photos and other things…
The Ants
Douglas Florian
Ants are scantily
Half an inch long,
But for their size
They’re very strong.
Ants tote leaves
Five times their weight
Back to their nest
At a speedy rate.
They walk on tree limbs
Upside down
A hundred feet
Above the ground,
While down below
Beneath a mound
They’re building tunnels
Underground.
And so it’s been
And it will be
Since greatest
Ant antiquity.
With cold wind and bouts of heavy rain, it felt like a good day to dig into the photo archives, taking me back to a warmer climate. Shot early one morning during our stay in Fiji, I recall waking up just on sunrise. The resort area was dead quiet, with only a few staff busily walking around getting ready for when holiday stayers woke up for breakfast. One man, silhouetted in the foreground, was busy raking up the piles of weed that wash up daily into tidy little piles waiting for the crew on the tractor to pick up again later in the day. In the background we see the mountains, if memory serves, of the sleeping giant (I think his belly is just to the left of the closer pine trees). Temperature already warm compared to New Zealand…
back to my cosy winter fire.
During a work stop in Auckland West, I made a quick stop in at one of the unique little communities, Herald Island. A small little community, Herald Island was joined to Auckland’s West with a causeway built in 1958.
With a small number of streets you could likely count with your fingers, it has a real sense of a small community. At the opposite end of the island from the causeway, we see the main wharf/boat jetty area. Greeted by a friendly ‘sea cat’ (just a normal cat that wandered the wharf), I took todays shot of the boats and across to Greenhithe on the North Shore.
In post using Gimp, I switched to B&W and adjusted levels a little as well as cropping the aspect.
Sony Nex 5n, Sigma 30mm.
Over the weekend I featured a photo showing the eroding sandstone type cliffs that feature all over Auckland’s North Shore. Another man made version of erosion to these is the tagging or carving of ones names into the walls. Not quite marked forever, but marked for a good enough while (well, thats a meaningless assumption really).
Shot on the Sony Nex and 30mm Sigma.
Auckland Central. Ricoh TLS 35mm.
Pentax MG on Fomapan 100
Out for a stroll we ventured to the Beach Haven Wharf. Looking North West’ish has us looking up to the end of the Waitemata Harbour.
Long been used as the areas main anchorage point (pre european), the harbour is sheltered from the ocean by Rangitoto Island and other small surrounding islands. The modern translation of Waitemata is ‘Sparking Waters’.
Shot on the Sony Nex with pancake 16mm
Shot in New Zealands Coromandel.
Unknown camera.
Lions. Those giant cats of nature. Fearsome fighting machines, yet beautiful animals whom are generally fairly social and family, or pride orientated.
The Auckland Zoo is home to a small pride of lions, sitting on top of their little half island (the un-glassed/walled part open to the public is separated by a strip of water). With the poor weather during our visit, it looked as though they were enjoying some of the sun for what was left later in the day. Often this small pride is given interesting toys to play with – things they dont see in the wild. This keeps them inquisitive and playful.
Lions are the second biggest of the cat family (Tigers taking that award). Interestingly, in captivity, Lions can live a little longer than in the wild (10-14 years wild vs 20+ years captive).
With a top speed, for a limited time, of 80kph (50mph), one would not want to be on the receiving end of one of these cats. Luckily they generally dont hunt humans…although thats not to say there are not a number of lion attacks and deaths around the world. Some interesting reading for able googlers could be the Tsavo Man-Eaters.
Lions can be bread with tigers to make Ligers and Tigons, with Leopards to make Leopons…not that any of you will be doing such…
Shot on the Olympus e-500 and cropped in Gimp.
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