Thursday, April 24, 2014

Memorial


This War memorial is in Milton, a small town in southern Otago. Virtually all towns in New Zealand have a War Memorial, originally erected after the Great War of 1914-1918. These memorials commemorate the many young men from the local districts that were killed in conflict. This photo was part of series shot on 8" x 10" film and contacted printed way back in the early 1980's

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Fungi

This cluster of fungi was part of a larger colony all growing on what remained of some long gone tree stumps. I think they are called 'Laughing Jim' (Gymnopilus junonius)



Tuesday, April 15, 2014

B&W

Every so often I get sick of colour pics. Now is one of those every so oftens.  I stumbled across a book at the library about  the great American photographer Edward Weston. When I was a youth I was introduced to his snaps by Murray Hedwig, our photography tutor at Christchurch Technical Institute.
Along with my dear dear friend Kevin Capon we were instantly smitten by his pics, the subject matter, the sharpness, tonality and all round exquisiteness. For many many years I was heavily influenced by Edward Weston. I was shooting a lot of large format B&W and printing on what I consider the best photographic paper ever created, Agfa Portriga 111(it was discontinued about a year after I discovered it) and doing the whole archival processing thing.
It's been interesting re-reading about Edward again after such a break from him. I can now see his pics from a different stage of life perspective.
I'm hankering to get back home after nine weeks trapped in a motel waiting for earthquake repairs to be completed and get into the darkroom and dabble.