When it comes to cameras, I seem to have been through quite a few in my life, ever since my first camera – one with the film cartridge that you had to wind on – which I, very carefully, dropped in a dog bowl full of water.

In the past year, I’ve owned three compact cameras – a Sony, an Olympus and one that I had for such a short length of time before I broke it that I’ve even forgotten what brand it was.

Most recently, my last camera broke because I was taking photos while digging silt and got grit in the lens. True story.

Sepia effects with a digital camera

Despite going through them so quickly, a camera is something that I couldn’t survive without. I’ve pretty much given into the fact that any compact camera I own is practically a disposable item but I get around this by always having another camera on-hand.

If you’re looking for a camera, my recommendation is to buy two. One cheap compact camera and one camera that’s as close to an SLR camera that you can get without being an SLR (and without being anywhere near as expensive as an SLR).

You may think that you should just buy a more expensive compact camera and take care of it, and if you really can then go for it, but I think the best approach is to aim for a camera that you don’t mind throwing around and getting dirty but then having another more expensive camera for those moments that really call for a great quality shot.

Macro mode allows you to take clear close-up photographs

You can get compact cameras very cheaply these days. Look at this range of digital cameras and you’ll quickly see heaps in the $150 to $300 range. Modern compact cameras can actually take really good quality shots but the one thing that they fall short on, being so small, is a good zoom. Most are either 3 or 4 times optical zoom. Digital zooms vary but are basically pointless. Take a photo on your computer and enlarge it using photo-editing software and you do exactly the same thing as if you had used your camera’s digital zoom.

So for your second camera, get one with an optical zoom of around 14 times. It will be bulkier than your compact but that’s what reminds you to take extra care of it! You’ll buy it a big solid case for it to makes its home in and you’ll only bring it out in those situations that call for it. In the meantime, your compact camera will be bouncing around in your pocket or glove-box and can be called upon for those unexpected camera opportunities. The extra zoom has to be experienced before  you can truly realise how handy it is and how much better your photographs would be.

Slowing the shutter speed gives life to fast flowing water

Also, if you’re only ever planning on taking photos for uploading to the web or for printing for your personal photo album, don’t worry about going for larger megapixel sizes. I took all of the photos on this page using a camera that has a maximum of 8mp, and yet many modern compact cameras go right up to 14mp!

Finally, if you want a really great way of finding out what sort of photographs you could take with any given camera, use Flickr’s camera select tool to view only those photos that have been taken using the camera that you’re interested in buying. It’s a fool-proof way of seeing how well any camera performs (and it’s interesting to see that the Apple iPhone 4 is the most common camera of Flickr users!).

A group of New Zealand photographers found out and effectively brought this guy to justice. After being exposed to the masses and featuring on the front page of a newspaper (and far more importantly, having a blog post on NZ Raw written about him) the guy sure learnt his lesson.

So following the negative post, I figured I’d write a nice cheerful one about some top wedding photographers around the country that I’ve had the pleasure of either meeting in person, online, or I believe I’m reasonably familiar with their work.

The majority of these photographers have all joined forces on Facebook and regularly praise each others work. It’s great to see potential ‘rivals’ actually banding together for a common good for a change. Although it does help that they’re mostly in different regions. That’s why I’ve separated this blog post into the regions around New Zealand.

If you’re looking for a photographer in a particular part of the country, just use one of these quick links:

• Christchurch
• Blenheim
• Dunedin
• Auckland
• Gisborne
• Waikato
• Anyone else?

Starting with …

A top wedding photographer in Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest and, since the earthquake, flattest city on the south island (it’s ok, I can joke about the quake ‘cos I was here).

Anyone who regularly reads this blog (that’s all of you right?) should have a pretty good idea that Heather Ellis Photography and I are actually connected here in Christchurch.

I’m lucky enough to be married to Heather’s husband’s cousin. Sounds like a long connection but we’re all very close! I’ve put a lot of Heather’s website together and, in return, she’s just generally awesome to be around.

Knowing that, it would be easy to say that I’m biased in endorsing her photography work. However, I genuinely believe that she is a fantastic photographer and has a brilliant style that is so easy to connect with. Her and Doug make a top team and create a brilliant set of wedding photographs for every wedding that they attend, as you can see from many of the examples in her blog.

They both know the Christchurch and Canterbury region very well and have performed their work at a number of different wedding venues so are adapt at finding those perfect settings for your photos.

I can honestly say that I would have been proud to have had Heather taking the photos at my own wedding, had she been in the country at the time!

Heather has an active following on her Facebook Page and she also tweets away on Twitter.

A brilliant wedding photographer in Blenheim

Blenheim, in Marlborough, is a beautiful part of the country that is well known for its fine wines and characterful vineyards.

Blenheim is also where you’ll find a great wedding photographer by the name of Jessica Jones Photography. I met Jess at Heather’s wedding (I was Heather and Doug’s groomsman). Jess and her husband, Paul, were Heather’s photographers for her own wedding.

It’s not often that Jessica Jones Photography come to Christchurch but Heather insisted almost to the point that the wedding wouldn’t go ahead if Jess wasn’t the photographer (much to Doug’s dismay!). An endorsement like that, from one photographer to another, is nothing to shake a stick at.

As well as beautiful wedding photography, Jessica and her husband also perform portraits as well as commercial photography, particularly in the Marlborough real estate world. They’ve taken some stunning photographs which make their website really worth a visit.

You can also find Jessica Jones Photography on her blog, Facebook and, just recently, on the front page of the Marlborough Express!

Getting married in Dunedin? Speak to Kimberley Cheyne

Dunedin, Otago. That’ll be another great place on the south island (most famously for students but also for normal people too!).

Kimberley Cheyne is a wedding photographer in Dunedin that also does portrait, graduation and landscape photography under the title of Kimberley Cheyne Photography.

I also met Kimberley and her partner at Heather’s wedding. In fact, there were a few photographers there … I’m surprised I got an invite!

Kimberley takes some great photos that are full of character and show her real sense of love for her work. She knows Dunedin well and, if you’re getting married there or nearby, you really shouldn’t confirm a wedding photographer unless you’ve taken the time to speak to Kimberley Cheyne first.

You can catch up with her through her website or on her Facebook Page.

Show me an awesome wedding photographer in Auckland!

Getting married on the north island? Don’t worry, we won’t hold it against you. In fact, if you’re getting married in Auckland maybe you’ll be lucky enough to employ the wedding photography services of Shot By Robins.

Shot By Robins is the photography company of Gareth Robins (see what he did with the name there?). He operates out of Auckland but travels around the country when required.

I’ve ‘known’ Gareth for a while now through the wonder of Twitter (his Twitter account is @shotbyrobins) but we finally had an excuse to talk on the phone just recently when we were discussing photo copyrights and the like. Gareth provided some great input for a blog post I was writing.

As you can see from his website, Gareth takes some stunning photographs and has an awesome style. He also does a free engagement photography shoot which is a pretty neat idea. That way you can get a feel for his style and how he works with people. He must get along with people pretty well as I don’t see him getting any complaints.

You can also connect with Gareth on his Facebook Page.

I’m getting married in Gisborne. Photographer please!

Is that so? Fair enough. Gisborne is a fine place to get married. It’s even the first city in the world to see the new day so if you say, for example, “I’m getting married on the 8th” you’ll actually be the first couple in the world to get married in a city on the 8th! Or something …

Anyway where was I … oh yeah, we’re talking about photographers in Gisborne. I’ve mentioned Gisborne specifically for two reasons:

1. It’s where I got married
2. It’s where you’ll find Jayson Kingsbeer

Jayson is a Gisborne wedding photographer that operates under the title of Jayson Kingsbeer Photography. Jayson is unique to the region as he’s an award winning photographer that has also been featured on television. All thanks to the amazing business sense and drive that he has at such a young age.

He operates all through the East Coast and carries out photography work in the fields of weddings, portraits and events.

You’ll find an awesome display of his work on his website and you’ll also find him cranking the social media-verse on Facebook and Twitter. In fact, Jayson’s another guy that I know through Twitter and I try not to be too jealous that he has twice as many followers as I do and yet he’s more than ten years my junior! Good on ya Jayson.

How about the Waikato?

Also on the north island and in fact covering Hamilton, Cambridge, Tauranga and the Waikato, are Artisan Studio Photography. Artisan Studio is different in that it was originally started by a single photography and has grown to include the original photographer’s (Gill’s) daughter, Nicky, and then husband, Warwick, and son-in-law, Louis. Quite a team!

Each of the photographers brings their own unique skills, talents and style to the table to ensure that Artisan Studio can provide you with a style that best suits your own needs and tastes.

These guys provide some classy wedding photography services as well as portrait and commercial photography. Their website reveals their wide range of talents via their gallery so be sure to drop by.

Know anyone else?

Kiwis are great at recognising and raving about the talents of other Kiwis. If you’ve had a top experience with a wedding photographer in your region, let us know in the comments below.

Incidentally, if you’re viewing all these fine examples of wedding photography and you think ‘Man, I want to be a photographer’, speak to the guys at photo & video and they’ll hook you up with some gear to play with.

After much deliberation, I’ve called this post ‘Custom Photographic … Sucks’. It could just as easily have been called ‘Man Blatantly Pisses on Copyright Laws’, ‘Man Taken Down by Angry Internet Mob’ or ‘FFS, Did This Guy Really Think He Would Get Away With This’.

With more and more people using social media, posting images and videos online and sharing content with each other, it can be easy to forget basic copyright laws. We see something online that’s publicly viewable and we automatically assume it’s already been shared a million times and no longer has any connection with the owner.

Google ‘parked domain girl’ and you’ll find a great example of a photo that a guy took of his sister that was ‘adopted’ by the Internet and now is synonymous with a website that doesn’t quite exist.

One group of professionals that truly understand the meaning of copyright are photographers. Taking a photo is a photographer’s bread and butter. This is how they make a living. They train hard, learn tips from other photographers and they buy expensive equipment to help them do the job exactly right. The result is usually a fine image that they’ve put their heart and soul into and anyone would be more than happy knowing that they’ve paid for a job well done. Photographers are proud of their work and would never even think of taking another professional’s photographs and displaying it as their own work.

Unless you’re the guy behind Custom Photographics.

Yesterday, a photographer friend of mine pointed me in the direction of a great story that was well underway. I say story but perhaps ‘tactical assault’ would be more appropriate.

A great Blenheim photographer by the name of Jessica Jones happened across a Facebook Page that was advertising photographic services (in Kalgoorlie, Australia) and displaying some examples of their work. Some of these examples looked familiar to Jess. They should have done – they were her own photos that she had previously published to her own Facebook Page.

Horrified, Jess sat back and had a good think about what to do. Exposing this guy immediately might mean that he’d simply shut down his page and start up another, ensuring that he blocked her account from seeing it. No, this guy needed to know that his game was up. That people knew his complete lack of ethics and respect for others. This guy needed to be exposed.

So Jess and a few other Facebook users, many of them photographers themselves, joined in with other Facebook users that were already starting to post comments on this guy’s wall.

One by one they ‘Liked’ Custom Photographics Facebook Page and began to place comments and requests for services on his wall and photos (I say ‘his photos’ in the loosest sense of course) to test his resolve.

They complimented him on his diverse range of styles (he had taken photos from a number of different photographers).

They asked him technical questions about his camera settings.

They lavished praise on his effective use of the colour red.

It wasn’t too long though before other photographers that all had images stolen by Custom Photographics and knew the story with him and saw the positive comments, not knowing that people were having a stab at him, and commented themselves to say that the guy was wrongly promoting the photos of others.

Knowing the game was up, the photographers came clean and demanded to know why Custom Photographics had taken their photos – in some cases even removing the copyright watermark to hide the fact that the photos were taken by other people.

Backed in to a corner and with his phone number published, Custom Photographics tried to make some pathetic claims about copyright law …

Yeah, mate. Try telling that to Warner Brothers and Dreamworks.

At first, not wanting to tarnish his own Facebook Page, Custom Photographics jumped on the pages of some of the photographers that had called him at his game, posting profanity on their own walls.

A change of plan and he instead tried to suggest that his intention was merely to show a suggestion of photos that he could have taken. I guess if he’d had the skill, the education and the means to do so.

Finally, the guy appears to have thrown in the towel and removed his Facebook Page. Or has he? There is some suggestion that the page still exists but may have been blocked to all users that are from New Zealand.

Check out the Facebook Page for yourself to see if it displays.

Either way, the page was posted in a Flickr discussion where photographers posted their own insight into the strength of this guy’s character.

How can you stop people taking your photographs online?

Without morons like this guy, the Internet is a great place to display for photographers, videographers and artists alike to display their work and encourage further business.

Sadly, there are people that will not only take your images for their own promotional use such as advertising and other marketing material, but will even try to suggest that they took your photos themselves and that they are a true example of their expertise.

There are some ways to stop, or at least reduce the chances of, other people taking your work. Unfortunately, there are ways around every one of these. The fact of the matter is, if you publish something on the Internet, it can be taken by others.

Some methods include:

Displaying watermarks on your photos

A watermark is effectively an image of text or a logo that is displayed on a photograph itself. They’re often made slightly see-through so that they don’t distract from the image.

However, if they are discreet and placed in the corner, they can be easily removed by cropping the image (Custom Photographics did this). If they are large and cover the entire image, they can ruin the photo itself.

There are a few ways to add watermarks to your photos. One way to add a custom watermark to a large number of photos at once (as well as bulk resizing) is through some software called VSO Image Resizer. You can download this from download sites like afterdawn.com.

Removing the right-click function on your website

A typical way to take photos from a website is to right-click on the image with your mouse and save the image to your computer.

Removing the right-click function is one way to make saving your images harder to do. We’ve done this with Christchurch wedding photographer, Heather Ellis’ website.

However, it can reduce the usability of your website (other functions such as ‘Open link in a new tab’ are also removed by doing this) and, again, there are simple ways around this.

Luckily, many people that steal photos, like Custom Photographics, aren’t quite up with Internet shortcuts so if you do want to disable the right-click function on your website, you can add some code within your website’s header – for example, if you have a WordPress website, go to Appearance -> Editor -> header.php and paste the code somewhere within the text (back up the file first in case you make a mistake as this could ruin your website!).

One version of the ‘disable right-click’ code can be found on the Dynamic Drive website. Note that you can replace the alert text with your own.

As mentioned though, there are ways for a user to disable this function.

Don’t upload photos to Facebook

Facebook privacy laws really leave something to be desired and are not always enforced well. Facebook themselves actually state that once you upload a photo to Facebook, you give them permission to store it on their own servers and use it for whatever purpose they like. That’s why, when a person goes missing, you’ll often see that person’s Facebook profile photo in the news. Facebook have given that news source permission to use your photo.

However, Facebook is still a great way to promote your business and why should you miss out simply because some people actually believe they can take your photos and display them as your own?

Hopefully the story above will show that the number of people with ethics outweigh the number of people without. Power to the people!

Use a service such as Flickr

Again, Flickr isn’t foolproof and stealing photos from there is quite easy. But the difference between Flickr and Facebook is that Flickr is made with professional photographers in mind.

On Flickr, you can assign licenses to your work and, should court proceedings actually be necessary, your rights will be much better protected within Flickr and within Facebook.

Don’t bother!

I had a great conversation with Gareth Robins of Shot By Robins about this whole story yesterday. Gareth is a professional photographer in Auckland and was one of the photographers fighting to take down Custom Photographics.

As a photographer, Gareth has experienced others taking his photographs and displaying them on their own Facebook albums, although only as the photos happened to feature that person rather than the person was trying to take his work.

Gareth suggested that perhaps it wasn’t worth trying too hard to protect your photos as people will always find a way around your protection.

The precautions he takes are mainly just to not upload a lot of his photos to Facebook, other than a few key examples of his work. He points out that Facebook isn’t too great at maintaining the quality and colour of a photo once it has been uploaded and, while he admits that he would rather people purchased his photos correctly, he did see a photo of his that was taken and used as a Facebook profile photo once but it actually brought him more business!

The user’s friends all commented on how great the photo was and asked where they could get a similar photo taken of themselves.

The morale of this story

In summary, if you’re going to advertise yourself as a photographer and take other people’s photos to display them as your own, don’t be surprised when those photographers upset and don’t be surprised when a letter from a lawyer turns up on your doorstep.

And to those photographers and photography fans that all joined together to take this guy down … nice work ;)

A while back I wrote about the KeepCup, a sexy little re-usable coffee cup that’s popular amongst those in the know. The KeepCup replaces those freakin’ awful disposable cardboard cups that you still get in thousands of cafés and petrol stations around the country.

By re-using your KeepCup, you’re helping to reduce landfill and help the environment, all of which adds to your sex appeal (sorry I somehow started on the ‘coffee cups are sexy’ route and can’t seem to break away from it).

Now, a New Zealand ‘coffee lover and landfill hater’ has taken the re-usable scenario one step further in the form of Mug Hug.

Introducing the Mug Hug

The problem with the KeepCup is that it still uses a fair bit of plastic to make. And all the while, chances are that you still have your favourite mug at home which, of course, isn’t practical to take to a café because it has no lid.

That’s where Mug Hug steps in.

Mug Hug is a ‘silicone mug lid’ that fits a number of mug sizes to form a seal. You can put it on your own mug to turn a normal coffee cup into a takeaway coffee cup.

The Mug Hug comes in two different sizes, one for ‘most tourist style and printed mugs’ and the other for ‘most dinner set or modern, tapered ceramic mugs’. According to the back of the pack:

Mug Hug is a flexible lid that fits on your favourite mugs. It simply presses on or the outer wall stretches to seal on the mug. Only for responsible adult use.

Not sure if I should be operating one as I’m far from being a responsible adult but I didn’t have any problems.

Also on the box:

• Made from food safe, tasteless silicone
• Dishwasher safe and easy to clean
• Not for microwave oven use
• Stackable in your cupboard for easy storage
• Easy to drink from, similar to cafe to-go cups

Fear not, dear consumers, I’ve had a jolly good think about this on your behalf and I’m reasonably certain that the silicone is merely tasteless in terms of affecting the flavour of your coffee rather than tasteless in that it comes in yellow with pink polka dots and asks your mum out when it’s had a few drinks.

Does it Work?

Yup.

Maybe add some more detail?

I got chalk on my hands but there’s a strong possibility that that was due to the stupid words I wrote on my mug while I was taking photos of it (sorry about that, I’m a pretty amatuer product photographer).

The lid seals the coffee mug well and is quite easy to drink out of with the lid on. Dare I say it, it’s easier to drink out of than the KeepCup.

What’s really cool is that it also helps the coffee to stay hotter for longer. Despite being into cool takeaway coffee cups, (you’re all jealous of my camera lens coffee cup), I spend more time making coffee while at work than I do going out to buy takeaway coffees. As I mostly drink coffee while writing on my laptop (I’m drinking right now. Well not right now, don’t be stupid)  my coffee usually goes cold.

Right now, my mug is being hugged by a Mug Hug so it’s keeping itself happily warm while it waits to be consumed.

What does your wife think of it?

Funny you should ask. My wife just walked in and said “Oh hey that’s cool” so I’m just gonna totally generalise and take that as a common perspective from the fairer gender.

She was a bit more aggressive with it than me and thought that it came off the coffee mug a bit too easily but I think it’s a fairly good fit. You don’t want something that you have to awkwardly lever on and off each time you want to refill your mug but the lid seems to stay on fine while I swing the mug around.

Note that the lid does of course have a hole in it so you can drink from it so don’t swing it around too much (my wife would like to confirm that I shouldn’t do that as well).

So where can I buy a Mug Hug?

Write a highly popular and influential blog and you may just get one of these turn up in the post. Alternatively, you can try the Earth Angel online store (I’d try the ‘Drink’ or the ‘Reuse’ sections) or the Crumbles Art website.

Note that at time of writing, the Mug Hugs are shipping themselves on the way to those stores so you can’t buy one just yet but keep checking back. If you’re looking to stock them yourselves, contact Lawry at Mug Hug.

Update: I’ve just discovered that you can also buy the Mug Hug at Pomeroys Coffee Co. If you don’t see it in their online store, flick them a message and demand your Mug Hug!

If they go the same way as the KeepCup, I really hope that the cafés and takeaway coffee shops start stocking these themselves. Some cafés were offering a free coffee when you buy your first KeepCup, I reckon they should do the same thing with the Mug Hug – take your own coffee cup along, buy a Mug Hug and get your mug filled up with coffee for free.

Take note coffee-type-beverage suppliers!

About a year ago I wrote about the KeepCup take away coffee cup. This is a trendy coffee cup based on a simple premise, the premise that buying take away coffee is fine but using hundreds of disposable cardboard cups each year isn’t.

A year on, my own KeepCup is still going (and I’ve probably stopped about 100 cardboard cups becoming land-fill) although it did get attacked by the dog and is a little bit worse for wear.

With that in mind, I casually kept an eye out for a replacement travel cup. I will get another KeepCup one day but in the meantime, I came across this bad boy. And you can’t deny, this is pretty awesome.

As you can see, this is a camera lens coffee cup. Looks like a camera lens, but it’s a coffee cup. True story. I found this online and had to buy it. In fact, I bought two and gave one to my photographer pal (she’s a Christchurch wedding photography chick don’t cha know) and she was pretty over the moon with it.

So much so that she immediately took a heap of photos of it, put them on her Facebook Page and had about 30 comments within half an hour. All along the lines of ‘I want one!’.

You can see in the below photo that this camera lens is a replica of the Canon lens. Looks pretty smart when you place it next to an actual Canon camera … although it does tend to make my own camera look a little small.

The buttons and switches don’t actually move but the two ribbed rings slide around like I imagine the manual focus would on the real thing.

Pretty smart huh? It’s definitely a conversation piece. I’ve shown this to a few people now and every one of them hesitated before realised it was an actual coffee cup. You’ll also spark up a bit of conversation every time you hand it to the person at the café when you ask them to fill it with your take-away coffee.

Only issues are:

1. Don’t get it mixed up with a real camera lens and a) try and attach it to your camera (this won’t look very professional) or b) pour coffee on your actual lens
2. Don’t leave it in the cup holder of your car. A passing criminal will probably think it’s the real thing and smash your window to get to it

The website that I bought this from also had a number of variations for different lenses (Nikon etc.). If you’re on the look-out for a novelty coffee mug in New Zealand, you should check out these cool mugs on the Mighty Ape website.

So yesterday I accidentally painted the deck a pretty horrendous colour that my wife will kill me for when she returns in a few days. To take my mind off the consequences, I decided to take a look at our finances and areas in which we could save money.

Recently, we bought a new car. A very sensible Nissan Wingroad. After having owned some daft boy racer/unreliable cars, I threw in the towel and went for something that should cost us much less in the long run.

On buying the car, we immediately rang up my regular insurer, AMI Insurance, to get the car fully covered.

A few days later, it occurred to me that I’m being unnecessarily loyal. I’ve been with AMI for almost 10 years now and they’ve been good to me (except for one staff member who, following a car accident, told me with a grunt “We’re not going to make any money out of this accident you know?”. Cheers mate) but I’m a sensible guy and being loyal to a company simply for the sake of being loyal doesn’t make any sense.

Having recently signed up as an AA member, I decided to check out their options to see if they could beat AMI’s rates. I was happy to find that AA have a really good website with an online car quote tool. This was quite a bold move as, although it adds heaps of usability, it allows people to make slight adjustments to their circumstances to see how much they could save. I’ve found that car insurance companies are actually quite cagey about revealing how they arrive at their quote figures.

AMI insurance have an online car insurance application but, from what I can tell, you fill in your contact details and they review your application and contact you with a quote, unlike AA that create the quote on the spot and provide you with the details and a quote reference instantly.

So I started to go through the process on the AA website with good intentions … and then I thought “Hmm, what if I kept the car in my garage instead of under the carport?” for example. This slight adjustment turned into many and it was quite revealing how different options affected the quote. Some were expected, others were quite unusual.

Standard Details

The first quote I completed was for my exact, honest, situation. These are basically:

28 year old male with a clean and full licence, living in Aranui. Car is kept under a carport.
Wife over 25 is a secondary driver but she’s on a restricted license
No modifications to the car. No factory fitted alarm.
The car is a 2001 Nissan Wingroad, 1.5Lt, that the AA set at an agreed value of $7,600 (although I don’t agree with that!)

With my standard details and a $400 excess, full comprehensive cover from the AA came to $55.45 per month.

Following this, I played around with the options to see how they affected my premium.

Your Suburb

I live in Aranui. Anyone in Christchurch knows that Aranui doesn’t have a particularly good reputation when it comes to crime. Fendalton, however, tends to be home to those in a much more respectable pay bracket than myself. These guys don’t try Nissan sation wagons, they all drive Audi Q7s.

So on changing my suburb from Aranui to Fendalton, I expected my premium to reduce. Surely Fendalton is a much safer area with less car crime?

Result:

On changing the suburb from Aranui to Fendalton, the insurance premium actually went up $55.90 per month. While this is only very slightly more than the original quote, it’s still more when I expected it to be less. Odd.

Possible Reasons:

I can only guess on why the price went up. Here are my un-educated guesses:

1. As a police officer once told me when discussing the difference in suburbs around Christchurch, “Burglars don’t shit in their own back yard”. This could mean that Fendalton actually experiences more car crime than Aranui. Let’s face it, if you’re going to steal from someone, you may as well steal from someone who has better stuff than you.

2. People in Fendalton have more money than people in Aranui so it’s safer to charge them extra (obviously I’m speculating with all of these!)

3. In my experience, burglars are scared of dogs. Walk along our street for 50 metres and you’ll pass approximately 3 German Shepherds, 4 Bull Mastiffs and a Rottweiler.  Do people in Fendalton only own poodles? Or cats? (Speculating again! Don’t get angry with me, Fendaltonians!)

Your Gender

This one’s actually quite obvious but it’s interesting to see it confirmed and exactly how much weight car insurance companies place on your gender.

Result:

I filled out the form again but this time said I was a woman. The quote dropped to $49.91 per month, $2.79 less than for a male.

Disclaimer: to keep the test fair I left all of the other information the same. So … I was actually a female with a female partner. However, I’ve thought about this and I don’t think car insurance companies change their policies depending on whether you’re a lesbian or not.

Possible Reasons:

Let’s face it lads, females drive more sensible than males and so have less accidents. Or as I like to say it, women have MORE accidents but at much lower speeds – parking, cornering, etc. – and so when they have an accident they don’t bother claiming. When men have an accident, they do it properly! Cue torrent of abuse in the comment section!

Factory Fitted Alarm

Here’s another one that’s basically a given. Car insurance companies will always ask you if you have a factory fitted alarm. AA also stipulate that the alarm system must have a minimum of a 4 star rating. They also say on their website:

Make your car more secure

Save on your insurance by making it more difficult for thieves to break into or steal your car. Install a car alarm or immobiliser and we’ll give you a discount.

Results:

With a 4 star factory fitted alarm, the quote came to $52.84 per month. This is  $3.06 per month cheaper than without.

Is it worth installing an alarm?

$3.06 per month works out at a saving of $36.72 per year. Let’s say that you own your car for 6 years before you sell it and get something else. In 6 years, you would have saved $220 on your car insurance.

A 4 star car alarm will cost you in the region of $550 installed. While this means you’ve still lost out on around $300, there is of course the added peace of mind that your car is fitted with an alarm. Plus it’s practically worth it for the ‘Whoop Whoop’ chirp of the alarm when you hit the button on your keyfob.

So if you have the money, a car alarm could be a worth investment – but it will only help your insurance if you get it professionally installed.

Changing “spouse” to “child”

Ok this is an odd one but it was a good test of the online process compared to dealing with a human. I left all the details exactly the same, including my wife’s age, but instead of listing her as a spouse, I selected ‘daughter’.

Result:

No change. Fair enough. I was wondering if the premium would rocket purely based on the ‘child’ relationship status but clearly the system took into account that person’s age.

Making my Wife the Main Driver

Here’s an interesting one. I previously had myself (28 year old male with full licence) as the main driver and my wife (25 on a restricted licence) the secondary driver. But what if I swapped them around?

Result:

This was the single biggest change to the premium price. It went from $55.45 per month for me to a whopping $84.63 per month with my wife as the main driver! Over a year, that’s a difference of $350.16 per year.

Possible Reasons:

Although I’ve had a full driver’s licence for over 5 years while my wife, despite having been on the road for a number of years, is still on her restricted, this didn’t seem to be the deciding factor. I repeated the quote application with myself as the main driver and my wife as the secondary but this time saying we both had full licences (instead of my wife being on a restricted) and the quote was exactly the same $55.45.

This one came down to both age and the fact that most importance is placed on the main driver’s circumstances.

Previously Stolen Car

Has your car been stolen previously? We have actually had a car stolen in Christchurch before. The Christchurch police (safer communities together) did nothing to try and find it so we headed out and tracked it down ourselves. It wouldn’t seem fair for this to affect your insurance premium. Your car may not have been stolen from your carefully locked garage so that shouldn’t affect your premium.

I carried out the test again and said that my car had been stolen a few years ago.

Results:

Thankfully, AA recognised that this was neither myself nor my car’s fault and the premium remained the same.

Insuring a Modified Car

Modified your car? Oh dear. you could be in trouble. In this test, I decided that my car was modified. Only slightly, but a modification none-the-less. I selected “Upgraded Air Filter” and “Upgraded Exhaust” and carried out the test again. I was quite keen to see how this affected the premium price but wasn’t even offered that much!

Results:

“Unfortunately we’re unable to offer you this cover. We would like to discuss with you: Modifications or accessories that have been added to your vehicle.”

Oh dear! They want me to call them. This one isn’t promising so I left it at that.

Need to insure an Aston Martin DB9?

Ok I was kind of dreaming when I did this test. Each time I did the test I had to scroll through long drop down lists over and over again. Finally I was sick of it so selected a car near the top of the list instead – a 2010 Aston Martin DB9 which AA valued at $340,000. The result?

Unfortunately we’re unable to offer you this cover. We would like to discuss with you: The type of vehicle you wish to insure.

I can see the discussion now. “You’re 28 and live in Aranui. You don’t really have this car do you?”. “No. I’m sorry.”

Summary of Insurance Savings

After my basic tests, the summary of the savings are as follows. Note that these savings apply to my own unique circumstances only and were also only achieved by using the online process. I’d assume that if you were dealing with a representative face to face, you’d be able to negotiate for different rates to that which you might be given online.

New Zealand Vs. United Kingdom Car Insurance

A test that I would love to have done would be to get a quote with the same details except from a UK company.

Car insurance in New Zealand is stupendously cheaper than car insurance in the UK. Probably for that reason, I couldn’t actually find an online quote process on a UK website.

In the UK, you pretty much flat out can’t get car insurance if you’re a 17 year old male with a realistic bank balance. The only way to get insured is by adding yourself as a named driver on your mum’s insurance.

Why is car insurance so much cheaper in New Zealand compared to the UK?

I believe that this one is easy. Car insurance in the UK is required by law. Car insurance in New Zealand is simply recommended as a sensible option.

The difference on premiums is incredible and, to some extent, to be expected. Imagine if it was required by law that you bought a cheeseburger every day. The price of cheeseburgers would be through the roof.

Should you lie on your car insurance?

A great question, thanks for asking. To be honest, no, you definitely shouldn’t. Car insurance companies can and will send an investigator to check things out in the event of a claim. And if they see a way to void your car insurance and not pay you, they will jump on it.

Let’s say you fit an after-market air filter to your car but don’t tell your car insurance company. Understandable as your car insurance premium might go through the roof.

However, this is totally stupid. If you do this and not tell your car insurance company, you may as well cancel your car insurance as you’re paying for nothing.

Imagine you’re in a car crash, not your fault, and your car is heavily damaged. The first thing a car insurance company will do is take it to their inspection centre. At which point, they will discover your modification, realise you didn’t mention it and will write off your insurance altogether.

In other areas, the risk is a wee bit less. Read above and you’ll see how much difference it made saying that my wife was the main driver of the vehicle rather than me. In the event of an accident, exactly how would the insurance company be able to tell that I was listed as the main driver on a car that my wife was driving? She’s still allowed to drive it.

This one is totally at your own risk. If you feel like living on the edge, saving a decent amount of money but risking a lot of questions in an investigation then you go for it. If you think it’s worth be straight up about everything and so there being no question in the event of an accident then good for you.

What about you?

All of the examples above are for someone in my exact circumstances and will vary massively for other people. What are your experiences with car insurance? Have you ever had problems making a claim on a car that you thought was perfectly insured?

What about accidents that you’d have in New Zealand? I’ve personally been significantly crashed into 3 times in New Zealand and not one of the other people even had third party insurance and so faced massive bills while I walked away and left the paperwork to my insurance company. Do you have  car insurance? If not, why not?

Flickr image credits: Bekathwia, Hans Vink, FotoSleuth

As well as blog writing, I’m quite into photography even though I’m not exactly up there with Ansell Adams.

I love photos printed on canvas as opposed to those in frames. Canvas gives the photos a great texture, gives them a bit more presence on the wall and also, the sunlight doesn’t reflect off canvas like it can off a glass photo frame.

In the past, I’ve casually looked around at a few websites that offer photos printed on canvas but many of the sites don’t look pretty professional or they charge a fair whack. However, my biggest fear has been ‘what if the colours come out really bad?’. I’ve seen a few photos printed on canvas where the colours don’t reflect well on the photograph that was originally provided. Even black and white photos can look short and with solid contrast on a computer screen but when printed they can look washed out and weak.

However, I recently came across My World (myworld.co.nz). Unlike many other photo companies that produce books, ornaments and cheesy coffee mugs with your photo printed on them, My World are all about photos on canvas.

About My World

These guys have a really smart, modern website that allows you to upload your photo, select the canvas options (two different thicknesses, wrapped around the edges or solid colour borders, various sizes) and then they show you how the photo would fit on the canvas and bam, you’re done.

I would say that the best thing is their price – their maximum price is for an A1 canvas (big) at just $147 on heavy canvas or $100 on light. Not only that but they say ‘find a cheaper price in New Zealand and we’ll beat it by 15%’.

But that’s not actually the best thing. I was actually a bit worried because I thought the quality would suffer but I got a black and white photo printed on to A3 canvas and it came out perfect. I was actually really happy with the result (it’s in the photo above). It’s delivered to you in plastic shrink wrap and then in a cardboard sleeve so it’s fairly well protected. Plus if you were buying it as a gift for someone else, it would look brand new and well sealed.

So yeah, check ‘em out: www.myworld.co.nz.

Update: I’ve had a couple of comments since posting this from other customers of My World. It seems that others may not be receiving the same service that I did. I’d recommend checking out the comments below before you make your decision.

Have you had an experience with My World, good or bad? If so, comment below.

NEW UPDATE!: GrabOne are currently offering a deal on photos on canvas from Photo Snap. $35 for $90 value. Sign up for their deals here.

But yeah the last few months have seen the release of some good must see movies recently. Here’s two of those movies that you should that are on DVD right now plus one that is currently at the cinema and worth a watch.

Remember Me

Every now and then us lads need to get a movie to keep the missus happy. But there’s a big difference between a chick-flick and a good drama that actually has some bite. When you take a soppy romance and add a bit of emotional passion and anger, you get a movie that’s watchable for blokes as well. Remember Me is one of those movies. It’s got the vampire guy from Twilight in it (which at first made this movie lose points for me but it turns out that he’s quite a good actor), the Aussie chick from Lost, the army dad from American Beauty and Pierce Brosnan (Ha! I knew one of their names).

Twilight guy plays a moody university student called Tyler who is arrested for brawling by army dad. Tyler has some deep issues due to the loss of his brother and dealing with his rich father (Brosnan) who thinks that looking after his family means providing them with material possessions alone. Tyler has a very little sister that he is very protective of (and she’s a fantastic wee actress). Tyler meets Lost chick whose father happens to be army dad.

There’s a lot of anger and fire in this Tyler guy but you feel that you can really relate to how he’s feeling. He brings forth some righteous justice through violence a couple of times in the movie but there’s a small part of you that thinks that you would do the same thing in that situation.

Brosnan does a really good job too – he’s gained some respect since he went from a slick James Bond to a wet drip of a bad singer in Mama Mia.

Quite a gritty real-to-life movie with great acting and a solid plot. Only down-side is that they tried to get all political and brought the twin towers into the story in a scene that I think could have been much better with a simple car versus bicycle collision, but I won’t ruin the pot for you.

Out on DVD and Blu-Ray now.

Shifty

Unless you’re deep in British movie culture, you probably won’t have heard of this one. This is one of those movies that I walked past a few times while it was sitting on the shelf of our local DVD store until I finally picked up the case and read the high-praise testimonials. I used to base watching an unheard-of DVD on the reviews that could be read on the cover. I’ve since learnt that either a) most reviewers are douche-bags just looking to get their name on a DVD cover, or b) everyone’s tastes are very different. I guess both apply really. Although, of course, my own reviews can be taken as Gospel. Ha.

Shifty is set in South London and is about a guy returning from Manchester to catch up with his best mate who has since turned into a drug dealer. Despite their mis-givings, both of these characters are quite likable and if you’ve spent any time in South London, you can really relate to their situation.

Throughout the movie they get themselves into more and more trouble with the police, their families and their drug dealing colleagues.

The movie itself is a drama with a good dose of action and a few splashes of comedy but it’s not to be confused with the likes of Lock Stock and Snatch. In many ways, Shifty seems far more realistic. Shifty was made by a tiny production team in less than 3 weeks with a budget of 100,000 pounds. The only known actor in it is one of the supporting actors in Lock Stock.

It’s worth watching the extras as you realise how small scale this production is – there’s a scene in the movie where the two lead characters are standing in a street at night, talking to each other quietly. You find out in the extras that they were banned from filming at their original chosen location so they went to the street outside one of the team’s father’s houses. They had to talk quietly because there was a family across the road with children who were sleeping and they didn’t want to wake them.

Shifty is a powerful, quality film that yet again shows that the British can make brilliant movies on a shoe-string. Our American cousins could learn a thing or two about restraint and priorities when it comes to movie budgets.

Out on DVD and Blu-Ray now.

Dinner For Schmucks

I can’t help feeling that I’ve ruined this blog post by including Dinner For Schmucks alongside these other two movies. Dinner For Schmucks is one of those movies that should make you cringe. You should be embarrassed to suggest it to friends when planning a night at the movies just in case you ruined your serious-movie-lovers reputation.

The fact is, it’s actually a pretty good movie and worth watching. It’s been a long time since I went to a comedy at the movies and literally lol’d through a good portion of the film. Yes it’s silly, yes it’s American, but it really is pretty funny. New Zealand can also proudly stake a claim in the film’s success through the role played by Flight of the Conchord’s Jermaine Clement. Not that his role is one of the funnier ones, Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell do a fine job as the movie’s lead characters and the tall guy from Little Britain also makes an appearance.

Steve Carell is a funny guy that seriously let me down with his role in destroying one of Britain’s finest TV comedies, The Office. Take The Office, drain every ounce of subtlety, irony, class and straight forward humour and you have yourself the American version. However, Steve did a top job at playing a tricky ‘likable yet un-likable’ schmuck in Dinner For Schmucks and so this movie is definitely worth watching.

Out at the cinema now.

If there are any other movies that have come out recently and that may have slipped under the radar, let me know in the comments box below.