World Press Photo in town!

Wellington was bashed by a short storm at noon yesterday and 3,500 house hold lost electricity at the Hutt Valley. But today the sun is out, the wind is still strong and a bit chilly; but that is classic Wellington weather ;)

So where is "the storm, size of Australia"?

I am glad the weather did a reprieve, because World Press Photo is showing at Shed 11! And we are going!

Shed 11 at Jervois Quay, Queens Wharf, Wellington; nice brick facade to test lenses with!

WPP has been exhibited at Shed 11 for a few years now, this time round it will be from 17 September till 10 October. As usual it is organised by NZ Netherlands Foundation.

So how was the exhibits? Put it this way, if you have a chance to see the best of photojournalism up close; you will be silly to miss it!

Personally I was not impress with the premier award winning photo, but that is what contest is all about; judges decision is final ;)

Ayperi Karabuda Ecer, Chair of the 2010 jury put it this way:

" This selection is not an inventory of world events. It is a photographic journey, a visual puzzle celebrating the photographer's point of view, offering the very best in each category for you to reflect, question and enjoy."

And what a photo journey it is! Just for NZ$ 2.00 entry ;) Value for money!

I notice the exhibition is NOT going to KL! I wonder why.

Side Bar....

To save parking fee, I parked my Mazda 3 at the Oversea Terminal for two hours at $2.00.

Well, I under estimated how far Shed 11 is from OST! It took us 40 minutes to walk there! Mind you, it was a pleasant walk; there was the sun and cold strong sea breeze AND I am able to take some shots with my Olympus E-P2 with the two Leica M lenses I brought along! I had with me the 50/2 Summicron and the 28/2.8 Elmarit.

Due to the "half frame" size of the E-P2 sensor, the two Leica lenses have the same coverage of 100 mm and 56 mm in full frame term.

I wrote about my "Leica E-P2" here but I did not really have the chance to use the combo for outdoor scenery photos. Today I did...

I find the two Leica M lenses performed very well but the focusing in bright sunlight (using the electronic finder) is a real pain! I miss the auto focus with the regular Olympus and Panasonic lenses.

If you are using your M lenses like me, make sure you only use "A" and "P" setting on the camera; be wary about camera shake too, the built-in anti-shake stabilizer do not work well with manual focus lenses! I discovered a lot of blurred shots I took while in Shed 11!

But what about the bokeh of the 50 mm f2?

Well, I do not have a model handy so I test the f2 setting on my remote controls which were beside my work station ;) Hee hee...

I think the 50 mm Summicron deliver beautiful bokeh!

Now to find me a pretty young thing to photograph.....

Till next time.

** You can view the winning entries of the 2009 World Press Photo here.