Adiemus

Skeletal remains for ewe...

2007-12-03T00:32:00.000-08:00

I cannot resist a pun!!!
Spotted on a hillside overlooking Christchurch, this poor old ewe expired some time ago. I processed this shot in a Dragan style - I am such a fan!!

Skies in the evening...

2007-11-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

Aaaaahhh! the end of a long, hot day - and the sky is glowing. Got to be a wonderful thing...
Don't forget my blog for health professionals!

A new take on a classic kiwi image

2007-11-13T00:43:00.000-08:00

Aaaaahhh! the koru, symbol of growth - draganised. Andriez Dragan developed this particular style of photography for portraits - but wow, it makes a stunning impact on certain other images, especially where a gritty or textured surface needs to be emphasised to evoke a mood.

If you're visiting here - take a minute to visit my HealthSkills blog href="http://healthskills.wordpress.com/ - a place for health professionals to find resources and commentary on therapies to help people with chronic pain (and other chronic illnesses) live life well.

Dandelion

2007-11-05T00:18:00.000-08:00

Hey! Dandelions are wonderful - not particularly if you like a weed-free lawn, but there is something about their cheerful proliferation, that yellow starburst, and the wonderful fluffy seedhead. Just gorgeous, and one of the things that remains of childhood wonder years and years after...!

Coming soon: a new blog for health care providers - Healthskills for healthy living! Details soon...

Simple

2007-10-10T01:01:00.000-07:00

Some things need no further description...

beauty

2007-09-30T01:53:00.000-07:00

Ahhh! She's beautiful...
I had to share this shot of my lovely daughter, she's gorgeous!

Kiwi architecture

2007-09-20T02:01:00.000-07:00

Now something kiwi's are not known for is their architecture. Being pragmatists (and probably calvinists) early settlers built basic boxes. Made of timber usually, because it was portable, probably local, and relatively easy to manufacture.
Four walls, a roof. Possibly one or two windows. A door.
Not much more!
And definitely no insulation, central heating, not much in the way of creature comforts, not even built towards the sun!

But there is something quintessential about the kiwi building. It works. And it ages well - even decades after it was first built!

This example apparently was used as committee rooms for the local Roading Board, which is why it survived when others didn't. When going inside, the building consists of two rooms, one with an old coal or wood range, two windows and nothing much else. The other room had one window - and nothing else.

From the outside, someone had cared enough to plant a tree - and now it seems it's a photographer's playground. Wonderful light, textures, colours - and a view that can't be beaten!!

This is located on the road towards Lake Coleridge, Canterbury.

Seeing when you look

2007-09-13T19:09:00.000-07:00

It's been said so often that it's probably a truism that once a person has a camera, all of a sudden everything they see is a photograph. With the lack of limits of a digital camera it's oh so easy to snap away without having to spend time on an image.
It was so different when 24 little exposures was all that was available - I can get 250 something on my 2GB card!! And some of them are even worth keeping! I don't know, but I think my 'hit rate' is much better with digital, or is it that I've learned to take risks and be creative?

I'm not sure of the process that happens when I've got my camera out, but something switches on and suddenly what I am looking at becomes something else. All colours and angles and textures...
I love this process - the little motifs, the scenes, that moment, that story, NOW that happens...now that's zen...

And for me it doesn't stop then either - going back home, downloading (like Christmas goodies!), then spending time pondering and considering and playing with that image to bring out what it can say. Often the end image says something completely different from what it communicated the moment I released the shutter.
The time spent doing this is totally meditative for me - no words, no rules, just appreciating tone, colour, texture and form.
That's seeing when you look.

old things

2007-09-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

I love the old kiwi farming buildings... here is a shot of an old brick woolshed, still partially in use, but long past its heyday. Gorgeous old building, and for NZ, quite rare, as it's not wooden but brick, and the bricks were made in the nearby township of Glentunnel or Windwhistle (sorry can't remember which one!!).

Really sexist cartoons

2007-09-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

Barbed wire

2007-08-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

There is something about barbed wire. I'm not sure what it is, but it makes an incredible photographic subject! I love the fluid lines, and the rust and the way it's wrapped around all sorts of places in the New Zealand countryside. I'm not so keen on it in the city, it seems cruel and out of place. Even in the country it seems to be one of those things that is ubiquitous but not quite 'right'. An attempt by humans to capture or tame or entrap the natural environment - but for photographs? Stunning!

Serenity and poise

2007-08-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

I am not known for serenity and detachment - I think I'm one of the world's more reactive people! I like to BE in the moment and feel and express my emotions.
To touch another person with my passion -
To be fully present - involved

While I love the concept of zen and simplicity and maintaining eternal poise and serenity, I think I am more like a willow whip or bamboo or even silk, something that moves and bends and gets energised by things.

To remain detached must I think mean a loss of involvement somehow.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but even while I'm taking photographs, something of the moment must touch me - my emotions are engaged, my sense of who I am is heightened by recognising the element in that particular scene that touched something of me.

Resilience, wellness, balance and flexibility

2007-07-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

I'm embarking on a study of people who experience persistent pain, but live 'well'. This is somewhat ironic given that I'm still working through a rehabilitation process relating to my post-concussion syndrome dating from the end of February this year!

As I ponder what defines a person who is 'well', a number of concepts keep coming up - relevant to me as well as to the people I work with each day.

What is 'resilience'? Is it the ability to withstand problems as they occur each day? Weathering the normal daily troubles without being bothered by them? Is resilience about being 'rock-like', stable, enduring despite the odds, 'keeping the faith'?
The people around me who seem 'well' don't seem all that rock-like! Instead they seem to flow along with troubles - choosing when to bend and sway, and when to hold steady, developing and growing flexibly as events happen and then pass. Is resilience then about being flexible?
Is being 'well' about the ability to choose when to balance resistance with acceptance? Is resilience about knowing that 'I' still am despite changing my goals, my choices, my actions, but holding on to my values?

I work daily with people seeking help to live despite having persistent pain. Their pain invades everything in their lives - they tell me 'I just want to have 'me' back!'

Traditional medical management has focused on reducing pain - so that 'normal' is available again. For many this works but equally many can't achieve pain relief despite the best efforts of the health care team.
Traditional pain management has focused on helping people develop coping skills - withstanding the onslaught of pain by 'resisting', 'coping', 'doing despite'. Cognitive therapy teaches people to 'challenge' their 'maladaptive' thinking.
What if their thinking reflects reality? What if their pain is unexpected? If their pain means they can't think straight? If they can no longer work in the manual work they love?

Recently 'acceptance' has become a popularised concept - meaning instead of fighting against pain, people choose to live to their important values.
This requires looking at how we go about activities differently. How can we live according to important values despite having limitations as to how much we can do at any one time?

Now this doesn't seem any different from what all of us do - none of us can do 'everything', we all have 'limitations', and we all make choices about what values and goals are important.

In a round-about way I guess I’m thinking that learning to be flexible about what we do, provided that we live in line with the ‘compass’ of our values may lead us to become resilient. Hopefully less judgmental of ourselves and others, more tolerant of ambiguity, more able to be appreciated for who we are rather than what we do.

Resilience requires flexibility and balance, a delicate dance of wellness.

Chilled

2007-07-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

While I'm not mad keen on the chill of winter, especially the bleak, grim grey of an overcast Canterbury day, there are parts of it that I love. I love the crisp blue of a frosty morning; I love wrapping up in layers of sensual, soft fabric; the comfort food and red wine; fires and warm beds - yes there is plenty to love!
These shots are from our trip to Cromwell, which is in the middle/lower half of the South Island, NZ. A whole countryside of contrasts! These two shots, however, display that hard, deep cold that slows the mind and body and makes me dream of indoor pursuits and tropical holidays...

Winter

2007-07-16T02:04:00.000-07:00

The crisp blue-white of snow and sky is snap-frozen in the Mackenzie Country and Otago. This is not the land of milk and honey dreamed of by the English, but rather the grim and chilling landscape of deep and harsh Scots. Awesome for being reminded of the power of our world.

Blue sea

2007-06-26T22:06:00.000-07:00

Mid-winter does not seem to stop some people from leaping without thought (well perhaps a little thought) deep into the ocean blue...
Despite the chill, the shortest day last week brought out a few who just could not pass up an opportunity to show (nearly) all and get in the water. I stayed safely on-shore, wrapped up warm, and shot a few photographs.

No matter what the weather the sea is a temperamental mistress, restless and merciless to those who don't respect her. I've never lived far from the sea - couldn't bear not to be able to get out to smell the brine (or the ozone), touch the sand, feel the endless variety of textures, and enjoy the changing patterns across the sand and water. Something rather peaceful despite the restlessness of the water and wind.

I don't know what it is about a beach, but even when the wind is blowing and the waves are crashing there is a peace and an insulation from 'the world' for me. Something about being involved in the energy and change that is constant and permanent...

Very zen.

winter, water and the blues

2007-06-21T01:11:00.000-07:00

It's winter. That means cold temperatures, wet weather, frost, and blue, blue, blue.
Fabulous for wearing lots of layers, snuggling under warm duvets, and the fire!
And for looking, but not getting into - the sea. Cold, heartless, restless mistress.
The blues - awesome music, crying from the heart...

Pretty in Pink

2007-06-06T02:45:00.000-07:00

Cyclamen are a wonderful Mother's Day gift...

Colours of Autumn

2007-05-23T22:21:00.001-07:00

Wonderful colours this year - enjoy!

fall

2007-05-16T02:47:00.000-07:00

cling
to branch and twig
leaf
fall
flutter in air
glow
falling
to dark and dampened
ground
fallen

musing

2007-05-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

Today is grey - so I've been playing with black and white (and grey) photography. Sometimes colour distracts from the essence of an image - puts a cheerful tone on a sombre story, takes away from form and substance, moves the eye from texture.
Herewith a couple of B&W shots...

Zen

2007-05-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

Zen is a strange concept. For me it's more than 'simplicity' which seems to be what most europeans view it as, it's much more like being timeless/now/suspended...
Here are some photographs that feel zen-like for me.

Wonderful rocks

2007-04-30T01:43:00.000-07:00

Here is an amazing place to visit - not for the reasons that many people go - but for an incredible sense of the timelessness of the place. It's called Kura Tawhiti in Maori, but usually called Castle Hill. I think I prefer the maori which means 'treasure from afar'!
Great place for climbers I'm told - but I think photographers probably have a ball too. I certainly did!

Timeless

2007-04-09T00:40:00.000-07:00

Some things go on forever. The roar of the sea, on and on - to lull you to sleep.

If ever you want a good night's sleep - just go to a nice beach, and stop for a while. Listen to that endless, timeless surge.

Stumbleupon and other things

2007-04-03T00:23:00.000-07:00

I did a wonderful stumble today - can't remember exactly how I found it, but I found a really good web site on composition and other photographic basics. It's http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/Photography_lessons/a_about/_Teaching_composition.html and has some really great things on it.

I'd had a crappy photo-taking day, no 'inspiration', photos looked horrid - I think what's happening is that I'm miles more critical than I used to be, so what I used to think was 'ok' I'm not satisfied with, and I'm trying to be more creative and discriminating, and of course, it's harder. So this was a refreshing place to find. Back to basics.

And as for Stumbleupon - I suppose I've forgotten to go back and visit - I have to say I love SU, it has some GREAT ways to find interesting sites, and when I'm in the mood and lacking inspiration, lots of ways to generate the spark again!

Cool.

This, by the way, is my son. He needs no modification to look devilish, the cat, however, did.