34 posts tagged “photography”

It’s still a bit tough blogging here, having to wait minutes for the compose screen to come up. I wonder where the delay is happening.
   A few pics of New Zealand views to share, all taken at various altitudes. Here’s one coming up the South Island, cellphone in flight mode:

   And from the James Cook Hotel down toward the ANZ building in Wellington:    And, finally, from Lucire’s assistant fashion editor Bronwyn Williams’ old flat, getting the city in:

Here is my personal transportation this weekend, courtesy of Audi. ‘Fire up the Quattro!’
   Not bad, and miles better than the A4 1·8 front-wheel-drive model I sampled last year. The power is certainly there, as is the grip, which solves two issues I had with the other B8 Audi I drove. The chassis feels very well balanced and can handle the power—something I really liked about the A5 and S5 models, which are on the same platform.

No, these photos do not form a theme. Just some totally random shots around Wellington during the last few weeks. With the borrowed dongle I was able to get most of them off my phone.

   Yes, I do have coffee older than some of our interns. Long story but we found these at the back of a shelf. Guess we always drank the new coffee first and these 1987 samples seem to have kept rather well … Also illustrates how little coffee I personally drink.    This woke me up one morning. In the distance, a helicopter is clearing trees. As you can see, not every day this autumn was lousy weather-wise, though you wouldn’t know that now.    Not something you’d expect to find in New Zealand: Dubya playing cards.    Last time I walked by here, it was level with Boulcott Street. Yesterday (and you can see how grey it was), the apartment complex and car park wasn’t there and what was went down quite a few feet. Apparently, this is the site of the new Telecom building. It was a bit of a surprise, though I can’t say what was torn down was much of a heritage site!

I had been under the impression that Red Chinese automaker BYD was a Toyota licensee, though in Autocade I stopped short of making this assertion since I had no proof of it. I did think it was odd that BYD has Mitsubishi-derived engines. It turns out there is no connection, but when you see things like the below you have to wonder.
   Two years ago, BYD issued this photograph of its upcoming model, the F1. It since renamed the car the F0, because it claimed it didn’t to get into a legal dispute with the Formula 1 people.

   Look familiar? While BYD might not want legal trouble with F1, it doesn’t seem to mind legal trouble with Toyota. Here’s a publicity photograph for the Toyota Aygo:    BYD’s general manager, Xia Zhibing, has been quoted as saying, ‘The BYD F1 is a model developed by ourselves and we hold the intellectual property right for it.’
   I guess there’s no shame at BYD, and that the ideals of truthfulness in Confucianism haven’t made a return to parts of Red China.
   Come on, Mr Xia, the only contribution BYD has made to the 2007 photo is in Adobe Photoshop! If you are going to lie about it, don’t make it so obvious by using someone else’s publicity pic first! At least use CAD to generate something new!
   Or this could be some form of getting war reparations from Japan, but that Toyota hasn’t been informed.
   And this is the company that Warren Buffett has put money in to. Somehow I think that if any BYD cars ever make it to the US as Mr Buffett intends, Toyota’s going slap a big court order on them, and not a single one will make it on to the market.
   If you look at the F3 and F6, BYD’s larger models, the doors look identical to those of the Toyota Corolla E120 and Toyota Camry XV30, but the front- and rear-end styling has been modified to resemble some of Honda’s work. I understand the dimensions are slightly different but that an expert should be able to prove objective similarity in the shapes of the doors—or enough to stop BYDs from going on sale in many markets.
   The F3 hybrid, the world’s first plug-in car, beating Chevrolet with its Volt, might have an innovative powertrain, but what is the likelihood that has come from somewhere else?
   BYD shows how out of touch parts of Red Chinese commerce is with, well, honesty and decency. I’m happy to deal with mainland Chinese firms, but only those that I am connected to by blood or referred to by family—and governments should not be signing things like free-trade agreements with the Politburo in Beijing till some of these intellectual property issues can be sorted out.
   New Zealand, of course, is a trifle too naïve, with its free-trade agreement.

[Cross-posted from Lucire] Lucire has a distinct Italian flavour at the moment, thanks in part to photographer Thomaz and his Milano shots from two fashion week shows so far: Byblos and Frankie Morello. Of the two, Morello is more newsworthy in its three-dimensional, origami quality; Byblos is more subtle, using silks and cashmere in showing off a structured, almost military inspiration.
   Stanley Moss, who gave us news of a special at the splendid Palazzo Magnani Feroni in Firenze, reports on more bargains in these budget-conscious times from Italy’s most artistic city. Whether you are shopping for gloves and handbags, ceramics, or a great-value meal that includes truffles, then his ‘Florentine Insider’ article has the low-down.
   The world does not revolve around Italy, as much as we would like it to: Elyse Glickman and Leyla Messian report from Hollywood on the Golden Globes’ suites, and we show off some beds that we spotted at a Design Mobel launch in Wellington, New Zealand last Wednesday.

[Cross-posted] As if Britain wasn’t already sufficiently heading down the V for Vendetta path (remember how last year, Mr Brown seized Icelandic funds on the grounds of terrorism—anyone know an Icelandic terrorist?), along comes amendments to the big catch-all Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 where people could be arrested and imprisoned if they take a photograph of officers ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’, says the British Journal of Photography.
   Anything could really qualify, couldn’t it? A journalist taking a photograph for a newspaper might fall foul of the provision. One time I photographed two French policemen hassling a street vendor. I never published it but it struck me that the gentleman was being hassled because he was black.
   Could this be helpful to a terrorist? Probably. While my motives were to document possible racism, a terrorist could use this image to show the prejudice against non-whites in the west and encourage attacks on the occident. Lucky I didn’t take the photo in Britain then.
   Equally a photograph of Big Ben with a police officer in front could be helpful to terrorists in figuring out just where policemen walked on their beat. Tourists beware. You could become a crook after taking pics of HM Life Guards (no, not the Baywatch–Alerte à Malibu sort).
   ‘Set to become law on 16 February, the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 amends the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding offences relating to information about members of armed forces, a member of the intelligence services, or a police officer,’ says the Journal.
   ‘The new set of rules, under section 76 of the 2008 Act and section 58A of the 2000 Act, will target anyone who “elicits or attempts to elicit information about (members of armed forces) … which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”.’
   Someone found guilty could be liable for 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine.
   This goes to the heart of civil liberties in the United Kingdom, something already eroded over the years by the European Union and now, under the guise of anti-terrorism. If it were proposed in the United States, some would label it as ‘un-American’, striking at the heart of their First Amendment. Well, this is un-British. Forgive me for having a memory, but when Britain was a regular terror target during the Troubles—when Britons were being blown up by the IRA—no such laws were required and the country muddled through.
   Policies regarded as anathema when I was a child, such as a UK identity card, are now accepted; this is merely another in a long line of Labour policies of late that leave me unsurprised at the number of UK immigrants to New Zealand. Many are documented regularly at Alfred the Ordinary’s blog, which actually has a V for Vendetta (movie) line in its header. It is becoming more appropriate by the day unless the British public stands up—and recent events have shown that, in the words of Bob the Builder (in Neil Morrissey’s finest hour?), ‘Yes we can.’

Some more shots of New Delhi, including governmental buildings (spot the white Hindustan Ambassadors outside—these are the vehicles of the bigwigs here, and no one seems to remember the design was an old Morris Oxford’s) and some of the colonial architecture from when the Britishers (as they are known) occupied the place.
   I was ferried around in the back of a Toyota Corolla (don’t laugh), but the Japanese, rightly, have a reputation for good-quality cars. However, I see Ford doing quite well in India: its Fiesta model is actually more advanced than any compact car the company sells in the US.

   While New Delhi was a real mix between old and modern, Gurgaon, south of the capital, looks like something out of Metropolis. Here are some shots as I was ferried in:

[Cross-posted from Lucire] Campari launched its 2009 calendar, starring Jessica Alba, at a celebrity event in Milano yesterday. We’ve featured a few of Mario Testino’s stunning images from the calendar, with Alba promoting the red spirit in each one, some subtly, some less so (with the Campari bottle being quite noticeable). Also noticeable: make-up has been getting a lot more glamorous as 2009 begins.