Author: Peter Peryer

This author has written 801 articles

The Portrait

 
 
My interest in human portraiture
seems to wax and wane.
I wish that it wasn’t that way
but that just seems to be
how it is.
 
Lately however, I’ve been meeting
quite a number of Japanese children
who are so interesting that
I can’t help getting out
my camera.
 

Flowers at the Cemetery.

 
Yesterday I visited my parents remains
at Snapper Rock Cemetery in Auckland.
I spent some time there, wandering around
looking at the graves and enjoying the peaceful
environment.
My eye was continually attracted to the bunches
of artificial flowers that were dotted around.
Many of them had an attractive faded pastel look.
I’ve often said that sometimes I photograph
objects to see what they look like when
they are photographed. This
image falls into that category.

Handbag at Starkwhite

 
Tonight I went to an opening
at Starkwhite in Karangahape Road
in Auckland.
It was a jovial event.
People were happy.
Reluctantly, I had to leave
quite early
but as I was about to do so
I noticed this handbag sitting
on the polished concrete floor
that is such a feature of this
gallery.
The only camera I had on me
was the one in my iPhone.
From my iPhone I emailed it to my laptop
which was back at my batcave.
From my laptop I have sent it out via
Photoshop to this site that you are now reading.
There is probably a way that I could
have sent it directly from my iPhone
to this site but that path I have yet to learn.
Remarkably, to me, the picture
reminds me of a Gavin Hipkins
Starkwhite are his
Auckland dealers so his work is often
on these walls.

Rotorua

 
 
This audience was waiting for a geyser
to start erupting.
 
What I hadn’t realised was that this particular geyser
could be induced to start by putting 300 grams
of washing powder down its throat.
 
The advantage of this was that it could be advertised as
coming to life at 10.30 every morning.
 
Actually, the guide gave a very good description
of how the washing powder worked.
It had to do with surface tension.
 
 

Rotorua Trees

 
 
Recently I spent a couple of days
in Rotorua, scouting for a photograph.
 
This view caught my attention.

Rosella

 
 
While driving through a pine forest just south
of Rotorua I saw the bright colours of this parakeet
lying on the road.
 
Although it was It was directly in the path of tyres
even 16 wheeler trucks,
it was relatively unscathed apart from being dead.
 
The colour of its feathers was so vivid that
even after I had steered around it and driven on towards my destination I made a
u-turn. Two in fact.
 
These birds are Australian but they have colonised
parts of New Zealand
probably with human assistance.
 
My father, who until the last years of his life
kept birds, had a Rosella in a aviary. It think it was a he, they have brighter colours,
He endlessly paced back and forth on his perch,
and in a nervous equivalent of nailbiting
pulled his feathers out with his beak so that large patches
of him were bald.
 
Even as a small boy and not particularly schooled in empathy
for fellow citizens of this planet I always felt sorry
for the poor creature.
 
The body of this paticular Rosella is in a deep freeze.

Bees and Beehives

 
 
When I was a boy
our family usually had a beehive
or two, sometimes more, somewhere on the property
providing honey for us all.
 
This was rural New Zealand.
Takanini and Taheke for example.
Ohaeawai too.
 
If, usually on a hot summer’s day,
a Queen left the hive and a swarm followed her
we were there in the family Vauxhall on the gravel roads,
in dusty pursuit.
 
There would be a box and a handsaw in the boot,
there to collect the swarm when they landed
usually on a branch surrounding their Queen.
Once safely in the box we would bring them home
and give them a new residence alongside the
previous tenants.
I always kept my distance, but for some reason
my father had no fear of being stung at all.
He handled the bees as if they were old friends.
 

Tennis

 
 
A couple of weeks ago I went to the tennis here
in Auckland.
 
Here is Maria Sharapova playing.
She’s at the far end, serving.
 
(click on the image to enlarge it.)

Ryder Hall & Aquarium Ornament

 
Lately I have been going to
a local pet shop and buying
ornaments that are designed
to be immersed in aquaria.
This tree trunk is an example.
On Saturday however,
while out walking,
I was outside New Plymouth
Boys’ High School
and noticed these objects
stuck onto Ryder Hall.
They reminded me of the
fake trees that I had being buying
at the pet shop.
Ryder Hall was built in 1970-1972
and designed by Desmond White
for the Taranaki Education Board.

The Pet Shop

 
 
I find that pet shops are a good
source of material for my
photography.
 
Lately I have been buying objects
that are intended for submersion
in aquaria.
 
One day I will buy
the aquarium itself.
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