Bill Hatcher Photography

Street Art Show, Sydney

It's unique living in a city where you can paddle your sea kayak over to a big art show. That happened today when Melanie and I crossed the Sydney Harbour to check out the work by over 150 street artist, including Banksy, being exhibited on Cockatoo Island. These are photos of the art.

  

    
           

 
 Also a tee shirt exhibit.

Much of the street art was exhibited an authentic manner and could be found in and on warehouse buildings.  but some works, like these by Banksy, were framed and hanging gallery-style.

Cockatoo Island

Are adventure photographers inherently selfish people? Maybe we are. For the last few weeks I have been enjoying climbing, hiking, paddling and biking all over New South Wales, Australia, but you don't see any photographic proof of that here. Did I make any photos while I was out, a few, but most of the time my hands were full of sweaty bike bars or trying to

Photo Stitch

I am reviewing some different techniques that I might employ for an upcoming shoot. One technique is the photo merge in Photoshop CS5. This program is often use to stitch photo together for panoramics. I've used this technique before, but never for any work I have published.

Below are some snap shots I took near my house using photo merge. Both photos use about 10-20 photos to produce the one shot.  Photo merge is a really fast way to work together a collage of many photos. A more finished product would be trimmed so you wouldn't see the irregular edge. In the shot of the pipe I like how I was able to get a nice shallow depth of field with a 35 mm lens at f 1.8 on a Nikon D-300s (50mm equivalent) to produce a wide angle view. To capture this, standing where I was, with just one shot would need the coverage of a 24 mm lens and I would have had much less depth of field. I don't know if I'll use photo merge to produce photos for the shoot, but it's always fun to explore the possibilities.

 

    

Exploring Sydney with the Nikon D-300s

These are some photos from a recent day I spent in and around Sydney. Occasionally I have to remind myself that I am living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. What better place to catch up on the Nikon D-300s camera than photographing iconic scenes around Sydney.

You might remember a couple of months ago I was vacillating between several compact cameras. What I was looking for was something that could work as a small discreet street camera. I reviewed many point and shoot type cameras and I decided the Leica X1 was tops for resolution and will fit in your pocket as well. But the Leicas limitations including slow focus and a fixed lens had me looking again at SLR cameras. I finally decided on the Nikon D-300s. The Nikon-D-300s will not fit in even a large pocket, but you get so much more for the same money spent on the Leica X-1 (I paid about $2,000 USD for the Nikon with a 35mm 1.8 lens). 

Why an SLR? I have been using SLR cameras with a gazillion functions, plus auto focus and interchangeable lenses for years so I decided why should I accept the limitations of a fixed lens range finder or point & shoot camera. Simply put a great shot only comes along once in awhile and I knew the SLR camera gives me the best chance of capturing that image.  

 

The D-300s is not the D3s, but it's fast, compact and reliable and really the perfect SLR for street photography. I saw these Marilyn Monroe look-a-likes on George Street. Taken with the D-300s 35mm 1.8

Cool bikes and the cool people that ride bikes

{I spent time organizing photo harddrives yesterday and I found this series of bike pics I took in Denmark last year.}  You never know when you might see a cool bike. Just another reason you should always have a camera with you. These are some pedal bikes in Copenhagen the indisputable bike friendliest city in the world.

                                                          

             

All photos taken with a nikon D-700 and 24-70 2.8 zoom. I have a smaller D-300s I use as well, the fact is I still like the slr for nailing a shot than the slower point and shoot or range finder cameras.
 
 
 
 

   

Street art Dunedin, New Zealand

 

Normally you'll find me  with my camera shooting sports in the mountains, deserts and on rivers,  I am not normally inspired to shoot in an urban landscape. I couldn't resist this cool location on the Leith "River" that flows through downtown Dunedin. The runner is Abbey Gould a native of Dunedin. From what I could tell this location is one of the few legal places to make street art in the city. I checked out a couple of other areas around the city as well, but this is the best street art I could find.I already knew Dunedin is a strong supporter of the arts. I think it's really cool the allows a place for street artists to express themselves  as well. I would like to credit the street artists who turned an ugly storm drain into something worth looking at. And yes it inspired me to come back and make some photos.

 

 

 

These are  photos of Abbey exploring the underpass

in the same location. It was a rainy day so I was mindful

of flood waters filling this concrete culvert. It was cool 

thinking that even in an urban environment you need to 

watch that mother nature doesn't bite you. Thanks to 

the street artists of Dunedin and  Abbey and 

my assistant Carmel for helping me to make these photos.