Tuesday, July 5, 2011

FITEC Graduation!

Last Friday - 2 July. I went along to photograph the FITEC Graduation that was held in the Far North in my home town of Awanui. For those of you that are not sure what Fitec is (as I was as well at the start!) here is a bit of info:

FITEC is the industry training organisation for Forest establishment, silviculture and harvesting, Saw milling, solid wood processing, wood panels manufacturing, pulp and paper manufacturing and tissue converting and Furniture!

Fitec offers nationally recognised qualifications and helps more the 7,500 people each year gain the knowledge and skills they need for productive and rewarding careers. Most of this training happens on the job as Fitec trainees learn while they are earning wages or a salary.

You can find out more about Fitec at www.fitec.org.nz


The trainees that graduated at the Fitec Far North regional ceremony were from Sobieski Contractors (Awanui). Morton Logging 2088 Ltd (Kaitaia). Juken New Zealand Ltd - Triboard (Kaitaia)

It was so wonderful to see all of the proud Northland families together and the trainees that were presented their certificates for all their hard work and affort!

Great stuff!

I will just share a few photos of the evening, to view more photos and also photos from previous years Click here







Wacky Wednesday!
xox

Monday, July 4, 2011

Hayley, Dwayne, Danyelle and Jayden...and baby bump!

A nice Sunday morning in the Far North! I travelled out to Ahipara to meet this lovely family ;-)

Hayley responded to my pregnant belly search! I was looking for baby bumps to photograph to improve my marternity photography and open another door in my career - so thank you so much Hayley and Dwayne, the kids did a great job during the shoot too and were so patiant!




















A mother and daughter look, that only a mother and daughter understand ;-) 

How sweet is this...


What a handsome little dude!! 











Enjoy Hayley
xox

Happy Monday!

2011 Annual Dalmatian Ball

Another year and yet another ball, I was thinking about it and the Dalmatian Ball has been going for years and years and never missed a year since it started! Thats pretty impressive! And its all thanks to a group of dedicated Northlanders who simply want to keep our culture ALIVE!

The club itself started way back in 1954 and some of the original members are still playing a big part in the club today! The dance did not start until 1958 - so thats over 50 years of pure dedication!
There have been times when the club was short of either dancers or band members, but have always managed to pull through!

For those that are not familiar with the culture, at the Annual Dalmatian Ball there is a preformance of a dance called the Kolo. Kolo, meaning circle, is a croatian folk dance danced by both men and woman dressed in traditional costume. There are many variations of Kolo, however the particular one that is danced by the Kaitaia group is made up normally of 10 couples (sometimes 8 or even 6 if numbers are short).

As well as the Kolo being performed at the Annual Dalmatian Ball, the group has also perfomed at various special occassions and also been invited to perform around New Zealand in places such as Waitangi, Whangarei, Auckland and Hamilton, just to name a few.

The Kolo is perfectly accompanied by the music of the Tamburica band, who when they started had to make their own intruments! and make their own music.

The Kolo together with the Tamburica Band make a wonderful evening out at the Annual Dalmatian Ball.

Here is a photo of the dancers from the first ball...way back in 1958!
Photo was taken by Marwin (I think that is how you say it) Studios in Kaitaia. Thanks to the Kaitaia Museum for providing the negatives for the photos.


Sorry but I cannot seam to find the names at the moment!


Now to 2011!...

So after a meal - both dinner and dessert! and both include some traditional Croatian dishes, the dancers and band members get themselves ready in costume!

The dance consits of "3 halfs!" (can you make sence of that!)
The first half of the dance...





While the dancers have a short break to catch their breath the Tamburica band performs a solo...

The second half of the dance follows...


The third half! The dancers skip back out, from there they are all introduced by couples, starting with the leaders and each couple takes a bow.

After that the dances get to go out to the audience and select a new dance partner! 

Then the rest of the evenings entertainment is taken care of by our local band!


So I hoped you enjoyed reading about the Dalmatian Ball and a little bit of history!
Please check out my facebook page www.facebook.com/staceymilichphotography for the full album and also to purchase prints or a DVD slideshow of the dance!

Enjoy
xox

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Taking photos at night

So on facebook this week @Hayz N Nat Peters asked - how do i take better night shots (i have camera set to "night/low light" & still the shots are crappy!!) Thanks mate :)

Ok well, first I want to say that all my answers are from trial and error of my own as well as learning from wherever I can! The main place being the internet! I type whatever I want to learn in the search engine and read until I get my answer!

I can not speak for each individual camera, so really the BEST thing I could say is really get to know your camera inside and out to get the best results, also try different settings on you camera and see for your self what works best for you - YES with point and shoot cameras you do have a little control over your settings! More then what you may think.

So here are a few tips that will give you an idea on how you camera can work in low light and hopefully give you information to taking better night photos.
Depending on what your subject is that you are photographing at night will depend on what you will do. 

What most point and shoot cameras will do when you put them on the night setting is the flash will pop up! Which is not always the best thing, the key is long exposures to let in more light that is avaliable, I will explain:
The shutter speed on your camera, the longer the shutter is open, the more light that enters your camera, therefore giving you picture more light.
Another way that you can help your camera with more light is ISO - ISO is how sensitive the image sensor is to the amount of light present, the higher the ISO the more sensitive it is and makes it more possible to take pictures in low light situatiuations. My Son's point and shoot camera goes up to 1600.
And another way you can help your camera with more light is by over exposing your images, again which is also possible on most point and shoot cameras.

With longer exposures it is important to have something to rest your camera on and also use your self timer - you need it as still as possible as it will pick up any movement.

So there you have it, you do have quite a bit of control on taking night photos - you just need to learn how your camera works and control these settings! I would recommend trying different settings on all of the above!

NOW...
If you are taking photos at night of people (like at a party or something??) and you want to be able to see them so you can upload them to facebook and tag them! Then I you will need a flash! chances are that you will not have an external flash that you will lug around like our sort! So what I can say here is learn the range that your flash covers and make sure that your subject is always no more then that distance away - if your range is 2 m and your subject is 3 m away of course it will not be the best. FOCUS! take the time to focus your image - it can take a bit longer in the dark. Take a few pictures of the same subject/frame, after all they are digital - you CAN erase them without spending any money on having to print them first! AND if you can, MOVE! find somewhere near where there is a bit more light - it can make a big difference just by having a little look around and moving slightly!

Also on most simple editing programs you can adjust slightly - again that is something else to learn!

I got out my son's point and shoot camera out for this particular question - as I realised that everyone does not have a DSLR. I took a few photos in the lounge with the lights off and just played around trying different settings. It was a bit of a learning experience for me as I did not have as much control that I normally do with my DSLR. Sorry I do not know the exact settings (I could not find them when I put them on my computer) but I roughly know what I did and its enough info to get the message.


Here are MY results:



So this was using the flash - He is well in range of my point and shoot flash - possibly a bit too close as he is quite pale. I did take a little longer to focus this too.


This was no flash, the light came from the kitchen light, she had to keep very still! If there was a little more light, or if I had slightly over exposed or bumped up the ISO it would have been alot nicer.


Again no flash and using the kitchen light - he moved as well (he never sits still!) so a bit of blur



Here is the same subject and showing you the different settings on my point and shoot camera.
This one was taken with a LONG EXPOSURE and NO FLASH, - 2 seconds and the camera was rested on a stool (the light in the lounge was off also) I set it on 2 second delay (so there would be no movement from me pressing the button!) As you can see the photo is true to what you would see with your own eyes - there was alot of light from the flames and with the 2 second exposure it was perfect as it did not light up too much. The background is dark, but still in focus and quite clean.


This was taken with NO FLASH just on and auto setting, now the flames still look pretty much the same (as the fire does give off alot of light) but the background is slightly dimmer and also quite grainy. Again the camera was rested on the stool.


This is with the flash - you loose the effect of what it actually is.


Ok so I do hope I have helped and not confused! As there is no real direct answer - only tips on what you can do to help, the rest is up to you!


Oh also I have done no editing on the photos.


Stacey


xox