A step closer to New Zealand

What a day it was friday, working on the final version of my thesis to ensure that it was correct and that it didn't contain any more errors. Once delivered, and almost sent to the printer my direct supervisor found a small error in the preface, which included a wrong name. Oops! But eventually everything turned out alright .. pfew!

In the midst of all the hectics of the last two weeks I found some fun in the iPhone app "Best Camera" created by Chase Jarvis and Ubermind Inc. If you have followed my Twitter you'll have noticed that I sent a couple processed photos direct from my iPhone. It is a nice app that is based on the paradigm of "the best camera is the one that's with you", which is indeed true. The most memorable moments are the one's where you don't carry a full DSLR kit with you, and the cameras in phones aren't that bad actually (well the iPhone 3G's isn't that great, missing autofocus). As this is a nice little app you can expect more photos to come from me, a little more frequent than my Flickr-updates.

That being said, first my photography was more or less capture everything and selecting afterwards often missing just the shots I wanted. I tend to be a bit more selective in what I shoot these days, trying to add some personal creativity in the mix as well. This creativity expresses itself some personal touches, and from somewhat different angles and views (wide-angle lenses are quite fun). You might have noticed this on my Flickr photostream, which has reached recently exactly 1000 photos!

With creativity being one thing, the impact of photos on other people and the story a photo tells are both other important aspects of a good photo. Explorer Ben Horton has both in a video and a blogpost a great way of putting it. Wish I could go on a trip across Antarctica like Ben did...

During my trip through New Zealand in January and February I am going to try to capture some of the scenery -in such a way that each image tells a story of its own and together with other images- but also the more human side of it all. This will include some Maori people, and capturing some of their art, including the dances. Hopefully I can watch an All Blacks rugby game, to see the traditional haka performed in a modern day culture.