Middlehurst with Tony Hewitt & Peter Eastway - AIPP Grand Masters. Instruction for Advanced Photographers. Exclusive Access to New Zealand's Remote High Country. 5 nights/6 days

Middlehurst is a high end photography retreat for photographers who understand how to use their camera and are ready to learn about the philosophy and aesthetics of art photography and imagemaking.

Peter Eastway and Tony Hewitt visited Middlehurst Station in June 2015 with their Photographic Counsel and fell in love with the location. It feels like ‘Middle Earth’ and you expect to see trolls and hobbits around every corner. So enamoured are they with Middlehurst that it has now become an annual pilgrimage.

The Art Photography Workshop is limited to six participants.

It will be cold outside and the weather is variable, exactly what we want. The lodgings are basic, classic ’shearers’ quarters with shared bathrooms, but the home cooked meals by our hosts, Sue and Willie Macdonald will keep you warm and the cameraderie is first class! 

Now, lock the eight of us away on an amazing sheep station in the remote New Zealand highlands. When you stand on the top of a hill and look out as far as you can towards distant, snowcapped peaks, it’s breathtaking to realise this is all one station.

And it’s private land, so you can’t just go there by yourself. And even if you could, access to many of the locations is only by sturdy 4WDs driven by stationhands, or helicopter pilots who know the area.

Instruction for Advanced Photographers

Price: $9995 for 5 nights/6 days

Price includes:

• Photographic Counsel
• All transfer ex-Wellington
• All Accommodation
• All Meals

Minimum of 4 participants (plus tour leaders) and maximum of 6.

Further details on the Better Photography website, click here.

For bookings and final payments contact Kim on 02 4388 6851 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

BIG OR SMALL? MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU AND YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY!

Mobilestudio Pro In 5 Configurations

Wacom Special Promotion

Big or small, having all your editing tools out on location or simply on your lap is a great way to work. But which is best for you? By Peter Eastway.

A confession up front: I went for the big one! I use the 16-inch Wacom MobileStudio Pro, but my reasons for going big might be different to your reasons for choosing small! One of the pleasures of travel photography is being able to look at your work in the evening, pick out your best shots and, if you don’t fall asleep, perhaps edit a few of the photos that really inspire you.

The Large Screen

So, when I’m in my hotel room or perhaps working with other photographers, I want to have a large screen with lots of monitor real estate. I want plenty of room for my palettes and, importantly, a good size reproduction of the image I am working on.

I’m often leading a group of photographers when I’m travelling, so having a large screen to show them a Photoshop technique, play an audio visual or give a Powerpoint presentation is really helpful. So I rationalised that I needed the larger MobileStudio Pro.

But there are a couple of compromises, the most notable being its size and weight. Didn’t I just say I wanted a bigger screen? Yes, but when I’m sitting on a plane travelling, I think I’d prefer a smaller unit – although I have to say that, now I have mastered Wacom’s ExpressKeys and the Pro Pen 2, I am pretty efficient with Capture One, Photoshop and InDesign, even within the confines of a ‘cattle class’ seat.

And there’s also the little issue of price - the top of the range 16-inch MobileStudio Pro costs $4299, compared to $2649 for the entry-level 13-inch MobileStudio Pro.

But even the entry level MobileStudio Pro is a dream machine. Its specifications outshine top of the line laptops from only a few years ago, so how much power do you really need? I could do most of my work with it, certainly when editing my smaller Canon and Fujifilm files. It’s only when I’m playing with 100-megapixel Phase One files that I absolutely have to have the 16GB RAM.

So, perhaps we should look at the range of MobileStudio Pro computers and see what we need, starting with the 13- inch models.

There's the good and the bad with telephoto lenses. The 'good' is that they are relatively easy to design, compared to wide-angles at least. The 'bad' is that they quickly become large and heavy if you want a wide maximum aperture, like f2.8 or f4, and that can make them problematic for handling and travelling.

One of the reasons photographers wanted the wide apertures was to handle low-light situations. A wide aperture meant a faster shutter speed, which is what you needed to freeze the action, especially for sport and wildlife. Back in the film days, you could shoot with ISO 1600 emulsions, but the film was pretty grainy and often ISO 1600 wasn't fast enough anyway. A wider aperture was better than a high speed film.

Compare the situation today when Canon and Nikon cameras comfortably shoot at ISO 6400 (and often much higher) and the need for a wide maximum aperture can be reconsidered. Especially if you don't want to carry too much weight!

Enter Tamron's 100-400mm f4.5-6.3 Di VC USD (Model A035), for full-frame Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras. As you'd expect with a new telephoto zoom, it features VC (Vibration Compensation) up to four stops, meaning you can more comfortably hand-hold the lens in a range of situations, from sport to wildlife.

The 100-400mm lens uses three LD (Low Dispersion) elements for aberration reduction and Tamron’s eBAND Coating for anti-reflection performance. And at 1115 g, the new lens is claimed by Tamron to be the lightest in its class.

Magnesium alloy is used in key areas of the lens barrel to improve weight reduction, strength and portability, and at 197 mm long (Nikon mount), it's surprisingly compact and easy to use. Certainly there's no trouble fitting it into a standard camera bag.

The zoom lens is compatible with Tamron’s 1.4X teleconverter and the Tamron TAP-in Console, an optional accessory enabling users to update lens firmware and customise the lens settings, including adjustments of focusing positions for autofocusing and the operation modes for the lens’s Vibration Compensation system.

Additionally, an Arca Swiss compatible tripod mount is available as an optional accessory. Price is around the $1250 mark.

For more information, visit www.tamron.com.au