Capital Adventures

Two(ee) for the birds

2010-01-08T03:14:18Z

Catching birds in flight rocks! I love how its little claws have come out.

Swallows

2010-01-07T03:15:30Z

One of the pleasures of being in these little coastal holiday spots is taking off to the town to the north or to the south for the morning and nosing 'round the cafes and the art'n'craft shops and so forth. I find myself more and more often looking at photographs, mounted and framed or block mounted on canvas or perspex and thinking 'Some of my stuff's as good as that' or even occasionally 'My stuff's better than that.'
It feels like hubris, like standing on the edge of a cliff, but I think I might have to do something about this. Putting my ego where my mouth is so to speak.
I have no idea where to start.

Upriver

2010-01-06T03:15:15Z

The weather is hot and blue and oppressive, so I am spending the days napping in the shade and taking advantage of the air conditioning and the free wifi in the library. Early evening light, coming in sideways as it does, makes for mysterious landscapes. They suit my current mood, wondering how I might get from here to there.

The world is a zen garden.

2010-01-05T02:22:01Z

Out of words, but possibly not in error this time.

Incoming tide

2009-12-31T01:12:35Z

Last year, for the first time in my life, I made and kept a New Year's resolution. I'm not going to share what it was, but it proved to be a good thing, and I am going to continue with it.
I am also going to make another one this coming year, which I will share with you. This coming year's one is to get enough sleep.

Marakihau in Te Whare Runanga, Waitangi

2009-12-29T01:22:49Z

Well the pamphlet I picked up says she's a marakihau, although she looks too benign to be a sea monster who sucks fish, people and boats up through her tube-like tongue.

I'm not even going to attempt to discuss the role of this place and the Treaty of Waitangi in NZ history, or its ongoing political significance. There's no way I could even start to do it justice.

Ko te ako me te karakia o te Hahi Katorika Romana (with bonus question for bibliophiles)

2009-12-27T06:51:07Z

The first industrial building in New Zealand was a printer and bookbindery, built as part of the Roman Catholic Mission Station in Russel, to produce Bibles and other religious texts in Maori. It has been restored to working condition, even including a tannery to make leather for the covers. These are reproductions of one of the first texts printed, Ko te Ako me te Karakia o Te Hahi Katorika Romana - The Teachings and Prayers of the Roman Catholic Church.
Now for my question.
Unfortunately we were there too late for the guided tours, and there was very little in the way of explanation of the various exhibits. In the picture above there is a leaf - it appeared to be some kind of citrus leaf - tucked under the string holding the pages together in each of these half finished books. The same type of leaf was also pressed in the books being stitched in the press, for all the world like a bookmark. Since all knowledge is contained in LiveJournal (and the rest is contained in Dreamwidth) - do any of you wise people know what the purpose of those leaves is?

Old store, new bridge

2009-12-26T08:14:43Z

This area (Kerikeri and the Bay of Islands) was one of the first settled by Europeans and these are two of the oldest buildings in the country, the Old Stone Store and the Kerikeri Mission House. Until recently, they were threatened by the existence of a road bridge which ran across the rocky outcrop at the bottom right of the picture. The vibrations of heavy road traffic were damaging the buildings, but worse than that, when the river would flood, the bridge piles would trap debris and act as a weir, diverting water up around the foundations.

The road bridge was demolished in about 2008, when a bypass was opened a few kilometres inland. My brother worked on the nice, safe, single span steel and wood pedestrian bridge in the background.

Christmas Day 2009: Tapuaetahi

2009-12-25T03:17:34Z

Filling in the time between opening presents and eating food, we go for a swim at Tapuaetahi beach, just north of the Bay of Islands. That's my dad and brother on the beach, mum and brother's sort-of stepson in the water.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

Guitarist

2009-12-22T07:59:52Z

This young man ended up sitting opposite me on the train. I don't know whether his instrument is his first love, his meal ticket, or just an expensive piece of kit that he didn't want to let out of his sight, but he spent the first three quarters of the trip jammed awkwardly around it in his seat. It's not as if he had any leg room to spare either. He finally decided that he trusted the railway staff enough to check it when we took a smoke break in Hamilton.

This is important

2009-12-21T09:53:54Z

siliconshaman invents dark matter.

Kapiti

2009-12-21T09:19:28Z

Kapiti coast, with Kapiti Island capped with cloud in the distance. The day was not as productive as I had hoped on the photo front, although I did spot a number of locales I would like to spend a season or so in, so as to get a handle on how the light moves and changes.

But that's ok. Potential photos were only part of the reason I chose that mode of transport.
When I was at the bitter end of my postgraduate studies, and metaphorically chained to my desk (metaphorical chains are harder to escape than steel ones, existing as they do in one's head) I invented the concept of interstitial time. Interstitial time consists of the unavoidable little bits of time in between that spent doing the vital stuff, which at that time included work, eating and sleeping. When I realised that they were unavoidable, I stopped stressing over them and began to value immensely these minutes spent on buses, or waiting for people to turn up or appointments to start. I'd use them to meditate, or to nap, or just to listen to whatever ambient sounds were around and feel the warmth of the sun.
When I booked this 12 hour train trip I was aware that I was deliberately manufacturing for myself a whole day of interstitial time. It was so good.

Tech support

2009-12-21T04:56:31Z

This afternoon, I rebuilt Mum's i-photo library while she played Peggle on my laptop. This does not seem like a fair trade somehow...

Envy

2009-12-19T03:53:43Z

I wanna nap inna sunbeam too.

Off up to Auckland tomorrow - the trip should take about 12 hours, due to geography and the consequent narrow gague of the rail tracks here. It has been pointed out that it would take about the same time to fly to L.A. Maybe some other year.

Pic of the day may be intermittent while I am away.

Daisy, daisy (daisy daisy daisydaisydaisy......)

2009-12-18T06:57:07Z

Friday flowers.

In other news, the hard bit of the Christmas shopping is done - now I just have to get it all to Auckland. Housework is about 75% done. Costume will be attended to after I hit post. I'm on track so far.

Blustery

2009-12-17T10:02:15Z

And I am on leave! The government can look after itself for a while! Yay!!!!!
I am aware that multiple exclamation marks are a sign of a deranged mind. Three weeks or so off should go a fair way toward correcting that.

And now the to-do list
Sleep.
Get washing and housework done before leaving - it's always nice to come back to a clean space.
Make third and hopefully final attempt at Christmas shopping.
Finish costume for final Bellycats performance on Saturday. It's pinky-purple, velvet and slinky!
Sleep.
Charge various batteries.
Pack stuff. (including chargers)
Dance.
Sleep.
Leave!

Distant rain

2009-12-16T08:38:25Z

I'm glad its there and not here.

In other news, communication at my work is abysmal, and I get to make a really big map.
Today I came across one of our graphic designers sticking together a large number of A3 sheets on which she'd printed the beginnings of a map of of New Zealand transport infrastructure of about A(-1) in size (I don't know if the A series extrapolates like that, but you get the idea).
She had been making it by tracing various maps off the web in some vector drawing application or other. The State Highways must have taken her forever!
I told her that we in the research team had specialised GIS software to do exactly that, that all of the infrastructure map layers already existed in as much detail as she could possibly need, and that it would probably take me about 4 hours to do, including a couple of revisions to get colours and fonts and such right. We can even mark the ports with cute little planes and boats. She was, I think, relieved and possibly a little peeved that she'd already done so much work on it. I think I need to advertise my map-making abilities a bit better.

Food

2009-12-15T09:50:34Z

Too apathetic to source real food tonight, so a peanut-butter-chilli-sauce sandwich and a bowl of strawberries will have to do.

Gap.

2009-12-14T08:26:56Z

I think I might go monochrome or nearly monochrome for this book. Especially those shots that are nearly monochrome without post processing.

In unrelated news, an interview with Brian Keenan who was held hostage for four years in Beirut. Towards the end, he talks about taking his kids to Lebanon, so they can get to know ordinary Lebanese people before learning what happened to their dad. It's powerful stuff.

Hazy days of summer. Kinda.

2009-12-13T07:51:35Z

The wind whips up the waves, fills the air with haze and drives all but the most enthusiastic of joggers and photographers inside. I walked until I got an earache to windward, then turned around and evened it up.

Going nowhere

2009-12-12T08:32:41Z

Floating restaurant off Oriental Parade. I'm not a big fan of seafood, myself.

Friday fluff

2009-12-11T09:37:38Z

So I'm not quite over the the wide aperture vegetation thing.

In other news I have booked leave and tickets and stuff for Christmas. Another thing ticked off the too much to do list.

Big Shed on Waterfront.

2009-12-10T10:09:18Z

After Little House at Horse Arena.
A little bit of synchronicity. I don't think this one has come out as well as it could have - the back of the TSB bank arena could use a wash but I liked the red of the steps.

ETA:
The ads for personalised mugs, playing cards and other your-pic-here merchandise on Photobucket suggested a different, more abstract, crop...

Man, reflecting

2009-12-09T07:07:40Z

In other news, I've had enough of this year. I'm feeling misanthropic and I'd be quite happy to be left alone to nap for the next three weeks. Eeep - three weeks!

Load of rubbish.

2009-12-08T09:45:30Z

I'm feeling the need to put the 50mm f/1.8 away for a while, and shoot things that aren't flowers at f/8 for a bit. It's time the world swam mostly back into focus....