Fatherhood Friday 7: Emily turns 4
Happy Birthday Emily, 4 today!
Emilys definition of a superhero is: Someone who is Very Big, Very Old and Just About to Die… These are the only time you are allowed to be super.
Emily is very excited and possibly hasnt slept for the last 2-3 days and talking non stop. She told a friend of ours that he had to get her a present for her birthday that wasnt too expensive unless he was rich cause then it would be OK to get her an expensive present.
Slightly Rumpled Fairy
Sam: This week Sam has become a bookmark thief, I have seriously reread the same page of my book 16 or 17 times. Possibly time for a new bookmark or a better place to put my book.
Word of the week “No!” also first possible sentence: “No Ta Dadda” when she didnt want to give me the toy she was playing with.
Sam with Walking Assistance
Diving Man Multi Pop
Diving Man Statue with three pops from from different angles with speedlite on the end of a monopod.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens at f16, 33 Seconds at ISO 200
WW2 Antiaircraft Enplacement
Misty afternoon looking out to where the Anti Aircraft Gun was mounted.
These are scattered all over Wellington
Nikon F5 19-35mm Lens, Ilford Delta 400ISO Film
Motorcycle Protest Rally
A couple of months ago there was a big protest about the government putting the ACC levy up for motorcyclists.
I thought this would be a good time to go snap off some shots although when I got there it was a bit intimidating to say the least.
When I asked the guy on the left said cool but the guy on right wasnt in to it so I snapped the shot and left quickly. I especially liked all the gun club badges on the jackets… Possibly not people to mess with.
Really bad lighting on this one but once again I asked and one of them said cool. After I had taken the shot they asked me which paper I was working for 🙂 . Sometimes my Nikon F5 gives me some serious street cred.
Mostly I just liked this guys helmet which looked alot more fashionable than protective, also cool bike.
All images shot on Nikon F5 with 50mm f1.8 between f8 and f11 with Ilford Delta 400 ISO film. Sunlight was directly overhead with no clouds which made for very contrasty images.
Wrights Hill Fortress Tunnels
Today (25th April) in New Zealand is ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day, Where we honor all the people who fought and died in the various wars.
In honor of the occasion here are some shots of the tunnels beneath Wrights Hill Fortress which was built for WW2 to protect agains a Japanese invasion.
The fortress is currently being restored by volunteers and open on public holidays (like today)
All these shots were hand held in very low light so sorry if they are a bit blurry
Nikon F5 50mm f1.8 at f1.8, Ilford Delta 400 ISO film
Ambient light is not my friend AKA More painting with Light
For those of you who have been following this blog, you will have noticed that I have been trying different things with Painting with Light. The idea of this shoot was to try using some of these techniques in an urban setting, A kinda Urban Grafitti with Light if you will.
This was the first shot at it and I ran into some big problems right from the start. This sculpture is directly behind “The Behive” (New Zealands parliament buildings) so I thought there might be some issues with security guards. In standard New Zealand fashion two burly security guards rocked up and asked what I was doing but in a kinda apolligetic “we are just doing our job” way and then wished me good luck and hoped I got some good pictures.
Because the sculpture was lit from the front I had to shoot it from the back looking towards the road which was brighter than I wanted so I had to use a ND8 filter and an ND4 Gradient to try and balance the light a bit which then made the torch light too dim.
Nikon D70s 18-70mm Lens f8 at 58 seconds
With this shot I took off the ND8 filter but left the ND4 Gradient on and moved the location of the sphere into a slightly darker area of the image then reduced the shutter time from about 1 minute to about 45 seconds.
Nikon D70s 18-70mm Lens f8 at 45 Seconds
After noticing that there was a dark patch behind the “Banana” sculpture decided to try and see if the ball would look better closer to the camera. I think this image probably worked best of the 3 and also offers the best possibility to put someone inside the sphere since the flash will be out the side of the frame.
Nikon D70s 18-70mm Lens f8 at 34 seconds
All in all there was pretty much too much ambient light and these have been rather harshly tweaked in Lightroom and then Photoshop to get them looking any good at all. I think next time I try this it will be somewhere where it is nice and dark… Possible a cemetery… Should be interesting.
Oh and I almost forgot… I shot a heap of video of all this happening… Will try and edit and put on somehow…
Fatherhood Friday 6 Emily Plays Drums
All I can say is It seemed like a good idea at the time
A much more sleepfull week this week with Samantha having adjusted to the new sleeping regime.
Nickname of the week: Samington Lamington
4×5 Flowers
A shot of some decomposing flowers from a while ago.
Who needs a Lens Baby when you have a 4×5 monorail.
Linhof 4×5 Camera 210mm lens f11 at 1/60th second, Bowens lights, softbox directly above and another in from the right. Fuji Velvia 50ISO
Sycamore Seed
A Sycamore seed dropped in a dark room then lit with a speedlite set on multiple flash of 1/50th of a second.
This sounded kinda simple but doing everything yourself ment that I shot nearly 100 shots and only got a few that were any good.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm f 11 at 1/10th second with SB80dx set to 1/50th second on multiple flash.
OK so I finally updated my “About” Page
Check it out 🙂
Oriental Beach Renewal
On a Dark and Stormy Night.
Replacing sand before a big beech volleyball tornament. The beech is entirely man made with sand trucked in from Golden Bay in the South Island.
I forgot to take my remote shutter release so could only get short (30 second) exposures and it started raining almost as soon as I got there.
Made for good dramatic clouds though.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm lens, ISO 200 at 30 seconds
Darkhalide Photography 
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