This last weekend I was lucky enough to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival at the Zen Garden in Whitford.
The festival is timed to align with the cherry blossom but weather plays a big part in deciding when the blossoms will appear. Even after a weeks postponement the trees did not deliver their best.
But this did not diminish the enjoyment of the day. The festival includes demonstrations of various arts including drums, archery and sword play. And combined with a collection of food stalls offering a range of food and drink we could not help but have a great day.

See more of my images from the day in the following slideshow.

Click for Slideshow

Another image the the Forest series. Drew tries out the new Phase One IQ260 Camera system.

Read the story on Drew’s Blog.

Eight major reasons to choose Capture One as your RAW converter.

Written by David Grover and posted on the Image Quality Professors bog.

Check it Out

Some very useful tips here for users of any camera system.

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

See Biancas images

Mike Hollman – Travel Photographer of the year 2013

http://mikehollman.com/

“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

http://photonz.com/

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.

Call Sean for an appointment.

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.

As with most of our significant trips the days leading up to departure are frantic. The pace increasing exponentially until we drive out the gate.
Then, Sue relaxes, and then so can I.

Once we are a couple of kilometers from home the trip can really begin and Sue starts to get excited. Except in this case it does not properly start until we arrived in Blenheim but she is full of smiles before Pokeno.

So to start we take a day to drive to Wellington. Stopping at the usual spots that Sue wont give up, the Church Shop and Café in Cambridge and Replete in Taupo.
We drive through Waikanae about six and stop at a Wood Fired Pizza shop which turns out to be lovely. A very nice women owner/operator who talks about all sorts of things with Sue and has a splendid selection of Pizza combinations.
I grab a couple of Cheesecake slices to take to Jo and Debs and the owner throws in an extra for us to try. These go down really well with some Whiskey at Jo and Debs when we arrive.

We have a day free in Wellington so Sue wants to go to Te Papa. I head off early and meet a client and then pick Sue up Sue Unity Books. At this stage she is still working on the assumption that we have very little spare space in the Land Rover so thankfully does not buy very much.
Truth is we don’t have much space. There are two of us in a Discovery 3 and we have the luggage pod on the roof, which is full. Never have so few travelled with so much!

We do need to save some space for the extra passenger we collect in Blenheim, and it is fair to say that we have most of the back seats free and the luggage cover over the back so the goods are hidden. But still, how did I ever travel on a motor cycle with a back pack!.

Our ferry departs at 8 am so we arrive to check in a 7. This is quite early but the traffic at this time is light and we depart into a wonderful sunrise. Another glorious day in Wellington. I don’t know why people say the weather is bad here?
We arrive into Picton just before lunch. There are a handful of clouds in the sky and a hundred push bikes on the ferry. There is a 100km ride in Blenheim and everyone is coming over for it. I hope the weekend stays like this for them, and for us.

So now we have collected Anna and Jill and soon I will head of to the airport to collect Richard and our group will be all together. Tony Brdige meets us at the hotel and we met up with Don Kelly for some lunch and a quick catch up. Sadly Sally is away and he is busy tonight so they could not met us for dinner. But we six will be together looking forward to the trip and there will be lots of excited chatter I am sure. We are leaving at a gentlemanly 8 am so we can even stay up a little late!