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.
For some time I’ve admired these towers that racecourses often have. This one, that I photographed today, is at the Taranaki Racing Club. I was reminded of a beach scene I photographed in Denmark. I was there because of some WW2 bunkers. Bunkers that were built with slave labour as a German defense against a possible large scale Allied invasion but which are now sinking into the sand. There were towers there too, just like the one above.
Tidying Up
Over the last few days I’ve been going through my clothes, discarding some, and looking at better ways to store the rest. In the back of one of my cupboards I found this tie or belt hanger that I had bought years ago. I always liked it more to look at than to use. If anything, I like it more and more. I gave up using it some time ago.
I’m going to make a print this photo so that I can live with it for a few days. To see if it’s a keeper.
I came across this John Deakin photo Lucien Freud, in a recent book called, Francis Bacon’s Studio. I remember how in the late 70’s, when I first saw this image, it impressed me so much that I even tried to imitate it! Deep in one of my files is a print of the result but I wouldn’t be able to put my hands on it right now without some rummaging I’m afraid. I would like to find it though. In it I was wearing a secondhand suit i remember.
John Deakin’s photos drew me when I first saw them, and now, as over the last few days, I revisit them, they still stick to the ribs. They are unwawering. Here is a portrait of Francis Bacon, and below that Prunella Scales.
I am often asked which photographers make work that interests me. American Nicholas Nixon is one. One of his projects is to photograph these four sisters every year. He has been doing this since 1975. Bebe, the woman on the left, is his wife. The subjects are always arranged in the same order.
At present, he has a new body of work called Patients on show at the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco. If you enter their site, you will find your way to some installation shots.
It of course, reminds me of a photo that I took a few months ago. Of Kereru, the pigeon. Paul’s photo was taken a couple of years before mine.
A couple of years ago a carpenter built me a bird-feeding table on my balcony. Jutting out over a valley it is a convenient cat free site, that quickly enticed birds of many varieties. After a few months however I decided to see if any tui would come and feed off a syrup, one cup sugar to one litre of water, that I was leaving for them.
For more than a year I had no luck even though tui were coming into nearby trees. Two or three months ago the first tui began visiting. After another month or so later there were two, and now there are four. I can approach to within about 3 metres of them, although they are getting tamer. The photo above was taken this morning.
Two weeks ago I was concerned when I noticed a rat sitting in the sugar container, it’s tail draped over the side. The night before I heard one running across the ceiling of my bedroom so it was not a total surprise. It was not myself that I was concerned about but the birds who might nest in my garden. Rats are such agile climbers that few nests would be safe. I laid poison several nights in a row but it has it has taught me that I should lay bait using a proper dispenser, on a semi-permanent basis. I want this to be a sanctuary and I have planted a couple of hundred native trees, many of them providing food for birds.
I would like to make a portrait of a tui, they have such strong faces. I believe that if I could set up a plain background behind the feeding container perhaps I could succeed. I would want to be close, although a very long telephoto would be interesting to try. I don’t have one at present. A camera that could be fired using a remote I would also like to experiment with.
However, at present I’m working on gaining the confidence of these visitors. I don’t always leave food out, I bring it in at night, for example. I do this so that the birds associate me with food thereby seeing me as a friend. It is touching to see one or two on the table, waiting for me in the morning.
As far as I know, tui are the only NZ birds that can to be taught to ‘talk’. I heard a most chatty one at Mt Bruce, in the Wairarapa. Certainly Maori trained and prized them for their abilities to recite. They also used tui as a food source.
PS. Next day. A visitor to my site has kindly sent me a link to the Whangarei Bird Recovery Centre where they has a tui called Woof Woof. Here are some videos of him saying a few phrases in what sounds like a NZ Pakeha accent.
Tom Hutchins
Recently, in Auckland, Tom Hutchins died. When, in the late 70’s, I was beginning as a photographer, Tom was of considerable help to me. At that time, unlike now, workshops were popular and I met him when I went to a couple at Elam School as Fine Arts, then as now, part of Auckland University, although much changed, whether for the better history will decide.
I never knew him very well but he was a encouraging teacher. I don’t remember him ever commenting on my work, or even giving me technical tips. What he gave me was more important. He gave me encouragement. And he gave me the example of his life. He was one of the very first individuals that I had ever met, who used his camera with a belief that his work could, in some way, make the world a better place.
Unfortunately, he took early retirement in 1981 and I never saw him again. Thank you Tom.
Philodendron
Recently I wrote a posting about how Matisse had a large number of Philodendrons and used them as a motif in his work during the later years of his life.
I wrote about my photograph of a Philodendron elegans leaf, or at least part of it. In the illustration above, it is the top right hand corner illustration. Elegans is now quite rare, seemingly having fallen out of fashion as plants do. It’s a pity because, currently at least, it is one of my favourite Philodendrons.
According to the Shorter Oxford, the word is from the Greek philo, to love, and dendron, trees, referring to its fondness for climbing trees when given the opportunity.
