yellow truck and the rich list

yellow truck and the rich list, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

The subject is the television presenter Jason and the yellow truck. But also the tree and the sign give a tension to the image. Of course I was not thinking of this when I took the photo – it's just a post analysis thing. The thinking always comes after for me.

flower garden

flower garden, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

Somewhere along Victoria Street there is a sign, a small tree, a flower garden and a parking lot. Put together and it makes a photograph representing a Saturday morning stroll.

save three people

save three people, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

Walking down Marjoribanks Street this 'Save three people' sign caught my attention. It is a sign for 'blood donation' but I was thinking it had something 'Christian' about it, and the 'Roxburgh' sign is in the shape of a cross. This appealed to my 'Christian' sensibilities, so I had a photo. Also of course the general arrangement of shapes and colour is what makes it for me, a photograph.

neighbourhood

neighbourhood, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

A very ordinary scene, often walked by, but usually not observed. Somehow as a photo, I have found it satisfying. It may be that there is three of everything, Three trees, houses, blue roofs, and three fences, or maybe it just has that neighbourhood look, with the mysteries of unknown homes. I was going to discard this one but decided I should believe in my own intuition.

urban surfaces revisited

urban surfaces revisited, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

A few steps back and the picture is different. These colours were called Paynes Grey and Chrome Yellow on the little tubes of paint I used to squeeze onto a pallet, and I always liked them with a dusty pink and a little green. Now the enjoyment is just to discover them together in the right balance and weight.

urban surface

urban surface, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

A collection of shapes, signs, shadows, a pole, and a little graffiti somewhere in Wellington. Nothing here was designed to have a certain look, I'm sure, it's just a found photograph. Dark rain clouds and some bright sunlight make any corner of the city a photographic subject.

corner on McDondald Crescent

corner on McDondald Crescent, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

There is a little arrangement of colours here that seem about right to me. I don't always know why I photograph a scene, I find the buildings interesting, but in the end it is just the arrangement on the flat screen or paper, and the relationship to a time and place. Otherwise this is just a street corner under a grey cloudy sky.

St Johns & sign

St Johns & sign, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

This sign has nothing to do with the church, but they do share the same colour. That is why they are together in this photo. Dixon street was closed but the church door was open and people were going through

autumn on Percival Street

autumn on Percival Street, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

Autumn is great. Some of the trees are losing their leaves, revealing houses and views behind fallen veils. The leaves leave a colourful carpet on the ground. The skies have turned a neutral grey. The photos will be so much different now and for a few months. I am glad of the change.

autumn tree & house

autumn tree & house, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

With a change of season, everything is different and new again. And that feels good.

car park & tree

car park & tree, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

If a subject seems a little dull, you can sometimes include a tree. It doesn't matter whether the tree has leaves or not, just put it in the middle. I do not know what else to say about this photograph, except that car parks have always been popular.

the runner and the photographer

the runner and the photographer, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

This is the result of holding the camera up to see if there really is a photograph here. To see if the frames make a composition. And behold a runner passes me by and in a few quick strides he is gone. I have a photo that is more than I first perceived. The runner has no idea he is the subject of art, well, of a photograph at least. Maybe it is best that it stays that way. I prefer photos of people in a general sense, rather than a person in particular, it seems more optimistic (and running is optimistic), were as the particular seems more melancholic to me.

man on Woodward Street

man on Woodward Street, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

It may have been a Jackson Pollock thing I was thinking of when pressing the shutter. It was an all over surface thing with no central focus for sure. And I knew that I had caught someone, but no one in particular, in a web of ambiguity.

walking past

walking past, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

A gallery owner once told me he didn't want to see photographs that were taken just by walking past something. That is exactly how I want my photos to look. A walk, and an image that looks just how one's brain perceives the walk, you glance at a building and are aware of other things too, your eyes bounce around and different things come into focus, I like images where your eyes travel around the surface but not held by any one thing.

window & shadow #1

window & shadow #1, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

I lift the camera to my eye and sometimes I do not know why. It is instinctive. When I am home, and the thumbnails are on my screen I see that I have two of the same. The same shadow and a window, I truly was not aware of it. But I was drawn all the same. I never have the intentions of doing a series, that approach feels sort of lazy to me, I like to look for that, which I don't know what I'm looking for. And I don't know if this is it either.

window & shadow #2

window & shadow #2, originally uploaded by Lester Ralph Blair.

An hour later somewhere else, and everything is still the same.