Steampunks in their native habitat…

Been itching to shoot some steampunks… So we are up in the far north, Whangarei – shooting Kraken’s Lair… a thriving nest in an unexpected place…

Return to the carnival

One of my recurring themes – not something I realised about myself until the last few years, mostly from this blog.

The carnival is one of my slightly ‘unhealed’ childhood pains. As in, it was never of the intensity to cause me real harm, I always knew it didn’t really matter. But the carnival, or in my case specifically, The Schoharie County Sunshine Fair, held in Cobleskill, my nearest big smoke, was an annual torment. It held so much promise – the rides, the game booths, the people I might see… But at this stage of the game, I’ve got to be honest – everybody else was doing whatever it was they were supposed to be doing and seemed to be having a really good time of it.

Except me. I was watching. I was watching and waiting and observing and trying to figure out who was doing what and why – and HOW did they know what they were supposed to do? I NEVER knew what I was supposed to do. And I longed to… so much. I wandered around the fair alone – my siblings had run off with friends. My friends seemed to have OTHER friends that they had fun with… Leaving me wandering around, looking at everything and everyone, trying to figure them out, telling myself the story of their lives… Kind of odd, I guess, but it was fun in its own kind of way.

And come to think of it, I’m still doing that. Only now – I do it with a camera in front of my face – and that actually makes me one of the cool people. At last. Never would have figured that was coming.

These photos were taken at Balloons Over Waikato, the hot air balloon festival held in Hamilton, New Zealand every year. Amazing how something that felt so down-home back in my Dorloo Days, translates without a hitch to the other side of the world…

This photo really needs a carnie. Like this one from the Gypsy Fair a couple of years ago. or part 2 which is here.

Nausea inducing rides. I wish I could have figured out why everyone else thought they were so much fun. I really wanted to love them and ride and scream and throw my hair around… Except… they made me sick to my stomach

But I loved fair food – fried dough, cotton candy, snow cones, French fries in a paper cup…

The gravity defying Round-Up…

I love carnivals and fairs and rides… the sights and sounds and smells and ways of losing myself in a sea of other people I don’t know – watching them and telling myself their life stories. Or telling you mine…

The lazy day adventure of Little Bo Peep

Had another steampunk adventure this past weekend with north island steampunks, having a picnic at beautiful Shakespear Regional Park on the Whangaparoa Peninsula. It was a perfect day in a perfect location. Perfect for all sorts of mischief, and more than a wee bit of mayhem…

Little Bo Peep seems a bit under the weather, but the doc seems to have the cure for what ails her in his bag of tricks. Our Miss Peep is feeling so much better and enjoying herself as she takes in the invigorating sea air.

I wonder what will happen next?

Torch-Painted Tree

Haven’t really done much light-painting, though I did set-up a photography business at one point called LightPainters – but that’s another story.

This tree was in a dark, pretty much deserted carpark on Saturday night. There were a few streetlights a few blocks away, but other than the stars, there was no other source of light. I pulled out my tripod and set up my camera and did a long exposure, but the tree was still dark and the street lights were blown out. My husband had just bought a new high-powered torch, which he was inordinately fond of shining into my eyes, tempting his fate for sure… (you would think a man of his age would know better…) I asked him to put it to some good use and shine it on the tree. At first he refused. It may have been powerful enough to blind me and get me a  bit grumpy, but a huge tree like this? I am sure he would have preferred to keep shining it on me, but he relented and began painting the tree… there and there and there, and oh – don’t miss there. Do that some more. Yeah, I like that…

I like how it all turned out. And he gets to keep his torch.

Great Pumpkin

It’s a funny sort of autumn, sunny and warm after such a cold, wet summer. We’ve had beautiful evenings, with soft, honey-coloured light on the gardens, playing tag with a light breeze and a pair of cabbage moths who fluttered out of the frame.

One lady leaping

Went through over 600 images shot last night. To be honest, most were plain crap… I deleted over 300. Then I deleted another 100. Then I starting culling in earnest… and in the end, came up with such a brilliant set of photos, I feel like I invented candy and can’t wait to tell all my friends…

I’ll probably end up posting most of them on here as the days go by, but I put together an album on facebook that you can access by clicking here. No need to friend me or be on facebook yourself.

Dancer on the beach

Just a quick one tonight… Went to Piha Beach this evening to shoot the sunset and a dancer who came to dance for a group of photographers. Sadly, she got lost on the way so we didn’t get to shoot her in the best light. I did get some nice stuff though and am especially fond of this impressionist shot.

Quite a long exposure with another photographer’s flash throwing a bit of light on her in the middle of the exposure. She was a wonderful dancer – but it occurs to me she looks a bit unsteady on her feet – like a wave might come and sweep her away.