Photography Competitions.

As part of  National Novel Writing month instead of writing a  50,000 word novel I am going to try to do thirty posts with photographs for the month of November. 
 They are about my creative activities and will include quotes and maybe a haiku or two. 

Today I had to submit some photographs for Rotorua Camera Club end of year competitions. 
I was late as usual. 
I down loaded about 40 photographs to get a set of six and decided to give up on it because I couldn't see things linking enough. 
Judges are stringent and I decided to research the whole thing a lot more before I submit next year. 

 I ended up submitting one print and one electronic image. 
 

But I'm posting some of my selection here now.
Set of six different trees.  
Six different leaves.
Six of the same honesty seeds but at different angles.

  I realised after collating these that they would'n't really make it because they are too disimilar  and yet not disimilar enough in terms of lenses and angles shot from. 
 There  is little visual flow. 

What I'm going to attempt to do is pick one tree and take it during all four seasons plus close up of the leaves. 
I  think it would work better for next year. 



                                     Trees I have met 

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.  Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all.  But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself."
-  William Blake, 1799, The Letters    
                                                                    
                    Grasses I  have met

                    

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.

 Walt Whitman

                                Leaves I have met

                                           Honesty seeds I have met

                      Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
                        Robert Louis Stevenson

All photographs and  images on this blog are for sale.

Email me at jkeen@clear.net.nz with your enquiry. 

Phone 07 3463435 

All photographs are copyrighted by Janet Keen and may not be used  for any purpose without written permission 

 

Exhibition at Essence Cafe, Ngongotaha, Rotorua

I have organised an exhibition in this cafe until the end of November with three of my advanced acrylic and mixed media painting students.


The work is fairly naive in style and designed to appeal to children and people who still  like fairy tales even though they have grown up. 
The work is narrative, whimsical  and full of symbolism for me.
Here are the latest two paintings.

 Christina and her Deer 1

Christina and her Deer 2



Angels and their Totems  
The Deer Totem is there for us to use the power of gentleness to touch the hearts and minds of wounded beings who are in our lives. When a Deer totem shows up in your life,
a new innocence and freshness is about to be awakened.
There will be an opportunity to express love that will open new doors for you.
  
The Owl Totem is the symbol of the feminine, the moon and the night. An owl totem gives you the power to extract secrets. Meditate on the owl and things will be revealed. Listen to its voice inside of you and you will hear not what others are saying, but what is hidden. Most owl people are clairvoyant because of this ability. Learn to trust your instincts about people. Let your owl totem guide you.

All original totem paintings are $300.00 each and are the copyright of Janet Keen.

Block mounted glossy Photographic Prints of these paintings available

Small $95.00
Medium $125.00
Large  $155.00
All mosaics are $105.00 each
Cards available for $10.00 each.
 All prices are plus postage. 

Let me illustrate you and your totem in a whimsical, storybook style.
Individual Commissions start at a minimum of $650.00 each depending on size and work required. 


Creative Quote of the day  

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.
~John Milton, Paradise Lost


 Music is well said to be the speech of angels.  ~Thomas Carlyle

 Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit; for, without being seen, they are present with you.  ~St Francis of Sales

Sunday Drive: Taking a trip out of town for a mini photographic adventure to Te Ko Utu Park Cambridge. .

             In support of National Novel Writing Month 
 (I am committing to writing a blog post every day with photo's for one month. )
                         Te Ko Utu Park Cambridge.
How many of you who live within the Bay of Plenty or the Waikato know about Te Ko utu Park and lake in the middle of Cambridge? 
My husband Graham  has been living in this area all of his life and he had never heard about it or been there.
 In my opinion it's one of Cambridge's best kept secrets. 

                     The exotic tree specimens are really beautiful and perfect for backlit phtograpraphy.

                                                             Beautiful spring shoots

I have  many fond memories of it as a young child because I went to St Peter's Catholic School in Cambridge. 
 

I  spent lots of idyllic moments with the Nuns and my school friends doing nature studies around that lake.
 In those days it was an overgrown wilderness filled with  dragon flies as big as your hand and millions of croaking frogs and screeching cicadas. 

It  was  here that I had my first experience of collecting  tadpoles, putting them into preserving jars and watching them develop into baby frogs. 


Considerable  development of the site had been undertaken in the fifteen years since I last visited it by the Waipa council and Cambridge Tree Trust amongst others.

The bull rushes have been cleared, the perimeter has a wooden base around it, and carp and catfish have been added to keep it clean.
 A large aerating waterfall with pump has been put in to help alleviate stagnation and by the looks of the relatively clear water, it's working. 

Hundred's of varieties of European trees  have been planted around the perimeter. 
There are lillipads and weeping willows, copper beeches and elms, oaks and spruces, silver birches and too many other trees for me to name 
 The place could have been picked out of pages from a book about English country gardens. 

 
The leaves of these beautiful trees had that newly minted Spring freshness of colour about them and the day was hot and sunny. 

There were no frogs to be heard at all but in their place were nesting Pukeko with their young Scaups and Dab chicks. 
Apparently they released a set of white swans a number of years ago but they escaped.
 There were small collections of ducks and I'm sure I saw an eel.
  Maybe it was a catfish but I didn't see any whiskers. 

Copper beech heaven

The walk around the lake was civilised and not too difficult and I was in heaven snapping reflections in the water, back lit leaves and to other vegetation. 

After the walk we went up to the band rotunda  and the rose garden and the hot house up the top of the hill near the bowling greens.

I used to go to Brownies just down the road from this site so I knew the area very well. 
Graham and I spent some time going around the rose beds smelling roses.
It's  a wonderful thing to do. 

Smelling roses, one of our favourite things to do when we visit the beautuiful botannical gardens of  New Zealand.

If you haven't done it so far this summer don't waste any more time. Head off  to a rose garden near you.  
There are plenty of them around the Waikato and Bay of Plenty
Mine are just starting to come out.
I can't want to bury my nose in them. 

 Creative Quotes of the day. 
“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” Dale Carnegie

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

 Henry David Thoreau 

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.

 Walt Whitman 

 All photographs and  images on this blog are for sale.
Email me at jkeen@clear.net.nz with your enquiry. 
Phone 07 3463435 
All photographs are copyrighted by Janet Keen and may not be used  for any purpose without written permission.