Muriwai Evening

November 02, 2015 in Landscape

A quiet Sunday, a need to get out of the house, and a long time since I last went to Muriwai lead to a quick trip to check out the sunset. It started out promisingly, but a band of clouds killed off any real sunset opportunities. So I just ambled around the rocks at the base of the Gannet colony, checking out some of the interesting textures and the few people still out fishing. Quick post for a quick shoot, because I'll forget about it if I don't do it now..

Robbie and Iaido - the art of the Samurai Sword

July 08, 2015 in Portrait

Last sunday was spent back down at Muriwai beach, one of my regular and favourite outdoor locations. But rather than shooting landscapes, nature or people on horses, it was Robbie and his Samurai Sword! Sven and I requested he come out for an afternoon and show us some moves - Sven to test a new Fuji lens (review and pics here) and me, well, for something new and interesting to shoot! Robbie is a keen martial artist and motorbike rider, quite the Kill Bill character.

I've been interested in swordsmanship for a long time, but never a practitioner, so it was really interesting to hear a bit about it, and the art of Iaido/Iaijutsu in particular. I don't know enough to critique Robbie's technique, but he looked very fluid and confident to me, and was a great portrait subject. These are some of my favourite and I think most interesting portrait photographs to date.

Muriwai was a good location yet again, although my favourite shots on top of the sand dunes were very exposed to the strong wind, which resulted in sand going everywhere through our camera gear, hair, clothes and eyes, hence most of Robbie's poses facing to the right and away from the wind! I think the wind made for great shots though, with his Hakama blowing around and sand clouds rolling through.

Thanks again to Robbie for his enthusiastic help on a cold, windy, and very sandy day!

Muriwai Surf at Dusk

April 08, 2014 in Landscape

Just a quick image post today because I was editing some photos and found this one I really liked from a few weeks ago! I've got a long backlog of photos to post or blave about here but lacking motivation. I never even finished the photos from my last Europe trip as it got overtaken by xmas! I'll get around to it next time there's a lull in photographic activity..

Anyway, this is a quick dusk shot of Muriwai Beach, surfers still in the water before it gets dark.

Hayley and Maddie - Equestrian Photography

February 12, 2014 in Equestrian, Portrait

First things first, in case nobody reads below the first paragraph, I'm starting a new Equestrian Photography website at www.ndequestrian.com so please check it out for all of your horse photography needs. I'm focussing both on equestrian events (dressage, show jumping and cross country) and portraits of people and their horses - either alone, together, riding, playing, competing or any combination thereof. Or you know, if you don't even have a horse, I'm still into 'person' portrait photography as well! For now I'm building my portfolio, leaning on friends and friends-of-friends to organise photo shoots and attending local events. This set is of my friend Hayley and her horse Maddie, shot at Muriwai Beach on the west coast of Auckland.

I've previously made most of my 'good' photos while travelling, and then had trouble later finding things to shoot or entertain myself at home. My business travel has slowed down a lot lately, so I've been trying to get proactive in finding Auckland subjects instead. Since Abby has started riding and competing again this season I'm likely to attend a lot of equestrian events as a spectator anyway - which seems like a good opportunity to keep myself busy and find a new and interesting subject to shoot. Of course I'm hoping to bring some of my personal style and aesthetics to this subject, but also give people what they want or expect from equestrian photos.

I'm enjoying getting into Equestrian photography, but it has the side effect that I must also learn more about horses, which is not as easy as you might expect. I can walk around a horse and photograph it in a nice light and angle like any other subject, but their behaviour and posing is new to me, and not entirely logical! Luckily I have plenty of people to educate me in this, and help with manoeuvring and posing the horses as we walk around. Mostly I concentrate on the view through the camera and try and avoid getting kicked in the head. The main problem so far has been that horses tend to do their own thing and look at whatever interests them - it was quite hard to get Maddie to point her head in any particular direction, or even stand still in one spot, let alone look at the camera on command! Next time I might have to bring some carrots.

Hayley and Maddie were great to photograph, and both of them were very patient while I tried out different angles, locations and poses. The thing I found most challenging actually was choosing afterwards in which photos Maddie looked prettiest! I hope I can make a competent portrait of a person already, but I can't yet interpret what different horse expressions mean, or which poses people will like better than others. So far, I can tell that 'ears forward' is good and that's about it it. Certainly not all of the shots I took were keepers, but overall I think it turned out pretty well and I had a good selection to give to Hayley. Definitely looking forward to trying again soon and improving my craft.

Muriwai Sunset

September 02, 2013

On Saturday I went for a short roadtrip with Sven and Anupam to do some location scouting for our next photoshoot. I've spent a bit of time recently exploring parts of Woodhill Forest near Muriwai Beach, and have found some areas which I thought looked really interesting for a shoot, and happily the other two agreed. Now to start planing a theme/look and organise some models!

River at the edge of Woodhill Forest and a dodgy looking wooden platform

After exploring in the woods for an hour or two we made a quick decision to drive down the road to the southern end of Muriwai adjacent to Maori Bay to photograph the sunset before it was too late.

Looking down Muriwai Beach as the sun was setting

We were in a bit of a rush to check out the area and find our shot before it got too dark, luckily I had my new tripod with me and had a good chance to test out it's solidity for a long exposure shot. I think it worked pretty well, even if the Gannets in the colonies wouldn't sit still for a whole 30 seconds..

Muriwai Evening

Robbie and Iaido - the art of the Samurai Sword

Muriwai Surf at Dusk

Hayley and Maddie - Equestrian Photography

Muriwai Sunset

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