Early Morning photographs, outside my front gate.

All the experts know the best  landscape photographs are obtained early morning or just on dusk.
I am venturing  out regularly during winter to obtain quintessential misty shots.
Where did I go today?
Just outside  my front gate.
Miracles are everywhere. 

 Frosty

mornings 

make 

 photographs, like Constable oil paintings

 

with their atmospheric perspective and muted tones.

                                                                       Sun ray filled  tree silouettes   

and old farm buildings

                                 

                                     with  rickety fences are shrowded in mist.

                                                                               Beams of  light  shining through

                                          skeletal  branches  land and dissolve on patches of frost.
                                     

Steam rising from horses nostrils. Silege punches the air with acrid aroma. Early morning breakfast.

Last seasons birds nests perhaps waiting for their owners to return home.

The path to peace for me is always shown by nature.

                 Nature from my front gate provides plenty of precious moments to be greatful.

Creativity Quotes of the day 

“What day is it?"

It's today," squeaked Piglet.
My favorite day," said Pooh.”
― A.A. Milne

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”

― Eleanor Roosevelt

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Positive Affirmation Angels.

I am always in search of  marble  angel statues because I think they are poignant and uplifting.
I found these in a Taranaki  cemetery when I  went with my husband for a holiday  for a couple of weeks. 
I have never seen such a concentraton of them in such a small place.
It was angel  heaven.

I hope you find these uplifting....

You already possess everything you need to become great. 

Crow Proverb.

                      Just living is not enough. One must have a little sunshine, freedom and a little flower.
                                                                       Hans Christian Andersen

Always remember to slow down in life;  live, breathe and learn to take a good look around you. 

Everything and every person has a place in your heart. 

                                                                       Author Unknown.

                      
                                          Music in the soul can be heard by the whole universe.
                                                                                         Lao Tzu

 We should consider each day lost on which we have not danced at least once. 

Fredrich Nietzshe

There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. 

Minnie Aumonier

                        Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.

Kahlil Gibran 

Friendships are what our dreams are made of. 

We stand close to each other, hand in hand, showing each other we understand. 

Author Unknown..

Creativity quotes of the day 

The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly.  ~G.K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy"

Pay attention to your dreams - God's angels often speak directly to our hearts when we are asleep.  ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

 Life is a tapestry:  We are the warp; angels, the weft; God, the weaver.  Only the Weaver sees the whole design.  ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

Art Appreciation at the Auckland City Art Gallery

I finally had a chance to visit the newly renovated and enlarged Auckland City Art Gallery a couple of weeks ago when I went to the Imagenation Photographic conference.
 It is now  a light filled and modern place with beautiful views.
The galleries are large and accommodating for the works.

 I have always loved Fine Art Photographer, Fiona Pardington's work, most of which I  have only ever  seen in books.
It was great to be able to view this particular creation in real life.

Following are other artworks I really liked as well.
I was amazed that they let people take photos, well done, excellent PR and a rare  thing for a public art gallery to do.

                                        Bill Hammond

     Richard Killeen

     Rosalie Gasgoine

 

    Rosalie Gasgoine

 

I didnt take down

the names

 

of these

 

other

 

artists

 

which was

 

naughty

 

so if any are

 

living and they

 

see this post, I apologise.

If you build up an image diary of the type of art work you like;  you can see where your own work fits in.
You will  perhaps notice re-ocurring motifs and concepts, probably even colour tones and layouts.


Inspiration for work can be found everywhere, it's a matter of taking the time to see.

Creativity Quotes
Don't forget, a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)

This was one of those special occasions when I could actually feel the inner appreciation of the beauty of the moment passing like an electric current through the brush in my hand. (Prince Charles)

When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy. (Samuel Goldwyn)

Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust, Paradise Valley, Rotorua New Zealand

 Portfolio entry  of 10 related photographs  for Southern Institute Advanced  Digital Photographay paper.

Meet Fran at Wingspan . You can get up really close and personal

to some magestic raptors

 and talk to the trainers, (introducing Noel) who really care about these

 endangered birds.

                                     Falcons flying are difficult to capture

but shots of them gulping pieces of rabbit  meat

and sitting on fences scouting for prey

 or perching on shoulders are available for the taking.

                  Whisper  the Morepork is a gentle presence in the aviary and an excellent little surrogate  mother. 

         

So if you haven't been to Wingspan yet, you should go. 

Take your camera, get photographed with a raptor on your head or shoulders. 

Have a fun day out in the fresh country air. 

Go home and get creative. 

 Quote of the day

“The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.” Sun Tzu quotes

                   

Imagenation Photographic Conference, Auckland. Fantastic event, so inspiring.

Every year the Advertising & Illustrative Photographers Association holds the Image Nation Professional Photography ConferenceIn Auckland, New Zealand.
This  event give NZ  photographers, assistants and students an invaluable opportunity to hear entertaining and insightful presentations from some of the world’s most renowned professional photographers and industry experts.
Attendees also gain an immense amount of useful and relevant information about the advertising and editorial markets – knowledge that can be used to achieve future success in the photographic arena.

The 2012 Image Nation Conference took place at Unitec’s Mount Albert campus in Auckland on the weekend of June 23rd and 24th.
Speakers at this year’s event included Urs Buhlman, Jez Smith, Nick Rains, Colleen Tunnicliff, Fraser Harding, Grant Sheehan, Joyce Campbell, Johnny McCormack, Shannon McGrath, Richard Linton, Sally Brownbill and Special Group.

 Trying out a canon fish eye lens at the conference from a company who rents them out.

 Imagenation Conference Experience.
I went and had the best time ever.
The speakers were outstanding.
The photography was at  a level I had not seen before.
The organisation was really efficicent and the people friendly.
The venue was comfortable.
The food was great; nice and healthy 
I made new  photographic contacts/friends
I learned a lot and have a ten point plan that I am implementing for my photography.
Am I going again next year?
Sure am.

 Fisheye photos

 Distortion to the max;  what a fun way to play.

My role as a teacher  is to inspire others on their creative journey; if it's meant to be i's up to me. 


Going to conferences, photography events, classes and meetings away from Rotorua  with other professional photographers helps to keep me positive and full of new ideas and it's so much fun.
Having fun is the key to creatvity.

I have come away with a ten point plan on how I  am going to develop my photography business and I am working with another professional photographer in Auckland to check in with  her to see that we are both on track.

Making yourself accountable to others with your dreams helps to accelerate the process.


I really like other photographers as a professional body of people because they are creative as well as commercial. 
They are well organised and willing to share ideas with each other. 

I want to travel to Italy next year to take photographs  of some beautiful  mosaics and paintings   in Catholic churches and Monasteries. 

 Having faith, visualising  to materialsie and being greatful for what I have helps dreams tohappen.

Creative Quote of the day
A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind.
Eugene Ionesco

Haiku Festival Tauranga

I have just returned  from a two day  Haiku Festival in Tauranga  exhausted and bursting with information overload about  haiku, tanka and haibun.
 
Since I am  a beginner and have never written any tanka or haibun  it was all a  new  world to me.

 Haiku Master Class with world famous  Jim Kacian was full of energy and entertainment.
I was amazed the organisers Sandra  Simpson  and Margaret Beverland were able to obtain  funding to have a person of  his stature  flown all the way out from America, especially for the conference.

I  enjoyed  the Haiku, Haibun & Everyday Things with Dr Lawrence Marceau lecture.
 It was great to learn about the  Japanese historical and cultural perspective of these poetic forms.
 I sat opposite him and his lovely Japanese wife at dinner and we had a great conversation about Japan and pottery making.

Australian haiku expert Beverley George ran an  engaging  workshop on tanka.
She only had an hour which did not do her justice.
I would like to attend a workshop  with her for a whole weekend.
Maybe a trip to Australia to do it would be a good  in the future.
I can just see myself sitting in a Eucalyptus tree over a river in  Queensland pumping out Haiku and Tanka about Kookaburras, Kangaroos and Ibises.


Owen Bullock who was the first poetry teacher to introduce  me to haiku three years ago was  also at the conference.
 I am planning to go to Taupo to a haiku workshop he is running in August.
He is a very encouraging and positive person and it is these types of teachers that you need when first starting out.

I had a chance to catch up with Kirsten Cliff and see an array of her illustrated haiku.
 It is great to see her looking so well, happy and prolific.
Kirsten has had her haiku  published in journals all over the world in a relatively short  space of time.
She is a master at seizing the moment.

I realise  it's really easy to write trite, facile, obvious and just plain nonsensical haiku and tanka, the trick is to achieve the a-ha moment along with a degree of subtlety and lightness.
I  am presuming these qualities will appear in time with my haiku and tanka with more reading  and more writing and as my understanding and appreciation grows. .

My interest in reading and writing these forms has been further  ignited by the conference and that's what 's all about- inspiration. .
Attending a festival is a great way to find time to have a go and write some as well as learn from  the experts.

Thanks so much to Margaret and Sandra for a well run and fun Festival.
 I am grateful to these people for giving up their valuable time to organise such a momentous event.
.

  “Calligraphy of geese
against the sky-
the moon seals it.”
― Yosa Buson