PRINT of the Month for February is this colourful composition from Omata, on New Plymouth’s southern fringe. Enlightened fennel flowers front for an almost-full moon, rising slowly without fanfare.  The road is a quiet, no-exit one and but for a muted drone from distant SH45 the scene had no soundtrack. This fine art photo is printed […]

DECEMBER in my Modest Epiphanies 2019 Calendar (now sold out). This is a nice balance between ambient twilight and flash, which shows as only a hint on the flax. Most magazine photos with close-up subjects (especially people) are illuminated in the same way, but often with the subject massively highlighted. The Sugar Loaves – so […]

Summer Moon, Turtle Cove, Golden Bay Announcing a new fine art print for the summer season. My moonlit gem titled Summer moon, Turtle Cove, Golden Bay is printed A3 size (297 x 420mm) on archival photo rag paper, with long-lasting proprietary inks. It’s a charmer, but limited strictly to just 25 prints, each numbered and signed by yours […]

SEPTEMBER in my 2019 calendar! Lake Mahinapua is the first stop after Hokitika as you head south down the South Island’s West Coast. Surrounded by native forest, the lake’s a total gem left to us by the last glacial retreat ten thousand years ago. On a weekday morning in April there are few camper vans […]

An idyll of sheep grazing peacefully by a grove of cabbage trees (ti kouka), on old dunelands behind Wharariki Beach, in Nelson. This is a wider version of the image appearing as FEBRUARY in my Modest Epiphanies 2019 calendar. It was taken on the foot track to the beach – in New Zealand the grandeur […]

Fine art prints from New Zealand Original and beautiful fine art for your walls Available now from night photographer Barney Brewster Do your walls suffer the secret shame of art poverty? Then your problem is solved. Today for a limited time I offer lovers of New Zealand scenes 8 fine art prints, at a very special […]

Not every image in my Modest Epiphanies 2019 Calendar was actually taken in the month it displays, but this autumnal scene was a good fit for MAY, although the only hint of autumn being in the misty background. New Zealand’s native vegetation is almost entirely evergreen, but summer shows with flower stalks on the flax […]

This is JULY in my 2019 Modest Epiphanies calendar – still available for your purchase, by the way. This winter angle on the tidal flat behind Tahuna Beach benefits from its split focus and from two figures captured by chance (someone with their dog; I saw no one at the time). The split focus involves […]

Taranaki is famous for its well-watered pastures and of course for its dairy industry. This is FEBRUARY in my Modest Epiphanies 2019 Calendar, which is a selection from my book project of the same title. It features Al (my wife) walking towards a field of maize in south Taranaki, alongside what remains of the old […]

An unexpected First World Problem has been developing in western countries in recent years. It is an odd one, to be sure, and some might say it’s a “Giraffe in the Room” (the elephant needs a day off every so often). This is it: Considering the billions of images we now take every month on […]

So this must be New Zealand – with rain-enhanced corrugated iron, two fat lambs and a cabbage tree to prove it. This apparently rustic scene presented itself as I waited for my womenfolk outside a chocolate boutique on Beach Rd. It features as August in my Modest Epiphanies 2019 Calendar. See my earlier posts for […]

The freedom of the sands! This image is for January in my Modest Epiphanies 2019 Calendar. Although taken in autumn, it is very evocative of summer on the granitic beaches of Abel Tasman National Park. The two islands in the background (at left is a headland) are within the Park boundary but Marahau, the main […]

An image from my Modest Epiphanies 2019 calendar, now at the printers.  The title is taken from my next book, still in preparation, and from which the calendar pictures are a sample. An epiphany is defined as a moment of revelation or profound realisation, but my photo project only aspires to a modest attainment of […]

A back-cover glimpse of my new 2019 wall calendar, soon to be published. Notes on the photos and the year-at-a-glance are at the front; the 13 images by day and night are a sample from my book project of the same name, celebrating the distinctive detail and limber lines of this unique country. At just […]

This image, from my new book Perfect Evenings, has caused some furrowed brows as to how it was done. Although the shadows suggest the background must be a screen of some sort, the effect was actually achieved entirely in-camera. I used a telephoto (85mm) lens, so a shallow focus is inherent in the composition, but […]

My Perfect Evenings calendar is available again. Here’s a nice offer: I will send one free with every purchase of my new book of the same name, for the usual retail: $NZ50, post-free to the one address within NZ. Offer applies only while the calendar reprint lasts! Below are further sample pages from the new […]

My new photo book is now out. Looking good in just a small edition, it’s yours to purchase for $NZ50, post-free. Or I can send a signed copy as a gift on your behalf to anywhere in New Zealand (or to  Australia for $A55 or $NZ60), with a gift card enclosed. The season approaches! PERFECT […]

These two sample pages form a spread in my forthcoming book. The first is a surreal New Plymouth scene which makes good use of colour balance settings. The second scene is from Cambridge, using a more conventional colour balance. In my introduction I make the point that colour balance settings are an essential part of […]

My new photography book, Perfect Evenings: The joy of long exposures, is now being printed in Wellington. Read on for my special pre-publication offer. Completing the long exposure work first published in my Night Visions, this is a new sequence of luminous landscapes from the North and South Islands. Taken by twilight, moonlight, street light and starlight, the images are colourful, […]

Another sample from my 2018 New Zealand calendar, this one is for May 2018. The holiday park at Kurow was decidedly off-season on the cold autumn night that we stayed there. A bitter, blustery wind was blowing but I coated up and left our snug cabin with tripod and gear, determined to make use of […]

This is a sample illustration from my long exposure Perfect Evenings 2018 New Zealand calendar. Magnolia flowers are a welcome sight in the southern spring, appearing from July to September, depending on the species and local climate. By moonlight or street light they are even more luminous and lovely than by day. Printed in just a small […]

Perfect Evenings 2018 New Zealand Calendar: Back Cover My new calendar is a colourful compilation from many evening forays in the great New Zealand landscape. Those excursions aren’t always perfect but even my last one, featuring mainly low cloud, had its highlights (see my recent posts). Many evenings initially seem unpromising but a bit of effort, two gumboots and four wheels usually lead […]

My 2018 calendar is at the printer in Wellington and should be available within the week. The new calendar is a lovely selection from my forthcoming book of the same name: Perfect Evenings, and is in the same postable format as my previous calendars. An easy gift! September isn’t too early if you are flying anytime […]