2012 January

One of the cool things about photography is catching up with people I have photographed previously: so it was great to catch up this week with my old friend from Rebekah and her daughter Minnie. Minnie still moves ten times faster than me and like last time I had a hard time keeping up! We ended up with some great images that really showcased Minnie’s energetic personality: we had a lot of fun…looking forward to next year!

This years Island Bay Festival sees the return of the Ribble Street Trolley Races! If you’ve never seen Trolley Derby racing before then the Trolley Derby is a must see: its the only Derby run in the Wellington region. The organizers are looking for competitors as well: so if careening down a street in a box on wheels sounds like your thing, then get started building your trolley!

 
I took a few shots with Derby organiser Dave and his son on Ribble Street and up at Mt Victoria for a bit of a different, more adventurous look! For more information about the races, click here. The Island Bay Festival runs between the 11th and 19th of February at venues all over Island Bay.

 

Every year the ASB Tennis Centre plays host to a couple of International Tennis Tournaments: the ASB Classic and the Heineken Open.  I was in Auckland for a week during the Classic, so I thought that there would be no better opportunity to give the Beast a solid workout than an international sports tournament featuring some of the worlds best talent.

 

From a technical point of view the Beast performed outstandingly.  Indoors in low light at times I shot at ISO 6400 and got usable images: and in good light the camera is fast and quick.  The Beast was designed to capture high speed action: and I think I only missed focus less than ten times out of the thousands of images I captured while I was at the Classic. While I didn’t need the 8 frames per second that the Beast could produce it was nice to have and I had a tendency to overuse it because I could! So for its first proper run in the wild, the Beast has proven its mettle.

 

As for the Classic: well like every year the tournament runs like a well oiled machine.  From the Catering Team at Austins, to the elaborate rituals undertaken by the Ball Boys/Girls at every change over, to the magnificent talent on show on the courts, the Classic (and the Open, which I couldn’t attend) are world class events that Auckland Tennis put on every year that they should be proud of.