Stress Sponge

I was off work sick today, and had no one but Phoebe to keep me company.  I decided to take a few pics of her for this week’s Digital Photography School Photo Challenge.

Friday 9 September 2011, the first day of the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the start of several weeks of media attention centred on New Zealand. To be honest, rugby doesn’t interest me at all… but what I do like is all the life that has been breathed into Auckland.

I managed to skive off work a bit early on Friday, and headed down to the Auckland Viaduct to join in with all the Opening Night festivities.

I don’t think Auckland has ever had so many people in one place at one time! It was completely over the top crazily packed downtown. The media said that around 50,000 people were expected to head into town for the opening, but that turned out to be a huge underestimation as around 200,000 people actually turned up!

I was really lucky, and I managed find a pretty good spot to watch the wakas coming into the Viaduct, and an even better spot to see the procession of 600 kaihoe.

Patriotic Kiwis were everywhere, and I couldn’t help grinning and feeling like one too!

When the kaihoe walked passed, I definitely felt more than a little intimidated. Sure their moko were drawn on with black pen, but it wasn’t hard to imagine how frightening it would have been, coming face to face with these guys in battle!

After finally pushing my way out of the Quay Street crowd (all the while protectively cradling my camera), I headed up Queen Street which had been taken over by Tongan supporters. I knew that Auckland had a big Island community, but I wasn’t aware of just how big. There were car horns honking, Tongan flags being waved, and lots of enthusiastic yelling of “TONGA”.

After the sun went down I headed off for dinner with my family, and then back down to the Viaduct to watch the launching of three and a half tonnes of specially designed fireworks. Fireworks are always awesome to watch, but they’re extra amazing when they’re made to look like Nikau Palms and Pohutukawa Flowers! I’m so glad I was able to experience this “once in a life time” event in person!

More photos from the Rugby World Cup 2011 Opening Night can be found here.

September 1 is the 7th anniversay of New Zealand Random Acts of Kindness day!  Yes I know, we should always be trying to do little things to brighten the day of strangers… but sometimes we need a little reminder.  September 1 is that reminder!

RAK day is about doing something for absolutely no reason at all.  Something that pulls two strangers (or even friends) just a little closer together.  It doesn’t have to be a big gesture… just something small like gifting the remainder of your paid parking time to the next driver in your parking space, handing out flowers to people on the street, or buying lunch for a homeless person.

I know I’ll be doing my bit to make New Zealand have a sunshinier day!

Here’s a great RAK that one of my favourite bloggers (Shoot Tokyo) did in Japan… it’s so sweet

It was one of those Sundays today… where the weather couldn’t make up it’s mind between hail and sunshine, and where going outside seemed like just too much hard work.  After spending a few hours indulgently lazing around the house in my PJs, I finally managed to pull myself together and caught up on some housework.

Inspired by the blog (The Awkward Cauliflower) of a friend and fellow foodie, I spent a couple of hours this afternoon doing one of my favourite things… BAKING!

A couple of years ago when I visited Taiwan, I discovered these amazing egg sponge cake balls (Ji Dan Gao - 雞蛋糕) that you could get from street vendors.  They’d pour the batter into a hot cast iron mold, and a minute later they’d tip out a batch of perfectly formed delicious cake balls!  Sometimes the cakes would have a filling in the centre, maybe coconut or custard… and sometimes they’d even come molded in the shape of some cute animal.  A couple of months after my Taiwan trip I decided to have a go at making Ji Dan Gao myself, and I found that it was pretty easy with the help of a takoyaki pan.

With this memory in mind, I pulled one of my most favourite recipe books (The Best of Annabel Langbein) off the shelf, and whipped up a few batches of  “Banana Puffs” using Annabel Langbein’s awesome Banana Cake recipe.

These little morsels are so much better than just a normal banana cake.  Each one is bite sized, and each one is crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.  The perfect thing for a rainy Sunday!

 

When we first moved into our house 3 1/2 years ago, our cat Phoebe was the only cat on the street and she prowled around like she owned the place. Over the years our street’s cat population has risen, and now we’re always getting visits from strays and other family’s pets.

Here’s a few snaps of one of the latest additions to the area, that I took when I was walking to the bus.

 

In just over a month’s time, New Zealand will be hosting the rugby world cup… To be honest, I couldn’t care less about rugby. What I do absolutely love, is all the wonderful new development that has been going on in Auckland, in preparation for the RWC 2011.

An area of the Auckland waterfront that was previously an industrial no-man’s-land, has now had life breathed into it. There’re bars and restaurants, parks and a playground… AND… trams!! I’m so excited about the reintroduction of trams to Auckland’s CBD! It may only be a short loop track at the moment, but the possibilities for extending the tracks are endless

Here are few photos I took on an after work excursion around Wynyard Quarter. The full album can be found here.

 

 

Recently work has been getting a bit out of control, and has been seriously stepping on the toes of my real life. After reading a blog post by the Digital Photography School on making Time for Photography (and taking some inspiration from Shoot Tokyo), I made the effort to step away from all the work chaos, and went on a lunch time walk-about.

I’m not sure that I would ever describe myself as a spiritual person, but on a recent trip up to The Farm, I definitely felt a certain oneness with nature. “The Farm is s a 1000 acre working Dairy farm on the Whangaruru Harbour. For the past 10 years, holiday makers, backpackers, Wwoofers, schools, motorbike mates, horsey people, friends and family have been spending time there, experiencing what life on a farm is all about; working, relaxing, days in the mud, days at the beach, horses, motorbikes, campfires, cows, dogs and kids.”

On a Friday, after an early finish at work, Foo and I started off on the 2 1/2 hour drive up to Whangaruru. We made our way up at a leisurely pace, enjoying the way that the densely populated houses slowly gave way to large expanses of green. We stopped off briefly at Pimarn Thai in Whangarei for dinner, and arrived late at The Farm in the pitch dark. Crawling up the rough clay drive, we were greeted by the bright lights of the farm-house, a dog, and a half-naked man with a guitar. I think if I hadn’t know that we were definitely in the right place, I would have been a bit apprehensive! My brother waved us down, and we followed him over to where home base had been set up.

The first night was really cold, and I was glad to wriggle down inside my sleeping bag, doing my best impression of a cocooned caterpillar. I love everything about staying in the country side. The complete stillness, the way a single bird call seems to carry for kilometers, the freshness of the air, the inky sky with a gazillion stars…

Saturday morning came with a bright blue cloudless sky, and a gentle breeze. The light of day revealed that our campsite was on a flat open piece of lawn/paddock (next to a broken down tractor, a motocross track and some horses), with steep farmland on one side, and dense bush on the other. The relaxed, slightly dilapidated nature of the farm was everything I could have hoped for. Everywhere I looked there was a beautiful rusty something, just waiting to be photographed.

I think if I could be anyone, and do anything, I would love to float from country to country, taking photos and working on capturing the perfect shot, or at least a shot that I am completely happy with. It’s hard to explain the way I feel when I have a camera in my hands, but the closest I can get to it, is a mixture of complete liberation and intense curiosity. Sometimes I feel like I can see the world more clearly when I’m squinting through the viewfinder of my wonderful piece Canon gadgetry.

Whilst I was roaming around indulging my creative side, I surprised myself by randomly striking up a conversation with a guy who was busy with a craft knife and a dead possum. Intrigued by what he was doing, I asked if it was ok if I took some photos, and we got to chatting. Al was a local who lives on a house boat, and it turned out that he was trying his hand at skinning a possum for the first time. One of the guys from the farm had trapped the possum for him, and he was planning on using the skin to make a puppet for his granddaughter. I’m not really sure why, but for some reason the site of a dead animal doesn’t really bother me. It was fascinating to watch Al carefully separate the possum skin from the flesh, pulling with all his strength to remove it from the long thin tail in one continuous piece.

After a day of going our separate ways, the four of us regrouped for dinner, sharing the day’s experiences over large servings of delicious vege stir fry and rice. Foo gave motocross a go, and survived… despite at least 25% of the spokes on the bike’s rear wheel being broken, making it wobble around like it was about to fly off! Marty played coach for Foo, and they got a bit of a ride in together before her bike died, leaving her stranded out in the middle of nowhere. My mum bonded with the horses on a 2 hour trek. I was happy to be able to show off the results of my day spent happy snapping.

On Sunday I got up with the sun… the ground was heavy with dew, and blades of grass stuck to my toes as I walked, flicking up water with every step. The air was cool, and mist blanketed the hills and valleys.

Caught up in the slow, country way of life, we sat sleepily in the sun eating our breakfast. With the knowledge that this was our last day here, Foo and I scraped together some motivation and headed off towards the river for a kayaking adventure.

My absolute favourite thing about The Farm, was Maggie. Maggie is an extremely attentive border collie, who (as smart as she is), didn’t seem to understand the rules of the game ‘fetch’. Time and time again I would throw a stick for her, only to have her disappear with it under the tractor or truck, returning moments later expecting me to throw something else for her! As Foo and I walked along the dirt track to the water, dodging the random piles of horse poo, Maggie lead the way, occasionally looking back to check that we were still following her.

Coming around the last bend in the track, we could see that Maggie was already waiting for us beside the water. We nosed a double open kayak into the water, jumped in, and pushed ourselves away from the muddy bank, under Maggie’s watchful eye. As we slowly paddled our way downstream, I was surprised to see Maggie running along side us! For a bit of a joke I called out to her, asking is she wanted to come for an adventure too, and slapping the side of the kayak to beckon her to us. Next second there was a huge splash as she launched herself off the bank into the water, and started paddling towards us! Somehow, without managing to tip us out, she hauled herself up ont the kayak, and settled down behind me between Foo’s feet. As we made our way slowly along towards the estuary, Maggie rested her head on my shoulder, and contentedly closed her eyes.

I suppose it may seem like a bit of a waste to have travelled all the way to such a potentially action packed place, and then do nothing but relax… but for me it was one of the best weekends I’ve had. I sat is the sun, I wrote, I photographed, I bonded with nature, and I felt completely at peace.

[More photos can be found here]

I’ve just completed the forth class of an ArtStation photography course, and I have to say that I’m quite happy with the photos I took for the Portrait Assignment.

These photos are of my brother Martin, and were taken using a Canon 50D and a Sigma 18-250mm lens.

Colour and exposure adjustment was done using Lightroom 2.

I love birthdays. Not just my own. Everyone’s! I absolutely love surprising people with presents, and get really excited planning what to get them.

I think it may actually be possible that I get more fun and enjoyment out of it than the person receiving the gifts. That’s not to say that I end up buying them things they don’t really want … just that I tend to bubble over with too much excitement!

And therein lies the problem. Because I have so much fun with the planning and the researching, the hunting, buying and wrapping … I often don’t actually make it to the person’s birthday before giving them their present.

F’s birthday is in June. I started planning her presents in December, and only made it as far as February before I exploded ribbon and perfect packaging everywhere. Usually I can make it until April or May before this happens, but this year I got her a really good, highly rated, Canon camera, and I reasoned that it was better for her to have it early so she could start using it immediately.

F and I both love photography and are currently devouring as many books and magazines for wannabe amateurs as possible. The camera I bought is a Canon Powershot SX10IS. It’s basically a hybrid between a compact and a DSLR. We also invested in a tripod, which means that we can go out at night or at other times when there’s low light, and get some pretty good shots.

Last night we headed out to Devonport for a couple of hours, and tried to put into practice some of the tips found in “The Digital Photography Book” by Scott Kelby.

We’re both still learning what all the bells and whistles do, but I think these are a pretty good start