Alex Robinson

Colour

Alex — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:35:22 +0000

31 (Blue & Yellow Building)
June 2010

Blue Wall and Locked Gate
June 2010

Service Department – Keep Clear (at all times)
June 2010

— Instant Towaway —
June 2010

33, 34, 35, 36
June 2010

33 (Green Building)
June 2010

One of my biggest observations of digital photography is people have become scared of colour, I’m talking real bold, punchy colour that jumps off the page at you. With my current series of works I’ve had a good excuse to go wild and enjoy rich, luxurious colour. This series explores haphazardly occurring compositions in the urban landscape, something I find really fascinating. Combine this with rich primary tones and typography and the world can almost be reduced to somewhere between a graphic design layout and a Piet Mondrian painting. What’s my magic recipe for for kick arse colours digitally? Well, I do all my RAW processing in Lightroom where I use the Landscape or Vivid camera profile, then I tweak colour, white balance, curves, sharpening, NR etc. Following this is a quick trip into PTLens to correct any barrel distortions and perspective issues (well worth the money for anyone keen on photographing architecture, I’m still waiting for ACR to have lens corrections available for a Nikon 16-18mm!), after this I generally use Nik Software Color Efex Pro’s film modes to simulate my the emulsion of my choice (usually Provia, Velvia or Ektachrome 64 Pro) followed by some tweaking of tonal contrast if required.

Back from a Weekend in Dunedin

Alex — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:12:32 +0000

Moeraki Boulders – July 2010

Nothing tops a weekend away, even if it’s in freezing Dunedin. I went down to visit a mate who’s studying at Otago Uni and of course to hit the town for a big night out. It was all good fun, did the Speights Brewery tour and put some American tourists to shame when it came to sinking beers at the all-you-can-drink bar at the end of the tour. Why is it Americans are so loud but when it comes to drinking they’re soft and go straight for the light crap? I was chopping back the Porters and IPLs, Matt and I undoubtably got our money’s worth outa it.

As for the rest of the weekend, a night out in Dunedin is good times, I’d rate it higher than Christchurch, certainly less pretentious, arrogant people out and about though Dunedin’s boyracers are a great laugh, it’s like a time warp back to the car scene in Christchurch about 8 years ago. Next time however, I’m steering well clear of the Absinthe before I head out to town, not really the best way to kick off a night out!

As for photography, I didn’t have a lot of opportunity, the scenery round the Peninsula is beautiful though light conditions weren’t spectacular by the time I made it out there—too bright and contrasty really. Still there were great driving roads to give my new supercharged MR2 a good run for its money.

The photo above was taken on the way home from the Moeraki Boulders and is a combination of three exposures to produce a more dynamic splashing water effect while still keeping a fast enough shutter speed as to not render the water a milky blur.

1989 Toyota MR2 Super Charger – July 2010

This photo was taken parked somewhere round the Otago Peninsula, can’t remember exactly where really but I’m sure a local could pick it straight away. This road trip was my first proper drive of the car since buying it last month, I’ve got to say I love the extra power it has over my previous MR2, great for passing, particularly when going up hills. It’s also no worse on petrol than my old car was when on the open road which impressed me greatly—I only used 30 or so litres to drive to Dunedin. I can’t wait to drive the roads down there sometime in spring when it’s not so wet and icy. Sadly I was plagued by my usual road trip curse, this time something crapped itself, still haven’t had discovered exactly what but it wasn’t sounding great and I wound up getting a tow back from just outside of Temuka from John who was heading home from a weekend in Otematata. I’m hoping that bad things do really happen in threes because this is my third road trip disaster this year! Firstly, my 1986 Toyota MR2 was written off in Palmerston when a drunk driver rear ended and rammed me at a pedestrian crossing. Secondly, my recently purchased 1988 Honda Accord Si split a coolant hose down in Otematata and had to come home on a trailer and now my newest car is toast. So at the moment I have 4 cars sitting in various states of usability, my Honda Accord which finally works sweet after 3 separate overheating related breakdowns, my super charged Toyota MR2 with an as-yet unsolved but very unpleasant sounding noise, my old MR2 with a squashed in rear end and my TE71 Toyota Sprinter which is waiting on the engine out of the old MR2 and for me to collect a water pump, bellhousing, crossmember and radiator. That was supposed to be next on the cards but with the other car broken down and a trip to Rarotonga next month who knows?

Brick Wall & Car Park – June 2010

So It’s been a few weeks since I’ve taken any more shots for my ongoing series of works exploring the human landscape but this was one of my favourite shots from my last outing, simplicity is so often the key to this kind of photography, with so few elements but such rich texture you’re free to explore a scene in depth and really notice the details. The yellow line and the running black paint were what caught my initially from way down the other end of the alleyway and I knew I had to go in for a closer look. As I’m also interested in signs, especially ones that could be considered part of the vernacular of the urbanscape so the Private Carpark sign was a must.

Red & Blue Bricks – June 2010

This one’s another that I was really happy with, the perfect contrast between the bright blue painted bricks and the rich, red coloured bricks really stands out strongly. Combine this with a strip of unpainted concrete and the crisp line of the cabling and you get an image that’s both rich in detail and so geometric that it borders on abstraction. I’m quite looking forward to seeing a large print of this photograph.

New Fuji paper and PTLens

Alex — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:53:13 +0000

So no new photos this time, I’ll post some snaps from my west coast trip last weekend sooner or later. In the mean time I’ve had the opportunity to do some test prints on the new Fujifilm Pearl paper and I have to say I’m very impressed. This came about by chance as I was going to catch up with a friend who has just started work at a different lab and they’d only just got some of the paper in and loaded it into a magazine. At the moment they only have it in 12″ rolls and it’s a bit more expensive than standard matte/gloss but is really worth the extra dollars. Finish-wise, it’s similar to the Kodak metallic paper, maybe slightly less “metallic” though. Colours look much the same as normal gloss but certain tones really pop out and anything metallic in photographs looks amazing. I’m sure blue skies and water will look amazing too.

On another interesting note, I’ve just bought a copy of a very cool little program called PTLens which is a useful little tool for doing lens distortion and perspective corrections. It delivers a much more accurate result than Photoshop’s lens correction tool and is calibrated for each camera/lens/focal length. What’s more, it can be launched as an external editor in Lightroom thus eliminating the need to keep Photoshop open at the same time. For a very reasonable $25 USD it’s a worthy purchase for anyone requiring lens corrections.

As for other things, I’m shooting a wedding later today and have a car shoot and some calendars to do tomorrow, should be good.

And for those of you who’ve found my website though the Selwyn libraries bookmark, thanks for visiting! If you’re interested in purchasing a print they’re $150 for a 12×18″ print on glossy paper or $170 on pearl paper. I can also supply them professionally matted and framed in a black, wooden frame with a white mat for an extra $164. (All prices NZD)

Douglas the Hedgehog

Alex — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:24:33 +0000

Hedgehogs are cool critters, though most of the time you only see them when they’re a bit squished on the road. Douglas here has taken up residence in my backyard and he (or she) doesn’t seem to mind me too much so I had to snap a few photos. Yes, that’s a dead bird he’s eating! Lovely.

Guy Fawkes, Photography and a lot of beer!

Alex — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:38:29 +0000

Well I hope everyone had a mint Guy Fawkes, I know I did. This year I decided to skip the overcrowded public displays with fun-killing alcohol bans and have some fireworks fun at home. After all, what’s better than sharing a BBQ, a game of cricket, quite a few beers, a bonfire and a box of slightly aged fireworks with some friends and family? Needless to say it was a good bonfire and we could still see the Rolleston fireworks while enjoying a few cold bottles of Kingfisher.

Not the best photos, but we were drunk and it was dark!

Other than burning things I’ve been busy shooting with Paul’s Nikon 12-24 lens which has been quite entertaining. It certainly gives a different perspective on things, one that I’ve become quite fond of. I like the ability to still zoom into 24mm for shots that require a slightly tighter composition. I have a few quality reservations about the lens though, the sharpness is OK, nothing to get excited over even when shot at ƒ8. The corners never seem to sharpen up quite enough, this is of particular concern to me as I’m shooting a lot of things with flat surfaces at the moment. There’s quite a bit of barrel distortion, though it is mostly correctable in Photoshop (Please Adobe, put lens corrections in Lightroom 3!) Chromatic aberrations are also an issue but at least they’re easy enough to correct in Lightroom. The handling of the lens is very good, the zoom is nicely spaced and the whole lens is sealed so nothing moves in or out while zooming or focusing. I haven’t noticed much issue with vignetting either though I’ve mostly been shooting stopped down in daylight. I can’t comment on lens flares since I didn’t have the lens hood for it, flare was certainly an issue without it. Would I buy one? Probably not to be perfectly honest, the sharpness I don’t feel is up to what a 10+ megapixel SLR can put out, I’m sure it was more than fine back in 6 megapixel days but just doesn’t deliver the standard I expect—especially at the price. That said I am interested in taking a look at the Tokina 11-16 ƒ2.8 since it’s cheaper and supposed to be sharper. Still, I did enjoy using it, I hope I’ll get another chance this week to shoot with it.

Some more Shots with the Nikon 12-24 ƒ4

My final photographic observation for the day is how good the new Canon S90 is, it’s probably the first compact camera I’ve been genuinely impressed with in a while. In my books its much better than the G11, being pocket sized is the clincher for me. What’s the point of a camera thats too big to fit in your pocket but only delivers compact quality? That said, the S90 seemed to produce damn good results, I must say I only had about 15 minutes of shooting before the battery went flat but the shots I got in that time had wonderful, vibrant colour (I was using the positive film simulation mode) and decent dynamic range for a compact. Sharpness was good, viewed at 100% the images were some of the best I’ve seen from a compact and it produced all but flawless 6×4″ glossies (isn’t this what compacts are for after all?). I wouldn’t expect stunning poster prints from it but I would suspect a well taken shot would look crisp at 10×12″. I didn’t bother testing the ISOs, I know it’ll be sucky like all compacts, anything over 400 and you’re wasting your time for good prints—this is no different to 35mm days though, remember how crap the 800 ISO films in disposable cameras are? Handling wise, it blows the G11 and any other compact I’ve used out of the water, once I had it set up right it just flew. Exposure compensation is easy via the rear wheel, I have the programable button set up for ISO and the front ring for focal length settings; being able to flick between 28, 35, 50, 85 and 105mm is great and it even remembers your set position. The screen seemed great too, no problems in daylight for me. I’ve gotta say I’m pleased that Canon pulled out all the stops on this camera, I do think that small sensored compacts have a future because all the micro four thirds and APS-C sized compacts are just too big to fit in your jeans pocket. Maybe one day this will change but for now, there’s no better option for a serious photographers compact that actually fits in your pocket. Pity it costs so damn much!

MR2 Club Run and a new toy to play with

Alex — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:07:09 +0000

Sunday’s MR2 club run was somewhat more low key than last month’s extravaganza of craziness with six cars showing up; 3 AWs, 1 SW, 1 Spyder and 1 Porsche Cayman S. One year on from a last trip to Pegasus we took another trip out to see how the developments were progressing and surprisingly a reasonable amount has happened despite the somewhat frosty economic conditions. With many more roads laid there was much more to explore and the man-made lake is finished and almost full (quite a sight to see). There’s also a big, flash bridge across it but it wasn’t quite ready to be opened yet. Still, living there in a manufactured community really doesn’t appeal to the yokel in me, apparently you aren’t allowed a washing line…

MR2s and one Porsche at Pegasus

As for new toys to play with, well it’s not mine but I’m borrowing Paul’s 12-24mm Nikkor lens which is an interesting experience, particularly for the kind of shooting I’m doing at the moment. So far I’ve found it quite cool, I’m hoping to use it more over the next few days once I get my car warranted. Shooting ultra wide is an interesting experience, before now the widest lenses i’ve ever used are my 16-85mm Nikkor and a 45mm Pentax 67 lens. I suppose my main reason is I never felt the need to go wider until now. Sharpness wise the 12-24 is pretty good, not as sharp as the 16-85 I don’t think, though more testing is required to find out what the sharpest aperture is etc. I’d like to buy an ultra wide lens though I’m tossing up if it’s worth the coin or not, (I can always stitch a couple of shots, what I’m doing at the moment doesn’t call for speed) and if I want to invest money in glass that won’t work on full frame. This is a hard one because it’s impossible to say where the industry is heading in the next few years, I don’t want to sink a grand on a lens only to discover that Nikon doesn’t make a successor to the D300s with an APS-C sensor—there’s no way I could trade down to a D90 level camera.

Nikon 12-24 mm test shots.

So far we’ve seen Canon seems to be committed to making APS-C sensor cameras at the higher end of the market, though I’m not convinced that the 7D offers much in terms of quality over the 50D or even the 40D, the lenses supplied with the cameras certainly aren’t up to the task of dealing with 15, let alone 18 megapixels. That said, I’m yet to see the Canon 15-85, I wonder if it’s on par with my Nikkor? Probably not I would guess, I’m thinking it’ll be to my lens as the Canon 18-200 is to the Nikon 18-200—a distant second.

As for the new G11, I’ve finally had a chance to play with one and to be honest I think I’d take a G10 instead. As best as I can see there’s little tangible gain in ISO quality, maybe a stop. I would guess this could be somewhat offset by pixel binning (14.7 down to 10), shooting RAW and careful noise reduction. I much prefer the G10′s fixed 3″ screen to the new folding unit, it’s smaller and has a hard plastic cover. Unfolding and folding the screen is really just a hassle. I think the days of these tilting screens are numbered anyway, anyone whose seen the screen on the Fujifilm S200 will agree, it’s visible at literally every angle, even almost directly side on you can still see accurate colours and brightness. I’d much prefer this technology to tilting screens. As for the Canon’s tilting screen, my absolute biggest bitch is that it doesn’t fold out 180 degrees, it stops just short so it’s always on a slight angle while you’re shooting with it folded out. This seems to be a pretty stupid oversight from a company with god knows how many years making excellent cameras with these kinds of screens (maybe they forgot after they dumbed down the A series to idiot level?)

The controls are basicly the same, though it does use Canon’s new menu structure (I prefer the old one). It feels good in hand but then so did the G7, 9 and 10, it’s nice to see a continuity between models. As for an overall impression, it’s a nice camera besides the new screen but not really the upgrade people were hoping for, I guess everyone unrealisticly assumed that dropping nearly 5 megapixels would endow it with SLR-like low light performance—it doesn’t. I also think the days of cameras like the G11 are numbered, with larger sensor compacts flooding the market prices will drop, especially as theres precious little price difference between a G11 and an entry level SLR. Since it’s not big enough to really pocket then it doesn’t really appeal to me as a compact anyway, I think the S90 will be a much more interesting camera.

More views of Christchurch

Alex — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:08:37 +0000

Well another friday, another shoot. This time after having lunch with my mate Richard we decided to explore a bit round Addington, had a look round some old industrial buildings then took a stop off at the old stock yards on the way home to see some mint graf art.

A different view of Christchurch

Alex — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:16:14 +0000

Well I’ve finally got underway on my latest project after much delay. I’m continuing exploring the theme I hinted at earlier in regards to exploring the urban environment thats both close at hand and that goes largely ignored. Most of our time spent in the city is at a superficial level, only ever seeing the façades of buildings, the signage, billboards, advertising, bright neon lights—the faces we put on our environment to make it visually attractive to customers and consumers. Stripping away this superficial shell reveals the true nature of the urban landscape, worn down buildings, cracked concrete, seedy alleyways, haphazard car parks (lots of no parking signs too), graffiti, broken pipes, service entries, brothels, parking buildings and garages, flats, fire exits, rotting balconies, crazy plants and so much more. Looking down from above, it’s quite a surprise to see how many run-down old building there are hidden away in the central city, on land that I would have thought would have been prime real estate. Anyway, here’s a first taste of some of my new works. Many more will come and I hope to continue this project in other cities too.

MR2 Club Run to Waiau

Alex — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:00:15 +0000

Sunday was probably Christchurch’s biggest ever club run, with 18 cars participating at various stages of the run. We were chased by the crappy weather all day, only just managing to keep ahead of the rain until lunch time at the Waiau Hotel where we sat round and discussed the days mishaps and misadventures over pretty decent pub food and a few beverages.

As for those mishaps and misadventures we had one person busted by the highway patrol doing licence-losing speeds (he missed the oncoming car flashing to tell everyone there were cops ahead). So he wore a big fine and a month of passenger seat duty. Second mishap of the day was a breakdown which involved being towed a very long distance back to Christchurch, needless to say Gary missed the best road of the day which he broke down at the start of, the road through from the highway to Waiau is epic, I’d love to go for another drive down there when I’m a little more awake than I was on Sunday. The third, final and most dramatic mishap was when a new club member flipped his car right over and it landed back on a wheel and shattered a rim.

Great Saturday for a drive

Alex — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:31:01 +0000

Yesterday afternoon was absolutely beautiful so my mate Jeremy and I went for a drive out to Diamond Harbour, this is the first time I’ve been for a decent drive without worrying about anything on my car being about to fall apart for ages (big cheers to Jeremy’s dad for sorting that engine mount). I snapped off a few shots with my trusty and well-used Powershot. I would really love to replace this camera at some stage but god knows with what, the Canon S90 looks promising but I wonder what the price will be once it reaches our shores. Judging by what other high end Canon compacts cost, it’ll be quite expensive. Anyway, the drive was fantastic, pretty clear, dry roads and lots of sun so how can you go wrong? One thing I’ve noticed that in the last few years the Park area above Diamond Harbour’s warf has been tidied up and landscaped and looks great. We walked round the cliff track which takes you round to views of Purau and Ripapa Island (another place I haven’t been in years!)

I also want to make a trip to Quail Island again sometime soon, I remember there being cool shipwrecks there when I was a kid and I’d love to go back with my camera and get some photos. Might have to make a day trip sometime soon. In the mean time, here’s some snaps from Diamond Harbour, I actually regret not lugging along the Nikon now!