camping season!

I've finished my studies, summer is here, think its time to pack my bags and get out of the urban jungle, and into the real world! First stop The Catlins.

After packing away my site exhibition and clearing out my room I packed some warm clothes, my surfboard and took off with about 10 others.

Conditions weren't looking amazing for camping but the surf was pumping so it was fair to say I was frothing!

We found a secluded little spot away from the wind, saw seals and a family of yellow eyed penguins, the swell was pounding the cliffs with unstoppable force.

View of the surf from a cave that had been carved out by waves.

Alex scaling the rock face showing us to a cave.

John on top of the world

It was awesome to wake up to the sound of birds, sheep and the ocean instead of the sounds you hear in cities, good to get back to nature for a weekend and I will be returning very soon!

SITE 09

Done and dusted! Last night we had the opening of SITE 09 the Graduate exhibition of the Dunedin School of Art and it went off! Hundreds of people showed up to see the 70+ students final works.

Today was the SITE festival day which was open to the public with many more people showing up.

Heres a few pictures of some of what was on show.

A ceramic work by John Paxie

Checkin out Emma Chalmers' awesome paintings



Installation by Shelley Harding


Me and Viets space, was hard to move at some points!

Leoni the head of the Art School opens the Exhibition.

GLOW WORMS!!!!

We recently discovered that theres an amazing Glow Worm community 5 minutes away from my flat!! What other city could you find glow worms or any native bush this close to the urban jungle? Only Dunedin! I took my tripod up and attempted to capture the little critters.

I ended up using a torch to light up the ferns and if you enlarge this image you can see the little blue lights of the glow worms.


This is the river you walk up to get to the glow worms

studios are funnnnnnnn

business cards, check

Got my business cards done finally, they are like this except i removed the list of areas (event, portraiture etc) and just added 'Bachelor of Fine Arts' in the bottom right corner. Didn't want to categorise my work too much until I fully have a business plan and defined my market a bit more.

Chill out bro!

After an intense day of trying (and failing) to sort out Site work I decided I needed a break to clear my head so Dan and I went out to the beach. We caught up with a mate Glen who lives in his truck. The waves were big and we didn't bother going out but it was good to chill out and watch the waves rolling in from the warmth of Glen's Truck.

John Browns Body

I photographed an epic gig on the weekend. The Blackseeds featuring John Browns Body. The Blackseeds were awesome as always they got the crowd of 700+ rocking, Sammys was cranking!

It was really good to see John Browns Body, a reggae band from New York. They played before The Blackseeds and got everyone amped up on reggae vibes. They are an 8 piece band with a unique rootsy reggae sound. Stoked I got to see them and have a chat to them backstage, awesome night!


Have a listen to them on myspace

wet sea dogs

Heres some pics I just scanned in from a film I took out at St Clair on 24/10/09 for the 350 paddle out. Not amazing quality but some interesting results. It was The first time I had used this plastic film camera with underwater housing. It was fun to use and I'll definitly be using it more in future with summer just around the corner.

Latu and Jayne 'the freeride crew'

Never seen so many surfers in one place!

Viety lovin it!

Perfect 1foot peak

Underwater selfy

Waiting for big Wednesday

This one is from Sandfly Bay the next day. Hang looooose!

350 Day of Action in Dunedin!!!!

October 24th, 2009. Over 4500 actions in 175 countries, the largest day of simultaneous action the World has seen! All with one number involved, 350. The number signifies how many parts of carbon per million in the atmosphere is safe for the Worlds climate. At the moment it is at around 380ppm which means it has to drop down to 350 to stop the World heating up causing devistation everywhere. This was a day dedicated to sending messages out to World leaders to embrace new legislation at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in around 40 days.

It was also about getting out and enjoying a sunny day in Dunedin and learning about how to live more sustainable as a community.

http://www.350.org/ to find out the facts, and see images from around the World.

New Zealand being the first country to see october 24th was an important part of this World wide campaign, and good old Dunedin stepped it up to create New Zealands biggest 350 action, a whole festival dedicated to the cause, and to creating a more sustainable city, The Spring Food Festival.

The Festival was held by the iconic Dunedin Railway Station, and there was also the usual farmers market on which always has awesome locally made food, drinks, produce and general awesomeness.

There were bands, stalls, free workshops, all kinds of things going on throughout the day, heres a few images.


Cuzzy bro






This bike created by the Greens party powers a blender, I made my own smoothie just by peddling!



Many many simple ways to cut down on polution and live more sustainably.

A big congregation of people in the festival setting up for the big 350 photo, 2 photographers went up in a 30m fire truck ladder to take the photos, they will be at http://www.350.org.nz/ soon.

Otago University and Polytechnic students gave away 3500 seedlings encouraging people to grow their own veges. Good effort!

There were also lots of other 350 events happening including the 350 bikers, a group of 100+ surfers in a paddle out, and the South Island Regional Skate Competition, heres some pics from the skate comp.

Special edition 350 box grinding, yeeeeeee.

You know it!

It was an awesome day showing how so many young and old people care about our environment and want it to be looked after. World leaders now need to listen up to what the World is wanting and work together to create a solution to the climate situation. It can be done!!!!

More pics coming from the surf paddle out soon.


Just been browsing around the net at all the media releases and 350 websites and found a few of my skateboarding inages being used!

My picture on the homepage slideshow of www.350.org. Epic!
my photo uploaded to 350.org's flickr page

Also on the www.350.org.nz website my Mums school Oromahoe has a few awesome photos featured on the homepage, good stuff!

Big ups to the 350 Dunedin crew they all did an amazing job!!!

Here's some coverage from the Otago Daily Times. http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/79551/dunedin-embraces-climate-action-day

The 350.org main website begins with an amazing photo from a sunrise rally in Wellington which I guess signifies the first action of all actions throughout the World on October 24th 2009, a day which will go down in history.

Businessy stuff. Business card Ideas

Lately I have been thinking a bit about what the truck I'm going to do next year. Initial thoughts.....travel, or work to start paying off various depts that I have been scammed into
running up.

Another idea: Start up a Freelance Photography. This would give me freedom to do what I want and where I want, providing I can get enough jobs to stay alive. Theres all kinds of small business grants I could get to get me started.

A business card is a start anyway, and it will go well with my CV, Port Folio and Site '09 Exhibition.

Here's one I designed last year but it needs updating.

This layout shows a range of what I can do photography wise, shows that I'm versatile.


Here's a set of more recent images that I would probably add instead.

I should also do the following:

• Business plan
• Define a target Market
• Budget
• Timeline
• Maybe choose a name for my company
• Get registered as a company
• Look into grants and scholorships (Artist Development Agency)
• Make a fecebook page for my company - network - gain many fans.
• Make a proper website
• Marketing
• Networking

A few things to think about anyway. Its about time to start thinking about life after Art School.

Chizur

gigggggsssssss

Dabbling in Fashion

A bit of collaborating has been going down lately, helping a mate Dan get his company Potluck Palace up and running. Potluck Palace is a website promoting artists and creative underground companies and acts as the middle-man, showcasing artists, designers, and companies work and selling their products. They are commited to connecting the creative community online helping them with networking and getting their work out in the World.

I have been helping out with photoshoots with some of their clothing designers for materieal to put on their website.

Heres a few images from a shoot done on the night of 08/10/09. Designer (and Model) is Gene Van Der Zanden, stencil artist who prints onto all kinds of clothing and has a made-to-order system so the customer can decide what print, colour and clothing to put it on.

It was a fun shoot (despite being f-ing freezing) and took place on the site of an old building that was burnt down earlier this year, creepy stuff!

I'll keep updating the progress with Potluck Palace as to when is hits the Internet.