Cards

Many of you will know I have a series of 12 cards for sale.
These cards are suitable for all occasions and come complete with envelopes.
This project has been very successful, but I have decided not to do a repeat order of this series.
There are not many left so if you are keen to get some don't delay too long before ordering.
Prices are now discounted
Individual cards $2.70
Any 4 cards $10
Set of 12 cards $24
I am happy to post these for a small additional cost, dependent on where they are going.

I am now pondering a new series, maybe in black and white.

Wanaka again...........and West Coast too

Jetty at Lake Mapourika on a dull rainy day

















Dawn on the foreshore at Lake Wanaka the day after the
image shown yesterday - same tree.
Shared the moment with a kiwi photographer currently
living in Australia.
It wasn't long before our tripods were entwined.
Manfrotto love at first sight on a beautiful morning.

















An added touch of colour onthe foreshore of Lake Wanaka.

















Quintessential autumn at Lake Wanaka, looking up the Matukituki Valley
towards Mt Aspiring.

Wanaka

We escaped Christchurch for a lovely holiday at Wanaka for 5 days, followed by a journey through the Haast Pass to Haast, then on to Fox Glacier and finally Ross for the Anzac Service.
Autumn colours were almost at their peak in Central Otago. This very public and much photographed tree on the Wanaka foreshore was begging to be photographed. I obliged!
More images to follow from the trip in the next few days.

Moment of Truth!!

Although I said welcome to my new blog a few weeks ago, in truth it has been a dry run to now.
It was only meant to be a few days before I went live, but more quake aftershocks and a break away from Christchurch for 11 days delayed matters.
But what's a few days........... here we are. This is it. Live at last. Thanks Drew for all your efforts - and patience!!
Please do feel free to comment.
John

Bygone Times

Last Sunday, Chris and I braved ourselves to walk around the red cordoned off zone of the city. A very sobering and sad experience! Coming back to the car in Sydenham, I spotted this wall which has suddenly appeared thanks to a collapsed building. I drove past there this morning and the rest of the building has been demolished, so am glad I made the effort to photograph it last Sunday. Now wouldn't it be great if we could have a haircut for 6 pence and a shave for 3 pence! And how about a ladies combing for two and six pence. What is that?? We are off to Wanaka this afternoon, so hopefully will come back with some lovely autumn colours.

Getting away from it

After all the mayhem and aftershocks, we finally manage to extricate ourselves from the shaky city last weekend. We took the campervan over to the West Coast for a WOF on Friday. Friday night was spent at Lake Mahinapua in beautiful starlit conditions - I finally managed to get the camera out and enjoyed the dusk and dawn sessions. Late Saturday morning was spent in Hokitika in a favourite cafe with a copy of The Press and god know how many coffees in glorious west coast weather. In the early afternoon we progressed to Jackson's Retreat and a lazy shake free afternoon. Here are two images - one from the lake and the other in the bush at JR.

New Book

Last year, 2010, I embarked on producing a book of my favourite images from over the years - 160 images in total. This was a very therapeutic exercise as I was being treated for prostate cancer at the time. The result was my personal portolio "Refocused" published by Blurb in June 2010. You can view some of it by going to www.blurb.com/books/1408334. If you happen to live here in Christchurch, call by and have a browse. I have only printed one copy. This coming winter I hope to find time to embark on a new book devoted to The Middle East - watch this space!

Shaky Days

Blimey the days fly by of late. For those of you checking in from afar - i.e. outside of New Zealand, we here in Christchurch experienced an earthquake on 22 February 2011 (and 04 September 2010). The city is munted (the new 'in' word here). Life has been hectic, scary, unsettling, sleepless .....

For me, one bit of good news is that I have just recently been awarded my Fellowship of the Nature Photographers Society of New Zealand. For this I had to submit a set of 18 matted images to the NPSNZ Honours Board. I received the good news on 19 March. The set was a series of close up sand pattern images taken over a six day period in the Rub Al Khali of Oman close to the Saudi Arabia border. Here is one of the 18 images.

As well, the earthquake has brought me a heap of unexpected work in the form of repairs and quotes for damaged artwork. This will keep me busy for some time.