I was working on this car image and removing spots. Then I discovered the little critter who had sat and watched the process for making the image. The blow up of him is quite clear given the small size which is a result of the 60 megapixel capture from the Phase One IQ260 digital back.
Thanks to my friends Charlotte, Mathew and Greg for helping with this quick shoot.
We are very proud to have printed work for NZIPP members for this years IRIS awards. Over 200 prints made and 97 matted before deliver.
Congratulations to all of those people who got awards and special mention for the category winners and finalists for whom we had the privilege of printing work..
Bianca Duimel – Classic Portrait Photographer of the year 2013
Mike Hollman – Travel Photographer of the year 2013
“I’ve been entering my work into the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography “Iris Awards” for the past three years and I’ve used Sean to print all of my images. Over that time I have received gold, silver and bronze awards for my work. A big part of my success is due to Sean’s skill. Many of the judges have commented on the superior quality of my prints.
Sean has a wonderful knowledge of the printing process and goes the extra mile to ensure the highest standard of work using the latest in printing technology.
He takes the time to sit down and discuss the images and goes through the various options, such as paper choice, image size etc. This takes a lot of the hassle out of the printing process and results in my work looking the best it can.
There’s nothing better than having your work printed and displayed – much better than just viewing it on a computer screen. I would highly recommend anyone who is thinking of printing their work to get in touch with Sean.”
Harry Janssen – Finalist for New Zealand Photograher of the Year
http://www.redzebrastudio.co.nz/
“Mr. Mike Hollman sums it up perfectly!! For me personally it was a case of knowing that I did, in my own mind, the very best in getting my work onto paper. I have been printing images for a very long time now, indeed, my first job when I came to New Zealand in 1982 was a photographic printing job, so I really appreciate Sean’s expertise, skill and enthusiasm. This was my second year as a judge, we DO look very carefully at the print quality. Sometimes a beautiful piece of work was let down by inferior printing. Make sure, the next time the Iris Awards come around, you give the printing process the same loving and caring attention as when creating your images! A sincere and heartfelt Thank You to Sean at Evoke Studio for printing my images beautifully! Harry.”
Ollie Dale – Winner Fusion Category 2013
Watch out for Ollies winning entry when it goes public.
Our IQ260 kit has arrived.
Come and check out the new 13 stop dynamic range, Wifi tethered shooting and up to one hour exposure with ultra low noise.
Have you ever wanted for a Hi resolution Medium Format Camera kit but thought it’s just too far our of reach?
We hear it all the time.
Maybe we have something that could change that for you!
One of our Australian dealers has just had arrive in the showroom a pre-owned Phase One P65+ Kit that’s only captured 6973 images in it’s 12 month life.
The Phase One P 65+ is the first digital back and camera system to take advantage of the new Sensor+ design and is the world’s first full-frame capture system based on actual 645 film format.
The P 65+ provides full frame 645 with coverage of 53.9mm x 40.4mm – enabling full viewfinder coverage thus no need for lens magnification. Sensor resolution is 60.5 Megapixel with 8984 x 6732 active pixels achieving 180 MB, 8 bit RGB files.
“What you see is what you get.”
• Scaleable pixel and file size
• 60.5 Megapixels
• Higher sensitivity & dynamic range
• Increased flexibility for operation and capture
• Improved capture rates
What do you get:
Phase One P65+ 60.5MP Digital Camera Back
Phase One 645 DF Camera Body
Schneider 80mm f2.8 Leaf Shutter Lens
Phase One V Grip Air Vertical Grip
2x Phase One batteries
Really Right Stuff Camera Bracket
Pelican 1550 Black case.
Current replacement on this kit is Aus $37600 inc GST
This very, very clean kit is available at around Aus $23900 inc GST
For specs etc on the P65+ heres the link
If you are interested in this great deal, give Sean a call on 021 935500 and we can look at getting this kit over for you.
Firmware version 5.00.51 ads new functionality to all IQ1 series digital backs:
USB2 and USB3 support
With the IQ1 series you can now capture tethered into Capture One 7.1.2 or later via the USB2 or USB3 port.
Profoto Automatic light control requires a 645DF+ camera with firmware version 2.20 or
later and Capture One 7.1.2 or later – the Light control installs as a plugin to Capture One
7.1.2 and is compatible with all newer Profoto Air systems.
Aperture or ISO can be locked to one or more groups of light, and changing aperture or
ISO on the camera will change the light intensity accordingly.
About USB2 and USB3:
USB3 cable length is limited to 3m which is also what Phase One recommends for both
USB2 and USB3
Charging of the battery is not supported due to the limited power on the USB bus, so
running continuously on USB, will require you to recharge your battery now and then.
Visit the Phase One website to download the update and for instructions on how to install.
You are welcome to contact us to assist with the upgrade.
I have talked to many people about the need for backups and a few years ago did a small presentation to some NZIPP’ers on the tools to help. You would expect that I used a few of these techniques myself and I do. Recently we returned from a lengthy holiday and turning on all the computers turned out to be a sad few minutes and the ruin of my first week home.
For a fast re-cap we all know that we have to backup. And the paranoid people know that you need to backup more than once. These rules were tested for me this last week and it is such a good (or bad) example I thought I should share it with you. When I powered up my array of servers, three of them had hardware faults that resulted in lost data.
Everybody remember RAID for disk? (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disk). This is our first line of defence. The disks are grouped so that one (RAID5) or two (RAID6) drives just keep a checksum of the data and can be removed or fail without losing anything. If one does fail you can replace it and the system rebuilds the check sum and you are back in business.
So one of my backup systems (a NAS) uses RAID6 because I had so many drives failing in pairs I did not trust RAID5 anymore. But this week, THREE drives failed when I turned on this unit. So this became a dead box and all data on it was lost. I installed some new, larger, drives and recovered it from the second copy of this data I keep on another NAS.
A second backup unit had single drive failure so being RAID5 I just swapped it out and it rebuilt itself. Sadly some corruption meant that it was not possible to access the system using the standard shares. I tried to find a way to solve that problem and keep the data but failed. So even though I did not lose any data a corruption meant I still had to rebuild the machine and copy the data from the second and third tier backups.
This third machine was my main file storage, which is a Windows server that uses RAID5 and mirroring. This lovely machine has run non-stop for 6 years without a hitch. UNTIL last Saturday when I turned it back on. I always say computers fail when you turn them ON so best to leave them on to minimise the opportunity for failure. Luckily my healthy paranoia and the lack of space on this six year old machine (Phase One files are large!) meant that I had planned a replacement server and it was commissioned just a week before we went away. The only service that was not migrated was the domain controller function (controls logons). Of course I have two machines serving that role so everything still worked and I was able to build a new one quickly, ignoring the old server all together. I don’t know what is wrong with this machine but I was expecting it to fail sometime and will not bother to fix it.
I have 4 copies of pretty much everything here. The servers are backed to a NAS and that NAS is backed up to another. So when the NAS was rebuilt I just copied the data from the third level backup and we are back in action. As a last resort there is of course the off-site backup. I am a little lazy with this one and don’t make them as often as I should. But as some else commented recently if the studio burns down we won’t be so worried about getting everything back.
What is important from my experience, if you don’t want to lose data or think about it as your income stream, are three things.
1. Backup up everything, including the backups
2. Plan to replace equipment before it’s expected life term.
3. It’s not if you lose data, it’s about when and what you can do about it.
After leaving Waikai we headed back to the Five Rivers Retreat and ate a wonderful home cooked meal. I had Venison and Sue had a vegetarian thing stuffed into a capsicum! Oh and meringue berries and cream for desert!
A lazy start the next day we set off at about 9:45 am and headed up to the five rivers junction. This turns and heads back to Te Anau and although not the shortest route we had not been here. 10 am stop for coffee at the only building at five rivers! (Another long day I can see) Still a nice café for sure.
Our only planned diversion today was the Mavora lakes which is a 30-40 k diversion from the main road. This is another great spot that we have to return to in some better weather. We had raced the rain all the way out here and it caught up as soon as we stopped at the lakes.
We found out later that up to 3000 people visit this spot in the summer. It is hard to imagine where they all go. We went to the end of the track and a short way into the bush which we knew became 4WD territory. It was not as difficult as we thought but as the rain set in we could see no point going much further and headed back to Te Anau.
Sue had arranged to stay with Sarah whom she had only recently met at the Homewell Lodge Freeman/Sally workshop. Sarah and her partner Dave (plus Chalky the dog) were most hospitable and we spent the two evenings drinking whiskey.
For Saturday Sarah had arranged for Graham Dainty, a local photographer and part time electrician, to come out for a drive with us. Sarah, Sue, Graham and I headed back down the Coastal road to seek out Cosy Nook and on the way back the Borland road.
We had a great day stopping at some of the “secret” photo spots and of course a café for a late lunch. The Borland Rd become another late afternoon trip and we must try to do things in a different order next time. It is also a very pretty place and we only went part way once again. Our thanks to Graham and Sarah for their time and company.
Really this marks the end of the planned fun parts of the trip. We left Te Anau this morning heading back north. Our itinerary s not programmed just to head north with stops each night. Oh except for a couple of nights with Sally and Don. Not to be considered anything less than a privilege. But after that we will be drive drive drive until we get to Auckland.
Today (Thursday) we visited a friend who has just started work nearby, Cameron Dawson. The Dawsons have been friends of ours for some time and Sue has known Camerons Mother since school. So being so close it was silly not to stop in.
Cameron lives on the farm he works on with his partner Arnya. They moved in only a few days ago so it was very kind of them to spend time with us on their one day off when they were supposed to be unpacking. We went for a drive up a hill to a Telecom tower which overlooks a wind farm. It has almost a 360 degree view of the Lumsden area. Today we had the first sunshine we had seen in a week and the views were spectacular.
It was early afternoon when we left them to continue with chores and we set off around the long way to head for Waikia to visit the Beech forest bush past Piano Flat. This road does go all the way through to Roxburgh but is marked in the 4WD book as needing FIVE vehicles. So we did not go very far into it. It is such a pretty valley along side the Waikia river and looks like a perfect quad trip destination as well!.
We need to return to this location again someday when there is better light as it was getting dark by the time we arrived and hence we could not really appreciate the bush. The Waikia township is very cute and surprisingly big for such an out of the way place. Very reminiscent of Nasby.
We arrived back at the B&B as the sun was setting and saw the river looking like this:
Our last day in the Catlins is just as wet as the rest. We keep being told that this what the weather is like here. It is not entirely unpleasant because most of the time is just a mist that hides the views in the distance and a raincoat is sufficient to stay warm and dry. As we proceed around the coast on the Southern Scenic route we stop at all the places marked. Most are a short walk and provided we miss the short heavy showers it is still fun! There are a surprising number of people out and about despite the weather.
Slope point is the southern most part of the South Island. There is a marine beacon on the end of the rocks and fantastic crashing waves which, on a fine day would consume a lot of time shooting them to catch the right one. It is also famous for the wind swept trees that fight the elements here. Sue shot them, but they are on a farmers property and a long lens is required unless you jump the fence. Also the mist over such a distance creates exactly the sort of hairspray effect that Sue loves (not me).
But further round at the Waipapa lighthouse there is a smaller set which is more accessible. This location has a visitor centre curiously marked as a Historic place. Not sure if this is the building or the spot?. It has a few short tracks through the grass where four Sea Lions were scattered around. One was less than metre from the track and would roar at anyone that got close and appeared more than slightly interesting.
We head of to Invercargill which is still on the trail, the largest population we have seen for a while, just to catch up with a friend of Sues. On the way we come across a cluster of cars in the way. And once upon them discover that a Japanese couple in a small car have spun off the road. A passing ute was towing them out of the grass. Luckily they hit the wires and not a post and the car seemed fine. A bit of a traffic jam in the country.
Our stop in Invercargill is short and we push on to Riverton. This is a pretty town and if the weather was better I could imagine we would never have made it to our accommodation that night. We stop to look around a gallery that Sue had read about and chat with the lady owner. (Its for sale if anyone wants to move south). She tells us that despite the weather it is a good time to come down here. In the summer the camper vans travel in convoys and you can’t find parks at the sights. I was very pleased to hear that we had avoided that period as you might imagine. I had thought we had seen too many already.
After Riverton we head to Lumsden to stay the night and make contact with Cameron Dawson. We navigate along some back roads that are fast moving and pretty and make good time. It’s a B&B this time and as usual very nice people running it, Paula and Roger who greet us with wine and pizza bread.
After dinner we are talking and Roger drops ideas for 4WD trips. Every few minutes is thinks of a new one and Sue gets all excited and starts making notes. It looks like we may have to return to this area to try all these drives. But today (it is morning now) Cameron says he has a view he wants to show us so we will try that and see how much time is left.
I am as I put “pen to paper“ already feeling a mix of being over whelmed by words and yet almost simultaneously bereft of them.
It is Tuesday morning and I am sitting up in a super king sized bed (not that you want to know this but I am painting a picture so read on…) looking out through the largely glass front of the studio we are in here in Porpoise Bay, across about 15m of low growing natural scruffy vegetation between us and an expansive sandy beach. From this perspective the bay scoops around to the north, one moment hiding in the cloak of misty rain that foreshortens the vista to then appearing momentarily as a shadow like impression projecting out into the ocean along this stretch of broken and rugged eastern coastline of Southland.
No wave is the same, something I of course know but which seems to strike me more profoundly now sitting watching them as I am doing as they throw themselves crashing onto the sand. Large, wild, white, chaotic waves chasing each other almost rhythmically, the momentum intensified by the easterly wind. The sea from which they are thrown forth is a beautiful blue grey.
My senses are alive. I can hear the wind whipped waves rolling ashore, watch the hide and reveal playfulness of the mist, feel the wind on my skin as I have walked along native forest fringed deserted beaches with not a hint of human habitation in sight, taste the freshness of the crisp cool clear air and smell the aroma of the damp bush we have walked through to majestic waterfalls.
There is a feeling of awe, a sense of the smallness of my presence, of the transitory nature of my footprint in the sand and at the same time on another level the power of such a footprint to scar the land. The raw beauty of this largely unmodified landscape in which I am immersed here in the Catlins penetrates deeply my soul. As I reflect on this I wonder if the wet, windy and overcast weather we are experiencing is gifting me a heightened awareness of journeying into rather than through this landscape. There is a feeling of intimacy with, and immersion in. Whilst sun and clear skies offer extensive panoramic views along the notched coastline and with this the opportunity to witness and photograph magical sunrises and the colours of sunset’s painting coastal cliffs, the mist, drizzly rain and wind we are experiencing speak of the untamed magical nature of this corner of NZ. The rain is now heavy and the horizon closer still.
Sun filled, windless clear skies for as far as the eye could see have accompanied us on our travels up until last Saturday and our arrival in the north Catlins. This too has been a gift for it was under the umbrella of such skies we travelled into and through the mountainous terrain of several high country stations, climbing 1,000s of feet on narrow metal roads carved into steep hillsides with little room for error. Sinuously they climb and descend, and twist and turn through river valleys and basins hidden in a mountainous embrace before emerging onto more linear stretches of still dry dusty metal but now passable roads. Tony would point out these mountainous tracks from a distance as oblique scratches on the steep slopes. Gulps became largely replaced by feelings of anticipation…that is up until our ascent (which meant too an accompanying descent) of Mount Buster near Kyeburn to Buster’s Digs, some 4,500ft up. It was here the triple R road label came into being. Rough, rocky and ruttered!!! The ruts were deep and ragged, the road steep and narrow. What we didn’t need was to meet a vehicle coming the other way. Thankfully on all the mountainous routes we travelled we did not encounter such a predicament in such circumstances! This 4 wheel driving environment took Sean to the edge of his comfort zone. As he said there was no fall-back position, the edge of the road being precipitously close. On the scale of 4 wheel driving landscapes this was minor given the stories of Tony and companions in the making of the book ‘Out There South’.
Donning on wet weather gear over a warm layer of clothes I will walk the beach, breathing in deeply all it has to offer me. Maybe I will meet Yellow Eyed penguins, Blue penguins and sea lions along my way and see Hector’s dolphin frolicking in the waves.
….I have returned from a 2 hour coastal walk, mostly in the rain which was sometimes light and at other moments heavier. Wet weather clothing kept me warm and dry and sandals allowed me to walk barefoot on the beach, through the waves as these reached up the sandy shore and to boulder hop at Curio Bay. I had the beach to myself and as I followed the path through the deserted camp ground up onto the exposed headland the view of huge waves striking the blocky rocky coast below sending spray tens of metres into the air was memorising. I sat on a lone chair gazing out upon this spectacle feeling the wind and rain on my face and feet, my hands buried in my pockets.
At Curio Bay I met other wanderers exploring remnants of the Petrified Forest for which Curio Bay is internationally renowned. The midday tide was receding exposing small areas of petrified trees lying in the rocks. This area can be more extensively viewed 2 hours either side of low tide. There are a number of informative boards which speak of the history of this forest, the habitat of the Yellow Eyed penguins and the presence of the Hector’s dolphins in Porpoise Bay.
I was aware as I walked of the contrast in my response to the landscapes we have had the opportunity to travel into. The mountainous landscapes in high country regions, the Graeme Sydney landscapes of the Maniototo (in particular the Oteake Conservation Park) to the white pebbled pyramid formations that remain as a result of gold mining on Mt Buster to the lakes tucked into hidden basins, have created a depth of awe that has surpassed words. Such was the height, width and depth of the WOW that reverberated through and beyond me. I felt meniscal in these grand landscapes. A similar and yet different feeling of awe to that in the intimate embrace of the misty rain and closed in views.
I returned to our studio outwardly wet but exhilarated and refreshed to the core of my being. Sean’s movie, watched on his laptop, was finishing. I showered and changed and we are now back for a second time in 2 days in the delightful Niagara Falls Café, enjoying a late lunch.
We live in a truly magical and magnificent country……
