beauty

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

Kiwi architecture

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

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

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