Suites
I am playing around with some recent photos, laying them out on an unironed
sheet, and seeing if in some way they get along. I want them to speak to each
other.
Patu Muka
Last weekend, Puke Ariki,
the museum here in New Plymouth,
brought some maori
stone tools out from storage so that
visitors could pick them up,
and generally come to appreciate them more.
Many of them were Patu muka,
from patu which is a word
for clubs of various sorts and
muka which is the word for
flax fibre.
These implements were used
to pound the flax leaves as a way
of extracting the fibre which was
an invaluable resource, used in many ways.
Personally I found it a rich experience,
so much so in fact that I went twice.
Passionfruit
I took this photo almost two years
ago and have only just
resurrected it.
Yesterday I put it on
my Facebook page
without any attached comment.
I was surprised at the level of response
and it’s made me
look at it again.
An interesting point about
passionfruit, this South American plant,
is that the name comes
from the flower whose parts
were thought by missionaries to represent the
instruments of torture used in
the Passion of Christ eg the crown
of thorns, and the whips.
Lily
Once again I have been
tempted to photograph a flower.
When I look back
on my photographic career I
can see that it has been
quite botanical.
Mind you, at an early
stage of my life I did
study some science subjects
at secondary school
and university,
I’ve always been in awe of science.
In lab classes sometimes
I was required to dissect flowers
and draw all the individual parts,
I was required to dissect flowers
and draw all the individual parts,
sometimes in Indian Ink.
It has been said that photography
has a science father and an art mother.
I like that concept.
2012
I offer my apologies for not posting
for so long, not since November 18, 2011
in fact. Goodness gracious.
I seemed to run out of anything to say
for a while even though I had up until that time
for a while even though I had up until that time
written 947 posts.
Perhaps my mind was elsewhere.
Never mind summer is here and
now I am back.
The scene above is at East End beach
here in New Plymouth. The ocean is the Tasman,
and from this point there is no more land
until Australia.
On a technical note, ‘noise’ is
very noticeable in this image.
Noise is the equivalent of grain
in film. The severity of it in this instance
may have something
to do with shooting into the sun.
Taken with an iPhone 4 this
problem has been addressed with
the new model, the 4 s.
The images that it takes are
markedly cleaner.
Never mind summer is here and
now I am back.
The scene above is at East End beach
here in New Plymouth. The ocean is the Tasman,
and from this point there is no more land
until Australia.
On a technical note, ‘noise’ is
very noticeable in this image.
Noise is the equivalent of grain
in film. The severity of it in this instance
may have something
to do with shooting into the sun.
Taken with an iPhone 4 this
problem has been addressed with
the new model, the 4 s.
The images that it takes are
markedly cleaner.
Cardinal Tetra
I am beginning to assemble a tropical aquarium
and this is the beginning.
Cardinal Tetra are my favourites of this
species.
I will keep you in touch
with fish keeping developments.
The Suite
I have been asked to assemble a suite or suites of my photos.
It’s been more difficult than I would have thought,
but here is a start.
It may be that this photo is in itself an image.
Freesia
Here’s a new photo.
I like the negative spaces
for some reason or reasons.
I’ll print it quite small.
Apple
Several years ago I found this apple
tree right at the back of a plant nursery.
It had been put there and to a large
extent, forgotten. The owners offered
it to me for $50. I hesitated, went home,
but then decided to go back a buy it,
a decision I have never regretted.
It’s a compact form, not having
many side branches, in fact the type is called
Ballerina. This particular variety is
know as Bolero.
Although close to being 2 metres tall
it has much of the bonsai look to it.
Ideally suited to growing in a pot
it has barely increased in size in all the time
that I have had it.
This photo I took perhaps 6 years ago,
but the one with the blossom I took
yesterday.
Puriri Moth
New Zealand’s biggest moth, it was
always an exciting moment to find one
of these when I was a boy and living in
the country.
It has been several years since I
have seen one. They are also
known as Ghost Moths.
Sometimes, at night, they flew inside
our house, laying pearly eggs
by the hundred it seemed.
The moth lives for just a few nights.
It does not feed, it has no mouth parts.
Their caterpillar stage
can live for five years, in a burrow
in a tree, not just a Puriri, even in
some introduced species like oak.
can live for five years, in a burrow
in a tree, not just a Puriri, even in
some introduced species like oak.