Once a sofa is past its best then place it under the verandah. Invite some friends over for beers and watch the world go by. I am thinking that this is what the scene is about, but it is also about the couch and the curtain and the little toy in the window. I am interested that it is all colour coordinated.
View On Black
. . . my photo picks from my flickr photo stream, random thoughts on photography, and now my new direction .... painting.
Thursday 29 May 2008
sitting under the verandah
Wednesday 28 May 2008
a cottage near town
These colonial cottages are just another fifty metres up the road from the previous posting. when I look at these houses I imagine that railway workers, bank clerks, dockers, writers, poets, painters and various artists have lived here, and enjoyed the birdsong from the surrounding trees. But that is just my imagination.
View On Black
Tuesday 27 May 2008
looking down
Walking up Bowen Street and you see this view of narrow streets below and what were once workers cottages, only five minutes walk from the central business area. I watched as a fellow came walking down the middle of the road, looking intently at something in his hand, maybe a cellphone. But that's okay, there was no traffic about.
View On White
Monday 26 May 2008
walking through the park
The buildings to the left are a community hall, and preschool centre. Up the road are boutique shops, and cafés. This small park on certain early evenings is a gathering place for alternative looking youth for drinking beer. But this day it had been mostly raining and there were not many here at all. It was a good time to take a photo with the autumn leaves setting the colour scheme.
View On Black
Sunday 25 May 2008
poster art
My wife and I will sometimes on a Sunday afternoon walk by the Victoria University, and go in and visit the Adams Art Gallery. I look at the posters on the way and usually I take a photo, but until now have never posted any. So today I have, it may be because they have a sort of Andy Warhol 'pop art' look about the way they are displayed. Or maybe I just like pink and yellow.
View On White
Thursday 22 May 2008
steep
I think that taking photos is like being a beachcomber. Just ambling along and poking around to see what you might find. Then picking up some small treasure like a shell or odd shape stone, you take it home and put it on the porch.
View On White
Wednesday 21 May 2008
around & up the hill
Whenever I come to this intersection I generally take a photo. They generally do not come off. This one is not perfect either. But today there were chalk marks on the road, that is a help for sure. The houses seemed stacked upon each other and with the ample foreground I am always looking for an angle to photograph
.View On Black
Tuesday 20 May 2008
forsaken shop
Maybe a shopping mall opened around the corner and this commercial building is beyond requirement. Rather than broken windows everything has been boarded up. What is interesting is the choice of different coloured plywood, I feel that it is possibly perfectly balanced.
View On Black
Monday 19 May 2008
a house and a yard
The houses stand surrounded by bush covered hills, even so, it is nice to have a tree in the front yard because in small towns the yards are large. That is why some people like to live here.
View On Black
Sunday 18 May 2008
crime scene
Every so often one needs to freshen up and go some where else to get a different perspective. And so after weeks of graffiti, peeling posters and general urban decay, my wife and I got the car out of the shed, and headed around the harbour, and over the hill to Wainuiomata. I was hoping to immerse myself in small town New Zealand, and bring back a few photos. And I did, but also we headed a bit further down the road till we reached the sand and the sea. We discovered a cluster of fishermen, and what looked like a crime scene, the remains of a burnt out car.View On Black
Thursday 15 May 2008
dealer gallery
I generally photograph something because their seems to be a sense of place about it, or the sense that something is about to happen. Or mostly just to show what it feels like to be here. I took this photograph because it is the stairway to Peter McLeavey Gallery, a dealer in contemporary New Zealand art for more decades than most. It is the unpretentiousness of this doorway that appeals to me. Even his sign is hidden in the dark. A pedestrian walked into the photo, but that's the street.
View On Black
Wednesday 14 May 2008
green coat & orange boots
I was filling in some time down on Cuba Street, looking at the shops, and the people walking past. Noticed the shop here that is covered in newspaper, last week there were guitars. Noticed too the people walking past, one striding confidently in orange boots and a women with a green coat.
View On Black
Tuesday 13 May 2008
the side entrance
The front of the restaurant looks different of course, but here I rather like the snail.
View On Black
Monday 12 May 2008
a wall
This week I'm digging though the 'b' sides, my weekend outings did not provide any pickings to speak of. This photo is just a wall with some intentional art and some incidental marks, and a bit of self sown shrubbery. Putting both together I think is more interesting.
View On Black
Sunday 11 May 2008
looking better
The days are now shorter, and as I come to the end of my usual weekend walk with my camera I find I am walking in the dark. That's OK because the light was dull and overcast for much of the day, was better to go shopping.
View On Black
Thursday 8 May 2008
workshop
This building has a rusty corrugated iron facsimile. I think it may have been accidental. But if they had to rebuild, I would hope they would do it again.
View On Black
Wednesday 7 May 2008
puddle
I have stood on the street and taken a photo looking into the car park. But now there is a big puddle, it seemed best to stand in the car park and photograph out.
View On Black
Tuesday 6 May 2008
adaptation
I am finding that I often photograph places in transition with traces of the past and the future. The large building was T.L. Watkins Ltd, bookbinders and printers. Across the street is Logan Brown Restaurant, it was a bank. The wire fence enclosures what was a petrol station, not sure where that is going. And on the surface there is always graffiti.
View On White
Monday 5 May 2008
telephone pole & other pointed objects
Some buildings are odd, and it takes some effort to make them this way. Someone has had a dream, and brought this dream to fruition. I don't know why, and I don't have to know, I'm just happy that it fits in with the wire draping across the sky.
View On White
Thursday 1 May 2008
spot
I am interested in spaces that have become something else than what they were built for. Places that were a dwelling that are now galleries, or lofts that are now apartments, and basements that are now bars etc. I think this may have been a shop, but now it is somewhere to live, and when that happens there may be problematic corners. In this window space the problem has been solved by a dog.
View On Black