A lot of the time, good waves around Wellington in New Zealand are hard to come by. But if you are prepared to hit the road & do a little searching, you can certainly score some great waves.

I began watching the swell forecast earlier in the week, & things were looking promising with a fairly intense low heading north off the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Earlier forecasts were for 3-4m swells, but by the time the weekend came around the forecast was downgraded to 2.5m swells. The decision was to either stay in Wellington & hope for waves at Lyall Bay, or head on over to the Wairarapa & try & score much bigger & better surf.

Saturday morning came, & after a early morning check of Lyall, it was clear that I’d be better off heading over the hill to the Wairarapa. I packed the car ready for anything, & started off on the drive that would take just over 2 hours to the first surf break I was going to check out. The wind was blowing quite strongly from the NW when I got there, so I shot some photos & then headed on to the east coast where I knew it would be more protected. As I arrived on the east coast, I knew I had made the right decision. There were a only handful of guys out, & the waves on the point were pretty clean & a good 4 foot plus on the sets.

I ended up surfing a few breaks around that area over the two days, & I shot a heap of photos & some video too. Below is a slide show of just 28 of the photos I shot. You can watch the slide show & click on the photos to be taken to a larger version of it, of you can click here to go to the gallery. I’ll be definitely heading back that way next time there’s swell…

Surf Search Wairarapa | 3-4th July 2010 – Images by Mark Gee

The Gold Coast Australia is renown for its great surf & beaches, fantastic climate & a great lifestyle. It’s also where I lived for a big chunk of my life before relocating to Wellington, New Zealand. So I am fortunate enough to have lived that lifestyle by the beach, & being able to surf almost every day when there were waves.

I returned to the Gold Coast for two weeks there during May 2010 & wanted to capture some of these aspects of the Gold Coast life. My aim was to get up every morning just before sunrise & go down to the beach & photograph for an hour or so. Luckily for me, it was getting pretty close to winter & sunrise was at a some what respectable hour of 6.30am. I’ve done it before in summer, & because there is no daylight saving on the Gold Coast, sunrise is just before 5am!

The weather was pretty much perfect for the whole time I was there with tops around 21 degrees celcius during the day. Even the early mornings were warm enough on some of the days to head out for a surf in just boardies. This was a far cry from the weather Wellington was getting while I was away. I was even getting emails from people in Wellington a little disappointed that I had posted photos on my facebook photography page of prefect weather & pristine conditions on the Gold Coast, while they suffered in icy cold southerlies & driving rain for much of the time I was away. Good timing for me I say!

The only thing I missed & was hoping for while I was there, was more waves. There were a couple of perfect offshore days where the beachies were firing, but I was hoping for more swell so I could get a chance to shoot some decent waves on the points. I did manage to head down to Burleigh Heads to shoot one day when there was a bit of swell, but it was pretty small on the point. However, I did get a few shots, but it would be nice to catch it on a classic day at Burleigh.

There are 53 photos in total. You can watch the slideshow below & click on the photos to be taken to a larger version of it, of you can click here or on the photo above to go to the gallery.

Gold Coast Australia | Surf & Beach Lifestyle – Images by Mark Gee

My winning entry to D-Photo magazine's D-Kids competition.

D-Photo magazine in New Zealand run some great competitions, & one of them is the D-Kids photo competition. For every issue they run this competition where the winner wins a yearly subscription to D-Photo magazine as well as having their winning image printed in that issue.

I had shot a few kids photos recently so I thought I would enter my first photography competition by entering in the D-Kids comp with one of my photos. The photo I chose was one I shot during a casual game of backyard footy with a few relatives. In this particular photo, I caught Hudson mid air whilst diving for the try line after catching a grubber kick from his dad.

At such a young age, he’s certainly a talented footballer already & he gave me some great opportunities to shoot some really good shots. And fortunately for me, the shot I entered was the winner of D-Photo’s issue 36 D-Kids photo competition.

For those of you who don’t get a chance to see the photo printed in the magazine, you can see it on their site here, or just click on the image above to see a larger version of it.

Strapless kitesurfing in Wellington, New Zealand from Mark Gee on Vimeo.

Every now & then I have the chance to get in front of the camera instead of the one standing behind it shooting the action. This time round I was being filmed by Simo from Stikman Films for a short kitesurfing video for my sponsors – Takoon Kiteboarding Company. But getting out there & kitesurfing is not the only fun thing I get to do on this little project. I’m doing all the editing myself, which is actually not that easy when you are the subject…you tend to become your own worst critic.

The video above is just a few shots from a to be finished edit. It’s all a work in progress with a lot more footage to be shot & edited, but the end running time will probably come in at 3-4 minutes once the final cut is done.

The footage was shot on a Canon 7d all in slow motion at 50fps. I wanted to go for more of a laid back theme rather than the fast paced action you see in a lot of sport videos these days, so we shot slow motion at 720p (1280×720 pixels of resolution) with the option of speeding up to normal 25fps speed by just doubling the speed. We used a Canon EF 100-400mm f4-5.6 L series lens just so we had the versatility of zooming in & out between the focal lengths, & the editing & colour grading was done in Final Cut Pro. Stay tuned for the final cut…

Strapless kitesurfing - A frame from the video

Shane Anderson from Kitesurf Nelson getting some major air at Lyall Bay in Wellington, New Zealand

A few months ago I was in the market for a new housing for my canon 7d. I did my research & settled on a CMT water housing from the US. They were fantastic, & kept me informed all the way through the building process of my housing. Finally it was finished & shipped arriving on my door step just in time for the weekend. The housing exceeded my expectations & my 7d fitted into the carbon fiber body like a glove. I was very keen to take it out & get some shots with it that weekend.

Unfortunately the surf wasn’t playing nicely & the forecast was for pretty much no waves & a strong cold southerly wind. All was not lost though, because a strong cold southerly in Wellington, New Zealand means that the kiteboarders will be out in force. I headed down to the beach & there were already a dozen or so kiteboarders out playing amongst the pretty much non-existent surf. I loaded the camera into the housing, doing all the pre-seal housing checks, suited up in my wetsuit & booties & was out there. I went with the canon 50mm/f1.4 lens instead of the canon 15mm fisheye, & the 50mm fits snugly into the same dome port as the fisheye does. I choose this lens because in the kind of conditions that there were that day, you usually don’t get close enough to the kiteboarders to warrant the use of a fisheye. Sure I would have gotten a few photos where they would have been close enough, but not as many as I did get with the 50mm.

The day was overcast & grey so there wasn’t much colour around. I walked out to chest deep water & started shooting as the kiteboarders buzzed around me. I was pleasantly surprised as to how light the housing was how comfortable it felt when holding it by the pistol grip. I missed a few good shots while I was sorting out my camera settings, but once I had them I pretty much just shot away for an hour or so. I exposed for the kiters & let the sky blow out a bit. As it was fairly overcast, the sun was filtering through the clouds & was just like a big soft box in the sky.

When it came to processing the images, I played with a few colour options, but decided to do the whole set of images in black & white, as the softer lighting & lack of colour suited them more so than if they were in colour. I was happy with the final result, & the kiteboarders were pretty happy too – some of those pics would look fantastic as a large print…

Check out the slideshow below of the 32 images, & if you want to see a larger version of them, then either click on the image itself, or click here for the whole gallery.

Kiteboarding | Wellington | 01 May 10 – Images by Mark Gee

Paddy Bleakley, Ned Worboys & David McGurk from The Aviators funking it up.

Way back in January I headed off to the ABS Garden Magic Concert Series at the Wellington Botanic Gardens in New Zealand to see The Aviators play & shoot some photos. I’ve only just managed to go through the photos after giving my archive a much needed clean out, & thought the photos were worth posting.

The Aviators are probably Wellington’s best known funk band, & on this particular evening they were perhaps Wellington’s luckiest band too. The 2010 ABS Garden Magic Concert Series had been a washout & there were many cancellations on the other nights due to Wellington’s unpredictable weather, but this night was different. It was a perfect summers day in the capital, & the crowds had flocked to the Botanic Gardens with their picnic mats & chilly bins in tow.

The Aviators kicked off their set with the crowd instantly responding as revelers headed up to the get a spot on the makeshift dance floor. The seven piece band funked & jammed it up as the dance floor crowd grooved along. Everyone else squeezed into the limited space on the grass lawns & lined the paths as the funky beats reverberated throughout the botanic gardens. It was certainly a great way to end a perfect summers day…

I shot all the photos on a canon 5D markII using a 70-200mm f2.8 lens for the band shots & a 50mm f1.4 lens for the wider shots of the crowds around the gardens. The light that afternoon was pretty amazing too.

Check out the slide show below of all the photos, & if you’d like to see a larger version of a particular photo, just click on it in the slide show or go here to see them all.

The Aviators | Wellington | New Zealand – Images by Mark Gee

Tide Te Paki taking off onto what was to be one of the best waves of the under 16 boys final

The Wellington Boardriders Club hosted the 2010 Wellington Regional Scholastics Surfing Champs on Saturday March 20th at Lyall Bay in Wellington. The juniors fought it out in clean head high waves with a strong offshore wind blowing making it difficult to paddle onto the waves. However the grommets revealed in the conditions & made the most of having the corner pretty much to themselves.

It was a great day for photographing the event too, with clear blue skies & fantastic visibility. One of the highlights of the comp was when Tide Te Paki pulled into a meaty barrel on one of the bigger waves of the day. He also made a few cover ups giving him a convincing win in the under 16 boys final.

Thanks to the Wellington Boardriders & all the other sponsors for putting on such a great event, & I hope to be back shooting it next year. For full results, check out the write up on the Wellington Boardriders website.

There are 81 photos in total from the event which you can see here, or watch the slideshow below & if you see a pic you like, click on it to see a larger version of it. You can even purchase various formats of the photos by adding to cart & selecting the format you want. Any issues you can contact me here.

Wellington Regional Scholastic Surfing Champs 2010 – Images by Mark Gee

A line up off the Wellington South Coast

The beaches around Wellington city in New Zealand aren’t renowned for consistent surf, you need to head out to the Wairarapa coast for that. So when a 3-4m ground swell is forecast to race up the eastern coast of the south Island of New Zealand, then there is always hope & anticipation amongst the Wellington surfing community.

When the swell did finally arrive it wasn’t as big as hoped for and a bit of a let down really…I’ve seen bigger & better days on lesser swell forecasts, but I did manage to capture a few images anyway.

Check out the slide show below or you can go to the gallery with higher res images here.

Surfing | Wellington | 15 March 2010 – Images by Mark Gee

INNERSECTION winter round from INNERSECTION on Vimeo.

Continuing on with the friends of markg.com.au, I came across this website the other day called Innersection. It is a platform for creating 2-3 minute long surf movie sections that will potentially be part of a final surf movie. It’s also a contest that runs for a year, & you have a chance to judge each entrant’s section or enter as a film maker yourself. The film makers & the surfers that appear in those films not only get exposure, but also have the chance of winning some major cash. $100,000 is up for grabs as the grand prize for the winning section at the end of the contest period.

Innersection’s creators certainly have some major credit behind them. Legendary surf film maker Taylor Steele gives tips & guidance to potential Innersection film makers on what makes a good section, & Nathan Myers, who writes & contributes to just about every major surf mag around, spreads the word on the site.

As for the film makers & the surfers in the sections, well there is a heap of talent already coming through the doors, with some majorly sick surfing & tight edits going on. So it’s going to be a great contest with some great footage to come out of it at the end.

And not only do you get judged by your surfing & film making peers…there have been some pretty high profile surfers also chipping in – like Shane Dorian & Chris Malloy who will be looking over the sections & casting their vote. So surfers & film makers, get out there & start shooting stuff & show them what you’ve got on Innersection.tv

Check out all the sections on Innersection.tv here, or you can also head over to their vimeo channel & check out a few extra bits & pieces here.

As the Weta Digital VFX supervisors donned on their tuxedos for the 82nd Academy Awards at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre in LA today, the rest of us Weta Digital crew attended own red carpet event at a venue on the Wellington waterfront in New Zealand. Finally the moment had come for us to see true recognition, that the years of long hours & hard work had paid off as Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones made their way up to the podium to accept the Visual Effects Oscar for Avatar.

During my time at Weta, Avatar is the third film that I’ve worked on which has won the Visual Effects Oscar, the previous two films being King Kong & Lord of the Rings – Return of the King. I must say that of the three films, Avatar was certainly the most challenging film to work on, but I am certainly proud to have been a part of it. The hard work from all of the Weta Digital crew has certainly contributed to Avatar’s box office success, multiple Visual Effect Society Awards, a Special Visual Effects Bafta Award & now the Visual Effects Oscar.

Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones receiving the Visual Effects Oscar for Avatar.