HPS Competition - Blue

The April competition was titled 'Blue', and once again I tried to think outside square and here are my images:

 This one was titled 'Blue Attitude' but the Judge couldn't see that there was any real attitude.  Fair enough, let down by naming the photo.  It was be hit or miss with photo titles.  

Still, Highly Commended.

I though really hard about this one and it took me hours of planning and capturing the image.  It's a piece of white and I have use a blue piece of cellophane, over a torch, in a softbox.  The jade surface is highly reflective so it took many attempts.  The judge said that it would be better if the image was reversed, and I looked at that but it didn't work.

Again, a Highly Commended

Pasifika - March 2016

This morning I popped down to the Pasifika Festival to soak up the atmosphere.  It wasn't 'rocking' but I thought that was probably because it was the morning of the first day.  Still, I had a great couple of hours and caught a few good PJ (photojournalism) shots.  I had another engagement in the afternoon which would have probably been the best time.  Oh well, next year maybe.

Samoan Elvis - great voice but didn't really have the King's moves.  He needs a bit more exposure to work on them.  Still good fun to watch.

 Never throw water on an oil fire.  A particularly important point for the Pasifika community because they cook with oil quite a lot (as does everyone else I guess).

Crowd Zumba - well, just one person in the crowd, but she was having fun and right in to it.

Samoan Beauty

Traditional Necklace of painted pods

Green Competition

The most recent competition at Henderson Photographic Society was 'Green' as part of the RGB range (next up will be Blue).  It struggled to think of anything other than plant life, the most obvious source of inspiration.

When I was in Brisbane over the Christmas period I caught these two images in my sister's back yard.

I received Highly Commended for both so not a bad effort.

The green pattern below is a shallow shot of a garden table top that I have cropped right in so only the pattern is obvious, not the object.

Bokeh Effect in Photography

Last week Henderson Photographic Society had a workshop focusing on working with light and light sources.

This is one of the photos I took working with bokeh (that's the circles of light at the back).  I didn't really understand the camera settings at first, and our President, Elton McAleer helped me out.  Working in these very low light conditions is quite hard, especially for finding a focal point.  Luckily some people were able to put their finger on the lip of the glass jar for me.

I love the colours in this image.

Pride Parade in Ponsonby

 Yesterday the annual Pride Parade minced it's way down Ponsonby Road, celebrating 30 years since the Homosexual Law Reform Bill was passed.  Homosexuals were then declared normal citizens!!  How very civilised of New Zealand.

Anywho, it was a brilliant celebration of diversity and inclusion.

Left is Miss Ribena at the front of her float, in all her magnificence - you go girl.

This wee fella on the left was out supporting the NZ Police Force.

 This was my personal favourite - Air New Zealand - the wonderful blue contraption was made from seat belts.  They also had the best music by far.

Above is a lady with all the confidence in the world, and working it like a dream.

The ANZ has the best outfits by far with thousands of balloons gathered at the back of the dozens and dozens of paraders.

A wonderful evening with my good friend Anne Watt - we even sneaked a cocktail while waiting for the festivities to begin.

Hobbiton in Matamata

On the way home from Rotorua we detoured to Matamata and Hobbiton, the original and fully restored set for Sir Peter Jackson's trilogy - Guy hasn't seen the movies yet and hopefully he will recognise some scenes when he does.

The 'hobbit holes' are all a genuine up the indoor vestibule area, and after that all the filming is done on sets in Wellington.

This is quite an amazing little village and one well worth visiting when you visit New Zealand, about two-and-a-half hours from Auckland.

It was quite a cloudy day when we went so the sky is quite harsh.  There were also loads of visitors so it pays to book before you get there.  Its quite easy to do this online.

Zip Lining in Rotorua

I sent a couple of days in Rotorua with Guy Wilson and one of the most amazing things we did was zip-lining with Rotorua Canopy Tours.

We were in native forest that is a protected area and fairly rodent free.  They had developed a great system for attracting and killing rats and possums.

The first leap of faith was the ice-breaker and once everyone had done this it was pretty smooth sailing.

 I would absolutely recommend this as an adventure for Rotorua - much better than zorbing or luging.

HPS - February 2016 Competition Results for 'Red'

The first competition of the year was titled 'Red' and these were my two entries.

Red Door earned an Honours.

This was shot in Guangzhou and is the door to a temple.  At the time I took this shot I knew it would used in the future.  I have heavily cropped it to provide a focus on the form of the panelling.  I thought it might be worthy of a Merit or Highly Commended, so was chuffed with Honours

Red Wave earned a Highly Commended.

I shot this up in the Brick Bay Sculpture Park at Snells Beach.  There were series of sculptured metal forms with strong powder coated finishes.  The narrow depth of field provided a focus for the lip of the form.  The feedback was that there was quite a bit of negative space at the base that didn't add to the image.  I'm not sure about this because I had already heavily cropped the image.