This year’s Nikon D-Photo Amateur Photographer of the Year competition is out biggest to date, not only do we have more categories than ever before but, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we are also offering our largest prize pool to date – totalling over $13,000.

With much gratitude to Lowepro we today unveil fantastic prizes up for grabs in this year’s Creative category:

First place: Lowepro Rove Pro AW 35-litre backpack, worth $469.

If you’re a novice photographer struggling with dark or grainy shots then next month is your chance to conquer exposure in a one-day workshop with an experienced commercial photographer in Auckland.

Paul Petch, professional photographer, art director and producer (who happens to be featured in D-Photo 54, on sale today), is holding a workshop on how to best use natural light with manual exposure.

The event will be suitable for both Canon and Nikon users and cover the fundamentals of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, using light, tips and tricks and plenty of hands-on practise and discussion.

The workshop will be held at BizDojo on 155 Karangahape Road on Saturday, June 29 from 11am to 3.30pm.

Petch has created portraits and documented events for a big range of athletes and top brands as well as shooting editorial images for an assortment of popular publications – what’s more he’s an exceptionally friendly, helpful person to deal with and will make an excellent teacher.

Head to www.paulpetch.co.nz to register your interest for the workshop – the cost is $99 per person, half of which must be paid as a deposit to book your place.

Attendees are ...full story

This year’s Nikon D-Photo Amateur Photographer of the Year competition is out biggest to date, not only do we have more categories than ever before but, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we are also offering our largest prize pool to date – totalling over $13,000.

With much gratitude to Manfrotto we today unveil fantastic prizes up for grabs in this year’s Landscape category:

First place: Manfrotto190CX3 basic carbon fibre three-section tripod and Manfrotto 054 mag ball head Q2 quick release plate, worth $899.

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D-Photo‘s Point-Shoot blog looks at interesting photographers doing interesting things – Mareea Vegas talks to us as one of four contemporary artists behind the upcoming Auckland Festival of Photography exhibition SOURCE.

D-Photo: Can you briefly describe the SOURCE exhibition?

Mareea Vegas: SOURCE is a collective exhibition comprising four photographers; Leon Rose, Ian McRae, Laura Forest and myself. It will be a contemporary show of analogue and digital fine art photography, exploring complimentary themes around light, landscape and perspective.

Leon Rose

D-Photo‘s Point-Shoot blog looks at interesting photographers doing interesting things – large format fine art photographer Jonathan Bourla talks with us about his upcoming Auckland Festival of Photography exhibition, A Glimpse (inspired by Ansel), which pays tribute to one of the photographic greats.

D-Photo: Can you briefly describe your exhibition?

Jonathan Bourla: A Glimpse (inspired by Ansel) is an exhibition of my fine art, black & white, landscape and still life photography.  There are examples from two collections (Auckland’s West Coast, and Water) together with some individual photographs.

In what way does Ansel Adams inspire you, and how does it show in your work?

Years ago my wife Julie kindly gave me a book of Ansel Adams’ photographs, and I found the photos inspirational.  The images were very powerful, with a wonderful range of grey tones, and detail throughout, from shadows to highlights.  My methods and style are based on some of Adams’ techniques (Zone System, use of a view camera, etc.) and with some later tuition from American photographer Howard Bond, himself a student of Adams.  To quote Bond, “I want the viewer of my print to have the impression that the subject was bathed in light which allows detail ...full story

Tamron’s 18–270mm Di II lens has been designed for photographers entering the DSLR market after shooting with compact cameras with 10–15x zoom lenses, or for travel photographers looking for an all-in-one lens to avoid swapping lenses on their trip. So this lens falls into the ‘super-zoom’ category and — though it is handy to not to carry around more than one lens — by trying to cover such a wide focal range there are some compromises all of these lenses make due to the physics of optics.

The lens itself is nice and light, which is good for a traveller, but with the body made up of mostly plastic and some metal it won’t stand up to a lot of abuse. When the lens is attached to a mid-sized DSLR it feels balanced, but when attached to some of the smaller models it gets top heavy. Also, when walking around with it over your shoulder it tends to suffer from lens creep, where the weight of the lens causes it to extend out on its own. There is a zoom lock on the lens to prevent this from happening but that does not ...full story