If there was a prize for the worst Blog!!

Ok so I am rubbish at updating my blog.. I do have a reasonable excuse though!

After spending 6 fun months in Melbourne, Australia with Katie ( my first g/f from the UK ) we found out we were pregnant!!! After a couple of weeks of deliberating over what to do next we finally decided to move back to Auckland, New Zealand as I have my NZ residency and could sponsor Katie for hers. So we settled into life in Auckland after a brief visit in the UK to break our exciting news to our friends and family and on the 5th March 2010 Charlie Grant was born..

What an incredible feeling, as im sure most new fathers would agree, there really aren't words that can describe the first time you get to hold your little baby boy. In fact it still gets me all emotional now just thinking about it 4 mths later. I think I spent the majority of my adult life wondering if I wanted kids and if I would be a good dad or could I support my family? All I can say is the second you set eyes on your son everything changes, all your doubts disappear and nothing else in the world matters more than your little baby boy.

Work wise I have had to hold down a sensible job to pay the bills..
In my spare time I have been working on my new business Real Pics which specialises in real estate marketing solutions, focussing around - Still Photography, 2D and 3D floor plans, High Definition Video Tours and  Elevated or Aerial Photography. You can find more details www.realpics.co.nz

Having spent the last few months doing the ground work Real Pics will be launching in full force over the next few weeks!! It goes without saying - if you know anyone who works in real estate or anyone who is selling their home please get in touch :-)

Ok so that's a really quick update of my life over the last few months. My mid year new year resolution is to update my blog regularly..

New Year.. New Country - Again!

Well its been a while! I have just logged onto my blog to find my last post was on the 19th of December 2008..

What a few months it has been, my last post was from the UK where I spent a few weeks catching up with family and friends over Christmas and I am now writing this from Melbourne, Australia. How did I end up here? Well its all thanks for Facebook - I got back in touch with Katie my first serious girlfriend from my home town in the UK. We had been talking for a few months and then happened to be back in town over Christmas and got on so well she invited me to join her back in Melbourne!

So here I am... Not quite sure what I am going to do here but I am hoping something might come up photography wise. In the meantime I am making the most of this awesome city, the summer my stunning new/old girlfriend Katie and all the great new people I am meeting.

Now I am settled in here I am going to get stuck in to taking plenty of pictures. Some interesting ones from Australia Day HERE it was a great day we estimated around 500 beers over the weekend!

Also a couple of pictures from a mountain biking event on Lamma Island, Hong Kong just before I left which I don't think I have posted.

Dutch Barge - Interior Pics

I have just taken some pictures of this stunning Dutch Barge! The images are to be used in adverts as this floating luxury home is for sale. This incredible floating palace is based on a traditional Dutch Barge design but has been lovingly hand crafted to incorporate a very contemporary modern feel. With no expense spared, its also fully equipped for trips to sea with the latest navigation technology and huge bow thruster for easy manoeuvrability.

Its very tricky taking half decent pictures in a relatively small environment like a boat but with the help of my wide angle 10-20mm Sigma lens I was able to achieve some satisfactory results. Most of the shots were taken on a tripod using a small aperture and long exposure.

If you like the idea of a luxury home that you can move around then contact ianandjenny@seeper.com for more details..

click here for a slide show of the pictures

Hong Kong's Best Kept Secret... Ssshh..

Love it or hate it, Hong Kong is an impressive city I have never visited or lived anywhere quite like it. For most people a visit will be either a stop over en route to Europe or Australia/NZ or a business trip which means meetings all day and wining, dining and partying by night. I'm sure I have heard the saying - " you never really know a place until you live there " and having now lived in 4 different countries I think its very true. Hong Kong took me completely by surprise. I agreed to move there with my partner without even visiting once and will never forget the taxi ride from Hong Kong station. I spent the entire journey face squished up against the window with my mouth open wide in shock, partly from the jet lag and lack of sleep but mostly from the towering buildings and the sheer number of people all busy going about their day racing around the streets of central Hong Kong. If you have never visited then its almost difficult to comprehend and on the first day as we walked down from our tiny apartment into the wet markets I really struggled to get my head around the contrast of flash multi million $$ office blocks and fleets of Mercedes limousines, then on the opposite side of the road local Chinese are struggling to scrape a living from what smelt like rotting meat and vegetable stalls.

I spent the next couple of weeks acclimatising to the Hong Kong way of life, a combination of exploring the streets and spending time hiding in the tiny apartment for some relative peace and quiet! I say relative peace and quiet because even inside you can never escape the constant rumble of traffic and people, taxi drivers must wear their horns out before tyres!

After a few months of living in Hong Kong and exploring most of what appeared to be on offer I was starting to feel a little penned in. Whilst its very convenient having everything so accessible and having 100's of bars, shops and restaurants on your doorstep, I'm used to open spaces and clear skies. There are a few places around Hong Kong that you can get away from tower blocks and hustle and bustle but these tend to be tailored towards the rich bankers and pilots whom make up a large majority of the expat population. Being neither rich or a high flying exec this environment didn't appeal much and I was struggling to justify paying over the top for things in flashy bars and shops. I think I have my home town of Boston in Lincolnshire to thank for this attitude and as my Grandfather still reminds me " you don't want to waste your bloody money boy"!!

Just as I was losing hope of finding a value for money countryside oasis in Hong Kong, Lamma Island appeared! Well it didn't appear its been there for years but I thought it was fully of pot smoking hippie drop outs and that the huge power station would mean that if the drugs didn't kill you the pollution would. How wrong could I have been? Well as I found out very wrong! Getting off the ferry at Yung Shue Wan ( the main village ) pier the first thing that you notice is bicycles everywhere, the pier is covered in them like a bicycles graveyard. Its not until you find out that there are no cars on Lamma that you realise that the main form of transport on Lamma is your feet closely followed by the bicycle. As the procession of people march from the ferry into the village passing the "cool wall" as I like to call it, the place where most of Lamma's secondhand trading is done. Then past the Chinese seafood restaurants Lamma is famous for, a couple of bars and half a dozen small shops that sell everything from tools to tins of baked beans. Initially I couldn't figure it out - this busy little village full of local Chinese and expats right next door to the raging metropolis that is Hong Kong, yet it felt like walking through a old fishing village on the Mediterranean coast! Everyone was friendly and people had the time to stop and chat even, the restaurants were sensibly priced and the food had a home cooked quality to it but best of all the beer was cheap!! Really cheap!! Oh and 10 minutes walk from the village you have a choice of 2 beaches and the water is clean and warm for swimming. Wow what a find, we couldn't believe our luck we knew we had to live here.

OK so what's the catch?? There must be something wrong with Lamma otherwise everyone would live there and it would just be like the rest of Hong Kong? Lamma is a lifestyle choice by Hong Kong standards, there is the 30 minute ferry trip to get there and the ferries only run until 12.30am so no late night partying in central Hong Kong. The ferry for me though was like a mini adventure on the water and a great time to sit back and relax with a beer and read a book or listen to my iphone. Although it seems Hong Kongers don't want to live on Lamma, they do like to visit so it can get very busy on the weekends but you soon learn to avoid them and find the places they don't go. I can't honestly think of a lot else apart from one thing that annoyed me - VV's! So what's a VV? Its short for village vehicle, basically they are like mini trucks powered by lawnmower engines and they buzz around the place moving food supplies, building materials etc.. All I can say is watch out as they have a habit of treating the narrow streets as race tracks!

All of this is nothing compared to the superb range of places to eat and drink, beautiful walks in the countryside, decent beaches and friendly people. A typical Sunday would start with a great fry up at the Banyan Bay bar, after an hour or so of drinking coffee, reading the paper and watching the tourists down main street its off to the beach. Mid afternoon back home for a shower and a snooze then down to the Deli Lamma for a beer or two and a curry or sunday roast washed down with a jug of sangria!

Its not fake or pretentious and Lamma is great value for money in an overpriced city where if you don't have money you can find it hard to fit in.

Merry Christmas - The 3 Matts Elf Dance!!

With Christmas on the way I thought it was about time I spread some festive cheer and all that stuff! I am particularly useless at sending Christmas cards to the point I have just give up, so I thought I would make a small effort to do something a little different.
To all my friends family and anyone else -

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ghostbusters - Secret Cinema

After only a couple of days back in the UK and staying with my brother Evan who runs seeper he invited me to help with an event called secret cinema. Once we got to the huge venue I was asked if I minded taking a few pictures for the event organisers of the setup and wow what a setup!! We arrived at about 12pm to find a pretty much empty hall and people frantically running around building props and setting up sound, vision, lights and chairs. I couldn't comprehend how in 7 hours time this was going to be the scene of a Ghostbusters themed cinema experience. While upstairs was being constructed, downstairs the cast were sorting costumes, hair and makeup, with another crew putting the finishing touches to photon packs and giga meters.
The seeper, Found Collective and Alexis involvement in the production was to create an interactive ghost wall which tracks your movement and displays you on a large screen as a ghostly figure surrounded by an aura type glow. Its the sort of thing you have to see to appreciate but believe me its pretty impressive technology and heaps of fun! Just as people get the hang of the whole spiritual interaction a demonised ghoul takes over the screen and scares people out of their wits, I have never seen a room full of people jump so high!
I had an awesome day helping rig the ghost wall and generally wandering around taking a few snaps and a great time was had by all it seemed.

Here are some pics from the day to give you some idea of how things looked.. To see all of them click here..

Change of Scenery

Nothing like a complete change to keep you on your toes! I have now said good bye to Hong Kong, maybe for good who knows? It certainly wasn't a planned move as such but then spontaneity can be the most exciting side of life, so they say. I will be in sunny England for the next few weeks at least until after the New Year, catching up with friends and family. Looking forward especially to hanging out with my brother in London he runs seeper and has some pretty big names on his books.
After my UK trip I will probably head back to New Zealand for a while until my next adventure comes up unless I get a better offer!! Just in case your wondering what a "better offer" might be it could be a number of things but a couple spring to mind... free beer.. dancing girls... fast cars yeah yeah every guys dreams. Seriously right now the opportunity to travel and take pictures would be a great offer, since I left New Zealand a year ago I have sort of caught the travel bug and I am enjoying my photography more and more. So if anyone is reading this and would like to pay me to take pictures anywhere in the world, please do get in touch!!

Will do my best to post some stuff from the UK I am hoping to have the chance to get out and about and see how a British winter can be captured on camera.

Night Photography - Hong Kong The Peak

After spending quite few months in Hong Kong I thought it was about time to take a trip up the peak and shoot the city from above. You may wonder why I haven't done it before? Well its not as easy as it sounds! Due to Hong Kong being one of the most densely populated areas on the planet combined with heat, humidity and the hideous amount of pollution that drifts over the border from China, most days you can't even see the top of the tallest buildings. If you watch the weather very carefully every now there are gaps in the smog and Hong Kong presents itself in a way most visitors are only likely to see on postcards. Don't get me wrong Hong Kong is a pretty impressive sight. Even on a hazy day you can't help but be in awe of the mass of towering concrete, steel and glass, but on a clear day it is breath taking. One of the best view points on one of these special clear days is from the Peak. The Peak is literally that, its pretty much the highest point on Hong Kong Island and top of the list when most people visit the city. Historically the peak was used for signalling ships and then later was home exclusively to rich expats and is still one of the most exclusive and expensive areas of Hong Kong. The best way to get there is by the Peak Tram which is operated on a cable system which drags the tram cars up the hill at an incredibly steep angle. Incidentally the tram system has been operating for 120 years this year, luckily they have made a few updates to the original construction! After a trip up the steep incline you will really appreciate what it must have been like before the tram was built. The favoured way up by expats in the late 1800's was by sedan chair, this is basically a chair with two poles running in front and behind and is carried by two men!

Once at the top, in typical tourism style you are forced to walk through a gift shop full of overpriced goodies that you will never need and then into the Peak Tower. Its last renovation was completed in 2005 and its now a full blown shopping and tourist centre with restaurants and even a Madame Tussuad's. You can pay the extra and take the zig zagging escalators to the viewing platform at the top, but I would recommend the free option using your legs and taking the 2.6km walk which takes you all the way around the peak. On the day I was up there it was pretty quiet and the path takes you through some lovely nature and with a great sunset on one side and the spectacular view on the other I was spoilt for choice!

Hmm I wasn't meaning for this to turn into an excerpt from the Lonely Planet but I thought I may as well stick a bit of extra info in for anyone interested...

So to the picture side of things - I wanted to get some nice shots of a clear Hong Kong which as I mentioned before isn't easy. When I first arrived I snapped a couple in daylight and some nice ones as the light started to soften, but what I was really waiting for was dusk when everything comes alive like lights on a Christmas tree. Anyway I have posted a couple of shots and I hope you enjoy them.

Article for "The Real Deal"

Earlier in the year I took on an assignment from New York based magazine "The Real Deal" they wanted to run a small article based on the property boom in Macau.
It was a slightly rushed job as they needed the pictures within 2 days but I happily dropped everything and hopped on a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau. After a day of walking round in 30degree heat I ended up very happy with the images I took home and had a great time! In particular my favourites were the night shots I did on one of Macau's many bridges. Although balancing my tripod and camera gear on what appeared to be a footpath but was a fraction of the width of what you would expect while buses and cars zoomed past was probably quite dangerous in hindsight!

Click here to see a copy of the the article and here to see some of the images I took. I was surprised by their choice of shots but its always great to see your work in print.

Casino Madness - Macau

Take a tiny piece of China smaller than an average city, add decades of Portuguese rule, then make it the only legal place that a billion Chinese can go to gamble....
The result an explosion of mega casinos, hotels, resorts, expensive apartments and a money making freight train that is turning over more in a year than Vegas!

Macau or Macao ( whichever way you choose to spell it ) for years kept out the U.S. casino giants only allowing local operations. This all changed in 2002 and since then the likes of Sheldon Adelson have plowed billions of $$ into construction of mega casino resorts, the most notable of which to date is the Venetian. This particular casino has a couple of particularly impressive facts - its is now the worlds 3rd largest building since the new airport building in Beijing was opened and to compliment this it also has the worlds largest gaming floor. If you like facts and figures it also employs 12,000 staff and includes its own 15,000 seat stadium inside! This giant attracts thousands of visitors a day mostly from mainland china but also from neighbouring Hong Kong which can be reached by ferry in 60mins, ferries run every few minutes 24 hrs a day the demand is so high. The Venetian is part of a master plan to create a Vegas style strip called the Cotai Strip named after the scrub land area of Macau it has been built on.
As I write this the Four Seasons has just opened its doors making it the second on the "strip" although being joined to the side of the Venetian makes it more like an extension than a resort in its own right and it is certainly built to the same lavish extravagance as its neighbour. Opposite and all around are construction sites working 24/7, within a matter of months this area will in some ways mirror Vegas with maybe just one major difference. From a western perspective Vegas has a certain mystery about it, excitement and maybe even fantasy probably due to Hollywood's portrayal of gambling gangsters and card sharks. While from a financial point Macau has already proved it will out perform Vegas I don't think it will ever replace the historic adventures of the real thing.