Elegant horse

You don’t have to be a horse lovely to see the beauty in this mare… What elegance.

Hula Tree

It was a bit like been transported to the Namibian Desert, even if it was nothing like the desert… And some nice Hawaiian music would have been nice. Oh and while we’re at it – a luau. And a nice cold beer…

The Urban Beach

When you just can’t get out of town, there’s still somewhere you can go. In the Auckland CBD, here is where you can cool your feet and chill out for a while

 

I’d go to the ends of the earth

I really would.

The New Zealand Dotterel

 

I’ve had a fair bit of luck photographing native birds lately. This is the New Zealand Dotterel, highly endangered with a mere 1700 birds still wading the the shoreline in the wild. They nest in the sand, leaving their eggs and young vulnerable to all the intruders that have taken up residency in this country from rats and stoats to cats and dogs and people wandering across the sand…

So a real delight to spot this beauty on Pakiri Beach on the east coast about an hour north of Auckland this past weekend. She was happy to stop and pose for pictures.

More Bits of Summer

Sorry for missing out on yesterday. As I was preparing to post, there was an enormous bang – like an explosion somewhere out on the street. The lights flashed a second and then the power went out. Pretty scary – especially for down here in the soothing nowhere-ness of Titirangi. Then the power popped back on and all was well, except the internet wasn’t working. Ah well…

Here are some more summery bits from this, the most perfect I can ever remember having in New Zealand. When it does rain – I don’t even mind…

The red billed gull is my favourite gull. Pretty nasty to be honest (aren’t they all?) But possibly the most photogenic gull in the world.

Seaweed, slippery, slimey, icky and kind of yuck… kind of awesome too…

I told you  – I’m a sucker for a red billed gull – especially one prancing around with a prize in its mouth.

And this summer, we’ve just got so many vistas like this – blue and green that go on forever and ever. I wish summer would too…

Kiwi summer

Some things are eternal – at least in NZ… The bach and the caravan are key.

And of course, the dog.

And… it wouldn’t be a NZ summer without a beach!

 

 

Twilight Time

 

Okay – perhaps it was not as grey as I declared it was yesterday… but you can’t argue that there is no absence of warmth here… those waters were fierce and the wind was wild. The sky is deceptively calm as the gannets, seagulls and terns swooped in and out so fast, they don’t even show up on this long exposure…

I wish they were there. Or maybe a boat. Or a whale spouting off in the distance. You can never find a whale when you need one, can you?

 

Polarising Day on the Beach

 

Perfect day to go to the beach, to sit in the sand, to eat sandy sandwiches and drink warm soda or Kool-Aid and stay in the water until your lips turn blue or your mother makes you get out and get ready to go home.

Actually… it occurs to me that while this photo does remind me of summers at the beach when I was a child, it actually reminds me more of paint-by-number oil paintings my mother loved to do when I was 9-10 years old… The skies in those paintings were so full of detail. And my mother did an amazing job blending and highlighting, (having studied the great masters) so you really couldn’t tell it was a paint by number rendering. Her skies were so perfect, so artistic…

But when you took a photo and somehow the skies were blown out most of the time, or just a cloud or two would show up… I don’t know – I’ve always spent a lot of time trying to get the sky right.

And a long time ago some said what I needed was a polarising filter. Which I dutifully ran out and bought, didn’t know how to use and after a few months didn’t bother any more.

But this year… I don’t know why, I decided to give the polariser another go, see if I could get it this time. And I think you’ll agree, the verdict is yes… Blindingly sunny day, water, clouds lots of detail. I know – it really needs a boat or a bird or a small child in bright red or yellow togs to make it great. But I don’t mind. A good day at the beach is, well… a good day at the beach. How greedy are we to demand more???

After the Landing

I was there. I saw it. And now you have too.

This is the 600th image in the series. Hard to believe that!