Blog Profile / Nathan Branch
| URL : | http://www.nathanbranch.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Lifestyle / Luxury | |
| Posts on Regator: | 134 | |
| Posts / Week: | 1.4 | |
| Archived Since: | July 11, 2011 | |
Blog Post Archive
NZ Diary: Taking a spin around Waiheke Island
When San Francisco food & travel writer Marcia Gagliardi visited New Zealand a few months back, I had the pleasure of accompanying her on a day-long excursion to Waiheke Island as she met with winemakers and restauranteurs (see: Hitting the town with Marcia Gagliardi). It was the first time I’d spent a day at the [...]Show More Summary
NZ Diary: Finding a photographic mentor
Ever since switching out my system from the Canon DSLR to the Leica Rangefinder, with all its related pluses (portability and access to gorgeous lenses) and minuses (fussy focusing and high cost), I realised that if I wanted to truly hop on the “serious photography” train and ride it to the next station down the [...]Show More Summary
NZ Diary: Wild and Woolly
The rain has started in earnest now that we’re heading into our autumn/winter season down under (I know, it’s difficult for me to adjust to the idea of June-August being the dead of winter, too), which means that I sometimes start off on my photographic wanderings when the day is bright and sunny only to [...] The post NZ Diary: Wild and Woolly appeared first on Nathan Branch.
New Zealand Diary: Visual elements vs. Literal subjects
Even though I mentioned last week that I don’t particularly enjoy taking pictures of people, I saw this lunchtime crowd gathered around an artist on the busy Queen Street sidewalk and saw an opportunity for capturing their intense focus on his craft. Not to mention their own various shapes, sizes and personal style iterations. A [...]Show More Summary
NZ Diary: Black and white (and wandering all over)
I just got notice yesterday that my brand spanking new Leica M-240 colour camera has a manufacturing flaw, where the eyelets that hold the camera strap have the potential to come loose — which could send the entire camera crashing to the pavement at some unfortunate moment. So it looks like I’ll have to hand [...]Show More Summary
New Zealand Diary: Testing the city
As I adjust to the rangefinder system after years of shooting through the optical viewfinder of a DSLR, I’ve found myself wandering the city with my cameras to find out just what the Leica can do and how it goes about doing it. NOTE: I traded in all of my Canon cameras and lenses for [...] The post New Zealand Diary: Testing the city appeared first on Nathan Branch.
New Zealand Diary: Hitting the town with Marcia Gagliardi
San Francisco native Marcia Gagliardi, founder of the Bay Area’s popular Tablehopper restaurant review site, was invited to New Zealand by trade organisations in advance of the next America’s Cup yachting challenge that will be hosted in San Francisco from July through September of this year. New Zealand is a big competitor in the America’s [...]Show More Summary
Breaking radio silence (or “Switching gears, Changing direction”)
It may look like I’ve disappeared off the face of the planet for the last several weeks, but I’m merely refocusing. Photography has become increasingly important to me as the years have passed, so more of my time is spent trying to get better at it (nowhere to go but up!) while also attempting to [...]Show More Summary
Luxury & Fashion Biz News: Saint Laurent and Luxury’s New Youthquake
Remember when high-fashion designers were in a panic over how fast-fashion chain stores stole their ideas and put them on the racks faster and cheaper than the original designs could be produced? For example, Anna Sui and Diane Von Furstenberg sued Forever 21 for copyright infringement, the Proenza Schouler design team got into a bit [...]Show More Summary
Luxury & Fashion Biz News: Everything (and Alexander Wang, too)
1.) Because who doesn’t want a little bit of Everything? “Everything is a perfume by (Dutch artists) Lernert & Sander consisting of all fragrances launched in 2012. Over the last year, Lernert & Sander collected almost 1400 samples of newly launched fragrances. By mixing the content of all of these bottles, they created 1.5 litre [...]Show More Summary
Luxury & Fashion Biz News: Nothing Sells Like Cars and Boys
Obi-Wan Kenobi: I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror... I feel something terrible has happened. From the Elle article, Chanel’s Peter Philips resigns: “Team ELLE Beauty is in shock today as we announce that Philips, who has been working his creative [...]Show More Summary
NZ Diary: February 20th, 2013
I caught part of the boppy, retro-lovin’ rhythm & blues band Sal Valentine & The Babyshakes set when they played live in central Auckland’s Aotea Square as part of the city’s Fringe Festival: You can see the full set of pics here: Sal Valentine & The Babyshakes at Flickr The post NZ Diary: February 20th, 2013 appeared first on Nathan Branch.
Luxury & Fashion Biz News: The John Galliano Conundrum (or, Fashion as bread and circuses)
The John Galliano Conundrum: Forgive and forget? Forgive but never forget? Never forgive and never forget? From the snarky Guardian UK article, Poor John Galliano! Can’t people see he’s simply a charming subversive? — “The very reason why fashion people rallied round him is, one imagines, part of everyone else’s lingering disgust with the man [...]Show More Summary
NZ Diary — February 12th, 2013
Ordinarily, the flashest peeps on the streets of Auckland are the young Asian students and The post NZ Diary — February 12th, 2013 appeared first on Nathan Branch.
Luxury & Fashion Biz News: “I forgot my neon beanie” and other fashion stories
It’s the official start to the fashion week calendar for Ready to Wear Fall 2013, so there’s not much else going on in the way of luxury and fashion news. Just a lot of runway chatter, who’s doing what kind of show and how Winter Storm Nemo is threatening to derail New York Fashion Week [...]Show More Summary
Luxury & Fashion Biz News: Louis Vuitton sales are not impressing the analysts, Chanel knows that exclusivity is what matters, and the search for missing Vittorio Missoni plane continues
1.) Luxury conglomerate LVMH reports a 19% increase in sales for 2012, but analysts are saying that the Louis Vuitton brand didn’t participate in that growth, with sales for Louis Vuitton remaining flat for the year. Bernard Arnault mentioned that plans for the Louis Vuitton brand will focus on improving existing retail locations rather than [...]Show More Summary
Luxury & Fashion Biz News: The new Haute Couture, Coach tries to reinvent itself, and Azzedine Alaïa signs a fragrance deal
1.) The spring haute couture shows just wrapped up in Paris, and the big fashion-press buzz was all about Raf Simons’ second haute couture outing under the Christian Dior label — that instead of taking the usual path of showing something wildly different from his last collection, he instead built on previous themes in what [...]Show More Summary
Photography — A Walk Through Auckland Domain Park
The summer weather has finally turned consistently nice (as opposed to mostly rainy and drenchingly humid), so I took my macro-lens out for a spin in the Auckland Domain park, a 75 hectare (185 acre) spread of paths, trees, open grassy areas, gazebos, duck ponds, walking trails, streams, public sculpture and ornamental gardens located within [...]Show More Summary
Luxury & Fashion Biz News: Swatch gets its hands on Harry Winston, Harris Tweed fights for its rights, and Vogue Magazine doesn’t get it (again)
1.) Swatch makes a grab for the glittering prize: After Swatch’s watch-making partnership with the storied Tiffany brand exploded last year in a confetti parade of angry lawsuits and bitter accusations, Swatch has been on the hunt for a deal that could launch them into the high-end world of diamond-encrusted watches and timepieces as precious [...]Show More Summary
Luxury & Fashion Biz News: What’s next for Missoni? Plus, Battle for control of Lacoste ends in defeat, and Downton Abbey rules the menswear market
1.) WHAT’S NEXT FOR MISSONI? — This past week, newswires buzzed over the disappearance of Missoni’s CEO and executive marketing director Vittorio Missoni (who co-owns the Missoni brand alongside his two siblings, Luca and Angela) in a private plane crash off the coast of Venezuela. Five other passengers are also declared missing, including the plane’s [...]Show More Summary