nothing better to do

The Vantage

2012-01-28T08:27:00.000+13:00

A lake. With a pinhole camera.

From two vantage points.

Including a self-portrait.

Of sorts.

The Footloose

2012-01-25T10:30:00.000+13:00

Just fyi, not taken by me.

Further fyi, that's an Olympus XA2 in front of my face, a Hasselblad 503CX around my neck, and a Gossen VarioSix F2 lightmeter in my hand.

I'm clearly under the pretense that I'm a photographer.

As in this photo also.

But why no feet? (Or head/legs/back/arms?)

The Gourmand

2012-01-22T10:19:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a cafe or two.

Or three. Or four.

A day.

I found Australian beer remarkably bland. This one was okay though from memory.

The Reckless

2012-01-20T09:09:00.000+13:00

Those of you with long memories will remember back in 2010 I was given a pinhole camera by a friend.

I used it a little bit around that time and while it has definitely roadtripped with me since it hasn't been used.

Last weekend I finally got around to developing some of the shots I took with it that July.

The main reason for the delay was the working out exactly how I was going to develop the negatives seeing as I no longer had ready access to a darkroom suitable for tray developing 4x5 film.

So I just went bugger it and used my 4x5 tank and stand developed for two and a half hours and got great results.

By nice coincidence this weekend I'm heading back to where these shots were taken.

And I think I'll take the pinhole along for the ride.

The Train

2012-01-18T10:14:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself catching a train or two.

Trying to pretend like I was a street photographer or something, I took some photos on my journeys.

The Train

2012-01-16T11:30:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself catching a train or two.

Trying to pretend like I was a street photographer or something, I took some photos on my journeys.

The Triad

2012-01-14T11:11:00.000+13:00

A suspended fourth triad in fact.

A duo even.

The Wordy

2012-01-12T09:01:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself reading a word or two.

These two, well three really, in particular caught my fancy ... apparently.

The Beach

2012-01-10T11:30:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a beach or two.

Well okay just the one.

This one ... St Kilda.

The Garden

2012-01-08T11:42:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a garden or two.

The Winery

2012-01-06T11:36:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a winery or two.

The first one we went to made mediocre wine and was run by a grumpy old man who quite clearly liked his wine, but equally clearly didn't seem to like people quite as much.

The second winery we went to was Helen’s Hill Estate. It was a lovely spot, great wine (well great Australian wine anyway), and run by a smart arse younger man who quite clearly liked his wine, but equally clearly seemed to like people too (well money carrying customers anyway).

I bought some wine.

It's in the cellar.

The Christo

2012-01-04T11:23:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a park or two.

At one of those parks, well actually it was the riverside behind Federation Square, was this little Christo.

Admittedly, not up to their usual standards, but hey, we take art where we find it.

The Cows

2012-01-02T10:19:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a gallery or two.

The Heide Museum of Modern Art is a bit of a mission to get to but I have family nearby and they were happy to take us along.

It's well worth the visit. Not least cos there are cows there.

And other sculpture stuff.

In the sculpture park.

And a fine collection of Australian art in the inside gallery spaces.

The one thing I knew I wanted to buy in Melbourne (and part of the reason for going to Heide) was to get a copy of the catalogue to their recently closed show "Up Close" but, strangely enough, they didn't have any copies though pretty much every other book shop had numerous copies so I didn't go without.

The Hotel

2011-12-31T10:03:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a hotel or two.

Well okay just the one.

Various views and an interior follow.

The ACCA

2011-12-29T10:57:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a gallery or two.

It would have been funny if they'd called it the OCCA.

It also would have been quite nice if they weren't between shows and we could have had a look around the galleries.

But the ACCA is a pretty stunning building. At least the outside is anyway.

All stark minimalism and stuff.

The Cooker

2011-12-27T10:51:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a park or two.

In one of those parks is Cook's Cottage.

We took photos.

We didn't go in.

The Plantation

2011-12-25T10:47:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going for a walk or two.

One of those walks took us to Federation Square.

Some smart bugger had dumped a heap of damned pine trees around the place.

Merry Christmas.

The Monash

2011-12-24T10:34:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself going to a gallery or two.

Monash Art Gallery is a bit of a mission to get to - train to Glen Waverley, then bus to the outskirts of Monash somewhere - but it's well worth the visit.

As they state on their website - "MGA is unique among Australian cultural organisations. Indeed, it is the only cultural institution in the country – regional, state or national – whose collection is focussed solely on Australian photographs." That's why we went.

It was a shame the Brummels exhibition didn't have a catalogue with it, but you can't have everything.

It also had some of the best coffee and food we found in Melbourne.

These photos were taken near the gallery. Because I could.

The Buyer

2011-12-21T09:37:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself on occasion buying a book or two.

These books ...

Mainly photography. Some other arts. Some science. Some history.

Some old. Some secondhand. Some new. Some Australian. Some English. Some Irish. Some American. Some New Zealand.

18 of them in total. 16.27kg in total, the heaviest accounting for 20% of that weight.

The Flyer

2011-12-17T10:29:00.000+13:00

On my recent trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, I caught myself on occasion singing (to myself) various Paul Kelly songs - particularly From St Kilda to Kings Cross and, when being driven around the Yarra Valley, Everything's Turning To White made an appearance, as much due to this film as to Paul Kelly himself.

Naturally when in the air Sydney From A 727 popped into my head, even though I was fully aware that 1) I was flying over Melbourne, and 2) we were in an A300.

However, after our departure I decided to take photos. These photos ...

The Purchase

2011-12-14T11:30:00.000+13:00

So a few weeks back I found myself in the small Wairarapa town of Martinborough.

Just off the square, completely filling a suburban house (as much as anything is suburban in Martinborough), is a secondhand shop fill of all sorts of good stuff.

Amongst some of the good stuff there I found this.

And this.

And I bought them both.

For no real reason.

But one doesn't always need a reason to buy stuff.

The Departed

2011-12-10T09:30:00.000+13:00

I'm in Melbourne this weekend.

Rather than find anything new or clever or intelligent to post I'm just posting a post I posted in 2007.

But with the words changed.

It doesn't really have anything to do with Melbourne but hey i haven't got my crap 1980 110 film scanned yet, ok?

The Spectacle

2011-12-07T09:13:00.000+13:00

2011-10-01T10:15:00.000+13:00

The Good

2011-09-28T15:34:00.000+13:00

Some days are just good days.

One recent day was one of those days.

I bought the new The National Grid, always a worthwhile way to spend $20.

In my postbox was the new Wilco. Until they start either re-hashing their old stuff or turning out utter trash, I'm always going to buy their albums/DVDs/concert tickets.

Most excitingly, also in my postbox was this.

I had ordered it in February.

It was due in June.

It arrived in September.

It's three books.

One day I shall read them all.

The Mount

2011-09-24T12:56:00.000+12:00

The Driven

2011-09-21T12:57:00.000+12:00

Neither

2011-09-17T09:59:00.000+12:00

So in case you were unaware, I have a show up at the moment.

You have one more week to catch it.

It's a good show, so you should catch it.

I was there last weekend and it occurred to me that there's a distinct lack of information about it. Sure that was part of the idea, and sure, the press release kind of gives some idea of the concept, but I do wonder if people walking in actually read the lack of information as part of the work/concept or if they just ignore that part of it and look at the pretty pictures.

However, I can't be bothered asking.

But try these on for size if you want more:

it's a celebration of modernist photography utilising postmodern tropes
a representation of the kiwi vernacular
we're being ironic okay?!
it's a fuckload of photos
it's the Seinfeld of photographic exhibitions (for some reason the gallery people had huge issues with that statement)
if you don't get it, that means you've probably got it. If you do get it, then you probably haven't. But good on you for trying.

Hey, how abouts you just get the draft press release?

Neither One Thing Nor The Other

The Press Release – DRAFT

Neither One Thing Nor The Other is the Seinfeld of photographic exhibitions. Curated and co-ordinated by Andy Palmer and John Williams the show purports to be about nothing at all while, paradoxically, being about many things – not least of which is paradox itself.

Taking a philosophical approach from the likes of William Eggleston and Paul Graham, Neither One Thing Nor The Other is reclaiming ‘straight’ photography, making a stand for the Art of photography without dressing it up with unnecessary baggage and pretence to give it an Art World facade.

Neither One Thing Nor The Other consists of over 500 recent photographs by a number of unattributed local photographers, recording sites from Cape Reinga to Campbell Island. The images isolate and emphasise the ordinary. Everything is real. There are no tricks. There is no hidden meaning.

Or maybe everything is a lie.

The Forest

2011-09-14T12:56:00.000+12:00

The Electric

2011-09-10T12:54:00.000+12:00

The Boating

2011-09-07T09:46:00.000+12:00

The Didactic

2011-09-03T11:49:00.000+12:00

The Posters

2011-08-31T16:34:00.000+12:00

Self-explanatory?

Oh, okay, here you go.

The Self

2011-08-27T14:27:00.000+12:00

Incidentally, post 800!!

Celebrate, good times, come on.

The Cafeteria

2011-08-24T12:25:00.001+12:00

The Homage

2011-08-20T10:34:00.003+12:00

Here's a photo I took some years ago - five years ago to be precise. I may well have blogged it previously.

It's a shot I've always really liked. Partly cos it's shot on trannie and decent trannie looks awesome, but mainly cos it's my little homage to one of my favourite Peter Black photos.

I scanned it again recently because I'm using it in a couple of upcoming things.

And when scanning it I noticed it was an unconscious self-portrait ... see there on the right.

Not as exciting as Selwyn Toogood on the screen but hey.

The Car

2011-08-17T14:38:00.002+12:00

I would have called these moving pictures had it not been done better by someone else and already appropriated by me.

That and the fact that it would have conflicted with my longstanding naming convention.

The Tunnel

2011-08-13T14:38:00.001+12:00

Going.

Coming.

The Trip(tych)

2011-08-10T14:34:00.001+12:00

Three photos.

From Eastbourne.

The Joy

2011-08-06T14:24:00.004+12:00

Last weekend I bought a book.

Well okay it was bought for me cos it only cost a dollar and my friend was buying like four dollars worth of books for herself.

I have more or less given up buying these types of books cos there's so many of them saying the same things. And I know it all.

But I just felt I had to have this. Partly because of the price. Partly because of the title.

Upon getting it home and flicking through, it was clear that I scored a bargain.

Not because of the contents of the book, but because of this.

Not a bad shot. Quite obviously a set up. But not a bad shot all the same.

It's a recent-ish print, I'd say 10-15 years old, though the photo itself is clearly older, late-1970s maybe.

And why was it alone left in the book? And who are the stars? There are no clues whatsoever.

The Mexican

2011-08-03T10:11:00.000+12:00

The Pedestrian

2011-07-30T10:43:00.002+12:00

The Splodgy

2011-07-27T08:42:00.000+12:00

The New(ish)

2011-07-23T10:48:00.014+12:00

Yeah, so after this debacle I started actively looking ...

... for a new(ish) camera.

It arrived Monday last week.

So I used it that night.

And the next day.

Ending with the obligatory self-portrait.

The River(s)

2011-07-20T11:42:00.002+12:00

Thames.

Hutt.

The Island(s)

2011-07-16T12:40:00.000+12:00

A couple from one evening last year.

The Student(s)

2011-07-13T13:38:00.001+12:00

One from back in the day.

The Scenicest

2011-07-09T11:10:00.001+12:00

The Scenicer

2011-07-06T11:09:00.001+12:00

The Scenic

2011-07-02T11:09:00.000+12:00

The House

2011-06-29T08:16:00.001+12:00

The Message

2011-06-25T08:16:00.001+12:00

The Walker

2011-06-22T08:14:00.001+12:00

If I may pay homage ...

The Poster

2011-06-20T08:15:00.001+12:00

The P-ho

2011-06-18T08:12:00.001+12:00

A few weeks ago I had one of the worst sleeps of my life at this campground.

Nothing to do with the campground mind. Just the continuous gale force winds whistling through the trees.

The Notsobad

2011-06-15T11:26:00.002+12:00

A couple of weeks ago a friend lent me her Olympus Trip 35.

The other weekend we went for a walk in the Tararuas.

It appears the aperture is stuck on f22 permanently.

Meaning gross under-exposure when in darkish spots like the middle of the bush on a grey day.

But when in the light, it was occasionally possible to get a reasonable exposure.

And dusk created a certain mood.

Needless to say I soon returned the Olympus Trip 35.

The Trip

2011-06-11T11:25:00.001+12:00

A couple of weeks ago a friend lent me her Olympus Trip 35.

Last weekend we went for a walk in the Tararuas.

It appears the aperture is stuck on f22 permanently.

Meaning gross under-exposure when in darkish spots.

Like the middle of the bush on grey day.

Even when shooting 400ISO film.

Not that I should complain too much.

Cos it means I have to go back again.

I will, however, soon be returning the Olympus Trip 35.

The Horny

2011-06-08T10:21:00.004+12:00

Bad metering perchance?

Could just leave it to the 1985 point and shoot to do it properly.

The Verdant

2011-06-04T10:20:00.000+12:00

This is one of my favourite parts of the country.

Not because it's a hugely scenic place. Just because it's nicely out of the way and has a nice vibe.

And rooms to sleep in, a fire for warm, alcohol for fun, and good company.

It's quite likely that I won't be going back there. At least not to stay.

The Dune

2011-06-01T09:40:00.000+12:00

This time last week I was quite some distance from here.

For those in the know, this is yet another Wayne Barrar reference from me.

The Widescreen

2011-05-29T08:36:00.001+12:00

This time last week I was very near here.

The Redlight

2011-05-23T07:27:00.001+12:00

The Installation

2011-05-22T07:27:00.001+12:00

The Rock

2011-05-21T07:27:00.001+12:00

The Depression

2011-05-20T07:27:00.002+12:00

The Ornithologist

2011-05-19T07:27:00.001+12:00

The Suggestive

2011-05-18T07:27:00.002+12:00

The Lump

2011-05-17T07:27:00.001+12:00

The Seaside

2011-05-16T07:27:00.001+12:00

The Road

2011-05-15T07:25:00.004+12:00

I'm off on a roadtrip. Will be on the road by the time you read this. So while I'm away you get a daily dose of photos I took while on a mini roadtrip to Otaki last weekend.

Don't you just love how I post more regularly when I'm out of town than when I'm here?

The Trial

2011-05-14T17:20:00.003+12:00

A few weeks ago I bought some film. From B&H. Cos supplies here are inconsistent and prices are getting ridiculous.

I bought quite a lot of film - Portra 160VC, 120 and 4x5. And cos I could I also bought some film I'd never seen on these shores - Ektar 100.

Then, cos I could, and I felt like I needed to take some more photos, and that I needed a good walk, I went back to this place - only more prepared, mentally, physically, and equipment wise.

I took some photos. And compared films.

I couldn't tell much difference.

But then I couldn't be arsed doing consistent scanning etc to match colour and grain and all those things that one looks at when comparing films.

I did, however, notice that Ektar is half a stop slower than Portra, which is quite a bit when you're dealing with 1/2sec at F2.8.

So the top is Porta.

The bottom being Ektar.

I like some of these shots.

I also like the walk.

Though I was still utterly knackered by the end.

And it still took as long as the first time.

Even though I was more prepared, mentally, physically, and equipment wise.

The Moonimal

2011-05-11T09:21:00.002+12:00

The Minimal

2011-05-07T09:21:00.001+12:00

The Sidesteps

2011-05-04T10:24:00.002+12:00

I'm currently working on a very important and intriguing project.

Last weekend, being a long one, I thought I should actually take some photos for it.

These two are unlikely to be seen again.

The Misteps

2011-05-01T10:23:00.000+12:00

I'm currently working on a very important and intriguing project.

Last weekend, being a long one, I thought I should actually take some photos for it.

These three are unlikely to be seen again.

The Bather

2011-04-27T07:55:00.000+12:00

The Unofficial

2011-04-25T10:30:00.002+12:00

Here's something I wrote a few months ago, but it seemed kinda relevant for today.

There are other observations here, the latest of which was written with today in mind.

And if you want even more opinion from a man whose opinions count for nothing, try looking here.