did shoot a self portrait today at F3.5 the following day, and with a better shutter speed of 1/60. I focussed on my the camera, and the image looks to be pretty sharp to me with the room looking as it should and the first portrait captured on this camera. Thats pretty damn cool.  I can’t see any weird distortion to the edges or noticable softness to speak of. I’m going to wait for more rain, and then re-visit the forest park with a tripod next time and see how the images turn out then wide open. That’s enough gear talk for now and apologies for the double dutch, if you are not into cameras and their settings. Anyway, let’s take a look at the images!

This set is really beautiful and I’m so happy with the quality of development too, for both colour and black and white. I’m sorry Photo and Video, it has been great having you develop my colour film for the past 5 years, but we are finished. What a feeling being able to shoot and develop and scan all of my images. This reality has been in the making for a number of years, and I’m stoked to finally have the setup to do everything myself. Talking of development, I’ve always processed my black and white images at room temperature, and it should be 21°C. The results have been good to be honest, but with the Cinestill temperature control system (I got mine from Walkens) I can now set my temp to 21°C exactly. In my opinion, the black and white rolls i’ve developed over the past weeks have been consistently better than any to date, with great contrast, grain and tonal range across all brands of film developed.

As for the Rolleicord VB, how is it? So far this camera renders black and white in a similar fashion to the Yashica, but with more depth and details at higher apertures. Coloured images just look so much better IMHO, with increased tonal range, highlight details, image sharpness and rendering of colours. It could be my development methods maturing, a better quality lens, or simply a coincidence. The images just feel different. I guess I’ll have to shoot more and form a better opinion on this matter, so the next roll I’m going to shoot with it will be a new film for me, Cinestill 800, and I can’t wait.

Exploring a New Project at Craigieburn. 18.07.21.

The Craigieburn Forest Park area is about 1.5 hours from Christchurch and holds a special place in my heart and soul. On arrival to Christchurch New Zealand back in 2007 (via seven years in Australia) and as an avid mountain biker, this region was my first real baptism of mountain adventures for a bloke who grew up in the UK with no mountains at all. I would throw myself down mountains on a bike weekly back in the day, and even then, from the very first second I felt a profound feeling of peace the higher I climbed into this beautifully mountainous region. Back then I would rarely venture out alone into the mountains, as it was a new experience, but as time passed over the years, and with the new adventures that I pursued, the more comfortable I became being solo deep into the mountains throughout New Zealand. To this day, just like that very first adventure into the Forest Park, I feel safe when in the New Zealand mountains, rain or shine. It feels comforting, familiar, and it just feels right deep into my soul.

I have a confession to make. I’ve only had a handful of times that I’ve felt really connected to the mountains over the past decade. Parenthood, the earthquakes and then shifting to central Auckland on 2012 did not help, and over the past 10 years I’ve still travelled extensively throughout New Zealand, and even lived in my camper van for 4 months tripping throughout the South Island, where I bagged peaks most days, but it never felt the same as 2007 – 2011. I believe I can now see why. I feel that the experiences have not been genuine, and that commercialising the outdoors creates a disconnect from the higher power that surrounds us- Mother Nature. I treated my body and soul pretty roughly for as long as I can remember, and excessive outdoor endurance sports, ended up as no more than an addiction and a distraction from ME. During those years while challenging the outdoors, it blurred past me as I blasted my way through it blinkered at the true beauty and wonder that surrounded me. Who truly wins? Mere mortals or the great outdoors?

We moved back to Christchurch about 5 years ago, and spending time closer to home in the hills was enough to make me feel connected to the Earth, but lately the mountains have been calling me once again. I’ve been spending more time in the Craigieburn region and that profound energy and joy still exists when I’m there. Yet this time around it feels different.  It’s 2021 and I don’t run anymore or ride a bike due to injuries sustained from years of physical abuse that I put my body through while challenging myself outdoors. What I do most days now is walk and hike, and I’m in love with the whole experience, moving slowly and being more present, once again I can now see the wonder and beauty of this Earth and feel part of it again. Its not 2007, as now I’m an older man, but it’s the closest I’ve been to those early feelings of wonder and a profound appreciation for this beautiful place we call home.

Having a fresh outlook for the outdoors though hiking sits so well with my film photography too, as the nature of medium format image taking plays well with the new slower pace. I’m now attempting to capture the wonder I talk of though my lens, and i’ve got a new series underway that explores this reality. I’m not looking at representing landscapes in a traditional sense, rather I’m looking at expressing how I’m closer to a higher power beyond the scripted existence we all now play a part within- that disassociated world far removed from nature. This project is a work in progress and in someway, it actually began in 2007 when I first began documenting my adventures arriving in New Zealand.

Here are a few images from the base of Craigieburn Ski-field access point, and close to the scree fields before I ran out of light and had to turn back. There was a brutal landslide on the track, and I did not want to be clambering over that mess in the dark! For the whole 4 hours of walking, it was torrential rain, which was quite challenging using a TLR! No waterproofing seals or tech back in the last 1950s! The first roll was Kodak T-MAX that I picked up on Trademe cheap (3 rolls) and unfortunately its faulty/ chemistry is damaged in some way and resulted in an aggressive mottling/ soft hazy patches across the majority of the captures. Shooting wide open at f3.5 with the unique characteristics of the Yashica635 lens, does not help much either. I wonder if the Rolleicord would exhibit the swirly/ soft aesthetic as much? Next visit I’ll take that camera instead and compare. The second roll was Ilford Hp5 and thankfully as usual, consistently good. With building a series, I find that I need to return multiple times to the region, and I will be back to re create some of the damaged images for sure. I won’t lie, I’m a bit upset with how the TMAX roll ended up, as they are some of my favourite outdoor images I’ve captured to date, and really do showcase the wildness of Craigieburn Forest. Thankfully I still have a lot of Winter left to recreate the set of images.

Photographing Twins. 16.07.21.

My colour development process running Cinestill CS41 is now at a point that I’m confident to start creating more portraiture work in colour again. In fact, I’m craving portraiture after months of other image making. I’m so stoked with the tones, colours and cleanness of the negatives! What motivated me in the first place to master colour development was to produce the best quality negatives free of the copious amounts of dust and shit found on the store developed film. Pretty stoked!

Yesterday I headed to Godley Head with Harvey, Emily and Joanne (who are two twins of triplets!) for a walk and shoot. We ended up at Boulder Bay and the cloud cover middle of the day was kind enough to offer soft diffuse light for some image making. With an extensive departure from photographing humans being, I was rusty AF. My first roll of TriX was a joke, and I may as well have shot it with a potato.  I fumbled, and played with composition, and ended up with maybe two images on the first roll that I’m happy with.

We shared the camera round across a few rolls of colour as everyone was interested in the process and results of shooting medium format film. We are all art students after all. The following rolls felt better, but the struggle for me was shooting more than one person within the frame. I’m simply not used to shooting more than one person within my portrait work, and the three rolls showcased this reality. I’m always hard on myself when it comes to image making, but these rolls shared with me what I could do better at connecting with more than one subject at a time, and I’m listening. Its a new skillset for me and happy to be open to the process!

Next week we are planning a road trip to the mountains and with all 3 sisters, some makeup and wardrobe, that should be a great experience. Looking at the images too, you can see the subtle differences between film stocks- Portra and Fujifilm 400H. Very cool. I have one roll of Fujifilm left, and that’s it! All gone.

Fujifilm 400H. 14.07.21.

I’m down to a few rolls of Fujifilm 400H and its scarcity makes shooting it quite a treat. Half of these mages were captured in and around Craigieburn Forest Park at the base and upto about 1300M off Lyndon Saddle. The other half was shot in the Porthills here in Christchurch along the Craterrim Trail. The camera of choice currently is my Rolleicord VB and I’m still getting used to its character, but focussing is really easy with such a bright (and clean) viewfinder compared to my trusty Yashica635.

I’m currently not shooting critical images as I’m still learning colour development using a Cinestill CS41 kit. I’m pretty sure that the first rolls put through the Dev chemistry being Lomochrome Purple contaminated the bleach/ fix. I was just not thinking right at the start of this learning curve and did not add water between processes to stop and wash away the chemistry. I do for black and white, but the Cinestill instructions did not mention to do it, so of course I followed them. I did see sense, but after such a weird film stock being developed and not rinsed from the canister between stages, the tones on the Fujifilm 400H negatives have purple tones in them, and marks/ lines. Of course you are seeing the edited images with the majority of these oddities removed, and of course the images here are compressed for website viewing so look shit anyway! Haha. Anyway, as mentioned, thankfully these rolls are not project driven work or important portraits, but I guess I’ll need to make up a new lot of chemistry soon or waste more film.

Another note to self is to also watch out for under exposed shadows in my work. I’m usually pretty good, actually, really good, but if they are not exposed correctly (a few stops over in shadows) this Cinestill chemistry is very un forgiving and yields some muddy grain for my incompetence. I sound like I’m beating myself up over these images, but overall I’m really happy with the tones, composition, colours and details, but I’m keen to fix up the niggles I see. I guess this is part of the joy of film for me though, that I’m always learning and its not as easy as just pressing a button and that’s the whole process done. Not to take away skills for digital image making, but film is a hands on process with multiple steps from the start to end, and that’s why filmies love it so much!

Update. Scanning a series of images today I noticed that the sharpen image setting had been ticked on my V550 scanning software (the Epson one). This in turn yields ugly digital grain and shitty shadow tones with noise and explains the results. Every roll is a lesson!

Lomochrome purple. Roll One.  12.07.21.

This weekend was my 47th birthday! Getting to this time and place has been hard for me. I’m always reflective on my birthday, and in particular here in New Zealand when it aligns with the middle of Winter. Those close to me know of my struggles with mental health and some days/ weeks can be extremely challenging for me. Thankfully my Family, friends, art and process along with Mother Nature- guide me when I’m down.

On a lighter note, birthdays are pretty easy gift wise for me these days. I accept vinyl records (yes I have another analogue addiction), black and white film, and photobooks. My amazing wife gifted me Portraits by the one and only Duane Michals and we ate a sugar fuelled birthday breakfast followed by lunch at Barefoot Cafe – a gluten free plant based eatery here in Christchurch.

Sunday I headed off for a wee solo adventure to Craigieburn Forest and a peak that means so much to me- just off Lyndon Saddle (approx 1300m). With me I had a new addition to my camera collection, a beautiful Rolleicord VB TLR from about 1965, and with it recently serviced by John at Fototech I was confident of its ability. Inside this gorgeous box of cogs and springs, I had a unique film stock too- Lomochrome Purple by Lomo- and a first for me.

It was very cold out in the mountains and I had the camera in my jacket against my skin for the whole round trip to ensure things did not stop working. I’m not sure if it helped, but I’m sure I read film does not like very cold conditions. The day was fantastic and I was super excited to see how the images turned out. I’ve now got a full colour development kit ready to go and for the past few weeks i’ve been processing various colour films and developing a process that works for me. When it came to developing the LomoChrome Purple stock I was a bit stuck as this film can be rated and shot at ISO 100 – 400. On the day I opted for ISO 400 but what were the development times? I googled extensivley and found nothing. I then stumbled upon this site  – Darkroom Solutions- where you can add the values and work out dev times and the details worked like a charm, and here are the results.

Fascinating right? Everyday environments that are green turn to purple. Not all greens act the same, but I guess this adds even more to the process? I’m stoked with the results and how my colour dev is coming along too. I wonder what roll two of Lomochrome Purple will yield? The Rolleicord VB was so nice to use, and yes I had a bit of a learning curve with most operations the complete opposite to the Yashica635, but overall it was easy to tame. I do love TLR’s!

Update. I shot the second roll of Lomochrome in the Porthills Christchurch on the Rolleicord, and when I loaded it, it seemed to slip and not wind on. I opened camera and lost half the roll as it had actually wound on! This Lomochrome film loads very loose, and the thickness is greater than say Portra. The result is a feeling that the film fails to be fed through the camera, but for reference, ignore this feeling, as it is winding on just fine! Anyway, I only had a handful of images from the second roll, so i’ve added to this collection and see how the dry, yellow grass turns a vibrant pinky/ purple? Mind blown!

Update Two. Scanning a series of images today I noticed that the sharpen image setting had been ticked on my V550 scanning software (the Epson one). This in turn yields ugly digital grain and shitty shadow tones with noise and explains the results. Every roll is a lesson!

Expired Kodacolor Gold 400 from 1994. Roll Three. 22.06.21.

Ok, yesterday as part of my final year photography studies, we as a class came together and captured the hard work of the fashion students on the beautiful models from Portfolio Models. Alongside my trusty Canon 5D MK3 I took the Minolta X700 to shoot a few portraits and  the overlooked moments.

Anyway, from the first of the three rolls I’ve got a selection that I love. There are colour shifts, epic light bleeds and grainy all round. I honestly don’t understand how the majority of these ‘inperfections’ were created. It’s quite mind boggling. Magic. LOVE.

Birdlings Flats with Zuzka. 16.06.21.

It has been a while since I’ve shot some portraits. I feel super rusty, but after meeting Zuzka at last weeks Christchurch Photography Society meetup we knew we had to go drink coffee and shoot. We decided on Birdlings Flats, about 45 mins drive from the City, and it did not disappoint. The whole area looks like a scene from Jurassic Park, with the whole beach area made up of smooth pebbles, and waves ferociously slamming onto the beach, it’s quite a surreal place.

Visiting the Little River Cafe and the art gallery next to it on the way home was a bonus, and we pretty much had it to ourselves. At the Riverside Gallery an artist called Brent Forbes was exhibiting, and his work is stunning. Go check it out.

In other news i’ve got a colour negative developing kit on the way, and randomly, I got an email from the Anuj, the founder of at Feedspot, with news that this blog has been added to their top 100 photographers list. Anyway, here are a few images.

Expired Kodacolor Gold 400 from 1988. 06.06.21.

I’m not a massive 35mm shooter. I don’t like handling the tiny negatives when developing or scanning, or even archiving them. I’ve got a fantastic 35mm camera though, a Minolta x700 and it does not get used that much at all. Last week I went to my first Christchurch Photography Society’s meeting and they were having a swap meet of gear. I grabbed a substantial stash of expired 35mm films. It was a bargain. I’m going to work through the film swag and see what results I get. I’ve got plans to start developing my own colour negatives too, (finally!) but that will happen once I get a decent cash injection for the additional materials outside of my black and white processing kit.

Meanwhile, here is the first roll, and it’s Kodak Kodacolor Gold 400, and expired in 1988. The box states it was the official film of the 1988 Olympics, which is kooky. Apparently when you shoot expired film one must meter the ISO in camera by a stop per decade, so for this roll rated at 400 I dropped it to 100. It did the trick and here are the results. I love the chunky grain, it looks so painterly. I love the cyan/ magenta tone shifts, and also the soft contrast plus occasional light leaks. Everything was shot at f1.7 that adds to the dreamy feeling.

Beach Combing for plastics. 26.05.21.

An assignment (that will develop into an on going project) I’m in the midst of is focussed on plastic rubbish found on Christchurch beaches. The goal is to raise awareness of how plastics impact our environment and I’ve got plans for a zine, large prints, and maybe some sculptural work too. If times allows.

First impressions of waste on Christchurch beaches is that there is not much trash at all. I’ve spent a fair amount of time beach combing for plastics at Sumner Beach, Taylors Mistake, and Boulder Bay and found only a few items. My first impressions after shooting them as found amongst the sands and rocks, is that instead of being repelled by their ugliness, I’m actually finding the results disturbingly beautiful.

Here are a few from the collection so far, and the unique aesthetic of the Yashica635 could be seen as an asset or a fault with this series, as i’m shooting right upto its minimal focal range. There are strange sharp and soft patches throughout the frame, but personally i think it adds to why I find the series so compelling… the whole subject matter looks so dreamy.

I’m in the process of developing and scanning more of these images, and will add to this post as I go along. I may swap out images too as I’m going to shoot them again… and again… as you do. Ha!