Light in the darkness

After Friday's massacre in Christchurch, I wanted to lose myself for a while in some wood. I started a bowl but, somewhere along the way, I began to think 'candle'.

Also, along the way, I began to see something on the news that I have never seen before - I began to see reports of masses of people standing up in public and saying, in various ways, "No!" Not just in Christchurch, nor just New Zealand, but around the world people were coming out and joining together to proclaim their "No!" Human beings don't do this they said, this is not what being human is about. To be human is to care - deeply. To be human is to love and have compassion. To be human is to weep with those who experience loss - those left grieving.

In all my years I can't recall such a worldwide outpouring of humanity - this is the light of the world. This is the light that cannot be put out, this is the light that pushes back against the darkness of hate.

It took the darkness of a massacre to reveal the light, but the light is burning; may it never flicker.

Back inside

Today we went to visit the reopened Christchurch Art Gallery. This is one of those buildings I love as a building; the art adds an extra dimension but the building itself is somewhere I just love to be. I think it has something to do with the ribbed facade; it's like being inside the body of something alive, looking out on the rest of the world. And alive it is with people young and old scuttling about enjoying the space.

There were some interesting exhibits, including this sweet landscape made from coloured sugar (the picture shows only a small part).

And the yellow room which provides a transition space or just a place to sit if you need to recover from sensory overload.

But, as I said at the beginning, whatever the exhibition it's the building that always attracts me and, after five years of being closed for repairs, it was good to get back inside.

Back in The Square again

After nearly three years, it's good to be able to walk through our city centre again. Sure it's damaged and it's disorientating not having all the familiar buildings in their place, but I like what I am seeing - Christchurch people are reclaiming their broken city. People are creating things, wonderful things, that could not have found a place in the more regulated pre-quake Christchurch. Would anyone have been allowed to erect a whare in the square prior to 2010?

Would impromptu art spaces, like this photo exhibition, have found a place on the more crowded city streets?

There is something really cool going on in Christchurch post quake, and I'm not sure that I want to see the rebuild snuff it out once the developers and bureaucrats get their act together. We need an ongoing supply of empty space where creative people can make cool things for Cantabrians to delight in and smile at.

Window pain

Three years on from the start of the earthquakes, and this damaged yet unrepaired building seems to reflect our city:

Buskers Festival

The Buskers Festival came around again and I finally managed to get along on a sunny, if somewhat windy, day. The organisation this year, centred in North Hagley park, was excellent though I have to say that for a sunny Saturday too many of the venues were lying idle. Nevertheless, the acts that were on display were entertaining large crowds.

"Bazza" the bronze rugby player was statuesque, until the girls came along, when he would suddenly become very vocal.

Juggling atop a pole in a high wind was not the easiest act in town:

Bus stop:

Some could hardly watch; while others did ...

Rockin it (that's a badminton racquet around his waist!) :

Spinning contortionist:

L&P famous in New Zealand:

Boy in a ball:

Events like these are good place to do a bit of 'street photography' without feeling intrusive; everyone is in a good mood and there are plenty of cameras about, so people don't tend to view photographers with suspicion. Go, for it; find a crowd-filled event and have fun with your camera :-)

All around view

It's been a week of experiments with interactive 360 degree photography. It started with a client wanting a 360 degree view of their retail space and ended up with visiting St Michael and All Angels church to see what could be done with a larger interior. The results can be seen at http://www.fords.co.nz/pano/stmichael/start.html. If you do try the link, use the 'full screen' button to see it at large scale; well worth it.

The interior was taken with six fish-eye frames - 5 horizontal and 1vertically upward. I could have taken a seventh vertically downward but didn't bother this time so there is a small black hole in the floor underneath the camera! The six pictures were stitched using 'Hugin' and the virtual reality files were created using 'Pano2VR'.

The resulting image files are quite large to download but the additional quality for zooming in on detail is worth the short wait. The image will display in a browser using either 'Flash' or 'HTML5' if Flash isn't available. Comments welcome.

Container City

Yesterday we went to 'Container City' the new and emerging heart of wounded Christchurch. Visited the Apple Store, Johnson's the Grocer and Scorpio Books - all buzzing with lunchtime activity. It's so good to see the Central City begin to show signs of life again. Who knew that containers could look so good?

 More pictures at: https://picasaweb.google.com/102496606900301125582/ContainerCity#