Holy Innocents

Out the back of Amberley there is a rather pretty church - an ideal location to check out the latest lens - a Nikkor 18-35mm. I bought it with a view to moving up to an FX camera later in the year so right now it's an FX lens on a DX body which has the distinct advantage of cropping out a lens' most vulnerable areas - the corners. On the D80 I'm getting excellent sharpness right across the frame - even wide open. Nice.

You will fail ... unless

Just today, I finished reading "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. So, it must have been coincidence that tonight I hear the same message in a totally different format - a funny/blunt TED talk by Larry Smith about why you will fail to have a great career. Funny enough to watch even if you have already made those choices that lead to failure.

How's your passion?

Is there something in your life that you are as passionate about as Stephen Ritz? Whether you are interested in the Bronx and disadvantaged youth or not, this is worth watching just to see the energy and passion spewing out of this man. Just watch it. Now.

The Kraken comes ...

... at dusk on a lonely shore. Lumbering its slimy bulk across the pebbled beach, it heads to the tree line and the morsels that slumber beyond.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

"Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight - how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly."
(Richard Bach)

Busy couple of weeks

What with getting a new job (at sixty-three, a bit of a surprise!) and a new exhibition opening at the gallery, the last couple of weeks have been a bit busy. The exhibition is a combined textile (Wilson Henderson) and painting (Marilyn Rea-Menzies) show and runs until the 29th of July.

So, from tomorrow, I'll be working part-time for the Hurunui District Council at Amberley. I'll be in the "Community and Information" department responsible for document and website content (written and visual). "Cool bananas", as my wife would say.

Candlelight

Cold and the short winter days have driven me inside where I can work comfortably close to the wood burner. Annette had some floral visitors, so I grabbed some low cost lighting (candles) and started to experiment:

Candles are a very weak light source so they have to be positioned close and the light drops off rapidly. It's this shallow 'depth of light' coupled with the warmth that gives candlelight its characteristic 'look'. The necessary long exposures (about 30 seconds) also tend to provide well saturated colours. 

I'm quite pleased with these first experiments and suspect the candles may come out a few more times during the winter.

It's all about INTENT

An inspirational TED talk by John Hockenberry:

Life on a snowball

After yesterday's large dump of snow, we awoke to a fine morning with the moon handing over lighting duty to the sun.

Venturing outside we found ourselves living on a giant snowball:

In a world that looked almost infra-red (at least to the camera):

I do love how snow makes even the familiar and mundane things look strangely alien.

Of course, few people seem to be working around here today as the roads are barely passable; that seems to have made the majority of people smile though there are a few 'grumpy's' around. Me, I'm a smilin'.

First snow of winter ...

Am I going out with the camera in this? No I am not! Shot through the kitchen window :-)