November 8, 2018 … a little washed out

After five years as president of the Hutt Camera Club, and several years prior to that as newsletter editor and secretary, I am absolutely ready to stand down. Somehow in the last few months, I have run out of steam and the burden of office has taken a toll. About now you might hear the sound of the world’s smallest violin playing sympathetic music. Yes, there is a little self-pity at play, but I am looking forward to getting the most out of my photography time to help me become a better image maker.  Just two more weeks.

At the estuary (again)

As you may have heard me say before, I will always seize a calm day, and I grabbed this one down at the Hikoikoi Reserve on the Hutt River estuary. The boats moored in the shelter of the breakwater are unglamorous small fishing vessels. Even so, they create pretty reflections in the unusually still water.

I am sure someone really intends to restore the boat, but it has sat unchanged for several years now.

I was hoping to see my old friend “George”, the white heron. After a few brief stops he seems to have found other places to be, so I settled for a shot of the derelict boat in which he practices his skills as a master mariner.

Gerbera glory

On days when the weather is less accommodating, I look for still life opportunities. Mary received a bunch of gerberas from a neighbour in gratitude for her care of their cats while they were away.  I just loved their luminance.

Purple Tansy

A random weed in our garden caught my eye and I plucked it and then looked again and decided it was worth a closer look. One of my several flower identification apps said it was a Phacelia or Purple Tansy. I put it in the opening of my dark box and used the stacking technique to get the clearest image.

Little shag – mottled

It is said that if you don’t like our climate, wait twenty minutes, it will change. The reality is that change is a little slower than that, but a nice warm morning earlier in the week found me at Shelly Bay, the old RNZAF flying boat base in Evans Bay. There I found a Little Shag (Phalacrocorax melanoleucos) sitting at the foot of the sea wall, cautious but willing to stay put. It is one of the mottled morph in this variety.

Once were flying boats

The old jetties at Shelly Bay are much admired by photographers and this time I tried for a different angle. I admit to removing a number of plastic road cones from the rad works along the far shore.

The Catchpool stream heading outwards to the sea

A windy day and I went down the Wainuiomata coast road to the Rimutaka Forest Park and Catchpool Valley. I clambered down the rock banks of the stream and got the camera perilously close to the water for this shot. I am not good where footing is uncertain, since I have weak ankles and a poor sense of balance.

To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower (William Blake)

There were lots of wild forget-me-nots so I stole one and got very close.

That’s all for this time. I hope that my next edition will be crafted on my shiny new iMac since my 6-year-old MacBook is, like me, getting slower by the day.