Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction
I shot these family portraits back in 2007. The family dog is named Shasta. He was a typical mellow lab, super happy to be around people and fun loving. I just got an email from the family saying that Shasta is being sued. Apparently Shasta was home alone when an intruder broke in. He startled [...]
Newborn Baby Portrait
Last night I had a wonderful shoot- a newborn baby portrait. We did the shoot at the family home. Despite the cold snap storm that is bracing the entire country and the hail stones hitting the car, we managed to get inside and set up. The family home was warm and loving. We did portraits [...]
“Let’s Shake” – Handshakes across the Tasman.
I voluntered for Melbourne artist Karen Casey back in June. I shot portraits for her project “Let’s Shake – Handshakes across the Tasman.” She came to the Marae at Te Papa here in Wellington and had participants shake hands with plaster in between. The resulting “Hand Shells” were used as part of an art instillation which [...]
Studio shoot for the Carter Observatory open day
I was commissioned by the Wellington City Council to do a studio shoot for a promo they are running on the upcoming open day at the Carter Observatory. The brief was to photograph a little boy looking into a telescope in front of a white wall (for cut out purposes). The photo is for an [...]
Personal Project- Night-Fill staff
Here is a first take on a personal project I recently conceived and have started working on. I have gained access to photograph night-fill employees at The Warehouse in Lyall Bay.
Shake the Fat dancers have a winning combination
On Monday 19 October, 2010 I was commissioned by the Porirua City Council to photograph an Aerobics Dance troupe named Shake the Fat. The image is to be used for a council newsletter describing the troupes latest success in a national competition. As expected, the troupe turned out to be lots of fun to work [...]
Booksellers NZ 98th Conference
A portrait made immediately after John Allen, Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade spoke at the Booksellers NZ 89th Conference on “Nation-Building with Books” – John stands in front of a display that was created for the conference made out of books. John’s presentation really impressed me for the passion and enthusiasm [...]
Portraits can work on a rainy day…
2010-05 Rebecca and Kieran Engagement Portraits slideshow – Images by Mark Tantrum This portrait session was done on Tuesday May 25th 2010. The day started out great, but the wind and rain picked up by midday and by the time we got to the beach it was basically a miserable day. Rather than cancel, we [...]
Formal studio portraits with a touch of cool
I have photographed this family a number of time for different reasons- stock photo shoots for iStockphoto.com and for the Health Trust. This time was family portrait session with an in house portable studio setup. The first shot was the formal portrait with black background. The real challenge was to light it with some stronger [...]
Family Portraits at Baker Beach San Francisco
I was hired to do family portraits in San Francisco’s Baker Beach. We decided on a Saturday morning shoot. The day turned out to be forecast for warm weather. This resulted in a crowded beach despite the early start. So OK, I have worked with crowded areas before – it is about timing, waiting for [...]
Portraits of Kids in Kimono
I was hired to shoot a portrait of a three and a five year old siblings dressed in traditional Kimono recently. The family and I agreed the best place would be at home because of the length of time and care needed to dress the children. When I arrived, I noticed the neighbors garden was [...]
Portrait of a Science Teacher
I have been planning to make a portrait of this new science teacher for a few months now- Its the old story of never enough time and its hard to set up something that works in the schedule. We had discussed doing an environmental portrait out on the ocean with sea kayaks, a hobby of [...]
Portrait appears in Intel video
Through my sister Mel, I was able to meet Olympic swimmer Eamon Sullivan while competing at Stanford University. On the day, I took a portrait of him in the practice pool. Mel emailed me the link to this promotional video for Intel’s Lenovo laptops which shows Eamon looking through his photos. I was pleased to [...]
Recent Family Portrait shoot
This was a recent family portrait shoot that we did at The Japanese Friendship Garden in San Jose. The trick with any of these popular spots is to arrive early (and get a permit), we managed to get most of the shots with a covering of morning fog that burnt off by the end of [...]