photos and other things…
A team visit to the Karma Choeling Temple last week as a nice break from the busy happenings of work.
I wont go into the description today, but will mention that its well worth a visit if you are in Auckland and looking to have a relaxing stop off.
Here’s their site to visit: www.kagyu.org.nz
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.
He who knows he has enough is rich.
LAO-TZU
Moving down the hill a little, and toward the North from yesterdays image, I snapped ‘The View’
One Tree Hill is full of quite little spots where one can relax, sit and take in nature, as well as look out towards Auckland. Unless you choose one of the common trails, you will only be bothered by the local sheep and the odd runner (depending on the time of day). On the sheep note – look where you sit – these guys are not shy in fertilising the whole hillside!
Shot on the Sony Nex and edited in Gimp
I am generally one of those people who get a sense of relaxation and re-energizing from nature. Walking through the forest or bush, or along the beach the air feels cleaner, we have less (not none) forms of modern technology buzzing around us. Its a unloaded simpler feeling.
However, I also enjoy exploring ‘things in change’ – areas under construction (as well as areas returning to nature). Sundays walk took me to a new development area in Long Bay – the northern point of the North Shore. Here open fields and scrub has made way for carefully planned and measured sections for residential use. There is one road in/out with a monolith of a structure announcing you have entered this likely prestigious area. Today’s image was taken at the edge of this boundary, just before entering the area. For me, the title Construct Zone both signifies an area in change, literally being constructed, but also the mental symbolics of construct being the putting together of planning and theory to create a new suburb and the people within it.
Shot on the Sony Nex with the Sigma 30mm lens, I only slightly adjusted the levels before resizing to publish.
I’m also working my way through the 35mm film I took to the music festival yesterday. I initially thought I had a 24/27 shot film, but it must be a 36, so not too much longer until I can develop!
A quick shot from the archives today, ‘Underleaf’
Being in a country full of green lush bushes and forests, a quick walk into this wilderness is always great after a hard day at work. Listening to the song of the native birds and breathing in the fresh breath of nature.
I have been a bit busy with bits and pieces today, with tomorrow looking similar again, but hopefully I will find some time to get out and take some shots!
Catch you tomorrow!
As I transition back into the usual flow of work, its time to share some images I captured over the last week.
As stated the other day, I went to the West Coast of Auckland and took some images at Piha Beach. Nice and early in the morning, the water flowing to the beach was still (the surf beach that Piha is still had waves crashing) and the haze and spray of the sea drifting in. Although the sun was yet to come up properly, it was overcast.
I set my tripod up and took a few shots, both with the Sony Nex and the Pentax MG, looking out past Lion Rock and into the island in the distance. I also attached a graduated tone filter to both, trying to give the sky some colour in the Nex, and bring out a little cloud on the MG.
Today’s image, from the Nex, is straight from camera, unedited aside from scaling and adding my sig. If I was to edit it, I think I might crop the aspect a little, but I quite like it as-is.
I will write some more about Piha in the coming days as I have a few images I wish to share. Today’s image brings about childhood memories for me. The stream in the foreground was great for sailing boats (model ones) and building dams on. I also recall as a youngster falling in fully clothed and being less than impressed. Piha is a black sand beach – it always seemed to stick much better than white sand, and ALWAYS got into my sandwiches as a child!
As the days rapidly count down to the end of Holiday time, I have decided to continue on with my ‘digital Polaroid’ theme for the last few days. Hitting 25 degrees in Auckland today, we headed down to Cheltnham beach for a swim (I have written about the beach numerous times in the past so wont spend time on it today)
As with the last few days, image was shot on the Samsung Galaxy S2 using the vignette app. I made some minor tweaks to the film type and exposure today, giving it mostly an overexposed quality – as a comment pointed out in the past, this almost gives more of a feeling of bright, hot summer. Photoshop CS5 provided the written content and resizing.
I have used CS5 these last few days simply out of convenience in that its on the laptop in front of me, rather than my usual desktop unit with Gimp 2.8. Its been, lets say refreshing to use CS5 these last few days – more just so I don’t totally forget how to use it (just almost).
With two days left on my break I am hoping to get to the West Coast – Piha. Fingers crossed for tomorrow or the day after. I will take a combination of mobile, digital and film shots all going well.
Until tomorrow!
Frustration is something that hits all of us at some time or another. Perhaps its dealing with an awkward customer, job or family member. It might also be self directed due to ones inability to do something they feel they should be able to, or because they didn’t perform as well as they expected.
Often when you practice a bit of mindfulness and look at the reasons for the frustration – break them down, it can alleviate, or at worst give one a learning point for next time. I was recently discussing this at work, where a colleague talked about the frustration they had with something their partner did. when they stopped to think about it they worked out the frustration was because the said partner was not behaving the way they wanted them to. They then went a step further and look at why the partner might be doing what they are doing – and also spoke to them about it. That new perspective put a whole new twist on the event, and the deeper understanding no longer caused them to get frustrated each time.
Today’s image ‘Frustration’ came more from one of the learning for next time events. The image was one of my possible finals for part of a series of images for a competition…only I misread the final submission time and missed out by 2 hours. After a quick run to ‘steam’ it off, I was content with the fact there was nothing that could be done, and hoped I would not make the same mistake next time.
Image wise, snapped on the GRD IV, I converted to B&W and resized in Gimp.
At least I got to put it up somewhere!
As I mentioned on Friday, today is Labour Day in New Zealand. to quote from Wikipedia:
In New Zealand, Labour Day is a public holiday held on the fourth Monday in October. Its origins are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in the newly founded Wellington colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter Samuel Parnell‘s refusal to work more than eight hours a day. He encouraged other tradesmen also to work for only eight hours a day and in October 1840, a workers’ meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea. On October 28, 1890, the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day was commemorated with a parade. The event was then celebrated annually in late October as either Labour Day or Eight-Hour Demonstration Day. In 1899 government legislated that the day be a public holiday from 1900. The day was celebrated on different days in different provinces. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking excessive holidays by having one Labour Day in one port then another in their next port. In 1910 the government stipulated that the holiday would be observed on the same day throughout the nation.
Although I took this image last week, I chose to keep it for today as it highlights what for me Labour Day is – a day to relax, take back some of that work-life balance (well, on a day off, throw it out the window and not work at all). Sadly for many in our modern consumer driven ‘now’ times, many people don’t get to enjoy Labour Day. Sure the working week for many may be ~40 hours, but come a public holiday everyone still want/needs to shop etc. etc. The malls are full, and the poor shopkeepers are busier than a normal working day. There has been a lot of talk in recent years about opening stores on Christmas day. What happened to relaxing and taking the family out somewhere that does not involve shopping (I read somewhere shopping is in the top 3 recreational activities for several western countries now).
I recall when shops were not open on Sundays (I was pretty young at the time). TV didn’t have ad’s on Sundays (then again, TV was not on 24/7 either!). I think there is a level of moving with the times, and modernising for sure, but should it come at the expense of well-being?
I am lucky enough to have a workplace that observes stat holidays, so for me, I’ll relax, and pay a thought to those who unfortunately don’t get the option to.
Image wise, in Gimp I desaturated the image slightly, but didn’t make any other changes other then the usual resize.
MikeHawkey.com 