Dearly Beloved...

We are gathered here to mourn the loss of our dear friend, the Nikkor 18-35mm f3.5-5.6. It shall be sorely missed. Yup, when camera bits break, they go in a big way. In this case my most used lens smacked rather hard against an unyielding surface while attached to a heavy D700 and even heavier aluminium tripod. All that combined weight ensured that the lens did a rather impressive show of shearing into two at the aperture ring. So now the hunt begins for a replacement. The options are a second-hand 17-35mm f2.8, another 18-35mm or the newly announced 16-35mm f4. Odds are in favour of the 16-35mm depending on earnest discussions that have yet to take place with Mr Credit Card.

Apart from the shattering experience that my equipment went through, the rest endured the usual sandy blast of wind, sea spray and the occasional downpour of rain that have come to mark my monthly workshop in St Lucia. A lively bunch of students from Germany, the UK and the Netherlands kept me on my toes and theirs wet while we visited my usual photographic haunts around St Lucia and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. The images that they produced after three days of intensive workshop were truly impressive. I get this fantastic kick every time I see the improvement that students have from a workshop. Maybe the learning experience has something to do with it, but the simple act of surrounding oneself with photography, the act, the thinking and the discussion of, ensures that photographic inspiration is piqued.

Regular readers of the blog will know that last month was crazy for me. A workshop in St Lucia was followed in short order by a landscape tour of the Amphitheatre which in turn was succeeded by a fantastic intermediate photography workshop in the Witteberge and Southern Drakensberg mountains around Barkly East. A last gasp shoot of some Sony conference delegates while being jostled and bunched at the end of a pier toward the dying light of day completed the month so to speak. July, although potentially more restful will certainly have its moments of frenetic activity. I’ll write shortly about an upcoming industrial shoot in which I’m intending on using painting with light as a primary technique. I’m also hoping to get out a tutorial on tonal mapping (as per special request). Become a follower or sign up via this blog’s RSS feed to keep track.

Thanks to Lorraine, Donny, Paul and Tine for a great week of photography! I look forward to seeing further great work.