From our Home to Your Home Christmas 2017
Last year I reported that we had very little to report apart from the fact we are both getting older and have slowed down quite a bit. , and that is even more true of this year Most of Aloma's time is spent in the house, cooking, and doing the household chores, and I am fighting a losing battle on maintaining the garden and hedges, and have had to get help in, to maintain the property. Never a day seems to go by that we do not mention, that we miss Harold's presence in our lives. Although there is nothing seriously wrong with our health. When I examine the year's calendar, a fair bit of our time has been spent with Dr's appointments, hospital clinics, optometry clinics, dental etc. Both of us are having teeth problems, as we have outlived the life of our teeth. Aloma had her second cataract operation done late in the year in October and is currently awaiting clearance for the optometrist to make her new spectacles. In the meantime my new spectacles made in October, have proven to be less acceptable than my old ones of 6 years age, despite returning them twice to the optometrist. Such is life as one ages. The early part of the year was spent in copying and sorting my transparency ( slide) collection, for uplifting by Auckland Library
Some early slides from my Tauranga year 1959
A fair bit of the winter was spent uplifting my entire family history data to ancestry.com under Bruce Shanks Family data some 18000+ people, and I have added about 4000 of the 8000 related photographs, this is a major task, which hasn't been helped by recent changes o my web browser Mozilla Firefox , which elected no longer to support Java, Group Tabs and some other valuable addons. During this period my laptop started to play up, and I discovered the Terabyte hard drive was full, despite the fact that I have 11 extra removable hard drives. So we replaced the 1 Terabyte with a 2 terabyte, but in so doing. I have lost my printers, and permanent letters for hard drives and Windows has scrambled the hard drives with new letters, so I have all that to sort. In the meantime those not so bright sparks at "Spark" elected to have chorus update my neighbourhood in the new unproven ( except during the Kaikoura earthquake, where it failed miserably), technology of fibre network, and succeeded in removing my copper phone line and also my internet connection. It took me 2 full days to get them to acknowledge there was a problem, and 2 more to fix it , so 6 days ex communicado, as it began on a Friday and nothing positive started to happen until the Tuesday following.
A section of the family tree on ancestry.com. So life has seen some challenges this year.
January Saw me helping a few people put together their Honours Board submissions, this continued into February until submissions closed. Towards the end of the month we paid several visits to Muriwai Gannet Photography to photograph a rare bird visiting NZ, it was a Red footed Booby . I visited about 4 times with the hope of getting the bird in flight, with the red feet on display, but alas no luck of a suitable flight shot, as each day it came in from a different angle and at speed.
Red footed Booby (Sula sula ) from Galapagos Islands
A few slides that I came across whilst cataloguing that brought back memories were
Solitude. My first international salon acceptance from the 1960s
Autumn Harvest My second international acceptance
Kotuku. My first Natural History Salon acceptance
February On the second Tuesday of the month I presented a slide program at South Auckland Birds as per. The other day whilst cataloguing my life's work of Photography which is going to the Auckland Library, I came across a set of slides taken in the 1971-1974 time region, of the birds on the delta island in the mouth of the Waikato River. The Caspian Colony etc. I can bring them with projector, as it may be the last occasion any one may witness a slide show, of the film variety. Later in February Aloma and I were guests of the recently re-instituted Photographic Society of NZ's International Salon of Photography, where I was one of a panel of International Judges. We stayed in a hotel, Swiss Bel Suites Victoria Park, Auckland, and judging took place over 4 days at a venue in Queen St, it was a great honour to be included on the panel along with Singaporian, USA, Australian and NZ judges.
The committee and 3 judges of the Pictorial Projected image section.
March 13th was my 79th Birthday and I celebrated with a Canadian lobster lunch
April
What an honour it was on Saturday evening at the 65th PSNZ Annual Convention C R Kennedy Honours Banquet, to have a life membership conferred on me. Little did I realise in 1959 when joining a Photographic Society, what a journey it would take me on. I have had the greatest of pleasures in visiting clubs, and commenting on images. All with the hope that I may help improve the communication skills of photographers, and advance the cause of 'photography' on many fronts. It was great that my, at one time, Manurewa Photographic Society colleague, Brian Cudby, was similarly rewarded. Thank you !
The Citation Read.. Information about Nominee, Bruce Shanks Bruce joined PSNZ in 1966 became an Accredited Judge for pictorial and natural history prints as well as projected images in 1968, and served on Council from 1972 to 1975. He chaired the Northern Regional hosted by Manurewa in 1972 and was a keynote speaker at the 1975 PSNZ Convention. Bruce was a founder member of the Manurewa Photographic Society in 1961, and became a life member in 1978.
He gained his PSNZ Associateship in 2000 and Fellowship in 2002. He was appointed to the PSNZ Honours Board in 2010 and served with distinction for six years up to 2016. He has judged PSNZ International Salons three times, PSNZ Salons many times, and club competitions numerous times. Bruce is an inspirational teacher, an encouraging coach, and has run workshops on Nature Photography for PSNZ and club members all over the country. He has given outstanding service to photography in New Zealand — most particularly through organisation, judging and teaching — for more than fifty years. In his retirement, he remains a ‘go to’ person for all seeking advice, help and encouragement in the field. His contribution to photography in New Zealand has been in every way truly outstanding. The Photographic Society of NZ, on the recommendation of the Honours Board is proud to award the distinction of Honorary Life Membership to Bruce Shanks FPSNZ. Of course Aloma accompanied me at this function where we were met by friends Soong and Jan, and Newell Grenfell, and as usual I did not take my camera, as it was just a banquet, I thought I was attending. So once again we rely on Aloma's camera this year. Although I have a pair of Panasonic Lumix's which I keep one in each car. Just in case.
Me, Soong with his wife Alia Jan and Newell Grenfell.
Some serendipity occurred for the seating arrangements, as I found at my table, one of the Honours applicants whom I had helped with advice on her set, which gained her an Associateship, and also at the same table was Bruce Crossan to the left of me at our table, also a blessing as. I was his family's pharmacist, when he was a child, and his maternal Uncle is one of my closest friends at the church we attend, and I was able to tell his Uncle; of Bruce's (Crossan) LPSNZ award , at church the following morning.
Judged the Kaiapoi Landscape Competition.
May Judged Hawkes Bay Photo Club Competition.. Hi Bruce Just a wee note to check that you're still OK to judge our comp for May? The set subject is 'Very Rural'. There are A and B grades, set subject, open, and an A and B combined 'creative' category. A total of about 60 images. I'll send you a link to the dropbox folder with the images on about 6th May, and we need your comments and awards etc back by the 26th May.
June Dear Bruce Shanks, I am the competition secretary (Open Print) for the Christchurch Photographic Society. I am currently putting together this year’s roster of judges and was hoping you would be able to provide your services as the judge of our 3rd Open Print Competition 2017 for this year. The entries close for this competition on 31, Wednesday May and the presentation will take place on 01, Thursday June I queried the turn round time of less than 24 hours. ?? Apparently it was supposed to be July not June. However there was a panic in the finish as I did not receive the package of prints until the afternoon of 19th June . I hurriedly viewed the actual prints, and returned them by return courier, so the prints were back in Christchurch for club night.. Then completed the judging using the digital files on dropbox.
July Cambridge Camera Club Floral and Open competition , Queenstown C.P>S and an interclub between New Brighton & Johannesburg
August August the 5th was my brother in law Phil Rouse's 80th birthday. So we travelled to Pauanui, where he lives, with our caravan, and had about a week away in the Bay of Plenty as far as Opotiki and home.
Clyde, Joanne, Phil, Richard, and Julie-Anne
Also saw me involved in Judging Rotorua Camera Club images
27 August some of the former Professional Photographers of NZPPA gathered for a luncheon reunion at Cornwall Park Cafe.
September At the NZPPA reunion I made arrangements to visit Bob and Jan Fulton, to garner some more family photos. Bob is a distant relative with 2 connections to me, as a third cousin once removed. via the David Russell Family, and then his widowed grandmother married my paternal grandmother's brother. So towards the end of September one Sunday afternoon after Church we visited them at Lynfield.
Off to do our Vote in September
October Aloma had her second cataract operation 25 October.
November I was asked to do a presentation at the South Auckland branch of the Ornithological Society of NZ (now Birds NZ) Where I presented a Power Point Presentation of 60 years of PSNZ Involvement and almost 50 years involvement with OSNZ We have had to change speakers for tomorrow evening so now Bruce Shanks will be giving us an illustrated perspective of 60 years of photography and (nearly) 50 years of birding. See you there. Meetings are held in the Papakura Croquet Club rooms, 1 Chapel St, Papakura from 7.30pm. All welcome. BIRDS ON FILM: This month's speaker is our very own Bruce Shanks.
Bruce will share almost 60 years of Birding and Photography. Prepare for a night of intrepid tales and stunning photography! See you Tuesday November 14th, Papakura Croquet Club, 1 Chapel Street Papakura at 7.30pm.
December Sunday 3rd December we attended the Annual SABirds Christmas BBQ This year hosted by Lyn and David Lawrie at 52 Mill Rd, Pukekohe. and Tuesday 12th Once again, it is the end of year Camera Club and Photographic Societies end of year functions. Last night I was honoured, to once again choose some of the trophy winners for the 2017 year of the Manukau Photographic Society, and do the presentations, here in Manurewa. It is a great occasion which I enjoy. It is about 55 years since the parent clubs from which Manukau has emerged were formed, namely Manurewa PS and Papatoetoe CC, both of which I was a founder member in about 1960-61 In 1978 I became a life member of Manurewa PS, which Manukau kindly acknowledged and transferred to me within the current club. It was a fitting way to conclude my 50th year on the PSNZ Judging panel. by judging the annual awards in my own base home club. At the moment the carpenter is here, changing our climb and clamber into the bath for a shower system, over to a walk in shower cubicle. Job is almost finished, and will eliminate a possible/ most probable hazard, I have lived with since moving here in 1981.
As is normal at our stage of life, we have had a number of friends, relatives and acquaintances pass on during the year. Some of whom were
Desma Waltham Russell nee Butler 7 Aug 1927- 9 May 2017 Notably Desma Russell 9 May 2017, she was the widow of Merv Russell who passed away in 2010. Although Merv was my second cousin once removed, ( his Grandfather and my Great grandfather were brothers,) we became very good friends, and we collaborated in growing the family history.
Merv and Desma
Jessie May DONNELLY formerly RUSSELL nee Webster Published in The New Zealand Herald from May 19 to May 20, 2017 DONNELLY, Jessie May. formerly Russell, nee Webster. Passed away peacefully on 17th May after a battle with cancer, in her 93rd Year. Wife of the late Gordon Russell and the late Jim Donnelly. Dearly loved Mother and Mother in law of Bruce and Ellen Owen, Richard and Lyndsay Russell, Annette and Barry Bradly, Coral Russell and Kevin and Sue Russell. Dearly loved Grandma of 13, GiGi to 13. A service will be held in the Garden Chapel of the Morrison Funeral Home, 220 Universal Drive, Henderson on Monday 22nd May at 2.pm. Grateful thanks to the staff and management at Craigwell House, Parakai. All Correspondence to the Donnelly family c/- above funeral home. Jessie May Donnelly, formerly Russell nee Webster , was the daughter of a prominent Punganui (between Kaukapakapa and Helensville) family of Basil and May Webster. She was born at Pukekohe in 1924. Her parents were share milking at near bye Ramarama. She attended Kaukapakapa and Lochnorrie Primary Schools before attending Helensville District High School. Teacher's training College in Auckland followed. She married Gordon Charles Russell, eldest son of Charles Alexander Russell 1889-1948, and Alice nee Spinley, 1891-1968, at the Kaukapakapa Methodist Church on 12 Jun 1946. Gordon & Jessie's was the first wedding service only, that I ever attended. I stayed with my Grandma and Grandpa Shanks that day, who lived opposite the church in Peak Rd. Whilst Mum and Dad went on to the reception. Jessie and Gordon settled in Helensville, where Gordon after leaving West's sawmill, worked in retail, in grocery, and hardware, with Kaipara Dairy and Screatons, and at one stage had a dairy in Commercial Rd. Jessie also taught locally. After Gordon's passing in 1969 Jessie spent some time in Australia, before returning to NZ where she married Jim Donnelly, and they lived in Shackleton Rd Mt Eden.
My maternal grandmother was a close friend of Jessie's mum, May Webster, through their Methodist connections. My Dad often drove the school bus to Helensville, on which Jessie travelled to High school, and my parents had been pupils at Lochnorrie, some years before Jessie's attendance there.
My father and mother at a school re-union with Jessie in Helensville. (Probably early 2000s)
Jessie and Gordon's wedding in 1946, was the first wedding service I attended in the Methodist Church at Kaukapakapa, I stayed with my paternal grandparents opposite that church, whilst Mum and Dad attended the wedding reception and dance that followed.
Ann Eustace The wife of a good friend Derek Eustace had been deteriorating in health over the last year or so and passed away. Since then Derek has been coming over for a meal about once a month with our mutual friend Frank Ciochetto.
2018 Calendar Frontispiece SYMBOL OF A CITY... Mission Statement of my Creative Fellowship Application 2005.
My layout guide for the set, which is different to the calendar layout. With only 3 rows allowed for display, My layout was supposed to look like a cross section of the top os "Skytower"
January Central City Scape
February My very first shot when I rejoined PSNZ Camera Club then Known as Franklin, now Pukekohe in the mid 1990s to comply with the Set Subject, Looking up "Symbol of a City"
Vanity Looking at his self in a mirror.
March Femininity
Masculinity
APRIL Graffiti
May Onward and Upward
Signs of the times "Signs of the Times" This one was requested for the PSNZ Permanent collection
June Two of a kind
July Metropolis
Family Affair Five images on one transparency. (Multiexposure)
AUGUST Night Patrol "Night Patrol" One night whilst photographing skytower at that perfect hour of twilight when you can still read a newspaper by the ambient light, a tiger moth appeared over the waterfront, I was able to combine two shots. I would store images in different interchangeable backs, and with my fresnel screen, on the camera etched with guide grids, I could compose, using my memory where things should be.
Lucky Strike "Lucky strike" Foreground shot in my studio as a table-top, combined with the multi image already captured in camera, multi-exposures created by exposing, moving camera, and re-exposing 5 X, the trick to get the exposures correct
SEPTEMBER A Full hand
Another Spin.
OCTOBER Triple Whammy "Triple Whammy" Taken to fulfil the camera club competition Red Green Blue, using an edmunds scientific Moire pattern effect screen , re photographed with original triple image
Celebration
NOVEMBER Concentration Titled as "Concentration" this had been my entry, in the Portrait competition, at Pukekohe, the year I was restricting myself, to Skytower images. It was an overlay of a profile window portrait, and a view up 'skytower"
DECEMBER Prima Donna
During this year 2017 I did not renew my membership to an individual camera club, although I remain a life member of the Manukau Club and where I rarely attend because their meeting night clashes night for night with the South Auckland Bird's NZ Club night. Of course from now on I will be an Honorary Life Member of PSNZ My interest in Family History is on going. I try to attend the monthly meeting of Bird's NZ and my only photographic activity is to take sunsets at Weymouth Beach, where we go about once or twice a week over the summer months , and eat our tea, fill our lungs with salt-air , and watch what ever is going on there.
4 December 2017
20 Nov 2017
1 Dec 2017
1 Dec 2017
20 Nov 2017
On Sunday 17th December, I invited 2 of my mates round for a pre-christmas Roast Turkey dinner Aloma calls us the three old codgers.
Frank Ciochetto, Derek Eustace and myself
and so that just leaves us to
Wish You All the BEST FOR THE SEASON ( Don't forget the Reason) and The very best Wishes for a successful New Year