Aperture Priority : Photographs and stories by Rick Harvey

Liverpool Football Club flying in my back garden.

Colour In The Garden

  If you’ve visited my Facebook or Instagram pages in the past couple of days you would have seen one or two photographs I captured highlighting the wonderful range of colour in the garden as we head into Autumn proper. The photos were almost “shot on the run” as I...

our three rescue dogs every dog matters

Every Dog Matters – And A Shift To Super Fast WPX Hosting

  Those of you who follow my blog, my Facebook page or Instagram will know that Lyn and I have three dogs rehomed – or rescued – from the SPCA. You probably also know that for many years we volunteered at the SPCA – first driving the animal ambulance at weekends,...

tomatoes on the vine captured with a nifty fifty type lens

A Nifty Fifty for Micro Four-Thirds

When I was growing up a nifty fifty was a small motor scooter – usually a Honda with a 50cc motor, and naturally red – the type of motorbike any newbie-rider could handle. Now, in the photography world at least, nifty fifty refers to a 50mm lens; a prime lens...

flirting with auto iso new growth koru on a NZ bush fern alongside the grandjeans walkway

Flirting with Auto ISO

  I have always been aware that most digital cameras have an Auto ISO feature but was never inspired to work with Auto ISO as my default setting. This came about in part because I soon discovered that my first DSLR – a Nikon D5100 – didn’t perform too well...

Roads Less Travelled - A tui feasting on flax at the Bluff Hill Lookout

Roads Less Travelled

As we spent Christmas at home this year, and as the weather was really kind to us, we decided to do a few day trips on roads less travelled (by us anyway) in Southland. Roads less travelled – just an excuse to show off images of our beautiful Southland So,...

I still shoot film - Nikkormat FT2 with 43-80 zoom and 28mm prime lens

I Still Shoot Film – Occasionally

Perhaps to say I still shoot film – even occasionally – is a little bit of a white lie It has been about 12 months since I last put a 35mm film through any camera. I do, however, still have a functioning Canon EOS 1000F which I fully intend to...

the craypot world famous at jackson bay scaled

Jackson Bay Sandflies Are Huge!

The Jackson Bay sandflies are huge…. But this is not actually a sandfly. It is a urepetala carovei…a New Zealand bush giant dragonfly. This incredible flying machine can grow up to 86mm long and have a wingspan of 130mm. We spotted this sunbathing on a log at Ocean Beach, just...

The Frymonger at the Farmers Market Oamaru

Oamaru – More Than Meets The Eye

More than meets the eye We’ve been back from our last motorhome trip for over two weeks now, and it was only yesterday that I finally got around to checking some of the photographs I had taken since leaving the West Coast. After a couple of weeks in Greymouth looking...

rusty nuts

5 Great Reasons To Use On1 Photo Raw 2022

Shortly I’ll tell you my 5 reasons to use On1 Photo RAW 2022, but first a little background. The last full version of On1 Photo Raw I purchased was On1 Photo Raw 2018. This was an upgrade from the original On1 Photo 10 I had been using, prior to which...

a brief excursion to wellington

A Brief Excursion To Wellington

  We were very lucky that New Zealand, except for Auckland, moved from Covid Alert Level 3 to Level 2 at one minute to midnight, Tuesday 7th September. Lucky because Lyn and I were due to fly out of Invercargill on the 8th for a brief excursion to Wellington to...

Overlooking Karitane

Goodbye To The Nikon D300

Although it was introduced way back in 2007, the Nikon D300 DSLR is still very much fit for purpose. So it was with a certain amount of sadness that I recently decided to part company with my D300. Why you ask, get rid of a sturdy workhorse such as the...

on the boardwalk

Some Of My Favourite Photographs

I’ve taken the opportunity over the last few weeks while we’ve been in lockdown to troll through my archives and select a few of my favourite photographs. When I say favourite photographs I’m not referring to photographs that are technically and visually perfect. After all, to quote Diane Arbus – “I never...

iconic Invercargill Burt Munro - should you use photography presets

Should You Use Photography Presets

Should you use photography presets? Do real photographers use photography presets? I ask those questions, especially the second one, a little tongue in cheek because a few days ago a story about photography presets popped up in my Facebook news feed. I read it at the time – but didn’t...

oculus in the pantheon rome

I’ve Gone Full Circle With Lumix

Well, it seems that with the recent purchase of my new micro four-thirds Panasonic I’ve gone full circle with Lumix. Eight days ago New Zealand went into Covid-19 Alert Level 4 as the first case of the Delta variant appeared in Auckland. Lockdown –  maybe not an ideal time to...

sunset from our back deck 1920 1920 2

5 Reasons Why I Switched To A Micro Four-Thirds Camera

Shortly I’ll tell you 5 reasons why I switched to a micro four-thirds camera. But first – I have been a Nikon user for many years now and up until a few weeks ago had not even considered changing to another brand. It’s not that I am brand loyal, it’s...

kakapotahi views

Mist Opportunities

You may think that mist opportunities is a miss-spelling, and should be missed opportunities. In fact, it’s not wrong. Whenever you travel up or down the West Coast and back through Cental Otago via Haast Pass in dismal weather you are bound to see many mist opportunities. Here is just...

why shoot jpeg looking towards the mouth of the grey river

Why Shoot JPEG Instead Of RAW

Why shoot JPEG? Why shoot JPEG instead of raw is not a question I ever really asked myself. I was sold on RAW when I purchased my first DSLR and the salesperson explained the concept of RAW files to me. I am a self-confessed lazy photographer. I rarely, if ever,...

old humber rotting its life away

Selective Colour In Black And White Photography Can Look Good!

Whether you call it selective colour or selective desaturation, selective colour in black and white photography often seems to get a bad rap. Selective colour is one of many photographic cliches that some photographers think is a practice that should be stopped straight away. However as long as photography is regarded as...

sunrise at hina hina reserve catlins new zealand

In Defence Of The Humble Kit Lens

Don’t ditch your humble kit lens just because a “real photographer” tells you you need better glass on your camera. Yes – your kit lens is cheap and cheerful! Yes – it is probably made of mostly plastic and uses lower-quality glass! Yes – it probably suffers from barrel and/or...

crane on a construction site reaching towards the sky

Candid Street Photography

I’ve never really tackled any candid street photography before, but an opportunity arose recently so I took a crack at it. There is a major redevelopment underway in the heart of my hometown Invercargill. When I say major that’s exactly what I mean. A complete city block has been razed...