Flush Mounted Photo Albums

Photo Book

Flush Mounted Photo Album
Created a Photo Book online with Artisan State, a Leather Bound Little Black Book, 10 x 10 inches with metallic pages. Photo Book is the latest revolution in photography presentations with insane quality and 100% Flush Mounted Photo Albums.

Cook Islands News

Cook Islands News

Cook Islands News
Had a couple of photos published in the Cook Islands News. Cook Islands News is a national newspaper with the latest news from Rarotonga and the Pa Enua (Outer Islands). The print version of the paper is published daily Monday to Saturday by Cook Islands News Ltd, and the website is also updated daily with fresh news.

Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO Tutorial

Photo Book

Photo Book Presentation
Opted to created a Photo Book with Artisan State recognizing the viable need to present clients their photos in a revolutionary concept at a relatively affordable costs. Artisan State has an online Photo Book creating facility where you can add your photos and it will do the rest. I am at this stage testing the waters as it were, taking into considerations, costs, creating time, quality and the different finishes.

Creation
Commenced creating this Photo Book with the hope that the finishing product is revolutionary and cost effective. On paper the results look promising and I am very confident towards a uniquely magnificent finish.

About Ansel Adams

About Ansel Adams, Master Photographer

About Ansel Adams

About Ansel Adams, The Artist

Tiare Taina Vainetini Art and Craft Exhibit

Kare i Ariteia

Kare i ariteia - there is no comparison
To kotou tu taunga - your expertise
i te tivai tamanu - in the Tamanu bedspread
Pananake ake i tana - each to patch
Pananake ake i tana - each to stitch
Atuianga inangaro - work of labour of love
Pange iti vaine - women's support group
Imene akateniteni - serenade
Amu akaepaepa - poetry of praise
E koperepere - a chant
E akatara - a poem
E ute perepere - love serenade harmony
Kua maeve pu ua - laughters of joy
To ponao - your bobbin
To nira tu - your stitch needle
Tuia ki rangimatoru - sew to heavenly high
Tuia ki rangituatini - sew to many heavens
Kia kite mai to Iva Nui - for Iva to see                     
Kia kite mai te Kauarikirangi - for the Chiefs to know
Kia kite mai to Avaiki Nui - for great Avaiki to be proud
Avaiki e... tena mai te raurau - here are our gifts
Na nga tatea - for our children
Na nga uri - for our descendants
Na nga vakvake - for our offspring
Ia.... haha.....!!!
Aie...koko...!!!
Tivaivai
Tivai mai koe - you stitch
Tivae atu au - I sew
Tivaevae ta-orei - hankerchief(design) bedspread
Tivaevae ta-manu - symmetrical(design) bedspread
Tivaevae ta-taura - embroidery(design) bedspread
Manea te oora - beautiful expression
I te rave pakau - the artistic works
Te vainetini pange taunga - expert women's support group

© Lyrics by Arerangi Tongia

The Tiare Taina Vainetini exhibited their exceptional talents through their arts and crafts at the Whare Koa in Mangere. They have poe parau, pare rauara, pare rito, ei pupu and my absolute favorite, the quilting, our Tivaevae. The vibrant color combinations, the patterns and the famed detailed needle work.

Stroboscopic Flash Technique

 Multi Strobe Flash

Mount camera on tripod to isolate movements to action subject. Set flash strength to 1/8, set flash interval to 6hz and number of flashes at 4. So to determine the exposure time(shutter speed), we need to divide the number of flashes by the number of hz(per second); in this case, 4 divide by 6

 Turn off lights for absolute darkness

Coordinate models, action and flash

With every multi flash, you will capture an eerie, ghostly and multiple translucent images.

 This worked really well with fire dancing

Sports Photography Genre Portfolio Presentation

Paid $50 for 2 years term for the Domain Name Bensphotography.kiwi.nz with Freeparking on a $19.00 monthly hosting plus GST. It all equated to $79.00 all up initially but for the very small space, limited number of pages and bugger all widgets, I opted to change to Fatcow as host and carried my Domain Name with me and at $5.00 a month with quite a large space and unlimited widget, I am satisfied. Click on the link below for my new website. I am in the process of constructing it and you will notice some changes of improvements.

Bensphotography

Ilan Wittenberg Frelance Photographer Research



Surface Research;
Surface research of Ilan Wittenberg resulted in these web image of varied photography genre indicating his freelance capacity with images ranging from portraiture, sports, boudoir, nature, landscape, architecture, weddings, new born babies, politics, sports, glamour and charitable services. Ilan moved to our own New Zealand from Europe of Israeli decent. He worked in a well paid business but was dying on the inside with his creativity urges threatening to derail his livelihood. With the support of his family he made the move to quench those creativity urges but it wasn't all roses in the beginning. He threw everything he had into his photography achieving several honours and awards which over time reflected on his business and success followed. Ilan was awarded Qualifications in Portrait Photography and through a demanding qualification process, gained professional recognition by the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP).

Sports Photography Genre Portfolio Printing Prep

Print preparations according to Print Restrictions

Selected my images for my first set of prints for my portfolio and added minimal enhancing in PSD.
Psd image>Layers> flatten layers> Image>Image size>180 resolution>H21cm >W29.7cm (Set the lesser of the two dimensions but when setting the width alters the height from 21cm to 19.8cm)
> Image>Image canvas>set height to 21cm> select centimeters> select white for canvas extension colour> ok> Image> mode> check RGB colour> check 8 Bits/channel.

Create Print Guide Layer

File> new> title> custom> width 110cm> height 21cm> resolution 180 (make sure that the height and width are set to centimeters and resolution to pixels> background content to white> ok.

Go back to chosen image; Select> all> edit> copy> open print guide layer> edit> paste> move into place with move tool.

Repeat process accordingly and distribute evenly on layer.

Layer> flatten image> file> save as> title> tiff format> save.

Copy to pendrive and arrange for Caroline to print and get advise on colour caste, type of paper and test printing. Which paper type would give preferable colour cast on my print. Create another print layer and select parts of colour contrast extremes and paste on new print layer for print test.

Artist Tanu Gago's Visit

Tanu Gago came for visit on Monday and talked about the direction he's taken in his practice. He is formerly trained as a movie maker but because of the competitive nature of the industry, he opted to utilise these skill in photography instead. He produces works when commissioned for Gallery and sometimes for billboard on issues he is passionate and familiar about. His works relates from his perspective as a South Aucklander Pacific Islander gay artist person. He talked about the simplicity of getting your foot in the door 'as easy as an invitation for a cup of coffee'. He works as he would in a movie settings and preparations just to capture one image. Locations at family homes, family members for models, utilising what is there on offer, staging and preparations for weeks on end. I feel that there are many social, economical, political, sporting and personal issues out that has a need to be voiced and this could be a forum to highlight them.

Tanu Gago

Photography

Sports Photography Genre Portfolio - Rugby Practice

1. The Eye of Rugby;

ISO 1600, Av f/4.5, Tv 1/60s, 5184x3456, 2.68MB. I noticed this potential image as I approached the Rugby Field. I saw a horizontal strip of light from the field lights, liken to blinking darkness.
Experiment; Set up tripod at optimum vantage point and experimented with my camera settings, hiking up my ISO a couple of times, setting my shutter speed to 1/60s to capture the minimalist of movement blur and opened up my aperture to f4.5 until I got the image I was looking for.

2. Tree Light;
ISO 3200, Av f/4.5, Tv 1/60s, 5184x3456, 2.93MB. I looked up into the trees trying to gauge the light source and noticed the branches were highlighted in a circular pattern, so I hiked up my ISO to 3200 to define the highlights.
Form; Tripod, camera, wide angle lens, rugby field, field light, rugby players, speed light.
Context; Sports photography genre, a kiwi winter pastime, fitness, winter sports, practice skills, coaches, professionalism, rehearsing moves, training.

3. Movement Blur
ISO 2000, Av f/6.3, Tv 1/20s, 5184x3456, 3.91MB. Set up tripod close to the peripherals of the light illumination anticipating the coming actions. Adjusted my camera settings capturing several flash and blur images.
Content; Image 1 is in landscape orientation, silhouette and a strip of vertical light on the bottom third. silhouette of spectators at bottom/right RoT intersection an a lamp post at same vertical RoT. Dark foreground with bridge
rails silhouette, strip of light, lamp posts and silhouette rugby players and spectators mid ground of image  and pinprick lights and darkness in background and a long DoF.
Image 2 Has tree branches sprouting from bottom L/H dark corner towards the top of image and rounding down around the field light source with the highlighted tree branches seeming to circle around the light source. Long DoF, light source position close to R/H bottom RoT intersection.
Image 3; Motion blur utilizing field light, foreground has grass lawn of the rugby field, mid ground has motion blurred rugby players in action with coach and manager observing the training. The dark background is running along top horizontal RoT.
Image 4; Similar to image 3, blurred and flash, half of image is field and grass in foreground and image is weighted to the background of image with blurred rugby players in action closely scrutinized by the coach. The dark background is on the to horizontal RoT but the effects of winter on the tree lines is clearly visible.
4. Flash and Blur
ISO 200, Av f/4.5, Tv 1/20s, 5184x3456, 3.59MB. Attached the speed light to camera at the most powerful setting.

Photographer Tanu Gago Research

RESEARCH:
Tanu Gago was born in Samoa of Samoan decent and adopted by a Samoan relative and his Maori Irish wife and lived in Manukau City, South Auckland with 12 culturally diverse siblings. His art reflects on his unique perspective of life in South Auckland's multicultural diversity and engages with urban social issues including the fluid nature of ethnic and gender identities. He holds a Bachelors degree in Performing and Screen Arts with a major in writing and directing for screen. Tanu Gago is a photographer who also works in film. His culture is one of the driving forces behind his artistic expression. He sees photography as the ‘one shot’ opportunity to tell a story and to use a single frame to convey an entire universe of ideas to the viewer. His latest work "Tama'ita'i Pasifika Mao'i" commissioned and exhibited by the 2014 Auckland Festival of Photography at the Silo Gallery.      

Falency, Moe and Nana

CONTEXT: Tanu, a Pacific Gay Male have struggled over time to identify a clear distinction of Pacific masculinity he feels comfortable relating with and is a provocative and political visual artist.

Lauryn, Luisa, Sini and Hilda



CONTENT: He challenges how Pacific women are depicted as symbols of Pacific tourism or as living on the fringes of contemporary society and how they are represented with the desire to move away from cultural stereotypes, propagated by the media and in advertising images he is keen to expunge.

Vicky and Genevieve

FORM: Tanu utilizes the readily available key rooms in his family's houses and backyards and conveys his messages with minimal addition to the scenes. Family members are also employed to communicate his intentions.
EVALUATE:  Long DOF, Fast Tv, Introduced lighting, Large colour pallet, Open composition, Very textural, Images has fore-mid and background, direct and diffused light.

Auckland Festival of Photography
South Auckland based photographer Tanu Gago has been commissioned as the artist for the 2014 Auckland Festival of Photography Annual Fine Arts Commission by Sacred Hill. It is the first year that Sacred Hill Vineyards will present the Annual Fine Arts Commission for the Auckland Festival of Photography.www.photographyfestival.org.nz.
Sacred Hill founders, David and Mark Mason, with friend and winemaker Tony Bish, began with a simple philosophy of making more wine than they could drink, and sharing the rest. The winemaking generosity continues. www.sacredhill.com.ENDS © Scoop Media Auckland Festival of Photography interview with Tanu Gago

Into the Atmosphere on Vimeo

Sports Photography Genre - Portfolio - Kids Rugby

Experiment;

Experiment with flash and blur by setting my flash at 1:1 strength but image was overexposed, so reduced strength 1:2 and Av at f/16 for long dof, Tv at 1/40s to capture motion in image and ISO at 100. Incorporated panning with the shots. Sun is low so put sun behind me. Use wide angle lens. Use automatic WB
Evaluate;
Green grass rugby field in fore ground and rugby playing kids in mid ground with shadowy row of trees in the background. Motion blur in the
activities and the background indicating movement in image. Tried panning in first image and without in second image. My horizontal rule of third is off in first two images but very satisfactory in last image. The colour caste looks yellowish but the red, black and white looks vivid. Will do custom WB to get better colour caste. Accomplished the long dof but would close aperture probably about two more stops to get a longer dof. In 2nd image, I lined the action to incorporate the goal post and in 3rd image my composition combined action and the injured
player on ground and a referee that did not notice. It was about late morning wintery breeze but the sun was low and harsh casting long shadows across ground.
Research;
Look at any sports photograph, you will find the flash and blur technique utilized to covey motion in the image. The flash and blur photography technique can create some of the most amazing and exciting photographs, be it that it is mostly  experimental. Combining a slow shutter speed which blurs the action of your image with the action stopping properties of the flash, which freezes and sharpens the moving image.
Context:
Grass roots, age level, through the ranks, future and growth, local, South Auckland and Auckland multicultural rugby, Over reacting, passionate supporters and parents

http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-use-flash-with-a-slow-shutter-to-create-motion-and-ghosts--photo-95

Shigeyuki Kihara the Artist Research

Shigeyuki Kihara is of Japanese and Samoan heritage and was born in Samoa in 1975. She is a Fa'afafine (in the manner of a woman)/Transsexual.


Fa'afafine: In amanner of a woman, 2004-2005, Triptych Exhibition Chromogenic print on Fujicolour Professionl Paper 23 5/8 x 31 1/2in 60 x 80cm

Prints, Drawings and Photography Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Stephanie H. Bernheim Gifts and the artist/photo by Sean Coyle.

Context;
Reconsideration of Colonial Western assumptions adopted by Pacific Islanders about Pacific history, desire, gender and the body. Recreating colonial nineteenth and twentieth centuries images ranging from the ethnographic to the pornographic taken by non-native photographers which help create and fuel stereotypes about the South Pacific people. Among which was the fantasy of the 'Belle Sauvage' 'The Dusky Maiden' the beautiful primitive woman who was simultaneously innocent, eroticized and available. The exploitation, the force religious doctrination, the destruction of a culture, the forced European Colonial idealogy.
Content;
A self portraiture of a Samoan/Japanese transsexual globe trotting, New Zealand resident artist. She has several exhibited work in Australia and New York and New Zealand.
Form;
In a studio setting of wooden floor boards and somewhat tattered bandanas mat back drop.  The scene of a Polynesian half grass skirt covered, dusky maiden inclined on a colonial velvet couch flanked by tropical plants. In the foreground is the floorboard floor, central of the image is the inclined grass skirted dusky maiden on her colonial velvet, tassel trimmed couch. The background is a backdrop of a tattered weaved bandanas mat and tropical plants. In our composition, we can clearly see a horizontal line and the central image at a rule of third intersection. The image has a deep depth of field, possibly at f/22 aperture shot a fairly fast shutter speed and ISO speed at perhaps 100 on flash with studio lighting. And to keep to the colonial theme, a monochrome finish is applied to the image and strongly emphasized by the weave pattern texture of the backdrop.

Fairfax Media Editorial Research

RESEARCH:
In 2003, Fairfax Media came from Australia and bought up the publishing assets of Independent Newspaper Ltd of nine daily newspapers, two national Sunday papers, a stable of magazines. Fairfax also publishes 60 community newspapers throughout the country and market leading websites stuff.co.nz and parenting website Essential Mums. Fairfax Media is the larges integrated publications and websites in Australia and New Zealand. The company has established itself as an innovative multi-media business with strong brands across multiple platforms including newspapers, magazine and digital.
FORM:
Creativity, spontaneous quick thinking and the ability to utilize what is on hand, carrying the minimalists of tools whilst in the field. Make the most of the available light, light directions, your surrounding, the existing furnitures, the walls texture, the casting shadows and the possibilities are endless, limited only by your abilities. Thick skin.
CONTEXT:
News is delivered at every cost, your morals are severely tested, assignment are expected to be fulfilled. Stories vary to a vast extend and your approach requires some tact and diplomacy to achieve some type of relationships with the characters involved. News stories must sell and the perspectives of the stories must relate to the readers.
CONTENT:
Mass exposure, satiate the public appetite, publicise disasters, expose wrong doings, champion the exploited and the voiceless.
FIELD TRIP:
A very eye opening visit to the Fairfax Media Office packed with very busy organised people.
Fairfax Media Photographer Lawrence Smith Profile

Sports Photography Genre

BLUR EXPERIMENT
Experimented with Blur in photoshop. Utilised quick selection tool and selected the person I wish to highlight and I inversed the selection.

filter>blur>radial blur>maximised the blur strength>ok.

Added text.

Used Youtube for BLUR tutorials.

Auckland Festival of Photography

Auckland Festival of Photography Photo Reel
Silo Park, Corner of Beaumont Road and Jellicoe Road
See our reel any day between 29th May to the 17th June 10:30-4:30 daily.
There will be an opening for Tanu Gago's exhibition in the Silo 6, Wynyard Qtr from 5.30pm on June 3rd and the reel will be playing at the same time.

Natasha Cantwell came for a visit

Natasha came to visit us Wednesday 14th May and talked on her brief as a Freelance Photographer. Scouting for locations to shoot is done on foot and when casting she uses modelling agencies if friends and family does not suffice. Planning and preparation of her photo-shoot are done with meticulous and precise preparation over periods of weeks. All probabilities of anything going wrong are addressed and eliminated for achieving that perfect shoot. Natasha talked about the sporadic behaviour of the Auckland weather, where they would run out and shoot during cessations of rain showers. She had simply emailed a link to her website to overseas magazines to get work and they had commissioned her for the photography work and she had negotiated for the extra work that were essential to the shoot.

Madame Hawke Fashion goes hand in hand  with Natasha's style of photography. They evokes the flower power era, with Madame Hawke pastel colouring and short dresses and Natasha's flat images and pastel lighting, complements each other.

Natasha's Smiths Outdoor Collection was shot at a Archery Club using the Club members to model the outdoor fashion. Preparations took her several weeks but rain was worked in the shoot.



Sports photography has been around for eons and Natasha's style and methods of photography can easily be utilized to capture varied sports images. I can imagine shooting a Tennis action shot, a flat image, closing my aperture and setting my shutter speed to freeze action and my ISO at 200 to capture a borderline overexposure.