Royal Wellington Golf Club. At about 8.30pm at night whilst I waited for the wedding guests to finish their mains. a 10sec exposure brought some brightness into the sky and subtle light onto the surrounding plants. Dark. Mysterious.

Take Up The Stethoscope And Walk ~ Pink Floyd

Wellington. At sunset. Looking awesome. That is all.

“I Can’t Light No More Of Your Darkness” ~ Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me, Elton John

It’s this little fella again. Having a bit of fun in a local park. Good times.

“Parklife” ~ Blur

Moo.

That is all.

“My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard” ~ Kelis - “Milkshake”

What happened there?

Somehow (probably due to this) I neglected this blog for too long. Nevertheless, I do actually take photographs that don’t involve a bride & groom. Sometimes.

How about we start with some simple brushes, or toi toi. In black & white. Just because.

“I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me” ~ Morrissey

The Grove, Queen Charlotte Sound, New Years, 2007.

We’d just returned from a 4.5 year OE. We’d started in London, with the intention of moving onwards to other cities - Edinburgh was high on the list. But the appeal of London was too strong, and we couldn’t leave. The noise and excitement of the big city made us feel like we were living in the centre of the world.

Our weekends were full of small trips to glamorous European destinations: Stockholm; Barcelona; Dubrovnik; Bruges; Paris.

We’d spent 2 months driving through the USA, 2 months backpacking around Western Europe, 1 month on the back of a truck in Southern Africa and 3 months moving overland through Europe, Russia and China. We’d ticked off more than 30 countries on the must-visit list.

Yet here we were staying in a modest holiday house not far from the shores of Queen Charlotte Sound. Surrounded by our very closest friends, cooking meals on the BBQ, sampling the vineyards of Marlborough, taking a boat ride through the Sounds and getting drunk and playing Guitar Hero. This is still one of my favourite holidays. Ever.

eye spy with my little eye.

It’s the same reasoning behind my email address - freezingkiwis - and a bunch of other things. Availability.

I was starting a wordpress blog during early 2008 and was struggling for names. I Spy With My Little Eye was something that came into my head (a little bit cliche and obvious, I’ll admit) but of course it was taken.

This is a variant of that.

The image above is inspired by the awesome Michael over here.

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

Above, the image. As with any photographer, taking pictures of yourself is rare. In my case, this holds very true. Luckily I spent a recent weekend testing out a new lens and Aneta snapped the above whilst playing with the light.

Below, the 15 (possibly) interesting facts about moi:

1) I almost left school at the age of 15 - my parents could sense my frustration and forced me to have good long chat with the College Dean, and I subsequently stayed for another two years before attending and completing my University degree. I’m pretty stoked it turned out that way.

2) I absolutely despise lifts in big corporate office towers. Don’t get me started on my hatred for corporate life and offices in general, we’ll just keep the hate at the lifts for now. The way they never seem to return to the ground floor by default in the mornings, or the top floor by default in the evenings (why isn’t this standard design?). The way you have to push a button to request them - why can’t they simply return, or have a sensor? The way the queues form around the lift. The way butons only exist on 1 side of the lift, and the way people crowd around those buttons. The fact everyone is so silent in the lift. Those people taking the lift to level 2 or 3. The ettiqute around keeping the lift open when people approach. Everything about them bugs me.

3) I don’t want to be awesome at anything. I have little desire to be the best in the world at one thing in particular.

4) I want to be really good at lots of things.

5) I don’t get horses. I don’t see any appeal in horse racing - the Racing Form is the first thing I rip out of the sports section of the newspaper, and even the beauty and allure of a day at the races doesn’t hold a lot of appeal to me, because we’re ultimately there to watch these damn mammals ripping around the track. I love sports, but this isn’t a sport. Even polo is bizarre. And don’t get me going on horses as pets. Cats & dogs - love ‘em. But I don’t get horses.

6) I didn’t completely believe in or understand marriage until my wedding day. And now look at what I’m doing.

7) I’m a morning person, but don’t you DARE wake me up. No alarm, I’ll wake when I’m ready.

I have a nickname of ‘Gramps’. I don’t think it’s not appropriate anymore (is it? anyone?), but in my early twenties I often found myself curling up and falling asleep during the middle of parties and constantly complaining about my ailments. It was - and still is for some people - hilarious. I’m over it.

9) I was fired from McDonalds.

10) I’m not a fan of visible piercings. You just look weird. Hidden piercings, on the other hand, are a different story. ;-P

11) When I cook, I sample Every. Single. Ingredient before adding it to the mix (typically drawing the line at raw meat, although I’ve been known to test that too). Garlic; coconut milk; raw pasta; pumpkin; onion; oils & sauces - all of it gets sampled. I think it’s nice to know what I’m putting into the dish. Plus I’m usually already hungry.

12) I am awesome at Math. Or at least, I was awesome. First in my school in both 5th and 6th form, to the best of my memory in both Math and Physics. What does that mean now? I don’t know. It was a small school.

13) I love movies. But I never manage to find time to sit down and actually watch any. If you asked me if I could be carrying out the job of any one person in the world, it would probably be Christopher Nolan. Yet the last time I sat down and watched and enjoyed a film was at least 3 weeks ago.

14) Driving behind the wheel of my car has always been one of my happy places. I’ve been driving since I first turned 15, and although I’ve only personally owned a couple of cars, they have rocked. Cruising around on my lonesome listening to my own tunes with the window wound all the way down is one of life’s little pleasures.

15) I have a real affection for the French. The people, the language, the country. I’ve travelled a fair bit and ventured to a good variety of countries, and had some of the most amazing experiences in countries like Sweden, China and Poland, but France is a special place for me.

16 ) I’m 30. And I’m genuinely excited about where my life is heading into my thirties. I feel more knowledgable, capable and ready than I ever have. Bring it on.

Everyone is doing it, it seems. And it certainly looks like a little bit of fun, so why not use the excuse to both post an image and write a little bit about myself!

The concept is simple - 30 blog posts over 30 days, each with a specific self-centered question answered by me. Of course, they won’t be consecutive days, but I’ll get there. And hopefully share a thing or two about myself to accompany my imagery.

Let’s go!

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Your favorite song

In the meantime, today’s photo is another rework of the houses. Again, just something a little different.

I decided to revisit this series. Whilst the black&white worked for me (and was always my intention) I thought I would attempt to process using my current style.

I’m not sure it adds anything to the image, but it gives a nicer, softer look. I especially love the soft yellows and browns of the wood and wallpaper.

And at the very least, the lens distortion correction feature in Lightroom3 is amazing.

“Funny How Time Slips Away” ~ Willie Nelson

I don’t know exactly what drew me to take this photograph. I guess it was the the house, perched higher than street level. The pathway, curving and forming a direct line up the stairs to the front door. The trees, right and left, parting way to not obscure the house. Something about it simply drew my eye. At 6.15pm, nearing darkness, I shot this at 1/13sec and ISO400. It pretty much explains itself.

“Going Home”  ~ Dire Straits

At the same location as this photo we spotted this field of daffodils. The perfect timing meant we visited in early spring, right as the daffodils are in full bloom. It’s a shame - these won’t be present by the time the wedding rolls around in April, but can you imagine this setting with a couple of beautiful people posed amongst the flowers? You’re going to have to, I didn’t have a model.

“Younger Than Springtime” ~ Frank Sinatra

During our day jobs we often find ourselves scouting locations for future photoshoots. During the intensity and pressure of a wedding it’s vital we’re prepared for anything, and that includes having some suitable portrait locations up our sleeves.

A few weeks ago we visited a ceremony location and found this hole-in-the-hedge. It was perfectly placed at this time of the afternoon for the sun to break over the hedge, and my lovely wife (possibly a little tired of posing for soooo many photos!) took her place in the hedge. All lenses have quite different characteristics looking into the light, and the wide angle Nikon 12-24 displays some quite interesting lens flare that I haven’t observed on my other lenses. I’ll have to play with this a little more!

“The Sun Is Shining (Down On Me)” ~ Dt8 Project

One final image from this vantage point - I attempted a panorama of the sweeping vista from the top of the Paekakariki Hill Road lookout. Not the best panorama I’ve ever done (better ones here) but interesting nonetheless. The square-ish crop was intentional. Interestingly the Google Street View has a fairly good view too: link.

“It’s All Around You” ~ New Found Glory

From a very-similar-but-not-the-same-location-and-entirely-different-day, therefore not really related at all to this photo, I shot the South Island from my favourite lookout in the Wellington region: the top of the Paekakariki Hill Road. It was a stunning afternoon.

“Homeward Through the Haze” ~ Crosby, Stills, And Nash

It’s a piano. A beautiful piano. No doubt spent years under the skillful fingers of an accomplished player. Of which I am not.

“Handful Of Keys” ~ Fats Waller

It might be a sad day when you’re processing a photo of the New Zealand coastline in black & white because you’re sick of the deep blue colour. Or it might be a great day when you’re discarding your usual techniques and trying something different.

“Out In The Black” ~ Imaad Wasif

Bizarrely, I’d never noticed the way the tree has grown through the letter ‘A’. Until now.

“Living In Your Letters” ~ Dashboard Confessional

I’ve often loved the potential in these stairs. The way they criss-cross would make the perfect platform for a formal portrait of a group of people. On this day I was stuck with my long lens, and I didn’t have a group of people. Just this one chap.

“Come Downstairs And Say Hello” ~ Guster

If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll …

A little bit of Guitar Hero mixed with some off-camera flash.

Rock On!

“It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll” ~ AC/DC

This is the long overdue sequel to “Drive He Said” (one of my alltime favourites, especially given the circumstances around how I captured it).

Not sure how I stumbled upon this one, but it just caught my eye looking through my back-catalogue and I had to post it.

This is, as you can imagine, about 0.5 seconds later.

“Final Destination” ~ Chris Brown

Photographing a recent corporate event I was getting tired of the usual ’smile’ photos - there was a great vibe in the room and everyone was enjoying themselves, but I was looking for something a little more creative. A game of darts was being played as part of a giveaway gimmick and I took this snap of a lone dart protruding from the dartboard.

“Bullet And A Target” ~ Citizen Cope

After wandering the streets of Christchurch I quickly stepped through the Botanic Gardens. Actually I was looking for a toilet but couldn’t resists a peek through the gardens, looking for inspiration and appropriate portrait locations. In case I ever shoot a location wedding in Christchurch, of course!

This grand tree was one such spot. Imagine the framing with a snuggling couple placed gently in front of or slightly beside the trunk of the tree, or even sitting on the low slung branches. Beautiful.

“Bend Down the Branches” ~ Tom Waits

My favourite from the heads, looking slightly up the nostrils of the great Sir Richard Hadlee.

“Don’t Put Your Finger Up Your Nose” ~ Barry Louis Polisar

There really are a lot of sculptures around Christchurch City. Or maybe I simply have a fascination with photographing them.

This great arc of sculpted heads had very recently been installed outside the Court Theatre. I really like ‘em.

“Heads Will Roll” ~ Yeah Yeah Yeahs

This was possibly the most interesting front yard I’ve ever encountered.

The house was for the ‘Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand’ (street view) and amongst the native New Zealand plants, informative wall panels, audible seats and water feature was this: beautifully whimsical steel plasma-cut ribbon of words that float through the air - “Inner Struggle” - designed by Weta’s own Richard Taylor.

“Books And Letters” ~ The Morning Light

Oh how I desperately wanted to get behind this fence.

“Gap In The Fence” ~ Enter Shikari

I’m in Christchurch.

I’m walking around the beautiful inner-city square. Market vendors are selling their wares: handmade jewellery, mid-winter beanies & scarves and sausages with sauerkraut. Sculpted statues adorn the corners of the square. The Christchurch Cathedral rings on the hour out across the middle of the city. And I spot a ladder. It’s a fairly inconspicuous ladder. But combined with the low mid-afternoon sun it casts an interesting shadow against the stone of the Cathedral.

I like it.

“Up On The Ladder” ~ Radiohead

I’m not even sure what this is. Again, in the middle of Christchurch city I wandered underneath this - a ‘day of the trifids’ like sculpture strutting into the sky. I like looking up for photos - we don’t look around often enough and are content on taking level photos from the height of your eyes. Try it - look up, look down, take a different perspective. I can be interesting.

“Then Looking Upwards I Strain My Eyes And Try” from Passenger Seat ~ Death Cab For Cutie

I spent a little bit of time in Christchurch recently.

Actually, it was nothing more than a couple of hours. Nevertheless, it was my free time, so I spent it doing what any photographer would do and wandered the city looking for interesting angles, objects and scenes.

Taking inspiration from the urban shots Michael Valli is proudly displaying on his regular blog, I wandered down this alleyway. I love the symmetry of alleys and hallways, and in this case the bright light at the “end of the tunnel”.

All it needs is a subject, perhaps even a silhouette to give it a little more character.

“A Light in the Dark” ~ J. Robert Spencer

It’s a boat. Actually on the same day as “Homegrown” I spotted this moored to the wharf. As always, I’m pushing for new and somewhat unique angles, something making the everyday look a little more abstract. You’ve seen a boat from this angle before, but have you seen it cropped this tight?

“I Can Feel It Coming Adrift” from Man on Your Mind ~ Little River Band

In the local city of Lower Hutt outside The New Dowse is a great purple and blue sculpture.

Of course, as long as I’m photographing it you’ll never *really* know what it looks like.

These are my lovely wife’s jandal-adorned feet. Ahh those summer days.

“Out From Under” ~ Britney Spears

So, it’s been a little quiet around here lately. Apologies for this, but as you know I have other side projects that still find me taking photos, so it’s not as though I’m not picking up the camera!

Browsing back through my archives looking for shots of Wellington I came across this little colourful number, and realised I hadn’t posted it. Was from a lunchtime walkabout around the Wellington waterfront, where I spotted this small piece of bright yellow colour strutting out of the brown wood against the deep blue sea.

“Homegrown” ~ Neil Young

And we’re back.

That was painful. Technically, I’m not sure what went wrong as I didn’t change a single configuration setting, however I’ve resolved the problem and can now post images again.

And what a backload I have!

Here’s one to start me off and kickstart your Sunday morning. Entering my apartment lift one morning I spotted these hanging in the corner. Dumbfounded I quickly scoured the lift for more signs of halloween - with none to be found the best I could do was capture an image.

Bizarre.

“Spooky” ~ Dusty Springfied

Trying a few different angles from the glamorous confines of my apartment balcony, I aimed the LensBaby towards the Mt Victoria lookout. I’ve been up there a few times before for various photos, but never shot the actual lookout before.

“View From A Hill lyrics” ~ Fish

I couldn’t resist a recent opportunity to pickup a LensBaby. It’s the poor man’s tilt-shift and certainly represents a chance to have a little creative fun with depth of field and selective focus.

It’s certainly a challenge to accurately focus on your desired point, but achieving it - in a photo like this - is quite rewarding. At this point I’m a little dubious the extremely shallow depth-of-field will go the way of selective colouring and white vignetting and become the big craze that soon becomes quite cliche, but in the meantime it presents some new creative opportunities.

“The Line Begins To Blur” ~ Nine Inch Nails

You’re at the cricket, you only brought along one long lens (the 70-300mm) and you want a shot of the relatively full bank.

What do you do?

You shoot a pano, of course! This is from 18 photos @70mm as I stood as far back as I possibly could on the side of the bank. Stitched admirably in Photoshop, and ready to go!

“Its All In The Game” ~ Tommy Edwards

I quite like this image from a recent maternity photoshoot.

It breaks all of the rules I set for myself when photographing people - there’s absolutely no focus on the eyes and you can’t even tell the expression on the face, let alone know if I’ve captured the right moment.

But I love the colours. I love the composition. I love the light. And I love the bokeh. Considering the f/1.8 aperture there’s surprising detail in the couple - at least enough to determine what’s happening in the photo.

And that makes it alright!

“And then So Clear” ~ Brian Eno

Of course whilst I was watching some exciting action on the sidelines, there were a few more experienced gentlemen trying to navigate their way to the close of the day’s play. Here I captured Dan Vettori playing a rather subdued forward defensive shot in his otherwise blazing innings of 42 off 66 balls.

“Slow Show” ~ The National

With a run-up like this there’s only one inevitable outcome - you’re going to reach the crease exhausted, deliver a lolly of a delivery and get spanked out of the ground.

“Piece Of Your Action” ~ Motley Crue

As the scoring shots began to flow, the crowd was clamoring for more. The little chaps, aware of the attention being garnered, upped the tempo of the game and began increasing the run-up length. Another rubbish bin was added with each ball, before they were almost 1/4 of the way around the ground.

Here we have ‘Harry’ mid-flight as he steams in off a 112-step Shoaib Akthar-like run-up…

“Steaming” ~ Sarah McLachlan

Over the weekend a cricket game rolled into town. Not just any cricket game, but the first test in a 2-test series between Australia and New Zealand, a test match rivalry stretching back 60+ years and one which hadn’t been won by New Zealand since 1993.

And as this record looked like it might continue through the remainder of the summer, with New Zealand reaching a reasonably woeful 43/4 chasing first innings target of 459, a small game of BYC (back yard cricket) began to erupt on the sidelines. These diminutive cricketers  - the future of our nation - pooled together a bat and ball, resourcefully using a rubbish bin as wickets, and began enthralling the crowd far more than the on-field action had done.

Notice the left-handed batsman: inevitably a hook, pull or cross-bat slog - always a kid’s favourite - would land the ball on the field itself. Thankfully the ball was eventually returned and game continued.

“Down The Line” ~ Jose Gonzalez

One of the things I love about shooting weddings is trying to find unique and different angles to shoot very common scenes. The bride is undoubtedly looking beautiful whilst getting ready in the morning, but as I posted yesterday there’s always many different ways you can capture a scene.

I posted another from an earlier wedding last week. How’s this one - a little too subtle?

“Down On The Upside” ~ Soundgarden (actually an album, not a song title, but you’ll forgive me)

Another take on yesterday’s image, because for every picture you take there’s thousands of other ways it could have been captured.  This is just one of those.

A portrait composition - this time including more of the road and leaving the colour in the image. There’s only 2 distinct colours - pleasingly complimenting yellow and grey.

“The Vegetable Song” ~ Bob Mitchell

This is one for Mike!

On my daily wander down Cuba St I pass this scene almost every time - the fruit & vegetable market has finished the unpacking of it’s daily fruit&vege allotment and the leftover crates are stacked outside on the footpath.

This is a tighter crop than my original composition, which had a few distracting items like street signs and the shop windows behind. I decided it was better without.

“Carry On My Wayward Son” ~ Kansas

Took this photo last weekend whilst covering the wedding of Anna & Mike.  This is a bridesmaid receiving attention from the makeup artist prior to the ceremony. Using a small mirror I found in another room I setup this shot - it probably won’t make the final collection as there were a few better composed images of the same scene, but I quite like this one nonetheless: breaks all the rules of composition when the focal point is smack-bang in the middle but I enjoy it. Heavy use of post-vignette has helped take the distraction away from the objects and colours around the outside of the mirror, including my hand!

“Calm Before The Storm” ~ Keel

I took this photo whilst shooting a recent event in my home city - Ignite Wellington!  It wasn’t really appropriate to handover as a PR shot, but I quite liked it and thought no better place to post it than here!

“New Spanish Two Step” ~ Bob Wills

Here he is again.  Sometimes you’d think this blog is becoming a family album. But when the little dude has this much charisma, can you blame me?

I don’t know where a 2-year old gets the hands-in-pockets idea from.  Wrapping up a Wedding rehearsal yesterday evening we were chatting outside the church.  This little fella was simply strutting around outside, hands in pockets, relaxed and chilled.  I quickly lowered and snapped a shot - got the right shutter speed and focal point, and love it!

“Too Cool For School” ~ Fountains Of Wayne

It’s all been a little sparse on this blog lately.  If you’ve been wondering why - and I certainly have - this screenshot is the answer!

I’ve already announced the Photobooth to the world previously, and this is what I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks - the WE DO Photography & Design blog.

We’ve decided to style the Blog slightly differently than the rest of the http://wedo.net.nz website, which of course means hours and hours of PHP and CSS tinkering.  It’s not complete, but it’s a start, and we’ve already got a few Blog posts backlogged and itching to get them up!

Browse over to the WE DO Photography & Design Blog, and check it out!  Subscribe via RSS and see what we have to say regarding Photography, Design and the ever-fun Photobooth!

In the meantime this blog will certainly continue.  I may not keep up with the post-a-day I was featuring during the better part of 2009, but it will still contain photographs and imagery from my personal photography projects.  That’s still ongoing, for sure!

Thanks for reading, stick around!

“Taking Care Of Business” ~ Bachman-Turner Overdrive