Shutter.Stutter

Inspirations for the trip, I’ll be carrying both with me :).

Photo by Alessandra Sanguinetti. Made my heart ache first time I saw it.

The previous post was via the wordpress app on my iPhone, so now I know it works, yippee!

Now for a little rant. I was in major crisis mode last night when I loaded a fresh roll into my Mamiya (which had been sitting neatly in my cabinet, untouched, for about six months now) and found that the shutter wasn’t releasing and that auto-focus wasn’t going. Yikes!

After about an hour of sweaty, exasperatingly useless fumbling and lots of googling, I finally got it checked out by a local camera guy who confirmed that a little dooby inside was broken (hence the funny whirring noises and error messages), and that it would take 4-5 weeks for a replacement part to arrive from Japan.

I think I heard my heart crack a little then. I’ve been so excited about shooting medium format for this trip, even laying down the dosh for 75 rolls of Provia 400X. I had envisioned the entire trip framed in 645, a beautiful ratio, and now I have to start thinking in 35mm, which is longer than I prefer.

So I’ll now be taking my Canon digital setup, at least it’ll be easier workflow-wise….

…cry…

…and what am I going to do with 75 rolls of Provia 400X?!

I’m heading off to Argentina and Antarctica tomorrow, and thinking this is as good a time to revive my blog as any.

Armed with my handy-dandy iPhone, the idea is to write short posts and upload phone snaps. They won’t be works of art, mainly just for the benefit of family and friends. I’ll be posting up ‘proper’ shots when I return

I’m a proud Sydney Westy, and it’s events like the Haldon St Festival in Lakemba and makes me love my area even more.

The one-day event is a spectacle of food, amusement, music and dance performances. It draws a neat crowd, which means lots on interesting subjects for me!

“Asian Geographic is looking for special photographs from both talented amateur and professional photographers from any country in the world that capture a striking image of Asia’s land, people, architecture or wildlife.

Prizes worth a total of over S$20,000 will be awarded to one winner and one runner-up from each category, plus a grand prize for the best overall picture entered.

The top photographs will be exhibited as part of an ‘Asia Without Borders’ Photography Exhibition in Singapore and published in the December Photo Annual Edition of ASIAN Geographic Magazine.”

“Lens Culture International Exposure Awards discover, recognize, reward, and promote talented, new, emerging and established photographers from around the world.

We’re looking for exciting images from every continent, and from diverse points of view: documentary, fine art, photojournalism, street photography, poetic, personal, abstract and human.”

“The focus of our year’s fundraising program is to raise funds for our homeless shelter in Surry Hills, Edward Eagar Lodge, homeless is one of the topics. Is it someone who doesn’t have shelter or is it someone with an inadequate experience of connectedness with family and or community’?

The other topic is the Our Community; submit an image, which depicts any aspect of community life in the City of Sydney.”

Sounds simple enough, and it’s for a good cause.

I have a lot of admiration for press photograpers. It takes a lot of skill to capture a communicative and visually engaging image under challenging conditions and tight deadlines. I don’t have anything to submit, but hey, you guys might :).

The 2009 News Photo of the Year is now open, and deadline is September 14th. Last’s years highly commended entries can be viewed here.

Shiho Fukada is last year’s overall winner, with his photo essay on China’s Sichuan earthquake.

And these are my favourites of the rest.

Todd Adams

Todd Adams

Mohammed Abed

Ross Taylor

Jonah M. Kessel

Amelia Phillips

Mary F. Calvert

Mary F. Calvert

“Be the official Groupie photographer and take photos like never before.

Olympus and Groupie are giving you the chance to win a job as the Groupie photographer for a month, trialing the brand new Olympus PEN Camera.

You’ll get two tickets to shoot for Groupie at up to eight gigs, including acts such as Art vs Science, The Cassette Kids, Children Collide, Yves Klein Blue and Wolfmother!

We’ll also give you a one-on-one session with professional photographer Chris Samuel, to give you some hints and tips on how to take the perfect gig photograph.

With your Olympus PEN Camera and your Official Groupie Photographer pass, you’ll be able to get amongst it and take photos like you’ve never taken before.”

Sounds pretty good hey? The only catch is that you would have to use the pen camera. I think I would be pretty frustrated at these gigs with an AAA pass in one hand and a teeny camera in the other.

Oh the upside, I read a few reviews on the Olympus Pen and it’s not as point-and-shoot as I thought. It certainly looks good.

Quick specs:
Model: Olympus EP-1
12.3MP Live MOS Sensor
Built-in Image Stabilisation
3in LCD
Micro Four Thirds Mount
100-6400 ISO
1/4000-2sec shutter
HD Video 720p
Lenses: Pancake 2.8 17mm (or standard 35mm) and 3.5-4.5 14-42mm (roughly 28-80mm)

Here’s a more detailed review.

Wow, I didn’t know Sydney has one of these. It seems pretty underground, even though UTS is holding it, so we should all go along and support!

Date: Saturyday 5th and 6th September
Time: 11am till late
Tickets from Moshtix