LBJ Photography

29/04/2024

Blog updated..hop on over for review of Taupo 400, Supercards.

My blog for sharing my thoughts,development, tips and tricks all relating to the world of photography.

31/03/2024

It often pays to go over some of your old photos and for some reason I find this one actually cool. Maybe it's the colours?
What attracts you (if at all it does ;)

21/03/2024

Waikato Balloon Festival'

Lots happening down in the Waikato with the last few days taken up with the annual Balloon festival. This has worked out really great as I only work 10 minutes down the road so win win.

The event is on till Saturday with all 21 balloons generally getting airborne around 7:15 am in the morning.

Today I changed my position to be slightly closer and attempt to get under the flight paths.

I took both cameras so as not to spend to much time swapping lenses so packed 17-28mm on R7 and 28 - 300mm on my old 7DMarkII.

Shots varied from exposure times between 1/60 to 1/200 at ISO400. focal lengths 28mm - 200mm.

Day 3 tomorrow might choose another position.

17/03/2024

National Jetski Sprints at Lake Karapiro.
2 Good days of action including a great bunch of youngsters taking the sport to a new level.
Happy to report weather conditions not bad, with the odd cloud arriving on day 2.
The only moisture coming my way was from the jetskis.

Mixed gear used.
Base camera Canon R7 with the lens config moving between Tamron 160 - 600mm and Canon 28-300mm.
All images shot around 1/2000 @ 800 ISO, with average length at 220mm.

Enjoy

11/02/2023

Feb 2023 Presents the New Zealand Jet-boat Nationals featuring the Hydroplanes.
Event taking place at Lake Karapiro home of our Olympic rowing champions here in the Waikato.

But today it's all about speed.

Conditions overcast with a rather irritating glare off the water. However everything else was in order and plenty of good positions to capture these speed demons of the water ways.

Most shots set to auto WB due to varying conditions with my shooting speed averaging 1/400 at ISO 800.
Focal length varied between my occupying positions with most comfortable around the 200mm mark.

Round two tomorrow, will see what the weather forecast is before heading out.

Enjoy today's action shots including a few in and around the mechanical pits.
Keep an I out for my favorite photo I call it "Hung out to dry"

13/11/2022

Say hello to "Petuna" Love this old car, It was apparently found in Finland a few years ago and she weighs just short of 3 tonnes!!. The owner informed me that the negotiation process had it's challenges "I did not understand finnish and the owner did not understand English...but luckily money talks"...the rest they say is history

The car went on a world tour through 9 different stops before arriving at it's new home here in New Zealand.
The old girl certainly didn't look out of place among-st more modern counterparts.
I think It's great to see such classics survive.

13/11/2022

Well it has certainly been a while on the photography front but as summer slowly works it way towards us in NZ, the photo opportunities start to appear on the horizon.
Today I was fortunate enough to join the Corvette club and attend USA Day at the classic fighter museum in Tauranga.
Here are just a few shots where I decided to follow the theme "B/W" and "Reflections" theme.

Perhaps the only exception being the photo of the Ford Thunderbird. This holds a special memory for me because my late Uncle used to own one of these and as a small child I can still remember driving around Massachusetts in it.

Roll on summer!!!, so watch this space a lot of exciting photos to come.

28/04/2022

With COVID putting a dent into many shows, conferences and events over the past 18 months it was great to be able to get back into some event photography.

And what a way to kick start the year.

Lake Karapiro in the mighty Waikato region of NZ, hosted the ultimate race as 2 of New Zealand's best female Kayakers raced each other for the right to represent NZ at the World Champs in Canada later this year (https://canoe22.com/)

Lisa Carrington and Aimee Fisher went head to head across 3 races, with only millimetres to separate them both, Lisa got the edge in race 3 and took the honours with a 2 - 1 victory.

The key thing for me during the build up was the professionalism both of these athletes showed. Lisa is very composed focused and fully deserves the title as GOAT (Greatest Olympic Athlete of a time).

I thank all those that organised the event in providing some of us the opportunity to get up close and personal and unopposed, what a great event.

Now for those that like the technical stuff here is a summary of the shooting conditions and settings

Conditions sunny with early morning sun low and straight across the lake. I did not require a polarizer as my positioning meant that I had the sun to my left for most of the shots.
My lens was the Tamron SP 150 -600mm with most shots in and around the 400mm mark. For the longer shots I used my sports tripod then decoupled once they got closer.

ISO I fixed at 400 due to good light and used aperture priority with average shooting speeds in and around 1/1000.
My FSTOP sat nicely at 7.1 although for the close ups I did drop to 4.1.

Enjoy the images...and Go Lisa Carrington!!!!

15/04/2022

28/11/2021

Storm a comin!!, not a recent photo but one that caught my eye as I spent time reviewing some old past projects.
Always good to take time to reflect, It provides you with a good indication of where you are at and where you have been.

What will success look like for you tomorrow?