Sitting at the beach...

I woke up this morning to brilliant sunshine streaming through the windows. We had already decided that today was to be a day of doing very little so that I could stay off my feet and rest them. My ankles have not been too good just lately and I wanted them in good condition for the nature workshop I am doing tomorrow at Zealandia. But the sun was shining and I so wanted to be out with my big lens on such a perfect day!

Mallard duck and ducklings

So I came up with the idea of taking my new camping chair to the Petone Estuary and sitting with my camera.  I wasn’t going to go looking for birds; I was just going to wait for them to come to me. Best idea I have had in a long time! The tide had turned and was on its way out, but there was still a lot of water about and very few birds. So I sat and watched. Within minutes I saw what I can only describe as a duck train! Mother duck and a train of ducklings following close behind – very cute.

Red Billed Gull

The gulls were the first to arrive as the tide receded, I noted several different species of gulls, both red billed and black billed gulls were fishing side by side. Next came the Caspian Tern. It landed on the start of the sand bar and waited. It was still waiting an hour later when the water was almost totally gone. I was starting to make up stories for it – I could imagine it had said to a fellow tern “meet you at the sand bar”, and it had been stood up. Another hour waiting and it finally decided to have a fly about, but having found no other terns, went back to waiting. I felt sorry for the lonely tern.

Caspian Tern with wings spread

Next to arrive at the Estuary was the oyster catchers. I have never really watched them before but one by one they all carried out the same little routine. Fly in and land, then take a bath. Meticulous care was taken on the wing feathers before splashing about one more time, then getting on to feeding themselves. It was almost like they just had to be looking their best for the camera.

Oyster Catchers

Oyster Catcher

The grey heron put in an appearance next. It wandered up and down the beach in front of me, stirring up the water with one foot them diving its head into the water to grab any unsuspecting crab that showed itself.  I didn’t spend too much time watching the grey heron as it wasn’t doing anything unusual and you can have only so many heron photos.

Grey Heron

Next up came the swans! This was indeed a surprise for me as I have never seen the swans here before. I knew they were there from time to time but never when I personally have been there. Four of them casually swam in feeding along the way on the weeds in the water. They stayed for a bit then left just as gracefully as they arrived.

Black Swans

The last of the birds to arrive was the starlings. LOTS of starlings. They strutted around amongst the oyster catchers, often getting squawked at for getting too close. The sun showed off their stunning colours as they pecked about on the sand bar.

One of the birds that I really wanted to catch in flight was the kingfishers. Today I saw one pair in the distance flitting about but none where I was sitting. I had purposely sat where I knew the kingfishers usually were but they chose today of all days to go elsewhere. Never mind, there is a lot of summer to come for me to catch up with the kingfishers again.

"Celebrating Women In Construction" Exhibition

I have had the pleasure of being involved in the NAWIC (National Association of Women In Construction)'s exhibition Celebrating Women in Construction.

Being the principal photographer for the exhibition I got to meet and photograph some amazing women around Wellington and the Hutt Valley.  I found myself in all sorts of situations to be able to photograph these women in their work environments - climbing scaffolding (never again), perching out tiny windows, going to power substations and lots of construction sites.

If you get the chance, the exhibition is currently at the Thistle Hall Gallery in Cuba St, Wellington. Open daily from 10am to 6pm until Sept 24th. The exhibition will also being going to Christchurch and possibly Auckland as well. I will post dates when I know them.

Zealandia

Last Sunday there was a break in the weather for a short while so we headed off to Zealandia. It was still a bit windy but nothing like the day before. I am still getting the hang of using my big lens at Zealandia as it is quite dark in the bush. I ended up resorting to using flash in the end.

Birds in our front yard

The power went off at about 11.30am this morning and killed a lot of my plans for the day. So after cooking lunch on the camp stove I tossed out a couple of left over crusts to the birds. It was raining with gale force winds, so I really didn't expect the birds to be out - I was wrong. Within minutes there were sparrows and chaffinches flitting about the trees.

I also have a banana hanging in one of the trees with cut out windows in the skin. The waxeyes really love banana, so much so that even they came out in this foul weather. So what could I do? I just had to get out the camera. I was also suprised to see the waxeyes drinking rain drops off the tree branches.

Five hours later I finally got to see the photos that I had taken. The light was really bad making it hard to get a good shutter speed on the camera but I am happy with what I achieved. I had fun and that is the main thing!

Wellington Supreme Court

Over the last few months, I have been photographing women who work in the construction industry for an exhibition that is to be put on by the Wellington branch of  NAWIC (National Association of Women in Construction). Today was the last shoot of the series and indeed pretty much a last minute shoot as the exhibition is less than two weeks away now. Today I was photographing one of the structural engineers involved in the construction of the Wellington Supreme Court. I have never been inside the building before and was amazed at the design of the courtroom itself. So much so that I had to shoot a few extra photos to post here without my model of the day. The room is a dome, so perspective looks a little out on the images but I like them just as they are.

If anyone is interested in viewing the exhibition "Celebrating Women in Construction" it is open from Sept 18 through to the 23rd from 10am to 6pm daily at the Thistle Hall Gallery, Upper Cuba St. I have photographed most of the images in the exhibition.

Burlesque Beauties

We had four models, three photographers and two lighting setups and it worked brilliantly. The best shot of the day for me was when I was doing a lighting check and the delicious Sadie von Scrumptious was checking how her skirt was sitting at the back. Not posed at all.

Sadie von Scrumptious checking her skirt

Sadie von Scrumptious

Winnie Chester - Burlesque Performer

Sadie von Scrumptious

Winnie Chester - Burlesque Performer

Winnie Chester - Burlesque Performer

Winnie Chester - Burlesque Performer

Playing With Gulls

Today the weather was turning sour and the wind was up. The tides just weren't right and the birds were all off hiding somewhere. All except the seagulls.