Titirangi Music Festival Opens

The official opening of the Titirangi Music Festival took place today at 3pm in the Arataki Visitor's Centre close to Titirangi.  The One Voice Choir sang a range of songs from around the world which was a real treat.  It was quite a compact room, but they still managed to fit in a few folk to enjoy the music, cakes and beverages.  It was a wonderful afternoon and suggests that the Festival proper is something not to be missed.  A few more shots from the opening ceremony are here.

Besides the One Voice Choir performance there was also Arli Liberman playing guitar at the start and end of the opening ceremony. Very talented young man who will be playing again next Saturday in Titirangi town centre.  Well worth popping along to see him ... you won't be disappointed.  Check here for more event details :-)

I'll close this brief post with a couple of shots of Arli ... just so you can recognise him when you're looking for him next Saturday ;-)

Arli Liberman

Arli Liberman

Stage of Origin 2011

Erakah at the Stage of Origin Concert

All proceeds in aid of the Christchurch Earthquake victims.  If you haven't already donated ... or want to donate again, check out the NZ Redcross and make your donations there.

It was a good night.  Quite different for me as I normally have free access to wander around the venue and take shots ... this time I remained seated and shot using my 18-200mm lens (I really must get something faster!).  The light was pretty good, but I was shooting at ISO2500 most of the time so there a bit of noise in the images.

J. Williams

Vince Harder

Betty-Anne in full flight :-)

The performers?  Great line-up  and I've included a few shots from the night in this post for you to enjoy.  There's some more shots on Facebook (there's also one more of each Erakah and Vince on flickr).  Anyway, let me know what you think and whether you'd like to see any more shots from the night.

Please don't forget ... if you haven't already donated ... or want to donate again, check out the NZ Redcross and make your donations there.

Peace Lily

Just one shot in today's post.  Can't say I was feeling the best this afternoon, but the light on this Peace Lily in our living room was just stunning.

I used my 50m lens at f4 (seems to be pretty sharp at that aperture, yet be not to aggressive with shallow depth of field).  ISO set at 200, spot exposure on the flower itself and the camera picked the shutter speed.  I find I've normally got the camera on Aperture Priority with spot metering and focus these days.

Very "gentle" sharpening in post processing ... I don't like to let the camera do this.

Right that's it.  Still not feeling the best, so I'll close this post.  You can perhaps let me know what you think of my Peace Lily?

Off for a walk

Pretty tired after work today, but it was such a lovely evening I had to head off for a walk.  I took the camera ... no bands playing at the Botanic Gardens I'm afraid ... but the light on the leaves was quite stunning.  

Just the one shot today ... taken from the "wrong" side of the leaf.  Standing behind the leaf and letting the light shine through really accentuates the textures and colours.  The leaf in this shot looks a little like somebody's been having a bit of a nibble.  Nevertheless, I thought the colours and textures were quite lovely.  Even though the shot was taken at f8 I was sufficiently close to the leaf to get the background out of focus.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Rise-Up ... Christchurch fund raiser at Mangere.

Stunning piece of work by Montgomery Collins (Monty) produced to raise find for the Christchurch earthquake appeal.  I arrived at the Mangere Arts Centre to see Monty working away with an impressive range of spray cans.  Quite how he manages to produce something as stunning as what you see in this post is beyond me.  Highly talented young gent.  I'll add a couple more shots for you in this post, but encourage you to visit the New Zealand Red Cross to make donations to assist the folks in Christchurch.  I understood the artwork was to be auctioned on Tradme.  If you know the details please add them as a comment.

One of my favourite shots.  Montgomery Collins hard at work.

Bit of a posed shot, but here Monty as I arrived at the Arts Centre.

The finished product, being displayed to the audience at the Rise Up event at the Mangere Arts Centre.

Finished product with the artist.

The Hypnotics at Avondale

First shot in this post has Deuce (aka Fifita Malu) on stage at the Avondale School fundraiser for the Christchurch Earthquake fundraiser.  I may have mentioned before that the lighting on stage was great and this shot of Fifita has got to be one of my favourites.  Fifita has a wonderful voice and his performances on the night really let us hear his musical talents.  I suspect we'll heat a lot more about Fifita in the near future.


A treat for me was the opportunity to see the band backstage performing a new song.  Anonymouz and the team singing to an acoustic piano.  Wonderful.  I've included some monochrome shots snapped whilst they were preparing for the stage performances ... hope they don't mind.  I thought the shots looked pretty good in black and white ... let me know what you think?

I'll close this post with a couple more shots of the Hypnotics.  Schedules and what's going on with the Hypnotics can be found here.   

Deuce (aka Fifita Malu) performing at Avondale College

Wiggidy WayQs at the Christchurch Fundraiser, Avondale College.

Buy ANONYMOUZ music online:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/anonymouz

http://www.amplifier.co.nz/release/56942/memories-single.html

Click to subscribe to ANONYMOUZ: 

http://www.youtube.com/user/anonymouz275

http://www.reverbnation.com/#/Anonymouz275

Click to subscribe to THE HYPNOTICS

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHypnoticsMusic

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hypnotics

Che Fu

Che Fu exercising his vocal skills at Avondale College.

What a treat!  What a treat it was to meet and photograph Che Fu this Wednesday at the Christchurch Fundraiser at Avondale College.   Che Fu is one of New Zealand's most successful male vocalists and it was great to hear such a talented performer raising money for the Christchurch Quake victims.

Facilites at the school were superb.  One problem I've often mentioned when taking shots of live musicians has been the stage lighting.  No such problem at Avondale College.  Good background and performer lighting.  The background was superb with excellent vivid and solid colours.  I was impressed.

Back to Che Fu though.  I think EVERYBODY had a good time.  The audience loved every minute of the performance and I think Che did too!  I just hope I get invited to more of Che's performances and get another chance to take some photographs of the master at work!

Let me know what you think of the shots ... don't forget that of you click on an image you'll get an enlarged view.  Want to see more shots?  Leave me a comment or email and I'll see what I can do :-)

Che Fu working the crowd at Avondale College.

Hypnotics at Manukau

"Wiggidy WayQs" ... one of the Hypnotics at Manukau Institute of Technology

This week has been busy ... real busy ... but quite good fun too.  The start of a new academic year is always hectic and 2011 is no exception!

Jem Jess Matthews ... great voice!

As part of startup for the year The Hypnotics did a lunchtime session at the Manukau Institute of Technology.  Great to see these guys again and their performance didn't disappoint.  Quite a few students were there in the North Campus Quad to enjoy the concert.  Shame we don't get a few more concerts on campus by local South Auckland bands.

First shot has been converted to Monochrome in Lightroom and a grain effect added.  Sometimes I quite like the effect we used to get from those high speed grainy black and white films.

The second shot is of Jem Jess Matthews. Jess's voice is a treasure.  Great to see her on stage again,  but even better to hear her voice again.  Check out  The Hypnotics Facebook page to get the low down on when and where the band is playing.  Whilst checking out the band take a squiz here.  Quite a nice video blog by Anonymouz.

There's a few more shots of the band's performance here.  Take a squiz and let me know what you think.