Thursday, December 16, 2010

Bug Calendar

The Entomological Society of America has just published its 2011 calendar in which I had three images selected this year. The scan quality is not so great, but I can assure you the actual calendar looks good. Insect photography is a keen interest of mine since student days. From left to right the bugs are: a Swamp Cicada, a Blue Dasher Dragonfly and a Scaly Bee Fly. All three were photographed in my garden in North Carolina.


Thursday, November 25, 2010

Pinocchio

Yesterday afternoon was the dress rehearsal for Carolina Ballet's presentation of the classic fairytale 'Pinocchio' choreographed by Bruce Wells of Pacific Northwest Ballet. The ballet runs at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium from 24 November - 28 November. Here's a sneak preview from the photographs I shot for Carolina Ballet.
Pinocchio (played by Margaret Severin-Hanson) takes to the air as he (she) dances with the puppets



Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Calendar Win

It's calendar season and here's the first one published with two of my images out of the thirteen in the calendar. This is the result of the calendar competion held annually in September by MyFour Thirds, the photographic community for four thirds camera users.
I shot the March image on the Mesquite Dunes in Death Valley National Park, California. I was lucky to be there on an evening with quite a dramatic threatening sky. A memorable location for sure and definitely on my list of places to revisit. The December image is a collection of skeletonized leaves collected from my garden, photographed backlit on an old slide sorting table.

If you are interested in purchasing the calendar, here's the link: http://www.cafepress.ca/myfourthirds

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Greater good

Here's one of my images used for a good cause in a magazine this month:

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Dracula

Dramatic, raunchy and sensual, Carolina Ballet is staging Lynne Taylor-Corbett's adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic struggle between good and evil, "Dracula", from October 14-31 at the Fletcher Opera Theatre in Raleigh.
Marcelo Martinez as Count Dracula and Lilyan Vigo as Lucy

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Road Trip

Well, it's been a while since I blogged last, but its been a busy summer. One of the really cool things I did was a 3,500 mile road trip across the USA from Raleigh, North Carolina to San Francisco, California.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Romeo & Juliet

I had the opportunity last night to photograph the dress rehearsal for the Carolina Ballet presentation of "Romeo & Juliet" at Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh, North Carolina. The well known Shakespeare tragedy is set to the beloved and well music of Sergei Prokofiev. Carolina Ballet's presentation choreographed by Robert Weiss is stunning with a large cast, superb costumes and Margeret Severin-Hanson and Marcelo Martinez wonderfully portray the characters of the archetypal young lovers. Performances start tonight and run through until May 9th. Enjoy these preview pictures and don't miss the real thing!
Margeret Severin-Hanson and Marcelo Martinez

Friday, April 2, 2010

La Sylphide

This week I photographed the dress rehearsal for Carolina Ballet's premiere of "La Sylphide". La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. This particular version was by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville (1805-1879). There's still a chance to see the ballet this weekend at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, Raleigh, North Carolina. The last show is on 4 April. Here's a flavour of the images I took using an Olympus E-3 SLR with a 35-100m f2 lens - superb for low light conditions.
Carolina Ballet performing "La Sylphide"

Saturday, March 13, 2010

In Search of Frankenstein

"It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open . . ."  'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley
Driving in the district of Kaiserlautern Rheinland-Palatinate region of western Germany, I happened upon the village of Frankenstein, population a little over 1000. Curious, I stopped to explore.....

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Little bit of a brag!

A tad late because whatever 2010 calendars that remain on the bookshop shelves are only the less than desirable ones and even those at a huge discount! However, in lieu of another blog topic, I would like to report to my discerning audience that I won the cover slot on the 2010 MyFourThirds calendar with my image "Floral Divide"!

MyFourThirds.com (affectionately referred to by members as MFT), is a website dedicated to the community of users of Four Thirds photographic equipment; which at this point in time encompasses Olympus and Panasonic cameras. As it's an open standard format, more camera manufacturers may (hopefully) start using the system in the future. A big advantage is that the lenses and cameras are interchangeable across the 4/3rds platform. For example you can use Panasonic lenses on Olympus bodies and vice versa. As both companies make great lenses, Zuiko by Olympus and Leica by Panasonic, the mix and match opportunities are exciting. In case you are wondering what Four Thirds (or 4/3rds) is, well,  it is arguably the most ideal digital SLR system. By pursuing the optimum relationship between image sensor size and lens mount size, the Four Thirds system successfully combines higher image quality along with compactness compared to cameras based on the traditional 35mm film size (e.g. Canon, Nikon etc). When the Four Thirds system was designed, special care was taken to avoid the historic problems of the 35mm film format and achieve the optimum balance between high picture quality and compact size, i.e. design a digital system from scratch rather than making do with what had evolved over time for the traditional film camera. The 4/3-type image sensor that resulted from this quest is where the Four Thirds system gets its name.