Pet Shop 2

Here is a toy that I bought at a pet shop in Brisbane.

For dogs, when squeezed, it squeaks.

However no dog will however be allowed

to bite this one as I enjoy it

too much myself, not the squeak,

but the overall shape that it

makes.

Most of all I would like

to make a marble version.

Pet Shop Boy

The pet shop is a place I often visit

with my camera, or even without

my camera for that matter.

In this case I have used the camera

in my iPhone.

I visit it not, however, just for the animals,

that are found there,

fish, bird, canine, or reptilian

but also for the supplementary

material, the objects that

are placed in aquaria for example.

Or the toys that they have for cats and dogs.

I often buy some of these items

not that I have cat, dog, or fish.

Tony's Toys

I took this photo about 3 years ago,

and have had it on my bathroom wall

for the last two. I never went beyond making

one print. I wanted to think about the image

before I made the expensive decision to print

an edition, although I did exhibit this particular print a couple

of times.

I keep looking at this photo in terms of the

flat planes of colour that compose the image.

For some time I've been looking for a photo that

I'd taken that would work in needlepoint.

Perhaps this image could be treated that way.

Those flat planes make it much easier to

render in thread.

Even as a boy I was interested in needlepoint but never really

took it up other than in a sporadic way.

My mother did encourage me though and she

had as a young woman been a seamstress

in Karangahape Road.

I've heard my stitching described as 'tortured'

so I wouldn't stitch it myself.

Meanwhile, lately, I 've been

thinking that I will after all print an edition

of the photographic version.

The Pressure of Sunlight Falling

Here are two photographs taken

at Fiona Pardington's exhibition opening

and book launch at the Govett-Brewster

Art Gallery in New Plymouth.

The speaker in the top photo is Rhana Devenport,

director of the Govett-Brewster.

On the right in the photo below, smiling, is Fiona.

Ant Attack

I'm currently experiencing an ant attack

so I've had to go on the offensive with some

poison. It is obviously made of something

very delectable because it only takes minutes

for them scout it out and form a scrum.

New Zealand has 11 known species of ant.

I think that this is one of them.

Hare

A photo of a hare that I took

a couple of years ago is now

on the side of the Govett-Brewster

Art Gallery here in New Plymouth.

It is the signature work

for a collection show that they

have on at present.

Bat Flower

This plant is native to South East Asia

although I saw this particular specimen

growing in Auckland.

A flower like this is very tempting

to a photographer like me but

I can see that although the image

is superficially interesting, I have

not been able to add anything extra.

In other words, it is important

not just to show, but to say.

Someone once said that a photographer

must place themselves between the camera and the subject,

that at a good photograph is one

taken through a personality.

It is my personality that is lacking

in this image. Still, it is important

to keep trying for new images.

Photos that don't work are vital

in that we must understand why they

don't succeed otherwise one is doomed

to repeat them.

Waitara

As I was taking the photograph

of Laurence in the previous post, the one below,

I was also looking, with my camera, in the direction of the Tasman,

an empty ocean that spreads a thousand miles to

Australia.