Celebrating Easter Autumn Colours In Rotorua ...

It was a grey overcast Autumn morning so Graham and I went walking along the Rotorua lakefront towards Sulphur Point and beyond so we could gert some fresh air and exercise with our cameras.  

The first bright shot was a day lilly, something I didn't expect to find this late in the season.

Mokoia Island

Paraglider being towed by a boat on lake Rotorua.

The Autumn leaves are full on, exploding in a riot of colour all over the place in the many parks in Rotorua.

The district council gardeners make our city look beautiful in every season. We have won numberous most beautiful city in New Zealand awards and a lot of it has to do with the vision of the Rotorua District council.

 

                                                                                  Leaves

                                                                          In Autumn

                                                                       Prepare to leave

                                                                                Gloriously

                   I had a go at doing some cloning in Photoshop.

Took ages for this little guy to look down at me from his birds eye view on top of a rusty pole.

                                                                            Rust

                                                                                   Rust

And more rust

Cobwebbs and raindrops on rust

Rust

Bleached woon

While I was taking all these shots of rust  and gulls I  heard a hign pitched buzzing.
I looked around and there was a boy  running his controlled car along the rusty surfaces next to me.
He told me it was his birthday and he just got the car and that his family were down from Auckland.
He was a nice kid and posed for a shot with his car.
Often when I am out and about photographing or walking; kids (and cats) seem to appear out of nowhere to talk to me.

                                                It's really cool to be invited into their world.

Rock and roll remote control car, so cool.

A white feather left by a goose.

It's fungi season, these were under silver birches.

Each different type of fungi has a different host tree.

Had a go at simplifying backgrounds in photoshop.

Bright ornage fungi in the bush

Same fungi

Fungi from the bottom

Chocolate mudpools.

Home again to my garden of seeding grasses.

Hopefully it will be a finer day tomorrow, be prepared for more photography. .

Creative Quotes of the day

Anxiety is the rust of life, destroyong its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy.

“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”
William Cullen Bryant

Photographs from nine day Ohiwa Harbour Birthday adventure.

Flowers from a cactus like plant, I suspect it is an aloe, that were planted throughout the camping ground.

This is a medicinal leaf that Maori people  still use for natural healing of a number of ailments.
When I  do my research I'll be more specific.

Fungi I found underneath a tree, it's a great time for photographing fungi at the moment.

 I recommend you go bush walking (if you live in New Zealand) with your camera.

Nikau Frond

Every time we visit Ohiwa we cruise into Opotike and go for a bush walk at the Hikuatua domain.

The number of  native and exotic trees planted in that area are very impressive.

It''s a lovely walk that is filled with native wood pigeon (Kereru) and Tui.

I recommend you seek it out of you are ever over that way, you won't be disappointed.

We went for a long windy drive through rough gravelly roads in search of a place called the boulders camping ground.

Along the way the farmers had lots of  signs about no shooting on their land, I thought this sign was particularly humorous and unfriendly.

Either the farmers were paranoid or they really did have problems with people trespassing.

During our walks we disturbed at least 7 male cock Pheasants so the no shooting rule must be working.

A Praying Mantis was waiting for us in our cabin.

I love these little guys because they are so photogenic.

 Their eyes follow you as you change angles to capture a good likeness.

                              I want to get a good shot of one eating a fly some day.

                                                                                  

This is the view from the top of a hill looking over towards Ohope.

that we walked up every evening and photographed .

It has almost a 360 panoramic view of the whole area. 

It used to be the site of a Maori pa.

It takes around half an hour to walk up and the view never disappoints.

View of Whale Island (Moutuhora)  from the top of the hill

Impressionist photo of Graham on top of the hill.

Graham has discovered an interest in photography as well and has made an amazing panorama of the hilltop view from a series of photo's he took.

he downloaded some open source ( free)  programme which apparently made a panorama more easily and way better than  if he'd done it with photoshop.

I'll see if he will let me post it on here for you to see; it's magic.

Because he is an engineer/programmer he has a good grip on technical matters.

It's great to see him shining with creativity on something besides programming,  

I hope he keeps it up.

I've warned him how addictive it can be.

Creativity Quote of the day

I once tried standing up on my toes to see far out in the distance, but I found that I could see much farther by climbing to a high place.

Xun Zi







 

Mixed Media Illustrations from birthday holiday continued...

Vintage photocopies, gesso, watercolour and goauche paint, maths exercise paper, black pen, decorative paper. 

Japanese rice paper, decorative papers, acrylic and goauche paint,

modge podge, gesso. 

Japanese rice paper, paper serviette, pages from old book, decorative paper, acrylic paint gouache, black pen, gesso. 

Creativity for the past ten days..lots to report...watch this space...

For my 50th birthday Graham took me away to Ohiwa Harbour camping ground where he  rented us a cabin for nine fantastic days.

It was the best birthday I could have wished for.
 Harmonious, peaceful, fun and creative, lots of art making, photography and poetry writing.
Beautiful scenery, peace and quiet amongst birds and wilderness, lots of exercise, pure air, amazing food, sea swims, hot temperatures, tons of native and sea birds, fresh air.
The camping ground was very quiet, which made the whole experience just perfect.
Yet it is located within a half an hours drive of Opotiki and Whakatane which means that you are near to great cafes and shopping if you want to have a  break from the tranqulity.
The people in Opotiki and this area are very friendly and laid back.
 I am visualising that in the future I get to live in a sea side location like this with  no neighbours; it would be wonderful.
 My idea of bliss.

Kingfisher on a sign near the estuary just outside the entrance to the Ohiwa Harbour Camping Ground.

For my birthday which was on the 11th we travelled to Tauranga from Ohiwa, walked halfway around the Mount and had a hot swim in the Mount pools.

Toitoi on the track around the mount.

I have a bit of a Toitoi obsession that has been with me since childhood. Aren't they gorgeous? This is the scene from halfway up the hill that is behind  our cabin.

 Graham took me out to lunch, bought me some really lovely presents including a painting, a spare hard drive for all my photos, two art books, accessories for my camera and software for making Audio Visuals.
 I was really spoilt and am grateful that he made it so memorable for me.
 I have decided to carry on celebrating my birthday for the rest of the month, so will be going on some outings with friends back in Rotorua.

 I set myself a goal of making nine illustrations for my visual art diary when I was away.
These are two I completed before I left and are still focusing on experimenting with melted bees wax

Materials: old keys, buttons, fabric flowers, oil paint, wax photocopies and serviette bird images.

 Collage with En caustic (melted beeswax) using photocopies of old paintings on tracing paper, fabric flowers, oil paint and melted bees wax.

Photocopies, stickers, butterfly serviettes, gouache and water colour paint, thin marker pen, old book pages, decorative paper, modge podge.

I made a  series of collages based on the mixed media techniques found in Claudine Hellmuth's  book Collage Discovery Workshop.

To be continued on the next post.

Creativity quotes of the day
" Here's a time when you have to separate yourself from what other people expect of you, and do what you love. Because if you find yourself 50 years old and you aren't doing what you love, then what's the point?"  Jim Carrey

I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you.  Agatha Christie