Macro Photography...creative way to view the Autumn Garden

Organic Gardening has its advantages, especially when you want insect models for your macro photography.

 So what if a few of my leaves have holes in them?
Being kind to the planet, I like to think I'm doing as much as I can within my sphere of influence.
And that's what  it's all about isn't it?
Together we can achieve more.

I don't even mind a few aphids on my roses.
They provide food for the waxeyes.

I grow vegetables, fruit and lots of flowers and everything seems to healthy, especially since I have a lot of herbs scattered all through every area of the garden.
I also feed the soil with home made compost which helps them to be quite robust.
 I have been doing this for twenty five years now, before it became fashionable.
Prince Charles you rock now!
.
It's  been a particularly good year for bees, the whole place is humming.

I am on the hunt for the perfect Bumble Bee and (Praying Mantis eating a fly) macro shots.
 It's harder than you think to capture them they don't stay still for long.
A photographer friend said you can spray them with some sort of freezing liquid.
I'm not sure that I want to do this, it seems a pretty unorganic thing to do.
What do you think?

Bug or Caterpiller eaten Nasturtium Leaves

 

Back lit Lemonwood leaf with bug bites

Sap sucking Leaf Hopper  and water droplets

Green bug, looks like an alien, eats veges and smells if accidentally squashed

Shock, horror, white butterfly, look out for your cabbages

Earwig eaten Dahlia with small fly.

                                                Lemonwood  berries with rain drops.

  

             Can't remember the name of this plant got it as a cutting from a friend

                                 Close upbuds of same plant

                                                                    
                                 Last of the Autumn Roses with an aphid
  
Creative Quotes of the Day 
Aerodynamically the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it, so it goes on flying anyway.  ~Mary Kay Ash

We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.  ~Bill Vaughan

Cats

I went to a local performance of CATS,  the musical
Cats are my favourite animals.
 I enjoyed it for the music, the singing, the set design and the chance to get dressed up.
Memories is my favourite CATS song.
It's pretty haunting.

I wasn't able to take any photo's because they were forbidden.

What has this to do with creativity?

I would say that if I make a piece of art tomorrow it will have a cat in it somewhere or some thread of what I have experienced.

For  in the words of Picasso;  "Painting is just another form of writing a diary"


            Since I don't have any new cat pictures here is a mini photo essay  about birds...

                                                                    

                            
             Why are women sometimes referred to as birds?

Is it because they are as  brainy as  birds?

or  as well balanced as birds

Forward flowing as birds?

 as colourful as birds?

good  listeners ?

 great communicators

Is it because they are happy stretching their wings and learning new things?

Or is it just because they are fun to be around like birds.

Why do some people also refer to women as dolls or cats?

It must be because they mean positive things. . .

I know I'm right because two little birds and a butterfly told me while I was sitting on top of  (not doing ) my  block on the rim of my Goldfish pond.

Come to think of it some people refer to women as (Fish)wives as well.

 They must really think a lot of good things about animals too.

Creativity Quote Of the Day

Use the talents you possess - for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best.

Henry Van Dyke

More New Zealand ( Rotorua) Food Adventures.

One of Graham and my favourite Saturday morning dates is to go to Kurau park Food and Vege market  to the Indian stand who has the samosas.
You get 6 Samosas for five dollars.

He has the meat ones and I have the vegetarian  because I try to trick myself that that are healthier.
We walk around the corner to the mineral foot baths and sit down soaking our feet in warm (sometimes piping hot) water while eating the them.

                                                                               Yum

                                                                             Double Yum

You have the cozy sensation of water massaging your toes and the even more cozier sensation of exotic flavours massaging your thoat and settling in a satsfying lump in your tummy.

It's bliss and my mouth is watering at the thought of it.
Where's my breakfast?

There are lots of other people selling homemade food there like cakes, kebabs, jams, Maori bread;  it's a veritable food fest and practically everyone is eating something.

The market is run run by a local Rotary club because it is a non profit event ; vendors charges are kept at a reasonable level.

When I went to the Audio Visual workshop in Tauranga suggested that a good subject for a film would be the day in the life of a market.

I had ambitious designs of shooting hundreds of photos in one go to put into Proshow Gold with some happy  hunger inducing music.
BUT
It was harder than I thought to take some decent shots because it was intimidating snapping people in a public place when all they probably wanted to do was to be left alone to shop  and eat food.
 I don't think people like to be photographed eating.
Can't think why.

Also a lot of the stands were in shadow and the light was wrong.

So I gave up and just took shots of things that took my fancy.

A New

Kind of

Kid Torturing

                                                                                Chamber
                       
I wouldnn't want to be going for a ride on this after samosas, would you?

Creative (Food) quotes of the day
Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.
Jim Davis

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.
Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
Voltaire

View of St Faiths church, Mokoia Island and  P class  Yachting regatta on Lake Rotorua, just around the corner from the Kaurau Park market.

What have I been doing creatively recently ? Writing an Apple Essay...

I have been going to an orchard for the past twenty five years called Classic Roses.

                                                                        Dappled Apples

 It's on the Whakatane Highway, just before you get to Hells Gate.

They have the most beautiful, fresh tasting apples, passionfruit and seasonal vegetables in the world.
I love the Braeburns best because they are tangy.
    

                                            Apple eating is hot work

 

                                                                Snapped red handed
You pick your own which makes the experience even more delicious.

They have a gorgeous rose garden where I bought  most of my roses for my cottage garden with white fantailed doves and large areas of rambling old walnut trees,  kiwifruit vines, dahlias, plum trees, raspberry canes, sweetcorn  and grapes.

The place is run by a couple who must be over seventy; you can tell that it's their passion.

Who wouldn't Be Tempted?

                                     Plenty of apples for our daily apple eating contests
I often say to my husband when we win lotto I'd love to buy this place.
I'm hoping when they grow too old to carry on that some special person will discover it and contuinue their legacy.
 The thought of a developer buying it up, tearing out the apple tress and turning it into a subdivision full of bland homes is sickening.

Plenty of Apples  for Everyone

Birds Love Apples too

Places like this need to be treasured and supported, there are not enough left of them in the world.
They are places that inspire creativity because they are full of love and wilderness.

The apples and produce are way more reasonably priced and much tastier than in the supermarket.

We didn't sample that many, promise...

We'll be back for the Braeburns

Creativity Quote of the Day

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
Martin Luther

How to teach art, thirteen top tips.

1. Have patience, all people learn at different rates and by different methods. They are either visual, aural or hands on learners.
Teach in all three styles so that you help everyone to understand.

2. Always find something positive to say about every persons artwork, their work is their baby, don't wound them  by being negative and don't ignore them. Do not favour anyone in the class.

3. Find positive recommendations about their work give them an idea of how they can improve.  If they don't take  your advice, don't sweat  it; it's still  their creation.


4. Be friendly, open, relaxed and approachable, never parent them or talk down to them.

5. Don't lose your temper or be crabby during a class, they are your clients and they need to be respected, be passionate about what you are teaching.


6. Bring along visual examples of your own work, students like to see that you actually do some creative art  of your own, it will inspire them.

7. Have plenty of visual examples from books and magazines to show pupils, don't expect them to operate  in a vacuum. Encourage them to bring along visual examples of other artists work that they like.


8. Ask them to wear name tags if you are not good at remembering names.


9. Before you start the class; have an icebreaker prepared so that you encourage a positive class climate.  Even if it's just going around the room and introducing themselves and saying what they would like to achieve from the class. It also helps you to guage their experience level.

10.Be open to what students have to offer, it's not all a one way street. I often am inspired by my students work.


11. Encourage them to have fun and see the process as a journey of creativity.

12. Encourage them to draw every day and set them a little bit of homework.
They will rise to the occasion and their learning will be accelerated.


13.Enroll  a Certificate in Adult Education course, you will learn lots of valuable teaching tricks.
Keep educating yourself, go to other art classes, it's important to experience what it's like to be a student.
It  keeps you humble and abreast of exciting developments and techniques.

                                                                           






Creativity Quote of the Day.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

William Arthur Ward