Three Houses Down EP Lauch

Charlie Pome'e entertaining the crowd at the Moon and back EP launch
Charlie Pomee entertaining the crowd at the Moon and Back EP launch

Quite a late night for me last night, but what a treat to see Three Houses Down again at the launch of their new EP, Moon and Back.  The boys were great … as usual.

I’ve never been to Studio The Venue before, but it was much bigger than I expected.  I just wish that the gig was a little earlier … I must be getting old!!  Leaving home to get to the gig when most folks are thinking of bed certainly made me feel my age.  All the same it was worth it to see the boys on stage again and the crowd seemed to really enjoy the performance.  The stage was a little narrow for my liking which made it difficult to see the brass section in anything other than shadows.  When you think about it a nine piece band needs a fair bit of real estate!

I’ll post more photos here from the night a little later … but for now I’ll leave you with a shot of  Charlie Pomee singing for the audience.

Charlie Pomee
Charlie Pomee at the Moon and Back EP launch

Night time shots …

Auckland City at night
Auckland City at night taken from the northern side of Auckland’s Harbour Bridge.

Last night I headed into Auckland with a fellow South Auckland photography enthusiast.  The idea was to take some night time shots and then head over to Grand Central in Ponsonby to see the Alan Brown Project.  Sadly I got the days muddled … Alan Brown isn’t performing until next week … typical!!

The first stop was just over the harbour bridge.  I usually take the Stafford Road exit and work my way back to get close to the water to get a shot looking back towards the city.  It’s quiet here and so we had a chance to experiment with different camera settings to see the changes to the image as ISO, shutter speed or aperture are changed.  The thing that made the biggest impression on me was the effect the tripod had on the image as the exposure time was increased.  My friend had a slightly shorter tripod than me and had extended the centre column to get more height.  Multi-second images taken with the centre column extend were blurry compared to those with the centre column fully lowered.  I was really quite surprised by the level of camera movement as it was quite a still night.

Light trails over the Harbour Bridge
Looking south towards Auckland’s Harbour Bridge.

Before heading into the city we tried a few more shots in an attempt to get car head and tail light trails. The long exposures help smooth out the water as well as give a pleasing effect with the lights from the cars on the motorway. The aperture in this shot was quite small and has given the street lights a pleasing star burst effect. I can recall many years ago I bought a special starburst filter for my old Pentax. I don’t recall using it much … and I can’t even find it now!

After shooting the passing cars we tried the Grand Central only to discover we had the wrong day for Alan Brown. Thankfully Hopetoun Road is close by, so a few more shots looking towards Skytower before heading home. Quite a pleasant evening and something we should try again … perhaps when the Alan Brown Project is performing!

I’ve uploaded each of these images to my Auckland City Gallery. Please take a look. There may be other images there that you’ll find interesting or even some you may like to purchase 😉

Skytower from Hopetoun Road
Skytower from Hopetoun Road

A new home ;-)

Christopher John
Christopher John, happy in his work.

Things are changing here at Christopher John Photography.  At last I’ve decided to update my website and add my blog to the site too.  I’ve been wanting to do this for over a year and for various reasons it just hasn’t happened … until now.  One big issue for me has been a way to showcase some of my photos and provide a mechanism for visitors to purchase images they like.  After shooting the events I can now allow people to visit my site, view the images and then hopefully buy lots of shots!  I can provide a number of options for customers ranging from a digital image from which you may print as many copies of the shot as you like to large A1 canvas prints delivered to your home ready for you to hang on your wall.  Not all print options are displayed on each image, so if there’s something you’d like just contact me and I can give you details.