Vegetable Peeling On Cuba Street
School holidays are still going strong here which is still limiting the amount of shooting I am doing but everything should be back to normal next week. I have missed a couple of great shots, including a sleeper on the waterfront complete in sleeping bag, from not having a camera because of biking or general two kid activities. I’m not complaining since we have had a pretty good holiday.
These were shot while the kids were playing on the Tuatara and slide on Cuba Street.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Coffee Vs Beer
This is from the other weekend where rain interrupted a street shoot with me and Fergus (Cunningvision).
The first shot is sitting outside the St James Theater on Courtenay Place drinking coffee with Rollei on the table pre-focused and the second is on Cuba Street outside J J Murphy’s drinking beer with the same setup although I did have to get Fergus to lean out of the shot while I took it and it was a bit under exposed…
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Sleeper In The Rain
Not a particularly good sleeper but I couldn’t get a better angle since it looked like he had a friend nearby who wasn’t asleep.
It pretty much sums up things at the moment with it raining the last 3 Saturdays when I usually get these shots.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
The Final Days Of Real Groovy Wellington
Last week Real Groovy record store in Wellington closed its doors for the last time. Its had a bit of an up and down roller coaster ride financially over the last few years but the iconic store has always seemed to come back… I guess not this time 😦
I took these shots the week before it closed for good where they were selling everything off cheap.
You will be missed…
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Parliament Of Rooks
When I saw this image on the street I immediately thought of a Parliament of Rooks or a Murder of Crows. In New Zealand we don’t have any Crows or Rooks, the closest we have is a Magpie which is much smaller and white and black as opposed to just being black.
It kind of has that sinister feel like they are about to descend and obliterate the artist… Maybe that’s just me…
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Dog On Cuba Street
Dog waiting for it owner on Cuba Street.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Cuba Street Sleeper
Couple of views of the same sleeper on Cuba Street last Saturday morning… I like the hat under the seat… I wonder if he found it when he woke up?
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Kodak TMAX 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Im Alive
Some posters on the back of the Cuba Street sign.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Girl Playing Ukulele
Girl playing Ukulele outside a cafe on Cuba Street
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Depression Does Funny Things To My Mind…But Im Better Now
I wrote this post around the 26th of January during a bout of depression and its been sitting round gathering dust as a draft since then… It didn’t help that this was when Rollei was having issues and before it went away for repairs, but I didn’t know that at the time and really that was only part of what was going wrong…
Sometimes you have to just give yourself a break… I’m better now…Most of the time 🙂
The project mentioned below is still on the back-burner.
Ramblings of a Frustrated Wellington Street Photographer… And Some Bad Pics To Make my Point.
OK… It’s a new year..time to make some changes and try to take things to the next level right?
Sounds like a plan doesn’t it?
Set some goals in photography for the year…think up some good projects…maybe finally get round to having an exhibition…
Yeah that sounds great! (this is starting to sound like an internal dialogue… I thought so too… Me too… Just get to the damn point!)
So I have thought up a great project that could be done on the street as well as having a studio component to it as well… Unfortunately it requires talking to people on the street as well as approaching people to come and do some studio shots. I’m not the most confident person when it come to approaching people and asking them to take their photo (I usually go ninja styles with the Rollei) and this has manifested in me putting so much pressure on myself that I am having problems even taking the normal street shots that you may have become accustomed to seeing here.
What is the best way to approach someone on the street? Anyone got some advice that they would like to impart?
I keep making excuses in my head why not to start this project (Too bright, Too dark, Wrong film etc…) but essentially I need to JFDI (Just Freaking Do It!) Whats the worst that could happen? They could say no… Is that so bad in the scheme of things? I’m sure I would survive physically if not with a little mental scarring.
Here goes a collection from the last film I shot which illustrates how far this is throwing me off my game ( I usually get 1 or 2 of these type of shots a roll but this is seriously a new record low for 1 roll of film. At least the exposures were all pretty good). 🙂
Maybe I should give up and take up something like synchronized swimming.
Camera Shake at its worst
Nice Wall
Repeat after me “I must not walk and Shoot at the same time”
Blur at 1/250th of second
I admit that I re-shot this one and the shot was OK 🙂
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Post Zombie Apocalypse Wellington
Ok the title is slightly sensationalist but came about from a friend mentioning that there was no one around in the city on Easter Friday and that it was like a Zombie Apocalypse had occurred.
Stuff like that makes me think… I have done some stuff over the years to take people out of the cityscapes (long exposures, multi stitch images) but not really gotten a truly deserted shot that I liked. So when Samantha woke up at 5am on Easter Sunday I decided to go out and try to get some (after Amanda had been woken up).
I left the house at about 730 and 30 seconds later it started to rain so I went back home and got an umbrella and the extra cable release I had forgotten and headed out again.
By the time I had parked the car (plenty of parking at 8am on a public holiday) it was still raining but not too badly so I took a couple of shots on Cuba street then the rain stopped.
There were still a few people around so for lots of the shots I had to wait for a bit and 1 image had to have someone I didn’t see taken out but other than that they are all as taken.
I like the way my eye looks for shapes that might be people since this is how I am used to seeing this scene.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
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