Peter was a great believer in communicating about photography and got into blogging in its early days.
His blog ran, with some gaps, from 30 November 2006 to 2 September 2018.
You can visit the earliest entries via archived links on the right hand side of this page.
Thanks to the prompting of a reader, I returned to this image which a week or so ago, I had nearly discarded.
I’ve spent more time with it and am now thinking, that richly printed, it could be a keeper. I’m not set up in this studio to make a high quality print but I look forward to experimenting.
I don’t imagine it to be a large.
I had an email suggestion that this was a circle of life. Like that.
I was asked a few days ago why I liked aeroplanes so much. I had to pause a little before I replied so that I could think about it. First answer is that I don’t like all aircraft, some I like more than others.
The Spitire is one that looks to me like sculpture. Regarded by many as one of the greatest designs of all time, it could be in MOMA. It’s not surprising that apparently it’s a dream to fly.
Not only does it look great, but with the Rolls Royce Merlin, its engine note is spine tingling.
A couple of weeks ago a Rolls Royce 2000 horse power Griffon engined Spitfire that had undergone a 3 year, $5M restoration, was going for its first flight. Unfortunately this was taking place in Auckland and I was in Invercargill, at the other end of the country. Now it is being shipped back to it’s Texan owner so I am unlikely to ever see or hear this particular aircraft.
The photo in this posting was taken in England and shows a New Zealand pilot, June Howden who flew these aircraft during WWII, not in combat but as a ferry pilot. Her role in the war was to deliver planes from factory to squadron, or squadron to squadron. It was only Russian women pilots who flew in combat in WWII.
More Aeronauticals
Often internet friends, some of whom I know, some of whom I don’t, send me images that they predict I may be interested in. It is one of the pleasures of keeping an online journal.
Above is a snap that Brett McDowell, art dealer in Dunedin, who has taken over Marshall Seifert Gallery, sent to me a couple of weeks ago. It is a delight. I love these models. There are more sophisticated versions that are made that look like dragonflies. They can be flown inside large stadia. I have made some enquiries and it appears that there is a monthly meeting of enthusiasts here in Invercargill. I’m going along.
A year or so ago Brett exhibited the photo of mine below. These are non-flying models at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland.
In this case I’m not sure whether it’s the aeroplanes that I am interested in, or their arrangement. Again and again I take photos of subjects that display this pattern. Below is an example that took with my camphone.
School children had been invited to make paper models of birds, as an exercise to go with an exhibition of birds that was on in the main section of the Sarjeant Gallery in Wanganui.
A few days before I went to Fiordland, with the help of a friend, I worked on a jigsaw, first one I’d done for a long time. They’re relaxing and for some reason very gripping.
I chose this one partly because I like the style of these early travel posters and partly because I like these de Havilland Fox Moths. Even though built in the 30’s there is one of these at Mandeville near here, in perfect condition.
Capable of carrying 4 passengers, in a cabin separate from the pilot’s, one of these was used to start one of the very first passenger services in NZ. Surprisingly it was on the West Coast.
Windsock at Te AnauHere’s a photo that’s a newer version of one that I made about 10 years ago. Called Wind at Whenuapai, it was also of a windsock except it pointed the other way. There could be a big difference because there’s a theory that when we look at photos we have a tendency to read them from left to right. It may be a result of how we read the page or it may have something to do with most of us being right handed. I don’t know how much work has been done on the subject, for example, do those whose script is written from right to left respond differently, as do left handers?
The point is that often photos have a direction to them, for example, if the theory is correct, a photo of a train travelling from left to right will have a flow to it that will be very different from one of a train flowing from right to left. In the second case there will be a compression that doesn’t exist in the first. I have tested this by printing a photo twice, the second time by reversing the image. I’m inclined to think that there is something to it, only with certain images of course, horizontal more than vertical, smaller rather than larger perhaps.
I’ve been doing a fair amount of exploring but so far the only photos that I like enough to keep have been found within a few hundred metres of my motel. I’m glad about this because when I’ve come so far I feel I should get out and about to see the sights when I might be better off back in my room resting with a good book. So far on this trip I haven’t even been to Milford Sound. Or Doubtful Sound. I’m just going to have to come back.
I did a long hike yesterday through some beech forest, near a Lord of the Rings site, but didn’t find anything that I wanted to photograph. Rainforest I find immensely difficult to work with.
Te Anau, Fiordland
In a few minutes I am leaving Invercargill to travel into Fiordland. I will be basing myself in Te Anau for 3 nights. (click on map to enlarge) I’m not at all familiar with this territory and don’t really know what I am going to find.
Te Anau is about 2 hours drive from here. I am hoping to be able to use an internet cafe there to keep in touch but it may not work out in which case I apologise in advance.
On one of the days I am making an all day trip to Doubtful Sound. I may go to Milford Sound.
I’ll be back Saturday afternoon.
The whitebait are not really running at present but we did catch some. Here are some of them in the bottom of a bucket. As always I was hoping that perhaps there would be a photo there but it not so easy to say anything original about them.
Defeat.
I watched the All Blacks being defeated on my new Panasonic flat screen TV. What do I think about it? The defeat that is, not the Panasonic.
Our national anthem is a problem. ‘God Defend New Zealand.’ is a Christian prayer. It doesn’t seem fair on those of us who are not Christians to have it as our anthem. Barely 50% of New Zealanders put themselves down as Christian in the last census and the percentage appears to be dropping. It’s possible that by the next census Christians will be in the minority.
And it’s a pity that musically it’s such a dirge.
Although bought up a Catholic , I even wanted to be a priest, now I am an atheist so whenever our anthem is played I either have to hit the mute button or leave the room. On public occasions when I am exposed to it, while I do stand, my principles don’t allow me to sing the words.
Especially important is the question does prayer work. Recently there has been some research casting doubt on this. Certainly didn’t work on Sunday.