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  • Tempest

    Another piece of art from the Auckland Art Gallery I visited recently.

    Painted by Henry Fuseli, Jean-Pierre Simon in 1791, titled Shakespeare: Tempest, Act I, Scene I.

    Fuseli’s paintings for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, which opened in London in 1786, proved enormously popular, and a number of engravers produced works from them. When living in Rome the artist had made numerous studies of Michelangelo’s figures in the Sistine Chapel, and the gesture of Prospero in this scene from the Tempest is a direct reference to the Creation of Adam. Mezzotint was particularly successful in depicting dramatic chiaroscuro effects; the darkness of Prospero’s cell contrasts with the light cast by Ariel’s flight, which in turn draws attention to Caliban’s grotesque face. (Monsters and Maidens, 2004)

    I love old pieces like this. Imagine being a child in 1791 and gazing upon it. It would be pretty scary. Now days with all our technology for the movies, games etc, imagination can kind of take a bit of a back-burner in peoples minds. Imagining back to 1791, as a child, one may have viewed the image during the day, and reflected back upon it as our candle flickered the shadows in our cool room as we tried to get to sleep. I’m not suggesting that still does not happen, but its a little different…

    No signature as I just took the image and cropped to fit (its not my art).

  • The Bridge

    There is something appealing about bridges and walkways through the bush to me. You get the sense of nature, and almost a feeling of timelessness. Sure, the bridges are a lot safer and easier to cross then they used to be (depending where you live), but you are still right there in the bush.

    Today’s image is again from Kell Park which I visited a week ago. I likes how the bridge crosses the river, disappears into the forest and then reappears at a higher point.

    In post processing I washed out the colour a little and then brought out a bit more contrast. Unfortunately it was a horrible cloudy day, so the sky is a ‘washout white’.

    A nice place to wander around and unwind after a hectic day!

  • Tree on the Lake

    An archive post today. Shot in 2011 at the Sydney Chinese Gardens, I captured this beautiful tree overhanging the stone work and small pond.

    For anyone visiting Sydney Australia, if you have time I would urge toy to visit the gardens. I think (?) at the time of my visit, it was the largest of its kind in Australia. Worth a few hours slowly walking around, and perhaps getting a cup of tea, the garden has some beautiful stonework, plants and an amazingly isolating power – being it is in the middle of the city.

    Originally in colour, I converted to B&W in Gimp as it gives it more power and emotion in my opinion. Shot on the Sony A230 DSLR with a minolta 50mm Lens.

  • Emily

    I don’t take that many portrait shots in the scheme of things – even less that I make public. ‘Emily’ is one exception today. The daughter of two of my friends, Emily came along to help me celebrate my birthday the other week. I managed to attract her gaze away from the ice cream bowl for long enough to snap a few shots, today’s being my favourite of them. Her ice-cream covered face and expression cracks me up – how cute it that!

    Shot hand-held on the Sony, in very low lighting, with no flash, I was very happy with the result. Sure its not pin sharp, and there is noise present, but if you had told me a few years ago I could do this on a digital camera in such light without flash I would not have believed it! for those interested its shot at 3200iso and 1/30th sec with a 16mm pancake lens.

    I really did like this image out of the camera and resisted making any changes aside from a small crop and resize.

    Thanks for posing Emily!

  • Black and White Fern

    I captured ‘Black and White Fern’ when visiting Kell Park in Albany on Tuesday. Getting up close with the Sony Nex 16mm, at a wide open aperture, I love how the fern leaves fall into the background.

    For those who didn’t know, the (silver) fern is one of New Zealand’s symbols for multiple sporting teams like the All Blacks (Rugby), The Silver Ferns (netball), The Football Ferns (women’s football) etc. etc. It has also been worn by Kiwis at war in various locations.

    In post production, using Gimp, I simply converted to B&W and resized.

    Today will be my first day of my holiday, so all going well, I am landing in Fiji as my post comes live.