Printing

Many years ago now, I invested in an A3 photo printer. It was a very expensive purchase but I was able to print real photo quality prints to A3 size and I thought this made it all worth while. At the time I purchased the printer, the inks were a reasonable cost and I worked out a cost per page that seemed doable. However over the years the cost of the inks have gotten more and more expensive to the point where I am now thinking about retiring the printer (or selling it) permanently. It is just costing too much to use and more and more I find I am going elsewhere to get my photos printed.

There are lots of different retailers now offering digital photo printing and the quality they are providing is for the most part very good. I have tried several of them, but  I personally like the print quality at Harvey Norman’s and with their VIP club membership the prices are very good. There is almost always a special on and 6x4 prints are as cheap as 12cents each. Our local Camera Club is lucky enough to receive a discount on prints at Norman Ross. Same quality as that which I enjoy at Harvey Norman’s and with the discount the prices are comparable to the VIP membership.  So I have choices!

So why would I bother to print my own any more? My printer has 8 ink cartridges, each costing on average around $35.00 each. Then there is the cost of the paper, which if you buy cheap you get a cheap looking print, so it really is an expensive exercise to DIY. My printer is still in great working order but that is not going to encourage me to use it any more, its days are numbered! All I really need is a cheap little printer to print documents from time to time that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to fill with ink.

More of Blake

Today there has been a tui teasing me all day long. We have a kowhai and a kakabeak tree in our front garden both of which are in flower and the tuis love them. Unfortunately every time I get anywhere near with the camera it flies off. I am lucky in that I have a huge window directy in front of the flowering trees, so I can usually photograph the birds without them noticing me. Today's tui is a little smarter, he either saw movement or the light caught on the lens but either way he decided it was not a safe place to feed right now.I will keep trying to photograph it and when I do, I will post some images here for you.

Here's a few more from Blake's shoot yesterday. I love the faces he pulls, full of expression! Check out the last photo - classic!

Blake

Blake is 8 weeks old today. A little old for a new born shoot, and not quite old enough to enjoy holding his head up and be comfortable on his tummy. In fact being on his tummy was his least favourite thing to do! I think Blake decided early on that he wasn't really into this whole photo thing, so he really wasn't interested in looking at the camera or anything else for that matter. His mum tells me he is full of smiles now but we didn't see many of them when the camera was at the ready.

Working is babies is a challenge, but one that I enjoy. I am still learning what I can do with them photographically as I really haven't had the chance to photograph very many. That is until now, there are a few more on the way too so practice time is coming. What suits one baby is not always going to suit the next. Some look cute in baskets, others don't. Girls can be faries and can be covered in flowers, but boys are a little different.

Blake was a trouper and let me work with him for nearly two hours (with breaks included) so I have a lot of photos to process over the next few days. I will post a few of each segment as I do them, so watch this space!

Tigers

I don't know why it is, but almost everyone likes tigers! In the shops you can find all sorts of things with tiger faces on them from bedspreads to pictures to hang on the wall. Personally I have never really been one to drool over a tiger picture - unless of course I took it.

Realistically I am never going to see a tiger in the wild, so I have to be satisfied with photographing them in a captive environment and until recent years that has always been a difficult task. Now with zoo's using more glass in their enclosure viewing areas, it is a little easier to achieve. Having the glass clean is always a bonus but the camera can focus beyond a little grunge if need be.

These images were shot at the Auckland Zoo and I consider myself extremely lucky to have been able to capture the tiger when she was so active. Every time I have visited there since, the tigers were all snoozing in the sun and not very motivated to move at all. These shots were taken just after opening time and I suspect food was either close by or just finished - I am just thankful that I wasn't the meal!

More from Red Rocks

From what I have been told, there used to be a quarry at Red Rocks and the hills still bare the scars of it. I didn't notice the lines in the rock until I looked at the photo on the screen. This is one of those images that really doesn't do the scene justice. These rocks were right above us and very imposing.

I took this image when we were about half way to the seals. I really didn't have any real idea just how far it was that we were going but if you look at the right hand point where the hills meed the water - that's where our car is parked! The information sites say a 30 - 40 minute walk to the seals, it took us over an hour but I did stop for breaks and photographs.

This is why the area is called Red Rocks. There really are red rocks - the colour is simlar to that of the gemstone jasper. The red rocks are lava from undersea volcanic erruptions over 200 million years ago. Iron oxides give the rocks the red colouring.

Nearing the seals at this stage, just one more point to go around. It seemed close but it was still quite a distance. There were lots of 4x4's going to and from the seals. Aparently the gates are closed to the vehicles on Sundays between the hours of 8am and 6pm. This would make for a much easier walk as we constantly had to move out of the way of them - however it also means there is noone to hitch a ride back with!

 The seal colony is made up of male fur seals who were unsuccessful at breeding in the South Island colonies. With no females or young it is a more peaceful colony of seals, but I still wouldn't want to mess with these teeth. Our driver on the way home told us of how just a week earlier he had accidently stood on a seal thinking it was a rock and had to make a run for it when the seal turned to attack. It chased him down the road at speed.

Hitching a ride home

As I said yesterday, we started the walk back to the car. I still had my camera out and managed to capture some 4x4 action. One small vehicle had managed to get itself stuck after going off the track and was getting towed out by another. It made for an interesting photograph, just a pity I wasn't on the right angle to fully capture the fun. Then we watch another vehicle try to ford the stream away from the track. They needed weight at the back to stop it nose diving into the water - again a great photo opportunity. So I captured these moments in the camera and then completely forgot them when the prospect of a ride back came about.

"You taking passengers?"
"Sure, if you want a ride back, no problem."
"Got room for two?"
"Ah sure if one of you doesn't mind sitting in the back, I don't have a seat there but there's a bit of room."

At this point the pain I was experiencing took over from common sense and I accepted the ride back. My long suffering husband/assistant folded himself neatly into the back of the small Suzuki 4x4, while I got the comfort of the front seat albeit without a seatbelt. Our driver informed me that it wouldn't be necessary anyway as he wasn't planning on having an accident.

"You comfy back there?" he asked my husband, "cos you are actually sitting on a shovel - it's wrapped up in a towel but you should be ok". And so we started the trip back. The track had been battered heavily with the rain over the last week and the potholes were more like small swimming pools making for a very bouncy ride. Our driver was very chatty and telling us all about the locals and what they get up to with their vehicles and their fishing trips each week. I took comfort in the fact that our driver was very familiar with the track - right up until he decided to run off the side of the bank and take the fun route.

By this time I was clinging to my seat, the door and anything else I could grab onto while wishing the seatbelt actually worked. We skidded from side to side over the loose shingle on the beach, bounced up and down over the small hills and then suddenly we were airborne. Seconds later we hit the gound with an almighty thud and our driver started to apologise profusely. It even took him by surprise! The two men were concerned about how the jolt affected my back and all I could think about was my husband bouncing about on the shovel wondering if his backside hadn't been sliced and diced.

We got talking about how others use the track around the bay and the silly things they get up to. I mentioned the photos I captured of the 4x4 that was stuck earlier...

"Oh that was me!" said our driver.

Red Rocks

I am sunburnt! After all these weeks of rain the sun came out and I got sunburnt! We went for a walk round to visit the seals at Red Rocks in Wellington. It seemed like a very long walk, it even looked like a very long walk, yet there were families with young children doing it, there were old ladies on quad bikes doing it, 4x4 cars and trucks were doing it, push bikes and motorbikes were doing it. Everyone was going round to see the seals. Well almost everyone - some of the locals were only out there to go fishing.

We found the seals a bit before where we expected them to be, and I was surprised at just how close some people were getting to them. This area is where the male seals spend their winter and this means they are mostly very big and very grumpy. I decided to keep a healthy distance from them - a few metres at the very least! The seals were very well hidden, their colouring being very similar to the rocks. I found it very easy to spot them though, simply by watching where all the other people were looking.

After spending a bit of time with the seals, it was time to make the trek back to the car. Why is it that it always seems that much further going back. By this time my back was really starting to hurt and I was pretty much just putting one foot after the other hoping to make it back to the carpark. A little way down the track we came across three 4x4 vehicles that had stopped, their drivers chatting to each other. I plucked up some courage and asked one of them if he was taking passengers. To my surprise and utter delight he said he would give us a ride if we wanted one. The ride back... is a story for tomorrow!