The Marks of Man

When British artist George Butler recently crossed the border from Turkey into Syria, he was greeted in the town of Azaz by abandoned tanks and piles of rubble from war-damaged buildings. But normal life was continuing amid the chaos, and George - under the protection of the Free Syrian Army - started to sketch and paint watercolours of the scenes he observed.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19468300

Another minute added from the banks

Point and shoot cameras have all sort of gizmos that i don't really play with as I usually shoot raw. My new Sony has a lot of these, i use the panorama all the time. I can remember having to us algorithms to make panos before the advent of Photoshop, so an auto pano mode is great even though it is only in JPEG. another is outline, that makes fun drawings out of your images. I don't know how it got on this setting, but I discovered them when I got home tonight, it only took a few as I set it to raw to take some pictures. 

I got a photo in the news today first time for a few years. I was on my way to make more timelapse for the current project. The Press is very good at crediting photographers and looking after their staff photographers. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/7647502/Truck-crashes-in-Gebbies-Pass-Rd

Out in November, to see some of the images got to the projects page on my site http://www.johnmaillard.com/communityHalls.html for more info on the book go to Canterbury University press http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/saturday_night.shtml

The next attempt to make the background  images and time-lapse for a Roy Montgomery performance in October.

From the BJP the use of social media photography in Photojournalisum http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/report/2202300/the-new-economics-of-photojournalism-the-rise-of-instagram

My tutor from Surrey the famous now and not then Martin Parr,  showed us his wet weather images, which I dont think he turned into a book.  Those were hard days, our head of Photography committed suicide, we were at  sea with no sight of land. Photography and creativity held us together.   

 I made this print tonight, felt like I had got my 5x4 out. The Image was made with a point and shoot. with some dodging and burning. The point and shoot is 20 mega-pixels and gives me raw files, my latest purchase from Sony an RX100. I had to be very careful with the exposure as it is very hard to get a sharp capture. I am a bit worried about diffraction after f8. Very small dials with cold fingers, felt a bit silly with a tiny camera on a big tripod.  A very wet day, near the summit road After that I made this Time lapse two hours in the cold, I put my coat on the camera to keep it dry. Four thousand exposures later and a print based action in Photoshop batch processed. I want a still image with a hint of time and a video with a hint of stillness.

 Rapaki Testing a new idea for a project. Running a bit fast at the moment at 30 frames, so I could knock the time back a bit.

Inside The 2012 Opening Ceremony Photographer David Bergman created this Gigapan during the 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Park in London, UK.  He made the composite photo by shooting 425 individual photos in a grid pattern (25 across by 17 down) during a one-hour time period as the athletes entered the stadium. The final high-resolution image is 81,992 X 37,520 -- more than three billion pixels. Zoom into the image by double clicking or using the controls at left. Click and drag to pan around the frame. Connect with Facebook using the login button at the lower left of the picture. To share a snapshot, zoom into the area you want to photograph and click the camera button. To tag yourself or a friend, drag and drop the large red tag over their picture. http://www.nbcolympics.com/gigapans/opening-ceremony.html

 Port Hills at Dusk after the snow

Why oh why is Ross Becker photographing on his own this major documentary project, when clearly he is an amateur. I can only assume some form of dealing has gone on here. Why are we not using the likes of Doc Ross or some of the press photographers? This is a major event in the history of NZ and he is making pictures like this: https://picasaweb.google.com/RossBeckerNZ I am not against this man, I just think a nationally recognized photographer should have been given this monumental and historic task. When Is New Zealand going to wake up and realise that photography is not a hobby. After 911 TIME photographer James Nachtwey photographed the aftermath along with Joel Meyerowitz. National icons of photography. We get Ross Becker...who?

Photographing a new well