Hawkes Bay On a platter

Well our blog has been very quite over the past few months as we have been working on a major cookbook project, Hawkes Bay On a platter, the results of which have gone on sale this week .

This was no ordinary project as it is a school fundraiser and showcases our very own Hawke's Bay . When I was asked to be involved I had a very clear vision of the photographic style and design layout that we needed to achieve to far excel the perception of a school cookbook , and my good friend and graphic designer Steve Rawlinson from many hats http://www.manyhats.co.nz helped me achieve this . My partner Heather spent endless weekends cooking many of the dishes and styling them with our extensive collection of eclectic props from vintage metal Hovis bread tins to bone handle carveries .

Technically all the studio shots were taken on Phaseone p45 and some of the landscape with a LEE filter Big stopper with exposures of between 2 and 10 minutes , this really flattened out the sea at Waimarama Beach ( very dreamy) Nearly all the other shots were taken on our Canon 5d3 with 50 and 85 lenses . There is also good smattering of pictures shot on a Canon compact. All images were managed in mead pro and processed in Capture one exported to adobe 98 and then eventually were converted in photoshop to cmyk coated FOGRA39 just before producing the PDF for the presses.

Highs

As in any project there is there highs and lows this being no different. The biggest high was meeting Mark Warren from Waipari Station , who not only produces some of Hawke's Bays best lamb but also is a 4 wheel drive expert, which is lucky because his man cave ,as he likes to call it is high on a hill over looking the Pacific and in wet times is tricky to access. Whilst there he cooked us his spectacular Hogget chops over a kanuka fire and smoked some in the Webber, the taste and location won me over.

Lows

The low point also involved 4wd, but this time shooting the Land Rover ads. We had taken a fully equipped Defender and after driving at fairly high speeds through small streams.Now armed with our confidence that we wouldn't get stuck, (this is a tank of a vehicle you just feel nothing is going to stop it) we settled on photographing the silver beauty in the middle of the Tukituki just upstream of Black bridge. With no waders or shorts the only choice was to strip to my pants and wade through some of the coldest water, this was early August and and definitely winter and not a pretty sight for any drivers going over the bridge. The situation only really got worse when so called good friend Steve Rawlinson,also modelling as semi competent fly fisherman whipped out his Iphone for quick pic of me.

Not a low

There is a love hate relationship with landscape photography and I myself love taking the time to relax,be thoughtful and create, but I don't have the best of luck with the weather. I have an uncanny skill of getting to locations at the right time with right light,direction and tides (ie well planned) only to to be thwarted by driving rain, that either was not on the horizon or any rain radar, so shooting the Xero ad for the book was a treat, still frosty cold with no driving rain or sea spray, a happy man.

Stunning Waimarama Beach morning. — Stunning *Waimarama Beach morning.*

Thank you

To F L Bone our main sponsor.

Yes , we really moved some very heavy ovens on top of a hill.

Simple Things

We generally dont buy pesto as i generally make it ourselves. But when a job came in for lee to update the product shots

End Product

Being a professional photographer we quite often dont see end product

But most of the time its a great team effort.

Finished Ad courtesy tank marketing and simply squeezed

School fund-raising Hawkes Bay Recipe Book

Just working on a new exciting project , a fund-raising cookbook focusing on Hawkes Bay. Below is just an idea of how it will look , all the Photography is Fotoshoot (apart from the idea for the mixed advertising page). The book will be a mixture of recipes , advertising and business promotion pages , all shot in the same style . If you know of anybody that would be interested in sponsoring or advertising in this book please let me know.

Team work best is photo tool.

Look book shoot for Mphosis Hair Stylists in Hastings ended up being a fantastic well co-ordinated day with everyone pitching in. With so many tools available and I'm a bit of an equipment fiend , but really the best resource on any shoot is the people, they set the tone and sometimes the artistic direction and are on hand to throw their ideas into the hat. On shoots like this I ask for input and visual ideas . I iam always in control , but have been saved many times by an observant assistant spotting a potential problem with a product or a garment, thus saved some possible expensive retouching time . Everyone on the shoot is important and their view considered , I just may not listen. Shooting some ring flash studio shots for that hard edged ultra sharp look really makes every strand of hair pop and on location out and about in the city centre one Sunday afternoon. What really made it memorable was that Mphosis hair use this type of shoot as a great team building exercise with great camaraderie between stylists and models. I love working with such up tempo and lively people, defiantly makes you feel young , even if my neck and shoulders didn't feel like that, hand holding a phaseone attached to a Profoto ring flash can do that for you. We followed this with some more relaxed shots on location just using 1.8 * 1.2 Scrims and reflectors my preferred method especially if there are enough assistants on hand and the winds are not to high. The thought of one of the assistants taking of and paragliding is not funny. I've generally got plenty of ballast to stop this happening!!!!!

Basic equipment

Phaseone camera p45+ back
Mamiya 120mm and 80mm
Profotopacks heads and rings
Beauty dish
canon 5d3 and 100 macro
eosm for fun

Fresh Young Napier Art Deco

Amazing couple that looked stunning, lady was was wearing the most beautiful of outfits that was tailored with impeccable taste really a case of life is a participation sport. Many thanks to them they made my day.

Never really been one for the Art Deco weekend, but being asked to do some images by the Art Deco trust may have just changed my mind. What really grabbed me was the fantastic atmosphere that I can only compare to Euro Disney , where everyone is smiling and happy and content with life, maybe Deco is an adult fairy land , where you act out the past and enjoy the simpler things . I really enjoyed the experience and the freedom. With plenty of fantastic cruise ships and the French navy in tow it felt extremely international , with people that I 'd photographed coming from from France , Australia (particularly Perth,} South Africa, Germany, Holland and of course the UK , with plenty from the good old US of A for good measure. As someone who doesn't really like to leave my lovely studio environment with all its luxuries , venturing into the NZ environment between 8am and 7pm with the New Zealand harsh sun or should I say lazer beam can be doubting especially without power packs and strobes even some heavy duty profoto packs struggle against this southern hemisphere sun.Dragging unsuspecting tourists into door ways and soft shade became de rigger.

The evening is when Napier really comes alive and the packed streets become a slightly subdued Cuba , except for the fifties cars with their gleaming light and colour The beautifully maintained vintage cars , and the ever present light and glow from the sound shell and the dome make it a magical night.

Nice soft light sympathetic posing for the era and then run through exposure3 to get a wet plate look. Note Not to be compared with the modern wet plate master Ian Ruther

Art Deco weekend definitely had a youthful vibe to it , with plenty of dancers from Wellington and Auckland that were amazing to watch as they went through their jazz and swing routines . Originally Art Deco was a new and vibrant style embraced by the young in terms of their dress , housing and nic naks . It's great to see a new generation of young people embracing the Art Deco spirit.

Spanish eating →

Marinated lemon and rosemary home cured olives.

We love Spanish food but this article by Spanish food writer and food entrepreneur Jonathan Pincas really caught my eye, it's so true and a very acute observation by jonathan, the only bit missing number 7 is the pure enjoyment and celebration of eating with friends and family and not the guilt factor that's often encountered here in New Zealand.

“1. Bread

A piece of bread is the third cutlery utensil after the knife and fork in Spain. If you want to stop a Spaniard from eating, just don’t put any bread down next to his plate. Spaniards will eat bread with anything and everything, including heavy carbohydrate dishes like pasta and rice, even with dessert on some occasions. Only in Spain did I discover the joys of bread and chocolate – not chocolate spread, but a piece of chocolate served in what is basically a sandwich. Chinese restaurants in Spain have baskets of bread available for customers. All ‘Menu del Dia’ include bread. Spaniards just don’t eat without bread.
2. Napkin

If bread is the most essential item on the table at a Spanish meal, it is closely followed by the humble napkin. ”A napkin,” you say, “what’s remarkable about that?”. And indeed, you’d be right. A napkin is obviously useful for wiping all that mess of your face as you tuck into your tasty meal. The thing is though, napkins are not part of the day-to-day eating habits of the English. OK, maybe you get a napkin at a nice restaurant. And maybe at Christmas your mum would buy some pretty red and gold napkins for the table. But for everyday meals, in my house and in every other English household I ever visited in 25 years of growing up and living in England, napkins are not provided. Why should a Spaniard need a napkin whereas English diners can do without? I ask my Spanish wife this same question all the time. It fascinates me. She and almost every other Spanish person I have ever met seem genetically incapable of eating without a napkin. They are constantly wiping their mouths in between every mouthful. If a napkin is so necessary in order to maintain hygiene whilst eating, we have to ask how the English are able to do without one on such a regular basis. Do they just resign themselves to having a dirty mouth throughout a meal. Some anecdotal evidence suggests that might be the case. One Spaniard I met, who had also noticed this little napkin-based cultural imbalance, maintains that the rims of glasses of English diners tend to get very dirty and smudged whereas Spanish glassware remains sparkling throughout a meal as every sip is taken with an immaculately clean mouth. This actually really bothered him.
3. Water / Agua del Tiempo / Mixing water

So whilst we’re on the subject of drinking whilst eating, let’s talk about water. The Spanish do not eat without water. In my experience, in England, there is some variation family to family on this. Some families do tend to drink water with lunch and dinner, but a large proportion, if not the majority, wash their food down with all manner of other rubbish – juice, orange squash, coke, beer etc. These drinks are aperitifs in Spain – they don’t appear at the dinner table (except, perhaps, on special occasions?). The most you will find beyond water is a bottle of wine, but almost certainly not beer. Water is always still, and mostly from the tap too, but it is always, always served – there is no variation across families here. The other little detail that has always fascinated me about how the Spanish take their water is the issue of temperature. When you order water at a bar in Spain, you’ll be asked “Fria” (cold) or “Del tiempo” (literally ‘of the weather’, actually meaning ‘ambient temperature’). Many Spaniards don’t like their water too cold, so don’t want it straight out of the fridge. At family meals, there is even a solution to this dilemma, a practice which I have only ever observed in Spain: mixing cold water from the fridge with ambient temperature water. So if you see two jugs of water at a table in Spain, one with dripping condensation down the side and the other without, you’ll now know why.
4. Sobremesa

As a foreigner, the most common error I think I have tended to make at Spanish meals is getting up more or less immediately after having finished eating. Let me tell you, this is just not done in Spain. The sobremesa (the period after eating where you stay at the table for an extended chat) is sacred. This has been quite hard to assimilate for me. I’m quite fidgety, so when I finish eating, I like to get up and have a walk around and just generally carry on with my day. My wife, being Spanish, needs at least 15 minutes after finishing to come to terms with the fact that the meal is over. During this period, if we are alone and eating out, I tend to play with my iPhone. The sobremesa in Spain, at weekends or festive periods, can drag on for so long that it is not unusual for lunch to actually transition into dinner without any perceptible activity in between.
5. 3pm is Lunchtime

I have often thought how chronologically regimented life is in Spain – more so than any other country I have visited does the entire population tend to do everything at exactly the same time. I believe that in England, lunchtime is anywhere from about 12 noon to perhaps 2.30 pm. Go out onto any English high street at 12 and you will see plenty of people, the same at 1pm and the same at 2pm. Go onto a typical Spanish high street, even at the weekend, at 3pm and you’ll see noone, probably not a single person. Why? Because they are all, literally all, eating. 3pm, you see, is lunchtime in Spain.
6. Telediario

And at 3pm, another national institution starts up – the telediario (news). Although the Spanish are famed as social eaters, which is largely very accurate, a typical Spanish lunch is incomplete without Lourdes or Mati blaring away in the background. Not that people tend to take much notice of what is being said – in general it’s just background noise. From time to time Dad will hush everyone if something of particular interest pops up, but really it’s not until everyone has finished eating and coffee is being served that everyone starts to pay attention - los deportes have started! Or rather, the Real Madrid/Barcelona half hour.”

— Jonathan Pincas

Morrocan crab cakes

Onto morroco who knew paddle crabs could be so good. Took me an age to pick all the meat way better than cray and i have to say better that cromer crab for its leg meat, cromer still wins on head meat, ill have to see if heather going to pop to French bistro soon for some confit of duck.

These padron peppers grown in the garden make a great tapas with beer one random one will be extremely hot and the next like sweet cucumber Having a great world tour staying at home.

Xmas holiday over

Well the Christmas period passed so quickly, as we all spent the time at home on our staycation we had a great time reading cooking books and eating tapas with great friends popping in for lunch. Its amazing how quickly some 2 and 3 year olds can demolish a pealla dish of paprika chilli potatoes, i didn't get a look in. (probably a good thing)

Garlic Harvest

Glad i like garlic and working in the studio on my own

Heather gets pretty obsessed with her garlic and its growing, She normally plants some of the largest fattest from the previous year on or around matarangi or the shortest day and keeps it weed free .As she tells me garlic needs the frost to germinate (if your too late planting then stick it in the freezer) . The harvesting then takes place near the 20th December (or christmas eve this year !) through a nice dry period as this then gets the flavour to be nice and strong. Heather then dries on a wire rack thats turn once a day in the sun until the paper skins harden up . Although it is very hard to wait and we do use it too early sometimes but never mind , young garlic is lovely sautéed like spring onion . Heather's had a go at plaiting but is not very good at it , the key thing is to trim all the roots of as these will take moisture back in - that's why you should never buy imported chinese garlic as they spray the roots to stop them re forming - not very nice !! New Zealand especially here in Hawkes Bay and even more down south has a great climate to grow garlic - have a go this winter - plant it deep and then watch it grow - all it needs is water.