18 NZPhotographer
YOU SAID YOU’VE ‘MOVED THROUGH
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY’ – WHAT MADE
YOU MOVE ON?
I spent the longest time shooting landscape
photography and there have been some good
times. I enjoyed capturing long exposures of
moving water (as you’ll remember from issue 5)
from beaches to rivers and waterfalls, there is plenty
of moving water with interesting rock formations
around New Zealand and I have photos from all
over the North Island, Tongariro National Park being
one of my favourite places to shoot.
However, when I was asked to shoot headshots
for The Fashion Creative, I had my first glimpse of
what it’s like to shoot people, people who WANT
their photo taken. The quality of photo’s produced
by TFC is very high; it’s a great place to learn and
great people to learn from. At that point, I decided
that landscapes look better with people in them
and landscapes with people in them are called...
portraits;)WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR BIGGEST LEARNING
CURVES IN PHOTOGRAPHY?
Technically there were a couple of eureka
moments for me early on after changing from a
cell phone to a DSLR (realising that the f-stop scale
for aperture went down where the others go upand learning that the peg at the bottom of the
viewfinder was a light meter)!
Photographically, I haven’t stopped learning
and I doubt I ever will. Each type of photography
I’ve tried has had its challenges; for abandoned
buildings it was finding places, finding entry to those
places, trying to get a usable photo from what was
usually a pretty dark place (no power = no lights)
while trying not to get caught and evicted.
For landscapes my problem was trying to capture
the whole dynamic range, maintaining both the
highlights and the shadows – Especially when the
exposure is measured in minutes. This was probably
the most expensive learning curve for me as it
added several expensive filters and a panorama
head to my kit.
As for portraiture, I now own a couple of small
studio lights and am learning how to use them.
Trying to shape the light to get the look that
I want... let’s say I’ve a ways to go yet!
I spend time trolling the internet learning about
photography; Youtube, Phlearn, anything that
has information about whatever subject I am
researching. I have a sister who has been a
photographer for almost 30 years, she is also
a valuable source of information and critique.
I cannot count the number of occasions when
I have been... reminded... of how little I know
about the subject but still, I keep trying.TONGARIRO CROSSING
F2.8, 1/1000s, ISO