From Our Home to Your Home 2014 I trust this finds you in Good Health, Aloma is currently going through Physio for a knee that has troubled her for sometime. We are hoping that it will be better for 2015. My diabetes does not trouble me and is under control, although I would like to lose a few Kilos, as I have put on about half a kilo a year since I retired. Towards the End of January after a quiet Christmas at home we decided to take a caravan tour of the regions south of Manurewa to visit Aloma's brother in Taupo, and her two sisters in Levin. Her eldest sister is 84 and lives there, so we took a leisurely journey via Otorohanga 2 nights, including a trip through Waitomo Caves. Thence to Wanganui via Taumaranui where we picnicked lunch in the Main Street
We travelled down the Parapara route to Wanganui for two nights at the camping ground up the west side (true right bank) of the Wanganui River .
Our breakfast was able to be had outdoors at a table adjacent to our caravan site, and consisted of our usual at home fare, Porridge, Avocado on Toast and a piece of fruit with coffee We had a good look around Wanganui and after two nights we moved on to Foxton Beach Motor Camp at the estuary of the Manawatu River mouth. Which put us in commuting distance to Levin, and where I could do some birding.
I had a greats session with Wrybills, although they were roosting in a lot of drift wood. Also Knots, Pacific Golden Plover and Banded Dotterels (Dotterel so called because regarded as stupid and easy to catch , as in a dotty person) We should perhaps call them plovers which they truly are.
Lesser Knots
Banded Dotterel & Pacific Golden Plover
Lesser Knots and Banded Dotterel
Pacific Golden Plover
Two pacific Golden Plovers non breeding plumage
In New Zealand Knots often associate with Godwit, however knots migrate to Siberia, and Godwits to Alaska. Knots are a similar colouring to Godwit but smaller, with shorter legs and beaks.
We visited Aloma's sisters each day, who although they don't live together, each lives in Levin. After 3 nights at Foxton, on Sunday 2nd February we left Foxton and via Levin and Palmerston North, we travelled to Hastings. The purpose for travelling via Hawke's Bay was three fold, to show Aloma more of this country in which she has settled , to visit my cousin Desma and her husband Cliff, both of whom I had not seen for some years, and to see if we could locate a pair of Plumed Whistling Ducks, which have inhabited a pond at Taradale for the last 3 or 4 years. We visited the usual sites of Havelock, Napier and Hastings, saw the Ducks and visited with Cliff and Desma
Desma Aloma and Cliff at Tardale 2014
Plumes Whistling Ducks
Napier
Te Mata Peak Havelock Nort
We left Hastings on 4th February after visiting Cliff and Desma, it was to be her 80th birthday on the 6th, in my first few years she was like a sister to me, as she is just 3 years my senior. We moved to Taupo
Caravan on site at Taupo
Aloma and her younger brother at Taupo
and returned home to Manurewa after visiting friends in Tokoroa en route. In March we flew to Nelson, where I was involved with the Photographic Society of NZ's Honours Board ( previously in Takapuna now shifted to Nelson ) we had an enjoyable few days away in Nelson. This coming year 2015 is my final year on the Board having completed two terms of 3 years, we are taking the opportunity to take the caravan to the S I, where we skipped Christchurch in 2011 and never made it to Milford Sound. Hope to do them this next time. On returning home a fair bit of time was spent gardening cutting hedges, and then I started sorting & packing 40 years of wedding negatives, which the Auckland Library
took off my hands as a slice of " social commentary" . It took me a couple of weeks to pack them in cardboard cartons. I think we ended up with about 30 cartons the size of an apple box full of packaged negatives. I then started a data base of portrait, candid & studio, golden weddings 21 sts etc. so that I may eventually pack up all the non-wedding negatives with an index to what is what. It had all been hand written in a series of index books. There is several thousand rolls of film to be collated .
Family History On wet days I digitised all the photos from family history photo albums, and added the pictures to me family history program over 4500 images now relating to the 16000 plus people entered, that in some way or another are related. I spent some time in doing a tree of Aloma's family and have managed to trace on her father's side back to the late 1700s European descent all in India. Sadly her mother's Portuguese ancestry meets brick walls in the 1870s so far I have several 100 people in her tree. So February March and April passed I started to clear the two garden beds lining the pathway from the wooden gate in the hedge to the front steps, they were choked with Belladonna lilies ( Naked ladies) Agapanthus and a South African Iris Dietes grandiflora, a plant that Auckland City is establishing in a lot displays because they have attractive Iris like flowers over spring and summer which are white with yellow and lavender markings. They are frost hardy and grow well in part shade to full sun and thrive in hot dry conditions. Great as a maintenance free low hedge, but have a habit of proliferating wildly Easter weekend we travelled down to Gordonton to Wairere Nurseries and bought a number of standard Roses which were on special. It took me several weeks to clear these two strips of garden , and preparing the beds with compost for the rose planting
Agapanthus, Naked Lady, Red Hot Pokers, and South African Lily all to be cleared or shifted
It took me some weeks to clear every vestige of bulbs roots rhizomes etc The 2 naked lady bulbs planted 25 years ago, had multiplied to about 200, after re planting about 50 bulbs under the privet hedge on my Northern Boundary, giving many away, I sold over 120 on Trademe at $1.00 each, which more than paid for the Roses. I also bagged up a number of Scilla peruviana , Dietes grandiflora, and Agapanthus for future sale,
Scilla peruvana
Dietes grandiflora
Belladonna (Naked Lady)
The effort was worthwhile as the Roses although battered by the recent wind and rain, have made a real show.
The standard roses are bowing under the weight of blossoms
In April we helped Harold Webb ( a pharmacist mate of mine for over 50 years ) shift a load of furniture to Thames where he has trans located for retirement, from Mangere East. He was very ill at the end of 2012 but he has made a remarkable recovery , and is enjoying life in Thames. When he comes to Auckland and does not wish to drive back in the dark, he stays overnight, with us. Aloma keeps her self busy making craft items, bead necklaces, yarn scarves and allsorts of knick knacks including flower arrangements. I dine very well on the meals she prepares.
9 Nov 2014
3 Aug 2014
Some of the items Aloma has
9 Aug 2014
9 Mar 2014
17 Aug 2014
Created this season
For Christmas decorations
Bangers and Mash
Flounder on a plate
Home made Murukku a savoury crunchy Indian snack food We attend church at Manukau City Baptist and sometimes afterwards dine out. Aloma enjoys Southern Indian cuisine, and we have a number of restaurants that supply lunchtime meals at a reasonable rate.
We are Off to church 19 Oct 2014
28 April at an Onehunga Cafe "Fish n Chips"
At Manukau City Diwali Celebration
28 Sep at Bikanervala Papatoetoe Dosa
For her Birthday in August we went to a Thai restaurant at Botany Junction where we enjoyed a change of culture, and ate Thai food.
I got her a Samsung WB350 F some of the features 16.3-megapixel CMOS sensor which Captures high-resolution images. 21x optical/up to 5x digital/up to 105x total zoom Through a 4.1-86.1mm (35mm equivalent 23-483mm) f/2.8-5.9 lens for precise zooming and accuracy. 3" touch-screen HVGA LCD display Enables simple operation and provides clear visuals when framing a shot or reviewing images. Viewfinder provides a centred view of the image area for an additional shooting option. She has had a lot of fun getting images many of which adorn these pages. I very rarely carry a camera these days after 60 years of photography, in a huge range of fields I relax in my spare time in the garden.
Camera Club Judging has taken up a portion of the year, Eden Roskill in mid April. In the cold evenings of the winter after 50 plus years judging around the Auckland Clubs and wider a field I prefer not to judge , so when Sep came I was back judging at Henderson and Images at Pukekohe in October it was Pukekohe-Franklin, and in December we went to Hamilton for the Waikato Photographic Societies End of year Championship round and presentation of trophies. As well as Judging the Tiritiri Matangi Calendar Images ( early May) , and the Auckland Camera Clubs Shoot out ( July) I was also involved in my home Club in May in a debate re the place of Impressionism in today's photography . See notes on this in the Calendar segment of this Newsletter. Some of our time has been spent visiting Derek Carter the husband of my second cousin Lois nee Jenkins, a Spinley descendant. who is now in full time care
On 28th April we took advantage of free travel concessions, and went into Britomart on the Southern Rail line, and took the inaugural day trip of new electric trains to Onehunga, where we wandered around had lunch, and returned home reversing the mornings journey.
In June Aloma enjoyed a visit of relatives from Australia We still enjoy going out to Weymouth Beach and watch the Sunset , I have a series of images "the Moods of Weymouth"
10 Feb 2014
10 Feb
16 Feb 2014
23 Feb 2014
2 Mar 2014
2 Mar 2014
9 Mar 2014
30 Mar 2014 6.56 pm
30 Mar 2014 7.17 pm
30 Mar 2014 7.21 pm.
10 Apr 2014
30 Mar 2014 7.28 pm
Most of the time I am at home pottering about in the garden, being stalked by the latest photographer in the family.
15 Sep. Weed spraying on a path
Caught ! 14 Oct
Digging the Potato plot 4 Nov
Enjoying our garden 16 Nov 2014
Sunday relaxation
View through one of the Archways
Looking down the pathway that needs spraying again
The Potato Crop
Tomatoes and Rhubarb
Beetroot Beans and Capsicums & Radish
Garlic, Kale, Parsnip etc
Courgettes
Thyme, Marjoram, Origano, Herb segment
Gooseberry
Strawberries
Grapes
Passionfruit and Grape Vine
Rose Archway
The Lily pond
The Apricots have been picked and eaten, Plums developing, Raspberries over . Apples and Pears to look forward to. Figs ripening and Persimmons developing. Two years ago my 25 year old Lily pond was a disaster area a tree root had cracked the fibreglass pond, but I have repaired it , and once again it sports Water Lily Flowers
Before repairing the pond 7 Mar 2012
A Flower this season 3 Nov 2014
The tulips iris and cannas, that flank the pond have made a great display this year.
29 Aug 2014
19 Sep 2014
30 Sep 2014
14 Oct 2014
8 Nov 2014
26 Oct 2014
The Cineraria are self seeded from before 1965 , they were established at Arthur Rd when we moved in, in 1965, and when I shifted to Bowater Place in 1981 I garnered some dried seed heads and scattered the seed around here , along the borders of the hedges, and they just self establish each year, and they make quite a show in the spring . I now have Hollyhock, Foxgloves and Grannies Bonnets doing likewise . I just transplant the seedlings when they appear to appropriate sites, The course I do at Miranda, on Photographing birds was scheduled for the weekend of 9th November, as I could not find a weekend with time of sunrise and high tide
coinciding. Because of the approaching end of year bookings were slow, so we decided to "can" it this year.
2015 Calendar This years Calendar is based on some of my 'Impressionistic" Photography.
The cover photo was taken near Speargrass Flat, Arrowtown Shotover River Valley Central Otago in April 2011. I was taken by the contrast between the evergreen conifer and the deciduous bare trees. I moved the camera in a vertical downward direction during the 0.3 second f29. exposure at Iso 200 using my Canon 7D and 18-55 mm standard kit lens. at 28 mm
January
Yipee A slide I came across earlier this year. Which I took in the late 1960s at a Rodeo event at the Pukekohe show, at night, by lights, using Ferraniacolor 25ASA and home processed. Using a tripod of course. Solomon said many ages ago "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Which just proves that "Impressionism" is a classical style of photography, that has been around for a long time, and although it is going through a resurgence of interest currently as a trend, this is not a "fad". Fad items are rarely expected to endure, but trends tend to survive . By pursuing the style of "Impressionism" another string is attached to your personal photographic bow, or perhaps another arrow in the quiver of photographic skills.
February
Taken with the same technique at the same rodeo event in Pukekohe.
March. Taken at the Kumeu show the Saturday nearest the 7th March in the early 70s or late 60s In those days it was correct to keep at least one part of the image in sharp focus. I maintained sharpness on the "whip" whilst panning the camera at about 1/8 second, on my 6cm x 6 cm format Flexaret.
April
At this time I was teaching myself "bas relief" photography, and I would stay on the same style for a whole year to learn the rudiments , and repeatability of the techniques, also as a self imposed handicap, as I didn't need the title of "pot hunter", but rather I wished to teach my self different skills in photography, by practice. Bas Relief.. Definition: Special effect photograph in which the subject appears as if sculpted in low relief. Obtained by combining a negative film of the subject with a positive film of the same subject: when superimposed slightly out of register -- i.e. not quite exactly on top of each other -- bas-relief effect is seen. I saw this pen of sheep whilst on a road trip from Christchurch to Akaroa during the 1973 PSNZ Convention. and took the image then and called it "The Black Baa's Relief"
May
David Bowie at Western Springs 26 Nov 1983 The only time I have ever attended a pop-concert, (at my children's insistence). Photos were not allowed so I smuggled the Pentax spotmatic body in, wedged behind my Shirt Belt and trousers, my 16 yr old daughter slung the 300mmm lens in a pair of panty hose from her belt, hidden under her skirt between her legs. This image was taken using a prismatic filter
June
Skyline Graffiti Over the years I have acquired a number of nicknames in the 60s Flower Power Joe and Op Art 'Arry, in the 1990s ( because of still using the same style self imposed handicap ) I used Sky Tower as the basis for each set subject monthly competition , hence becoming Mr Skytower at the Pukekohe-Franklin Camera Club, ultimately leading to a Fellowship in Creative Pictorial Photography in 2002. I had always regarded "SkyTower" as a blot on the landscape, and "graffiti of the horizon" This image is a sandwich of the Skyline from Cowan St Ponsonby, and a graffitied fence.
July
Morning Flight Taken through a rain splashed vehicle window of a duck flying past , was from my successful APSNZ Set of 2000.
August
During the 1970s I explored the sabattier effect. It gets a little technical, but let’s see if we can get into it without getting lost in the science. If you’ve spent any time exploring your way through the Photoshop filters menu, you may already be familiar with the solarization filter. When a partially developed negative or print is briefly exposed to white light, some of the tone values are reversed. Dark areas appear light and light areas appear dark. French scientist and doctor Armand Sabattier (1834-1910) described the process as “pseudo-solarization.” Over time, the “pseudo” has been dropped, but the effect is the same– the reversal of image tones due to extreme overexposure. Run an image through the solarization filter and you’ll see what I mean. In the days of film, the effect manifested itself one of two ways. The first would be an extreme overexposure of the negative in the camera. In the darkroom, it could have been something as simple as turning the lights on and off while processing the negatives. The Sabattier Effect takes solarization a bit further. In addition to the overall tone reversal, the Sabattier Effect includes a narrow band or rim of low density, which is formed at the edges between adjacent highlight and shadow areas. This white band, or Mackie Line, appears around areas of high contrast. It was a popular darkroom technique for a while, but became increasingly less popular due to the combination of long hours in the darkroom and unpredictable results. In the above image I started with two shots of a poplar and conifer row of trees.
I sandwiched the two images one correct way up, the other up side down, duplicated this on Ferrania positive film then flashed to a red bulb during the development of the film. Then I sandwiched an over exposed shot of a bird in flight with this, to simulate the graph like wing beat waves of a bird in flight.
September
The Flight of the Wrybills I have always been intrigued by the jizz of the Wrybills in flight. How as they twist and turn they appear to sparkle as they reflect the light from the lighter parts of their bodies. Jizz is a term used by birders to describe the overall impression or appearance of a bird garnered from such features as shape, posture, flying style or other habitual movements, size and colouration combined with voice, habitat and location. This image was taken at Miranda at 1/8th second f32 using the full 400mm of the 100400mm Canon lens. Panning with the birds. A slight vignette was applied in the after process.
October
Is another "bas relief" taken in Arrowtown in 1963 the original slide being duplicated through a piece of textured glass, then the B&W negative made of this and sandwiched out of register Titles "Arrowtown walkabout"
These two were taken at the same time our 1954 Ford Prefect that we were travelling in, complete with Ferrania color processing kit with not a soul in sight, and shot of leaves being burnt in the main street of Arrowtown. How times have changed.
November
Rum Tum Tugger From the late 1990s when PSNZ was not accepting digital images I scanned a portrait of a cream cat into my computer, then solarised it using the filter in "Paint shop Pro " which I was using at that time (Preceded Photoshop, for me ). Then in a totally darkened room (to avoid reflections ) I photographed my computer screen to convert the digital image back to film. This was successful in Natex at that time. As I had been with Home processed Colour Printing, I was now a Pioneer of 'digital imaging"
December
Peacock Pattern Another 'sabattier" from the late 1970s Thus this years calendar From the field of 'impressionism" per photographic techniques. Some images from a program at Howick Camera Club about Impressionism, "Is it a product of todays Photographic Techniques "