MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM GAP

Its the one time of the year you're allowed to just eat, eat and eat some more. Its been a fantastic day down in Tauranga with just some of my large extended family, with 22 of us gathering at my cousins place for lunch. I hope you all had a fantastic year and enjoy the break and the New Year and hope you have all set your goals for next year. All photos were shot on my new 50mm f1.8 lens.

Signing off for 2009

Grant Armishaw

Things that spin

I went into Ponsonby last night and checked out the wonderful Telecom Christmas Tree light show. You lie underneath the huge setup on beanbags and just enjoy. You become very transfixed. I would recommend you go see it. There is also one in Wellington at Frank Kitts Park. This was taken on my brand new Sony cellphone C510a. It has a fantastic little 3.2mp Auto Focus camera in it.

Debi and Simon's big day

A week ago I was privileged to be chosen to photograph Debi and Simon as they joined together in marriage. It was a wonderful day and here are some of the many images from the day. Congratulations guys. Thanks for choosing me.

There is no such thing as an original idea

There is a saying that floats amongst the world wide photographers community that there is no such thing as an original photo. Up until now I haven't really taken much notice of this. I thought all my great ideas and concepts were my very own, my creation.

However with millions of cameras on this planet there will inevitably be someone, somewhere who has already used your brilliant idea and you have no idea till someone politely congratulates you for replicating with great precision a famous shot of this or that.

I have very recently been in this very situation. Today in fact. And it has occurred within a much closer community than I would have ever imagined.


On my recent trip to the Tongan Island effected by the Tsunami, I captured a really intriguing image of something I found in the wreckage of what was left after the Tsunami had ripped through a village. You may have seen it in my 2nd to last blog. Well here it is again.



Now this afternoon an old colleague of mine emailed me, with an extremely freaky revelation.

He quoted what I said before about 'no such thing as an original photo', and revealed to me that he had in fact seen an image almost completely identical to this one in the past. And he wasn't talking about one he had seen in a book of famous or historical photos, in a newspaper or on the web. It was an image that our very own Ex Boss had taken himself in the 1990's in Kuwait. I myself have absolutely no recollection of ever seeing such an image or hearing any stories about it. On talking with my old boss later on today it was revealed that he had it on the wall in his office while he was working with me but not once did I take any notice of it or recall it in any way in my memory bank while photographing my version of it in Tonga.

It just goes to show that either our photographic 'vision' is very similar or there truely is NO SUCH THING AS AN ORIGINAL IDEA.





True coincidence is my verdict.





Here is my Ex bosses photo.


Credit for this image to Paul Stein.

Cheers for the great training Boss ;-)