New Zealand Visual Artist Based in Christchurch New Zealand.

Beekeeper Larry.

Larry is a beekeeper at Mount Lyford Honey and lives a few minutes past Amberly in a beautiful area surrounded by green rolling hills. By next week I will have documented all staff in their happy place, who work at Mount Lyford Honey. After spending some time on the dirt road outside of Larry’s home, he allowed me to spend time inside their family home and was greeted by his beautiful family. Larry is into hunting outside of beekeeping and invited me in to see his wall of stag heads. I’m always ever so grateful when people open up their personal lives to share with me for a few minutes. It’s a real privledge. This weekend I’ll be visiting beekeepers at Mount Lyford for the first time, and I can’t wait.

Yesterday while shooting at 1/4 and f3.5 it was apparent that I need to start having the capacity to capture portraits more reliably indoors for this series. I was asking Larry to keep still as if it was the 1900’s to avoid any blur due to such a long shutter speed. I’m looking into carrying the third TLR with the option to shoot colour or black and white (HP5 or Portra) rated at ISO 1600 and push during development. I’ll run a few experiments at home first and see what happens. The other option is to buy some Portra 800 and push to ISO 1600 (+1 vs +2) that might avoid common issues pushing Portra such as in creased contrast, colour shifts and increased grain. I LOVE these indoor portraits, but there was an element of luck yesterday with most exhibition some motion blur, which I don’t want to test again!

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Hivemaster Gordon.

Since the early 1960’s Gordon has been involved with the Christchurch Hobbyist Beekeeping Club on this same plot of land. For a decade he’s been the hive master too, and yesterday It was a privilege to spend time with Gordon as the sun settled against the horizon. We talked about bee behaviour and in particular how temperature affects the colony, and where not to stand around hives if you don’t want to get attacked. Gordon invited me to the next club meetup in October which will be a great way to meet more beekeepers, including younger folk and females.

He showed me around the beautiful plot that has a classroom, working hives, BBQ area and a purposefully planted/ cultivated selection of trees, shrubs, and plants that offer flowers to the bees. The light of the day caught me off guard to be honest, and was hard to work with it being so strong and bright. Springtime change has snuck up with the days drawing outwards, and it’s time to push shoots forward from 4.30 – 5.30 start. I’m busy again with image making with the next five days booked out with beekeeper portraits. Good times!

I’m settling into the photographic process again after weeks of lockdown and personal projects,  and was comfortable scanning today with the realisation that every portrait of this series is different due to location and light, and now the set has grown, I’m satisfied with this.

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Yashica MG1 & Yashica D.

I picked up a new 35mm camera last week, a rangefinder Yashica MG1 that’s in like new condition. I believe it was made in the mid 70’s and due to the original battery that’s not manufactured anymore still within it upon delivery, I maybe the first to use it after 40 years. It has been stored well as it’s fungus free, all shutter speeds work as they should and with a battery hack, the meter seems to also function as it should too. Sometimes you find real gems and I feel this is one. I’m quite taken by it.

Just before lockdown I also picked up another TLR for next to nothing, a Yashica D and after having it serviced due to a very common issue of sticky shutter blades at low speeds, I’m happy to report that’s its focus and operation is spotless. The front leatherette was damaged during the service, but easily replaced, yet I actually love the way to looks, and going to keep it as is. I now have 3 operational and regular used TLR’s, and two are Yashica’s. I really love these cameras, as they seem to have so much soul. Don’t get me wrong, my Rolleicord VB is a beautiful camera too, and the images it makes are stunning, but it lacks the emotional attachment I seem to have with my highly underrated Yashica cameras. I’m such a nerd.

Here are a selection of images captured on the Mg1 (35mm monochrome), and the Yashica D (6×6 – taken from this lockdown project.) There are epic light leaks that ruin the MG1 photos to some degree, so I’ve decided to let John at Fototech take care of the last part of restoring the camera – the light seals. He does such an amazing job servicing my film cameras, and feel the MG1 deserves the very best as it heads to it’s working retirement. Haha.

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Beekeeper Robert. 

The whole of New Zealand went into level 4 lockdown yesterday at midnight, but I was fortunate to spend the last light of the day with Robert who I met at the NC Beekeeping club. His Ohoka property was about 30 mins drive from the city, and nestled amongst some beautiful landscape. The house was built for the family some 35 years prior  and the trees that surround the home were just saplings planted as part of the development of the land. For the last 20 or so years of his working career, Robert was involved in the funding of research across a very broad range of projects, with one project in particular involved with the improvement of pollination in Kiwifruit, and it was that project which led him to eventually keeping several hives at home. Roberts hives are mostly the design found in the UK- but with the traditional NZ hives placed inside. This design I’m assured offers better cooling and warmth year round. You could say that they are more aesthetically pleasing too.

Robert like all of the keepers I’ve met is a really warm and friendly chap, and we enjoyed tea while talking about a range of topics surrounding beekeeping, as we waited for the best light of the day. I’m becoming totally fascinated by all of the insights surrounding beekeeping, and already can see myself getting into this hobby over the Summer. The last frames I captured were of Robert in his beautiful ‘retro’ styled home, and I’m really stoked that I hit focus. Manually focussing these cameras from 50’s and 60’s is tricky on a good day, but in a dull lit scene with the sun setting, and towards the edges of the frame, even more so.

One thing i’ve noticed is that the Yashica635 seems to focus easier for sure, or is it more true to the focussing you see looking into the ground glass? At 3.5 – 5.6 it’s also clearly sharper than the Rolleicord too, but the results when either hit focus are worth the anxiety. It’s a roller coaster of emotions that only film offers. I guess both cameras are different across multiple aspects from the aesthetics, to how the lens behaves. Hence why I aim to shoot 3 frames per scene – to increase the odds of focus on these beautiful but tricky machines!

With level 4 restrictions now hitting hard NZ wide, this project is on hold until we can freely connect with others outside our bubbles. A bit of downtime will be good though as I connect more via email with others in search of the diversity that the project deserves, and in particular more female, younger enthusiasts, and Maori beekeepers. Maybe it’s time for some still life and self portraits at home to keep me busy?! Thankfully I can still get outside to exercise though while this outbreak settles.

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Beekeeper Kevin.

Yesterday I spent the late afternoon with Kevin who I met at the North Canterbury Beekeepers Club AGM last week, and we shot his portrait at his Christchurch property. He and his wife were so friendly, as per all keepers I’m meeting, and I captured Kevin inside his home and yard. Kevin has been into beekeeping for more than 30 years and it started with his Father who kept bees. He sent a link to a video made by David Alexander, another NC Beekeeping Club member and former photography tutor, for his 70th birthday in 2020. You can see Kevins story and passion for bees here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Nb_ThteJQ

Kevin wanted the painting that sits above the family TV captured as it’s quite special to him, and is of a scene from Ikoraki Bay, an isolated bay on the southern coast of Banks Peninsula. It shows a Family holiday, with their tent and Fathers combi van against the rolling hills and ocean.

What’s being reinforced as this series builds is just how different the aesthetics of every set of images are on film, and check out the different characteristics and mood of the Yashica635 (monochrome) and Rolleicord VB (colour) with the Yashy showing off some true SOUL. It loves to seperate the background wide open, and that lens flare too! My desert island camera for sure. Yes I’m doubling up here, but felt the need to shoot both, and a pretty interest comparison for sure.

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Beekeepers Leiah, Rowan and David.

This weekend has been amazing. The hard work of reaching out to beekeepers and commercial ventures as well as the extensive organising of shoots is finally starting to yield some fun. IMAGE MAKING! Initally I was terrified with the scale of this project, and soon realised I had opened a literal can of worms when it came to the logistics and scope of it. Then there were the early nerves and internal battle that my skills were good enough to manage the various levels of this photoshoot as a whole. I’m happy to share that those early nerves have been replaced with pure joy and excitement as I meet more people who are vital for the sucess of the project. I’m genuinely stoked at how warm and inviting the bee community has been, and the people who I’ve spent time with for portraits have been fantastic subjects.

I want to quickly discuss my obsessions with monochrome vs colour too. I’ve posted multiple updates with regards to the turmoil faced choosing what medium to use, and after yesterdays portraits I came to a realisation that the early critique at ARA which had posed the question WHY do I want to use black and white so much over colour, had knocked my confidence. Just like the studies ay Ilam Fine Arts, under the teachings of Tim, the WHY? was also posed towards of the majority of my earlier image making too, and it, like now derailed my whole process of image making. It’s quite a profound relationship to the WHY, and my gut reaction was because of the aesthetics, and ability to tell a story, and cohesion of images in as as a set. All of which are valid reasons, but I still felt like I had not explored a more meaningful reasoning for monochrome vs colour. Yesterday I came to the realisation that as a photographer I allow the the scene to invite me to capture it in colour  or monochrome. I don’t actually have a preference, and it’s the elements of the image that dictate I shoot black and white or colour. The thing is that this process has always dictated my choice to capture colour imagery, but it was such a subconscious process that until being asked WHY?, I had never stopped to examine it. I was thrown into a mild frenzy over the past month, and I’m now at peace with it. Does this insight matter? For me yes, as I’m now not anxious about what medium I employ- I will, as i’ve always done, let the scene dictate the choice and allow that process to continue.

Yesterday I met up with Leiah and Rowan, from Mt. Lyford Honey at a place that they like to spend time outside of work, alongside the River at Leithfield. We captured portraits and chatted about their roles working at a commercial honey making operation. On route the rain was so torrential that I was concerned that the images would look like drown rats! I was also worried about my gear from the 1950’s and 60’s getting trashed, as these cameras are not weather sealed in anyway. Once I arrived the rain became lighter and we managed to create a set. I did have water droplets on my viewing screen though, and that made for some interesting focussing. Later that afternoon, I then met with David who works on the hives at ARA that are set on the roof in the city. David is also involved with the Christchurch hobbyist beekeepers club too, and has engaged a connection to this club, with an invite by the hivemaster to shoot images of their members. David’s property had such a nice feel to it and we chatted more about his role at ARA where he has worked for more than 25 years, as well as his love for beekeeping. He had a few hives in his yard that with his ‘loud’ shirt called out for Kodak Portra. Please see above.

I look forward to each week at ARA with the feedback form the group now. It also motivates me to keep making images, and it pushes me to make better photographs too. So yes, this week has been quite interesting towards not only my process as a whole, but also how the project is starting to make some traction. One thing is for sure though, there will be no discussions about light metering or my torment over monochrome vs colour moving forward!

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Thoughts on Beekeeper Project.

This blurb was part of my last post, but I thought it better to seperate it and keep focus on the project. Beekeepers I’m now discovering, are literally EVERYWHERE.

I’ve turned a corner (finally)when it comes to metering images and feel like I’ve found a middle ground. The reason I was having issues in the first place was that during landscape captures my exposure was quite often under. I’d not had this issue prior when shooting portraits, so it was a bit of a head scratcher. I was using the same metering app and process as employed for portrature, but as mentioned, the exposures were off. Over the past month I’ve been testing a few processes to see if I can fix the issue, and I’m finally there. I started shooting and rating the 400 ISO film at 320 for a while and Simons portraits show great results of this approach, that are really good exposures for Kodak Portra 400. But that was for portraits in a small back yard, and even when rating the film at 320 I was still having problems with landscapes. So during my last hike I tried shooting 2 rolls of Portra and 3 of HP5 rated to 200 instead of 400 ISO to see if this fixed the landscape exposure one and for all. What I found was that all of the images were mostly over exposed so it went to far. Not so much of an issue for HP5, but this played havoc with some of the coloured photos, with loss of proper detail in the highlights/ sky. After this quite extensive experimental period, I’ve now finally come to a good compromise with metering for landscape portraits, that is rating the film at 320 ISO and expose for the shadows in the FOREGROUND. Interestingly during this lengthy process I’ve discovered that instead of choosing elements mid or at the rear of the scene, exposing for the foreground yields the best results with the iPhone app that I use. So the approach for both scenes is to now rate film at 320 ISO, and meter for shadows in the foreground of the scene. Portraits are usually metered for the subject, and landscapes now for dark or even mid shadowed regions such as the ground or bushes in the foreground.

I’m still tormented by my love for black and white over colour. Honestly I’m so obsessed with monochrome that colour is seemingly more of a distraction to my process it seems. Well that’s my point of view anyway. Ilford HP5 also holds highlights so well that subjects such as average skies look like they have something vs that of Portra that struggles. Post editing colour is also unbelievably time consuming, as the grading process is vital and really makes or breaks the image collection as a whole. I’ve always had to spend some quality time getting the colours just right, and can require a heap of tweaking as the set unfolds. It’s a constant process of backwards and forwards the more you scan and add to the group of captures.

Meanwhile black and white looks pretty amazing from the start, with editing mostly consisting of contrast and shadow choices. HP5 is also cheaper, hugely! But when a colour image works it’s utter MAGIC! So, as mentioned, to ease my anxiety, I’m shooting black and white and colour for the bee project. I’m now leaning more towards mostly black and white once more, with a few colour. It feels like I’m looking for reasons to not shoot colour, and maybe that’s true. But when I look at my black and white work it hits hard. It’s more emotive. It not only has a beautiful aesthetic, but monochrome seems to tell a story in a single frame, while sets of images in a collection have more cohesion than that of colour. Who would have thought I would have so much inner turmoil over this!

I’m now shooting on my tripod extensively too, and often with a cable release, which allows the obvious perk of managing slower shutter speeds, but it also brings another level of slowing down. I like it a lot. So yes, this week signals the end of extensive personal work and the experimentation of better exposures. This is good as it has been quite tiring, and very distracting. Best of all the anxiety caused by worrying about exposures once the project kicked off is less!

Today was also a big admin day, and it is becoming quite involved as you can imagine. I’ve got some portraits organised for this weekend and during the week next, which is fantastic. As long as I have weekly shoots organised, I’m happy! I was at the North Canterbury Beekeeping Clubs AGM in Rangiora on Wednesday to meet the group. There were about 18 people present and they were so welcoming. I loved chatting with them about their passions- while organising how we can capture them at home and then hives. They also showed me pictures of their best bee stings on their phones. Ha! The topic of representing the community fully across all ages and cultures was also discussed with Robert, and this has been my goal from the start. The photo opportunities from all angles are steadily coming into my inbox, and by phone, and I cannot wait to capture a whole range of keepers in their homes and then at their precious hives as it warms up. Here are a few images from the NC Beekeeping Clubs AGM. I was gifted a honey comb by one of the members too, that quite frankly is the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Wow!

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Washpen Falls.

With the weather forecast of gale force winds and rain in the Craigieburn ranges we opted for a different hike yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I love being out in all weathers, and I have the gear to manage it, but wind and rain combined is not a good recipe- rather hypothermia. Zuzana suggested we try Washpen Falls Darfield way, and after what felt like a strange hard left turn on route to the Alps, and some mediation with Jesus, we ended up a private walking track an hour later.

I purposefully took my large pack loaded with the two cameras (Yashica635 and Rolleicord VB), some layers and waterproofs, a bag of fruit and nuts, water, film supplies, and my heavy, but steady tripod. I’m trying to add more weight when hiking at the moment leading towards some kind of hike fitness come Springtime and camping. Anyway, the hike was mildly technical in places due to sloppy and slippery mud mostly, with some steep up and downs that maxed out at only 150M. It felt higher than that though due to some steep gradients heading up. The track that is rated as a 2 hour loop seemed to have all sorts of environments from pine forest, rushing rivers, waterfalls and open grassy hills. It kind of reminded me of multiple hikes i’ve done all compressed into a short but fun walk.

What really fascinated me yesterday was the cloud formations in this region. There seemed to be what looked like warm and cold air colliding (I’m guessing) and the results produced Yin and yang like formations in the sky- being dark and light. I could not take my eyes off it! The blue colour was intense. We also met a guy, Greg, who had hiked up to fly his drone and we captured some portraits too. His process was hectic TBH and required so many batteries! We laughed at how my process was mostly mechanical- aside from iPhone light metering, as he placed what looked like a VR unit over his face and piloted the machine around the sky. It was too windy though, so that was short lived for the portraits. We were literally the only people on the track and because of that got some great opportunities to shoot the water falls and rushing rivers. I imagine over the busy months of Summer the movement on the bridge where you capture the falls would have so much foot traffic the camera would be moving terribly. We had a good hike and this region is definitely worth a visit.

I noticed that they sell honey made on the farm too, and with the visitor centre (where you pay your $10 walk fee) being mostly staff free, i’ve grabbed a flier and will be emailing them about the Beekeeper project.

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Three Crosses on Route to Washpen Falls.

On route to Washpen Falls (a beautifully windy and green hilly drive) on way to Washpen Falls hike yesterday we noticed what looked like three giant crucifixes on a hillside against a stunning pine forest. The crucifix sculptures amongst this beautiful scene looked very interesting, and passing the gate we read;

“All Welcome. The crosses and tomb are in memory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Please take time to visit. Sit and meditate.”

Of course I then wanted to go check it out and wondered into the paddock and up to the 3 crosses. They were well made and clearly were put in place with some serious machinery, and it all felt so surreal with a glowing presence against the sky. There was the ‘tomb’ like bunker cut into the dirt with some more evidence of hard labour close by, and you had to bow down as you entered. Not sure why? Is there a significance of the small doorway? Once inside it was full of printed verses (that I don’t really understand) on the walls from what I assume is the Bible, an artwork and various pamphlets declaring the end of the world was coming- mostly.

As a man whose own beliefs don’t not always align with the Western ideologies of Religion- I do struggle sometimes to appreciate these narratives. Yet I’m also compelled to respect and appreciate that other peoples beliefs also take many forms and its not for me to question this. To build a monument like this takes it to the next level though, and there was definitely some interesting energy surrounding these structures. Should I call the number on the gate sign? Should I take the time to try and capture this persons portrait? Should I spend an afternoon with the maker? I’m fascinated to be honest, but I’m going to think for a while on this one. I’ve always wanted to explore people with such strong beliefs and make a series, so I might in the future.

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Beekeeper Simon.

As part of this beekeeping project I’m aiming to document keepers at their homes as well as on location at the hives. Put simply, I want to have a series of images that contrast the more personal portraiture with the more anonymous imagery of keepers dressed in their working uniforms. One thing to highlight is just how anxious I’ve been during the past few weeks with regards to this project, and in particular capturing the portraits of people in their homes. Even though i’ve been a commercial shooter for more than a decade, that process has been refined over the years to a point of the whole experience is now muscle memory. I’ve spent thousands of hours refining that commercial part of my photographic life, whereas photographing everyday people with no brief in their intimate spaces is pretty much day one hour one! Even though it’s new to me and very much out of my comfort zone to the point of pre-shoot nausea, yesterday went exceptionally well and I’m now over that first creative hurdle. It feels good!

I feel so emotionally invested in this project though that it may be getting in the way. Last night after developing the first roll of images that captured Simon from Goldfern Honey and his family, I sat scanning with a feeling of panic as I watched the images appear on the screen. I want every session of this project to be a great experience for the subjects, myself and my developing process. But I may be setting to high a standard from the start. I’ve got to be more at peace with myself if sometimes things don’t go to plan as I’m choosing to capture this project on film that has an inbuilt capacity to sometimes ‘just not work as planned’ and look softer than its digital counterpart. I’m 100% OK with these realities when it comes to all of my other film photography, but I guess this project is my most important series to date, and I have high expectations of the results. This emotional roller coaster to most sounds dreadful, but it’s this journey in film that makes the whole experience worth the time and effort, as when it does all come together it is utter magic! It’s a constant learning process that I’m 100% invested in and it literally gets me out of bed day after day. I can’t say the same for digital anymore. I am telling myself that worst case scenario, I can always reshoot portraits in this series if required, and that’s OK.

I’m also struggling to decide if I go all in black or white or colour for the series, and It’s a discussion to have with the critique group today at ARA as we move into week 4 of the project. I was pretty set on shooting all of this series on Ilford HP5, but feedback last week was that colour may be a better option for publishing prospects. I’ve had plans to shoot colour but not as a majority of images made, and as more a ‘few here and there’, but maybe colour is more important? I’ve been exploring a lot of fine art photography books from the fantastic University of Canterbury Library this week, and I was in some way compelled to select a stack of work that was captured in colour. Alec Soth’s new book  “I know how furiously your heart is beating” in particular got me thinking more seriously about using colour for this project as each of his images plays homage to coloured elements within the frame adding meaning to the story of the portrait. Flicking though his amazing work feels like a journey of discovery and if I’m honest, colour plays a large role in this experience.

He also talks about allowing the creative portrait process to unfold naturally without exploitive practice- but that’s a discussion for another blog post. Looking through the pages of the books with most being coloured, I now feel inspired to at least shoot colour as much as possible when it comes to the portraits of people at their home or comfortable spaces. It’s a good compromise, and I can capture some monochrome too if it unfolds that way, but for now I’m set on colour for this series as a whole, with black and white for ‘B-roll’ as such. This is the reverse of my initial plans. This first set of portraits are of Simon and his family at their Cashmere home. Shot on Kodak Portra 400 on the Rolleicord VB rated at ISO 200 instead of 400. Images developed at home using Cinestill chemistry and scanned using a Epson V550.

While not ideal, the set was shot fully open at F3.5 which does add a dream like feeling to the images. Again… do I want this aesthetic? It’s the reality of film though with set ISO, when the light is so dark, and I’m not brave enough yet to push (develop longer to achieve a higher ISO) the film, so I have to work with what I have. Overall I’m stoked with the set and even happier to have got the first portrait done and dusted! I’ve got quite a list of leads to shoot over the coming weeks and excited to see how it unfolds, and I’ve moved from a list of contacts in Word- with notes- to a CRM at Capsule. This is helping me keep on top of the admin associated with managing shoots, follow ups, model releases and posing the series of questions, and is free to use upto 250 contacts.

Update. After todays group critique I’ve decided to make the process of image making simple and utilise both cameras to capture colour and black and white. My heart says shoot exclusively monochrome, but it makes sense to give my self as many options as possible moving towards trying to get this work published. As part of my image taking process, and as you may well see in this set of images, I tend to shoot ‘scenes’ in 3’s if it takes my fancy. I aim to shoot 3 colour, swap cameras, and shoot 3 black and white, and if time allows and the subject is not annoyed, repeat until I’ve captured 24 images across two rolls. Simon was happy to shoot more work so maybe we will do a second round in his beautiful back yard in the coming months. Options are good!

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Craigieburn Visit.

I’m trying to pace myself on this beekeeping project as it continues to grow every week with the admin and coordination of photography shoots. I really enjoy being busy with image making though, and love the whole process from organising locations to loading cameras and self development with chemistry with digitally scanning. It really does get me out of bed in the mornings. As I adjust to the reality of the next 4 months of work for the beekeeper project I still want to keep shooting other work. My Craigieburn project inspired me to head back out that way yesterday as the weather was terrible. During these months of foul whether the mood out in the mountains is just beautiful, and of course there is snow. Summer time in my opinion, has the Canterbury region looking very similar, yet during Wintertime, every gorge, plateau, plain, and mountain top has its own visual language. The drive was quite direct as I had limited time, and very ‘touristy’ with lots of stops on the way compared to the majority of my time spent in the mountains.

The results are pretty good though, and showcases the beauty of this region. Here are some images on route and at the forest. As a side note, I’m finding Portra more and more contrasty and colour saturated these days. I guess it was because I shot landscapes for months on Fujifilm 400 that’s more subtle and desaturated, and I fell for that look. To mimic the now defunct Fujifilm 400 I’m boosting Portra shadows a bit, and de saturating the negatives. Colour negatives do take longer to process due to the grading, but the results are worth it IMHO.

Colour imagery is Kodak Portra 400 on the Yashica635, and B&W is Ilford HP5 on Rolleicord VB.

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Hives Visit 2.

Second visit to the hives set amongst some beautiful Canterbury mountain landscapes yesterday. It was icy cold with a sprinkling of snow on the ranges, and extremely boggy underfoot. The bee activity seems less somewhat this visit, so I’m assuming that the heavy rain recently has not been the best for their communities. I came back to capture the image with the trees in the background as the last roll had some issues. I got a bit lost and discovered more hives and new places/ angles to capture them, so that was great.

Thoughts? Metering was somewhat better this visit and I set the ISO to 250 vs the rated 400 which helped boost details in the shadows. I’m still not 100% happy with it though, so have some more experimentation to do. I’m also leaning towards a less contrasty image, with details across the tonal range for this series. Feedback from group critique noted how flat the images looked and by adding more tonal range this seems to have been remedied when tested with a series of A4 prints.

I can’t afford to hand hold my second camera that is loaded with Portra 400 at slower shutter speeds though as I move towards more critical portrait image making, so I’ve ordered a second Manfrotto tripod plate to make switching between cameras on the tripod the only option moving forward. I’ve done pretty well hand holding my TLR’s when required at dusk, but feel better with this decision. I’m happy with the composition of this second set as I find my feet in week 3. I’ve also secured multiple portraits of beekeepers in the coming week so now time to move onto capturing the connection of people to their environments (aiming for both home and on location). Colour imagery has become more of a focus for this project too (fuelled by feedback), and I’m becoming more conscious of ensuring I shoot more, especially for portraits in home environments.

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Beekeeper Project. Hives.

I’m now entering the last 4 months of my photography degree at ARA here in Christchurch, and It has been quite the journey getting to this point. Two years were spent at Ilam Fine Arts, and for mental health reasons did not work out well for me, yet has engaged quite a unique process (thanks Tim) when it comes to image making in conjunction with the ARA way of teaching (thanks John). It is a great sign that I speak of process, as this is really the biggest take away for me after 4 solid years of learning and image making. Insights to my process!

For the final year the focus has been towards a large, mostly self driven photography project with the research driven proposal in the first half, and now the fun part! IMAGE MAKING. This final project will focus on the beekeeping community of the Christchurch and Canterbury region. My goal is to capture images of New Zealand’s beekeeping community and their culture, related to their environments in which they operate. I will demonstrate and link how the commercially independent people of beekeeping, and their activities, work with the environment through a series of photographs, and a zine. The images will be created alongside questions to add context and narrative to the beekeepers’ unique process and stories. I want to showcase New Zealand’s unique beekeeping communities and the environments that they work within. If you are interested in my full proposal of the project, you can download and view the Word Doc. here.

I aim to answer my questions visually using 6×6 medium format cameras, as well as recording the subjects answers to a series of questions over here. These recordings will be translated into text to accompany the images and provide cohesion between the two. Yesterday I captured my first set of images out near Mount Oxford, just minutes from the carpark. Initial imagery will consist of visits to locations ahead of portraits. This set reflects that initial exploration. Each week I’ll me making images, and as a class we will talk about our process, progress, project goals, and also print work and share in the physical world. Black and white were captured on Rolleicord VB and Ilford Hp5, the colour set on Yashica635 and Kodak Portra.

Thoughts? My light metering has to be better. Using a phone app in simple scenes works well, but with multiple tones it can be tricky even though I meter for shadows. Next shoot I’ll meter the same but rate film at ISO 200 instead of 400. If this fails, I’ll buy a proper light meter, as life is to short messing up the stunning dynamic range that film offers due to skimping on metering. I’m shooting critical images on a tripod now too with cable release on the Rolleicord, and I actually like the process more with this setup as it slows me down even more. After comparing the colour to B&W frames captured, I’m positive that the majority of images for this project will be on HP5, with a couple of reference images on colour. I just adore the aesthetic of monochrome for most of my work, and this project won’t be any different. I enjoy working with the tonal range found in black and white prints, that I’m always drawn towards.

I had an issue on the second roll of HP5 too. As I opened the camera I was greeted with the roll loose as anything and un rolling itself! This was a first for me in hundreds of rolls shot. Sadly I did loose the last image which of course was my favourite, but easily captured again. Thankfully the rest were ok, and I think I know what happened. In the Rollei, it does not like to be wound multiple times at the end of the roll. Note to self…. don’t do that again!

I’ve now started. This is the hardest part of any project and I’m full of joy, fear and trepidation as I move towards the most important series of images that i’ve captured to date. Wish me luck!

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Sunshine. Long Walks. Thumping Electronica.

The whole of New Zealand went into level 4 lockdown on 17th August 2021 and after the initial shock and loss of life flow, I decided to focus on some creative routines amongst family life as studies suddenly ground to a halt. I walk most days, but invested in longer more mindful strolls with my favourite headphones, and some thumping tunes. I’ve not listened to much electronic music for a while even though I’m a vinyl record fanatic who consumes sound daily. I mostly listened to Underworld on my walks, who in my opinion are still one of the best electronic bands in the world. Their music is poetic, rich in #feels and definitely lifts ones spirits. I actually danced my head off to these guys live during the mid nineties Beaucoup Fish tour. The album that seems to attract my attention the most is Drift Series One from 2019.

Anyway, the combination of music with movement and sunshine- has been a positive investment of my time over lockdown, and I’ve used this outside time to conceptualise some photographic projects and goals, as well as ‘letting in as much light’ as possible. Early images were staged and an exploration of the feeling of suffocation that I feel during lockdown confined at home, as society’s routine shifted and collided wth my own life, that is mostly on the fringes of the 9-5 world. As the week progressed though and as I moved away from that those negative feelings towards a more positive outlook, I started to explore and capture everyday places and compositions on the daily walks from my home in Strowan along Papanui Road to Hagley Park and back.

These images represent the confines, isolation, observations and the positive daily routine of ‘freedom’ walking. The collection is quite dark and light, positive and negative, random and ordered, and in essence bipolar- all of which represents my state of mind, and where it has wondered during this latest round of lockdown. I used three TLR’s for this series too – the Yashica D, Yashica 635, and a Rolleicord VB-  to add a mix of aesthetics to the set.

With the South Island heading to level 3 as from Tuesday, things are looking up, and by applying contactless processes it will enable me to continue with the beekeeping project/ portraits as the weeks tick over towards the completion of my photography degree in November. Here are the images from the 17th August to date, and I aim to continue capturing images until we move to level 3, with the goal to publish a zine- with a central theme not yet identified.

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Nes and Lucy.

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.

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Craigieburn Forest Park and Broken River Ski Field.

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.

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Exploring a New Project at Craigieburn.

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. It’s 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.

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Emily and Joanne. 

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.

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Fujifilm 400H.

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.

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!

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