Next month two award-winning New Zealand photographers will hold a talk on creative photography and video production in Palmerston North.

Richard Wood and Jeff Drabble will speak at the Palmerston North Library on February 23 on the subjects of letting your ‘creative photography side out’ and ‘what it takes to produce professional videos’.

Wood was named the New Zealand Professional Photographer of the Year in 2011 for his evocative creative portraits; Drabble is an award-winning photographer, sculptor and videographer and has worked in the Australian film industry.

The event will begin at 5.30 pm on the Thursday, admission costs $20 for members of the New Zealand Institute of professional Photography and $45 for non-members.

Seats are limited so contact Sarah Dong on 06 357 8757 or by email to register your interest.

Be sure to keep track of this and other upcoming photography events using our online calendar.

A new group exhibition at Victoria University’s art gallery presents four different photographers’ unique takes on documentary photography as part of the country’s international art celebration.

The Adam Art Gallery in Wellington will present works from Fiona Amundsen, John Lake, Simon Starling and Kohei Yoshiyuki as part of the Camera Work exhibition running from January 24 to April 15.

Comprising four separate solo projects as part of New Zealand International Arts Festival 2012, Camera Talk collectively examines the documentary photography genre from four distinct perspectives, the organiser says.

“Recording people and places, these artists’ projects model strikingly different documentary approaches, offering viewers a provocative opportunity to ask what it means when a camera is used to capture a subject, both in the moment and for posterity.”

Amundsen’s The First City in History project refers to Hiroshima as the first city to be subjected to nuclear warfare and explores the ‘subjective experiences of being in historically and culturally loaded public sites’.

The Campus project by Wellington photographer Lake is commissioned Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection and is based around the Wellington campus.

UK conceptional artist Starling’s new work Autoxylopyrocycloboros, a multimedia display, ...full story

A pioneering multinational photography company has announced it will file for bankruptcy protection in America but the organisation’s local wing will remain unaffected.

Despite Eastman Kodak Company announcing it would file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week Kodak New Zealand has issued a statement assuring local customers not to worry.

“We wanted to assure you that New Zealand is not affected by this announcement and it is business as usual here,” the company says.

“We’ll continue to serve and meet the needs of all our customers and suppliers in New Zealand.”

Under chapter 11, which only affects subsidiaries in the US, the business is permitted to continue operating while restructuring in order to become sustainable.

In order to survive through the bankruptcy Kodak has announced it will be selling of significant assets including its digital photography divisions and some of its more than 1000 digital patents.

Shrinking down to a more efficient size the company has stated plans to focus on digital printers and ink as well as continuing its profitable film division for both still photography and cinema.

“Kodak aims to build company that will be successful in the marketplace – and a positive force ...full story

With he holiday haze slowly wearing off it’s becoming clear how much catching up there is to be done – here’s a run down on all the new compact cameras announced over the break.

Canon

Bolstering its slim-line Ixus range Canon introduced the new 500 HS and 125 HS compact cameras at January’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The 500 HS features a 12x optical zoom, 10.1-megapixel High Sensitivity CMOS sensor, DiG!C 5 image processor and the ability to shoot Full HD video.

The 125 HS boasts a 5x optical zoom, 16.1-megapizel High Sensitivity CMOS sensor and the same processor and Full HD capacity.

The two cameras a some of the slimmest in their class, with the 500 HS coming in at 19.2mm thick and the 125 HS at 20mm.

The company has not released local pricing details yet but expects the pair to be available late March.

Olympus

Olympus used the same trade show to reveal five new compacts across various series.

The 14-megapixel VG-170 claims to have the best flash of any current compact camera, able to illuminate subjects up to 15 metres away.

The VR-340 is a ...full story

A New York photographer who specialises in photographing the invisible ultraviolet (UV) light spectrum is visiting New Zealand to capture the country’s unique ozone situation.

Diane Tuft shoots landscapes with a specially designed quartz lens that allows UV light rays to pass through to the camera’s sensor, which results in images awash with vivid blues and oranges and pinks representing light unseen by the human eye.

The photographer has come to shoot in New Zealand because of the country’s proximity to a hole in the ozone layer, creating higher UV levels.

Tuft hopes that her images will help further the dialogue about global warming’s affects on the amount of damaging UV light entering the atmosphere.

The following is an interview the photographer did on Kiwi FM with Glenn ‘Wammo’ Williams earlier this week.

If you are interested in techniques for photographing the invisible light spectrums be sure to pick up D-Photo issue 47 for an interview with infrared photographer Helmut Hirler.

Image: © Diane Tuft, Red Sea, from the portfolio Salt Lake Reconsidered