Taking only photographs – leaving only footprints
Living in a city there is often events on (most weekends during the summer). The Performance Arcade is an annual live art festival on the water front. This was taken back in February at the 2014 event. There were over a dozen different performances, from miming, light shows, video projects and live bands. It’s well worth checking out if you are in the city at next year in February time.
Arriving in the seaside city of Napier on a Sunday afternoon, I wasn’t surprised to find a concert in progress. Walking along the Marine Parade to the sound a rock music in the distance. After a few minutes this was the scene that greeted me. It was a free concert in the Sound Shell just next to the beach. This stage was built in 1931 after an earthquake levelled the city. As with much of the architecture of that time, it is in a contemporary Art Deco style.
Perched on the edge of the helicopter above is Swiss born Yves Rossy and his million dollar jet-powered wing. Known as the jet man, at 10,000 feet he let go of the chopper and flew around for about ten minutes at speeds of over 200 mph.
It has been a few years since my last airshow. The New Zealand International Air Show promised to be something new, both for me and for the country. They used helicopters with cameras to film the aircraft and sky divers and huge screens next to the runway to give us a birds eye view. The mix here was about 50% skydiving and 50% aircraft. Not surprising given the countries near obsession with extreme sports.
Capturing motocross riders on camera is tricky, because you want them perfectly sharp but also need to try to convey movement (this is true for all motor sport photography). Here at the Extreme Enduro motocross event it was my first try at a decent two wheeled motor sport event and I learnt a lot. This riders eyes are perfectly sharp, but due to the high shutter speed it almost looks as though he is stood still. The shadow over his eyes nearly completely obscures the fact he is looking directly into my camera. Maybe next time I need to experiment more with flash and a circular polarising filter.