Whoa, check this out!! It's amazing what we can do with focus, determination, practice and skilll..

New Commercial Website Design... sort of ;)

So I haven't been uber-happy with my commercial site design for a while and although it will be getting a full make over soon, I just couldn't wait any longer. There were a few issues with the old one that just weren't working for me and were grinding away at me, so I've designed one that I'm happy with that will carry me through until the proper one comes. In the meantime, even though it is quite a simple make up, this one allows me to change the image galleries easily, which I find I need, most especially the 'recent work' page as I think it is important to show my recent work to my clients. The only problem with it is you have to click the back on the browser from the galleries, but I don't think thats a biggie and as it is a temp site that will have to just be I'm afraid.
Anyways, you can check it out here: www.markharris.co.nz

oh, and a bonus, I won a flip video recorder the other day.. I'm stoked & can't wait to have a play :D

Editorial- by the canal

So we had a shoot last night down in the new outdoor area by the Huatoki stream. I've been checking it out as a backdrop for a while as it has awesome possibilities, this time we had a brief to work to which made it even better as it fitted the brief and we got to utilize it quite well. I'm still looking forward to getting some more higher end fashion/editorial images there in the future though:)
Anyway, here's a couple from last night...

O.k., so I've been a slacker=)

Not really, but I have been very busy! Over the past couple of weeks/month I've had a few good things going on. Firstly, I am now a member of AIPA(Advertising & Illustrative Photographers Association)NZ. It's been part of the plan for a while now and I'm glad I've eventually joined. Being a photographer is quite a singular profession, so it's a good feeling to know you're a part of something bigger, and be in contact with others who have similar aspirations. On another note, I've been working together with someone in the UK who is designing a CMS(content management system) for photographers, basically they build and sell website templates that are designed specifically for photographers, so anyway, they will be using my images on their site to market their new template designs. The site won't be up until August September, when it goes live I'll post the link :) I'll also have a brand spanking new commercial website around the same time which I'm looking forward to!
Some more news that I'm extremely happy about is that I have signed with an agency in Spain! They are an exclusive image agency who are one of THE suppliers of front cover images to the book publication industry. I've been looking for a few years now for the right agency to supply my imagery to and at last have found the right one. Least to say, I'm very happy!


Well, thats about it for now, I'd better get ready for my shoot this afternoon...

Beauty Headshots- Amy

We got the team together and had a collaboration of creativeness on the weekend, there is nothing quite like working with creative people and throwing ideas together to come up with something special, anyway, here are the results of the team, enjoy:

Photographer: Mark Harris
Post Production: Mark Harris
Model: Amy Streeter
Makeup Artist: Jules Everest
Hair Designer: Rachael Streeter

Editorial- Eva mows the lawns!

My last shoot with Eva before she left to go and shoot some clothing up in Auckland... we came up with a different kind of concept all together, enjoy....

Working together- Bach restaurant weddings

I don't know if you've seen it or not, but not long ago I had some good things to say in this Blog regarding the Bach and their food and service, well a couple of weeks ago I got a surprise email from the owner Barbara asking if i was interested in joining them in a little idea she had. To cut a long story short, she has selected a couple of celebrants; Adrienne Sullivan & Helene Young(who's an awesome lady & was the celebrant at our wedding:) ), myself as the photographer and Sentiments Florists to all work together with the Bach to create a high level wedding service service for their clients. Obviously we jumped at the chance to work together with these talented people and are looking forward to getting some amazing photos down around there!.

So if you're looking for somewhere to host your wedding, a celebrant, a florest and a photographer let us know and we'll get you organized:)

Here is the flyer the Bach will be sending out throughout the year:

Editorial Shoot- Eva

I had an awesome shoot with Eva Strangelove last week, she is a Burlesque dancer from Wellington, she rocks!. Anyway, here are a few images from the first shoot, we did a few different series of images, these are the first to be processed.

Enjoy...

Chris Knight & Justin Maller Limited Editions!!

Two highly talented people have released a limited edition series of awesome photographic art. Both very talented at what they do, Chris is a photographer who's people/fashion images always have something beyond special, and Justin is an awesome graphic designer. Click here for the official site and for more information.

Progression is an understatement!!

O.k, so as you know I am a photographer with Open2view.com, one of the major reasons I am with them is that they're are a progressing company, always on the button and always pushing into new areas of marketing within the real estate industry, really we are world leaders in what we do and what we can do to help our clients sell their homes and move onto the next chapter in their lives. I often ask the vendors if I see them where they're heading to next as it is always interesting, they're about to embark on a new chapter in their lives and it is enlightening and exciting for them. So anyway I came across this link and thought I'd share it, so before reading any further, watch this first!:

watch this

Now, wasn't that just AMAZING!! Apparently that was shown by Sony to their executives at their last conference.

As a photographer progression is essential, keeping up with what is going on and coming up with new ways to show or tell a story, especially if we're doing something like editorial work. Whilst doing this though we also have to hold onto our own styles, which can be hard at times as there is just so many ways to shoot something. At the end of the day I suppose it is about trusting your own judgement, after shooting conceptual type imagery for a while it bcomes second nature to think in this way with a process, and then always refining that process. Similar with every business really. Now we take into account what that video shows and how fast we really are progressing, technology is just exploding!.

So, as a photographer how does this affect me, quite a lot, I have to keep up with this as it moves, if I lag behind all of a sudden I have to knuckle down and lock myself in my office in front of my computer for a few days and play catch up! Not to mention keeping up with the digital equipment! Luckily light never changes, we'll always be working in kelvin and light strength and temperatures, and studio lighting will always stay the same like that(I think), same with composition- it'll always be there, althouhg composition is another matter entirely as there are always new ways to break the compositional laws(although I suggest learning them before trying to break them if you're a photographer). So what is composition, composition is setting objects at certain places in visual arts so they fit into the rest of the piece of art. Really, it is about human consciousness and how it sees certain relations to things. As we all know the human concsious is expanding. So after looking at the above link it kind of makes me say "wow, and how will that affect our concious, and so affect how I shoot images".
Really, these things can also hinder your art, you can put too much thought into it and lose the artistic sight... Thinking with the left and right side of the brain, there has to be a balance there for everything to work I think. Which brings me onto another thought... digital cameras, they're getting so technical these days, and so it is actually becoming harder to be creative... I can hear you going "whatever", but hold that thought for a sec o.k. To be creative we need to think with the left side of our brains, to work something technical we need to use the right side of our brains, so the more refinements they give us for 'on the job' technical changes the more we have to think with the right side of our brain, getting it now? So what is the way around this? well for me it is getting to know my camera so well i don't have to conciously think about how to change anything no matter how deep in the menu it is, not easy when you only use certain things once a year if that. I also know what and how I am going to shoot before I am in the location, no matter what it is for. The old saying comes to mind with this, "nothing can replace experience"- Thanks Des McMahon for reminding me of this on your shoot:)
Not to mention photoshop and everything it can produce, a highly technical software! I have certain ways of dealing with the thought processes for doing my processing. I won't share that secret though ;)

Anyway, getting back on track. The link was to show you the progression we've made and are going to make in the future and how fast. And to also share a little secret, the best in the world use the best images in the world to sell themselves or their product. And they keep these up to date. It really is in our businesses best interest to use what is available to us to keep us on top of our market place. And when we think we're on top of it, we have to look further, because there is always further, break a record, it can be done and is done every day!

Have a great day:)

Fashion & Editorial Shoot- Chevy & Garage

We've had a busy few weeks with a few commercial and family portrait shoots, wedding bookings and consultations, and a conference in Auckland last weekend for Open2view, so I have just finished processing a shoot we did a couple of weeks ago with a 1936 Chevy in a garage. While in there we came across the old couch in the tea room that screamed for a couple of quick shots, then onto the ones with the Chevy. Although I had a few ideas under my belt when I went into this shoot, the main image I was going for and heading towards was the one where the girls are sitting down with the one model's boot closer to the lens. The images were shot with the post processing in mind to give the images a more pronounced grungy/dirty kind of feel.

Enjoy=)

Shout Out!! =)

A big shout out for Photojunction. Photojunction is an album design company and at the moment it is a free download. So if you're a professional Photographer who designs albums, then this software seriously rocks. It takes somewhere around a day to get your head around it, but don't give up, because it's like riding a bike, once you've got it, you've got it:) and like I said.. it rocks!

To check it out or download it hit the link:
http://www.photojunction.com/

LIVE Magazine- Tearsheet

Our centre double-page spread tearsheet- There's more info further down in our blog in regards to this shoot, but I thought I'd put up the finished tearsheet. This was printed as a double-page spread in the May issue of LIVE Magazine.

Fashion- Model Portfolio

Here's some images from the latest model portfolio shoot from last weekend...

Photographer: Me:)
Model: Peri
Clothing Design: Zoe Harris

Enjoy...

Fashion & Beauty - Beauty Photography Shoot =)

So, it's been a while since I've photographed any beauty headshots, most of my work lately has been more full body or fashion concept so it was nice to be able to set the lighting specifically for some beauty imagery. There are a lot of different ways to light a subject for beauty and a lot of different light modifiers you can use, this time the plan was for simple beautiful images. As simple as they look, they have highly technical lighting to achieve this look and I'm very happy with the end results.
The first one was actually the last image I shot, once we had the images we wanted I threw in one a little more creative with what we had on hand at the time.

A big shout out to the model=)

Enjoy...

Fashion- Painting With Light

So we had a shoot yesterday... The first image was to touch the subject with light so that it benifits the image as a whole.. careful balance of colour, in this case the turquiose. The second is a strong use of lighting, colour and shadow. Using lighting technically to create an interesting image. Both have strong compositional qualities. Both of these images have been created like this in camera, by this I mean there hasn't been any colour casting or shadowing in post processing.



ps- Keep an eye on this space in the next couple of days, we just did some beauty headshots today and some of the images are awesome!! It'll probably take me a couple of days to get them processed and up on here as beauty work is very detailed in the post processing department. Until then have a great week =)

Enjoy...

Rest In Peace Oliver Mendoza

Oliver Mendoza passed away 11th April, 2009. Oliver was a truly talented and inspirational photographer based in San Francisco, California. Although I never knew Oliver personally, I respected his work immensly and he inspired some of my work. You can view his work at www.olivermendoza.com
Oliver passed away on a shoot, he was doing what he loved, photographic image creation.

Much Aroha Brother.

Happy Easter!! & shoot with old car

Happy Easter All =)

We went away with some special friends to Oakune for a couple of days over Easter. For those that are overseas or just don't know their own country too well, Oakune is the ski town of Mt Ruapehu. We scored ourselves an awesome chalet over there thanks to Gaynor & Hamish at www.ruapehu.co.nz. They rok! So we did all the sight seeing things, hot pools and all that jazz, but rather than bore you with my holiday snapshots I thought I'd throw these up.....
On our way over we saw this cool old dilapidated house with an old Holden outside it sitting in long grass, my kinda backdrop for sure! So on our way home we dropped in to get a few images.....