Frances Mayes on ColleteSeptember 06, 2010
One of this life’s greatest pleasures: a writer’s books can intersect with your life and lead you to the next largest space you can occupy.
Frances Mayes, writing of Collete in Ä Year in the World.
A Bit of a Panic over the Earthquake in New ZealandSeptember 03, 2010
But so far, immediate extended family is fine. My much-loved Auntie Coral was my shaky moment but my sister in New Zealand, and my cousin - Auntie Coral’s daughter - assured me that she had phoned home and Coral and everyone else in that clan is fine.
It was a panic though, and I had a reception and fireworks display to attend. It was good to make those email and phone contacts between…
Figure of Christ - detail from Deesis Mosaic, Haghia Sophia, IstanbulSeptember 02, 2010
Haghia Sophia is on my top 10 list of favourite places to wander through when in Istanbul ...
There is an amazing peace once inside. Someone once told me that while the cathedrals were built to create a feeling of awe and smallness amongst congregations, the mosque is more about inviting, tranquil spaces. Having visited more than a few mosques and cathedrals, it feels true.
Haghia Sophia is otherwise known as the ‘Church of Holy Wisdom’, and is one…
Jeremy Rifkin on “the empathic civilization” - via Ted TalksSeptember 02, 2010
I do believe this lecture might be one of the most important ideas I’ve ever heard. I recommend you stopping with a few minutes, to watch it and just see what you think. Sometimes I am startled by the life that passes by me ... heart-stoppingly startled. Truly Fortunately, my tendency is to grab my camera and ask the wild thing to stop and pose for a moment. And it did. I still can’t look at this one without laughing. It is time for me to begin coordinating my children and family photography sessions for Autumn. Please email me at mackey(dot)di(at)gmail(dot)com if you are interested in commissioning a session, keeping in mind that I’m celebrating the launch of this new website by offering you the opportunity to win a free family photo session. Anyone booking a photo-session to take place before 20 October, 2010, goes into the draw to win…
Yesterday we carried one of our couches out into the backyard, between showers, and I worked at photographing my favourite family here in the flatlands of Belgium. It occured to me later that, had we filmed yesterday then played back a sped-up version of the photo-session ... couch carried out, couch carried in before the rain returned, moving rooms for different background colours and effects, life unfolding and me attempting to photograph the children as they continued with living life…
I was working through the images tonight and I’m pleased with the morning’s work ... It wasn’t just about the photography. Gert and I had cooked up a small storm in the morning and so it was that 10 of us sat down to persian chicken and basmati rice, followed by pavlova, and one of Gert’s declious nectarine clafoutis. I fell during the photography session and even I had to laugh. I fell heavily, camera in hand, in the…
I love going to the zoo with little Miss 6. This is some of what we saw on that day when there wasn’t rain beating down ... on the skylight above me as I write this. And the sun was shining and we were happier. I believe I loved the colour of the wall almost as much as I enjoyed the colour of the giraffe but most particularly, I love the folds in the giraffe’s skin. Talent is what they say Work is what you have done Genius is what they know you The afternoon light was just right, as I strolled past the flamingo pond today ... still, I had to show Gert that nothing much had happened in post-processing. The light really was that special on that side of the flamingo pond. And just at the moment, I’m fascinated by the play of light and water and movement. Little Miss 6 and I wandered through the zoo today, cameras in hand ... It was grand but for the song I had introduced her to a couple of days ago. Today I heard the song at least 20 times as I wandered the zoo ... with that creature, who rates herself second only to me as ‘the funniest person in the world’. Her rankings system, no…
It rained last night, heavy wet rain ... my flowers were a little beaten by it but I wandered out to find some for my desk, then decided to share them with you. It’s glimpses like these, captured as I was leaving a hookah cafe, deep in the heart of the Grand Bazaar area in Istanbul ... that make me feel I am seeing something of the soul of a city. I asked permission to use my camera and then waited while the guys got back to the serious business of preparing the embers to burn in the water-pipes. In Istanbul, they were called Nargile pipes however those water pipes seem to have…
1am finds me here at the laptop, having given up on sleep because I can’t stop coughing in these days of my summer cold ... Most people have stories of other places this summer, summer spaces, meanwhile I have this story of a cold I under-estimated, ignored, and came to accept as a guest who was going to take its own sweet time in leaving me. It required me to rest you see. I didn’t understand. I had decided…
We came to the end of a really fun family photo-shoot and this little man, he’d had enough. He was leaving, with his bear ... And I asked her to stand still a moment. She was in a hurry but I was allowed these 2 ... Perhaps this is partially about how I see the world too ... I lifted my camera’s view above the heads of the tourists crowding this street and found something parisian, something identifiably Montmartre ... even if it’s not precisely pretty, it’s up close and personal on a slice of history, a slice of Montmartre. The sign reads, La Premiere Mairie, De la Commune De Monmartre, 1790. Even on the rainy days, the artists are out and working, between the showers. I loved photographing them at work but didn’t go too close. There was so much to see and it was actually cold. It’s odd to be sitting here in Belgium, full of a horrid summer cold and quite exhausted, working on Monday’s photographs taken on a day trip to Paris, listening to some favourite music from home ... I loved wandering through Paris on Monday ... loved it! We happened upon this cobblestone street after Julie and I climbed the hill to Montmartre. We were wandering towards Sacre Coeur basilica. Actually, you get a glimpse of the basilica there at the end of the street. It was a street almost empty of tourists and I do love photographing empty cobblestone streets. It was raining and still, there were 100s upon 100s of tourists all around. On my first introduction to Paris, a few years ago, I photographed this thing that the birds do outside Notre Dame. Today I was there on a mission ... but more on that later. The great news is that the birds of Notre Dame are still doing their thing, and so it was that there was a kind of bliss to be found in the attempt at capturing it again, even in-between showers. I had been talking of a red teapot just lately, so imagine my delight in finding this stunning teapot, floating there in space on a wall ... I’ll write up the details of where you can buy yourself one next time you’re in Paris. Tonight I must sleep. We caught the 7.30am Thalys to Paris (2 hours) and the 7.30pm home again. We walked a million miles, took so many photographs and had one of those sweet days that you…
My favourite Berliner phoned from the road yesterday, to check-in about coffee and a catch-up and I said ‘Come stay with us!’ And so she did. My cousin is here from Al Ain, near Dubai and so last night found us - 2 kiwis, a Belgian and a German - here at my place eating Persian chicken, drinking wine, and having the most excellent conversations till 1am and after. Yes, so the procrastination continues ... another photograph. This time of the pirate ship I found parked, kind of casually, in Genova’s harbour. I guess they were hoping to blend in and mingle with the cruise ship people down on the harbour’s edge. Checklist so far includes, breakfasts made, dishes washed, laundry on. I thought about doing a Craigslist advert for a hero on this next one but stuck to the facts in the end ... Still having fun playing with the Polaroid Generator action. I believe this is because I have much to do in the next few hours. Hmmm, perhaps I shall re-christen mine the Polaroid Procrastinator. There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise. Our combined hordes of children drive me insane. Oftentimes I think our patchwork family, mostly composed of 21st century children, only know how to live in a hotel where they mistake me for cleaning staff. However, after this volcanic creature erupts and they disperse to places where their needs are met, I miss them and their noise ...…
Photographing a family, working to capture something of who they really are, always delights me ... This photography session was no different. Be thankful. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. It turns out that Little Miss 6 is quite the puddle-jumper, even if there’s a dirty old cigarette butt in that puddle. I was so surprised to find myself being splashed as her happy little feet jumped up and down in the puddle next to me ... well yes, a photograph. I opened the window to let in the sound of the rain ... I continued working here then, without thinking, thought about turning up the volume on the rain ... then remembered. I couldn’t. This is my most favourite poem in the world. Quite possibly because I really do love rain, especially New Zealand rain down in Fiordland or over on the West Coast of the South Island ... on a tin roof ... at night ... Rain The August Break photo group, organised by Susannah Conway, introduced me to the work of Lemontines 365, among others. That was a delight in itself but Lemontines, in turn, introduced me to the photoshop action that created the polaroid look-alike below. It’s a faux Polaroid action, a Polaroid Generator and it’s free download, although donations are welcome, over at Deviant Art. I had quite some fun playing…
Little Miss 6 arrived unexpectedly, spotted my 2 mayonnaise jars of flowers, and voila one ‘vase’ moved location and is up in her bedroom. It’s probably for the best, as I’ve spent more than a few hours, measuring the amount of available light here at my desk via these flowers. I moved them onto the window sill and fiddled with the exposure compensation button. I have moved my collection of rocks with them ... always dropping at least one which…
This morning, nursing a sore throat, taking iron replacement stuff, and painkillers, and feeling a little pathetic quite frankly ... the 2 small glass mayonnaise jars I had saved due to their cuteness suddenly begged for some flowers. And the thing is, we have our first real-live garden ... as opposed to a balcony garden but our flowers are more experimental that thought-filled or knowledgeable selections. And they’re little flowers. Lavenders, daisies, cosmos and a few ‘pink flowers’. It’s all…
It was Miss 6 and I today ... It rained, it was grey, I was lethargic and empty after the work done on the new website and so ... we went wandering, and I was able to introduce her and her camera to The Land of Puddles, out there in the city. We had the best fun. I don’t like staying still for too long ... I mean, staying in one place, and feeling like a kid back in the confessional box, I am stating that it has been 3 months since I last traveled and frankly, that is too long. So, I need to earn some money, I need to get back to Genova, I need ... to wander some. I’ve been reading Colin Monteath’s book, Under a…
Today the skies are iron grey and rain is falling. It’s cold. Welcome to summer in Belgium ... It reminds me of home, this ability to showcase any season in summer. I’m not really complaining however I am posting a photograph I took last weekend, when the sun was shining. I loved the patterns and shadows that unrolled there in front of me. Susannah Conway has done, and continues to do, some remarkable things. To put it simply, she’s inspirational. Her latest idea involves more than 300+ people ... so far. You are welcome to join in on her August Break project. I began today, 4 days into August, with this photograph taken a few days ago in Gent, Belgium. And don’t forget, my new website is up over at…
Yes! My New Website is breathing its first official breathe ... and I’m loving it. It’s all about the photography, the thing I do best in this world, on that small list titled Things Di Does Best. I needed something that made things clear ... Come visit. I left everything behind, almost every thing, when I flew from New Zealand in 2003 ... a 20kg luggage limit saw to that. I arrived in Istanbul and started again. Then I moved to Belgium 2 years later ... and I started again, victim of the 20kg luggage limit, paying an excess for my books. Today finds me mourning lost teapots ... or me-pots, as I called them as I feverishly scrolled through Etsy, looking for a red pottery teapot. Just in from a deliciously lazy day spent wandering the streets of Gent (Ghent to English-speakers). It’s a beautiful Flemish university city, perhaps my favourite outside of Antwerp. The shopping is excellent and the atmosphere is laidback. So many good places to eat too. Then again, I might be a little biased after today. We found the best Turkish borek outside of Istanbul and there was a delicious espresso consumed along the way in Groent Markt, and…
The wires of the enclosure really mess things up for this photographer however ... if you twist and wiggle and patiently wait your turn, then you might catch a glimpse of little Kai-Mook playing on the back of his elephant friend while she lies on the ground. Gert and I headed out on a day off today. It was delicious, to have no one and nothing to think about ... no work pending, nothing. Well ... there’s the new website but we had reached the point where I had put it out there on a reality check. Back home and working on changes before dinner, I can see a long weekend ahead of us but I’m so grateful to the wise and fabulous friends that I have. …
The new website is almost done ...so today I’m taking the day off to wander in Antwerpen with the Belgian bloke, who has a day off. Cameras packed, a terras stop planned - the one with great olives and nice wine. The implicit memory in the human brain, intuition, is the result of millions of unconscious experiences that are carefully wired into your feeling brain to provide you with a wealth of information. But to access intuition, we must feel. Just in, at midnight, from the most delicious BBQ in Brussels. We were hosted by Simon and Paola, and not only did we get to experience the most delicious of foods and wine, we were also subject to the divine sound of the Irish. I found myself in a corner with two of the loveliest Irish women I’ve ever met. Deirdre’s mother and I shared a bottle of red ... or two, and many a story…
There is an element of the hunt in people photography. It’s mostly unconscious but it’s a processs of seeking those moments that feel authentic to the person you are attempting to capture. The pause in the conversation when they look away, thought-filled for a moment, the head thrown back laughing, a relaxing into the moment, an acceptance of me and my camera ... I was given 5 minutes to photograph these two after their hair-cutting session in the city last night. Family are the only ones who won’t give me the time I like when doing people photography ... none of them. There is something truly delicious about lying in bed here in Genova, listening as the street comes alive ... the first footsteps, the quiet voices, followed by louder voices as people roll up the doors of their businesses, and the clank of the coffee cups on saucers begins soon after. I doze a while longer then wake again, this time to the laughter of men…
Saturday found me sitting amongst some truly delightful people, listening as their Croatian conversation flowed around me, stopping whenever somebody new arrived, as they switched to English or Nederlands or whatever was going linguistically ... but that is life here in Antwerp, more than 175 nationalities spilling over in this deliciously ancient Flemish city. I was introduced to the guys who own and run Our House, a new restaurant here in the city. As the name…
It was one of those days where I realised again that photography is my raison d’être ... absolutely. Okay, wandering and meeting new people comes a close second. This little feet moment happened while I was at work photographing yet another lovely lovely family. An excellent day. The colours, still so beautiful so long after the city was engulfed by Vesuvius. Herculaneum is an exquisite place to visit if you find yourself with time to wander while in Naples. I just discovered that this is a wall mosaic from the ‘House of Neptune and Amphitrite’. The left hand figure in this mosaic has sometimes also been described as Poseidon but this is one of several good wall mosaics in this building. But more than that, Herculaneum…
I decided to write this because I wanted to share my story. It is a story which involved leaving the rat-race indefinitely and embarking on an open-ended journey in search of meaning and adventure in different parts of the world. My quest took me across three continents, through many countries and into more cities than I can remember. I sought and found answers in the most unlikely places, and along the way I realised that I had become quite good…
I really enjoyed trying to capture these giant bubbles in all of their splendour but was surprised with the results. I applied nothing more than a simple increase in saturation and a little brightening. The starbursts were already there in the bubble ...and to be honest, I’m not really a starburst kind of woman. Maybe that’s Genova. Even the bubbles are bit special. As for The Magic Flute part of the title ... it’s an opera I was recently introduced…
In Genova, Italy, there is always another curve in the road to fall in love with ... to explore. Each day, I try to find my way into a space where the real world simply slips away some ... a space where I work on projects, uninterupted, and have some kind of continuity in what I’m doing Oftentimes, lately, it has been almost impossible to fit my work in around noisy, grouchy, amusing, delightful, delicious children and babysitting, and then there’s the life of the house and its daily needs. In our previous apartment, my desk was the mission-control…
I was sitting here, in the quiet that is close to midnight, and lit a beeswax candle ... summoning up happy memories from childhood. And I was working as the smoke curled around me, working on photographs from Genova and realising, again, that life goes on without me in all those places I’ve lived in or loved. Here’s a scene that delighted me in Piazza De Ferrari one night ... I took a series of shots as this man worked…
I love the way flags move in the breeze and have photographed more than a few of them over time but in this one, I loved the way you could see the outline of another tall ship, parked directly behind the Dar Mlodziezy. This was the view from up on the back of the Polish Tall ship, the Dar Mlodziezy. Below is the Schelde River (Scheldt in English) and in the background, you can see the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal We were strolling through the streets of Antwerp city this afternoon, looking for our tram stop, when we passed by this church and outside ... this decorated table and the chair. It was so quirky, I just had to take this shot. We were invited to attend a reception on one of the tall ships, presently docked here in Antwerpen. This was our ride ... the exquisite Dar Mlodziezy - a Polish vessel. It was stunning. Yet more champagne was consumed. Home, a little sunburned in the the fearsome heat of today, but happy. Stolen, as a documentary moment, I captured this delightful Miss Two with her daddy, who she loves So Much ... Nothing more needs to be said ... just ‘my girl, having fun at the bbq last night’. It was an evening that began with Prosecca out in the garden, grazie to Paola and Simon (and to Maddalena, for persisting in insisting that I try it) , and ended with Mr Toad gate-crashing the party at 2am .... it was an excellent night. The Prosecca was followed by a lovely champagne from Etienne Doné, dank u wel to Stephanie and Patrick. Jurjana arrived with some Rosé wines and a delicious Russian Salad, hand-chopped in a 2 hour cooking…
In an exercise of hilarity, I decided to photograph the new hair ... ehemm, colour. Streaked, enhancing what was there (okay, and coaxing a few greys into a new colour) but have you EVER tried to photograph yourself while keeping both eyes open? I do believe I might be holding my breath in this image. And was kind of propped up against the bathroom wall ... to take care of focusing issues, blah blah etc. Okay, so no one…
The other day I realised I might not be quite like the average mortal, and that my behaviour ... my way of seeing the world, might even border on a little odd ... but I love what I find in reflection, and have done since I was a kid, being driven along State Highway One in the South Island of New Zealand ... south, past Henley, where the marshes often reflected the world back at me upside-down and perfect. I took Little Miss 6 to the zoo and look, she wants to be a photographer. Taking photographs from the wrong side of the wire or the bars ... that’s the challenge. Miss 6 was gifted a small camera for her birthday and today we wandered off, zoo passes and camera in hand. For this shot, I may have been standing on the second rung on the iron fence, trying to aim my telephoto lens through the wire for a decent shot of the elephant. I was quite happy with this ... Kay is a fellow Dunedin dweller, with roots that run deep in Southland, New Zealand and I adore her poetry. She’s a woman high on my list of people I want to spend some time talking with, when I finally return to New Zealand. Anyway, I’ve been following her story for a while now, and had the pleasure of interviewing her over here, despite the fact that I often rock up to read her…
This guy strolled by and I couldn’t resist turning round and taking this photograph, one of a series ... I have another plan, one that will release me to fly high again ... and that’s probably all you need to know for now. It has been a deeply frustrating year in so many ways but things are slowly turning a corner. Here’s to me having all kinds of news, and soon. Anyway, I was going through photographs, on a mission, when I discovered these winter photographs taken while out wandering with Clare ... my favourite Australian in the world. I was recently contacted by Cheryl Ward, an Australian producer and director, about the possibility of using one of my photographs in a small theatre project - Through These Lines. She is writing, directing and producing a play to be performed in old the defense tunnels at Headland Park, on the edge of Sydney Harbour . It’s a play based on the diaries and letters of Australian nurses serving during WWI and seems more than worth…
We have a huge park near the house, a beautiful place that makes you forget how badly polluted Antwerp is ... here at a crossroads in Europe. You see, we have horrendous amounts of cars and trucks passing by, within a kilometre from here, and on summer days like today, you really know about them as the dirty grey/brown pollution haze climbs the horizons. And so it is that the park creates this beautiful illusion of Nature and fresh air. …
Loved this ... my people, my country. I had the camera at Miss Five’s kindergarten graduation and afterwards, during wine, cheese and play, I couldn’t resist documenting the event. And I wasn’t quite ready when this little one ran up and hugged her dad’s leg while he chatted but the love is there ... it’s surely there. When we moved here last August, the garden was a knee-high jungle of grass and stinging nettles, over-grown bamboo and all kinds of other stuff, including the big old toads. And anyway, we had so much to do inside ... Gert painted up a storm, repaired broken things, rewired monstrously badly wired lights and we moved in. And then life took off. Before I knew it, I was in and out of Berlin over 3 months. It was winter…
When I work on a family portrait, I invite the family to just be themselves. When they are ... that’s when the magic happens. I love when images like this appear in front of me in the midst of a huge pile of post-processing ... Father and son, caught in a moment ... Control, apparently, is not the answer. People who need certainty in their lives are less likely to make art that is risky, subversive, complicated, iffy, suggestive or spontaneous. What’s really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overriding willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way. Simply put, making art is chancy - it doesn’t mix well with predictability. Uncertainty is the essential,…
I love that space, this place, his sound ... We don’t take photographs with our cameras, we take them with our hearts and our minds. They are a reflection of ourselves, what we are, and what we think. Modesty forbids that a girl from smalltown New Zealand speak highly of herself. We leave our childhoods, more often than not, having had humbleness and modesty and all those other conventions hammered into our very souls. And so ... one becomes a photographer and hopes that marketing herself and her work is something she can just kind of ignore ... that people will find her, hire her, based on ... well, what? So I have 2 tours to market, I…
Hypothermia is the only explanation for forgetting that I had taken this series of photographs near Buttes New British Cemetery on Flanders Fields. However, once viewed, I remembered the bone-chilling icy-cold that day, and the sun doing this beautiful thing with the trees in the forest nearby. I took a few photographs, wanting to capture some of the deliciousness of it all. So what is photography? It’s less talk, more making photographs. Do that, and do it hard. And then tomorrow, do it again. And as long as you love doing that more than something else, you’ll have filled your days and fed your soul with something you love. And to do that, by almost any sane definition, is to have succeeded. But wait, there’s more! I have so much ‘in progress’ work that my main desk has been a bombsite for weeks, months even ... it’s an ongoing issue really. I have this mind that overflows with ideas, you see. So, today I rescued the desk that my step-daughter had rejected and slipped it in behind my big desk ... for the in-progress stuff, travel laptop and etc. Two of my 5 big boxes fit under it ... the Genova and Antwerpen boxes are there…
I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Borrowed from the truly brilliant Launch Coach, as I laugh, a little self-consciously, while reading through one of his workshops.
A wee bow to the New Zealanders at the World Cup ... ‘In fact, they were all brilliant, because this was a brilliant result. Remember this day, and keep the points table. History is a wonderful thing.’ What would I post of this blog and what would I leave out ... so I posted it all. Seth Godin’s blogs are a constant sources of inspiration and advice but this one was timely ... my argument is within. What are you, what do you want to be? When you’re being your best self at your job,…
The good news is that most artists fail NOT because they lack talent but because they have not been trained to represent themselves, to build a customer base, and to actually sell their great artwork. See, the old way for achieving fortune and fame as an artist (or at least a working income) was all about receiving the favor of gatekeepers. Beginning with the patronage system in Europe and continuing with the galleries and museums of modern times, the old…
Or that’s what he seems to be saying to me ... 1am, time to close-down the whole post-processing part of my mind for the night. So much to do, I need to create a few 48 hour days and stop doing a little of each thing that I love. Off to an Arabian Horse Show in July. My camera and I are rather excited. A moment of reflection during a graduation ceremony ... It has been an insanely busy 48 hours but it’s done now ... well, except for the photo processing and continuing work on the project plans, preparing marketing for the marketeer maestro and all that. But you know how it is when you turn up to take photographs of some of your favourite people and end up going home with those 3 Arturo Pérez-Reverte‘s book you would have searched for eventually, except some exceptional friends found them…
I made this famous New Zealand dessert tonight. You see, Raf was coming over for dinner and so, for Raf, I made pavlova. However , not long back from Peru, he’s still experiencing stomach problems. He battled valiantly but Gert and I had to soldier on alone through the huge pavlova after a rather nice, slightly spicy Persian Chicken ... That means there’s still half of this MASSIVE pav in the fridge for tomorrow. If curious, I was quite…
I’m almost sure that my HP Pavilion dv2000 is almost ready to cut down trees going by the motor or fan sound I’m working with lately. It always ran hot ... from the beginning. I stumbled over the recall for that. HP quibbled, ‘bought in America, couldn’t be serviced in Europe’ or ‘mail it to the States and no worries, we’ll do it’. ... It took a while to stop laughing over the idea of mailing my laptop to the…
Despite all outside, best hopes, the one in pursuit of a passion has always been armored against all advice, good or bad. Strangely, this self-determined wish to create one’s own world, real or not, seems to be absolutely necessary. I’ve been wanting this book forever ... David Whyte, The Three Marriages. Christine Mason Miller, inspirational artist and traveler, reminded me about it tonight in…
I cannot begin to tell you how incredibly kind and thoughtful and generous my friends are ... I shall give you an example instead. Today I received an sms offering me a return ticket to London, if said delicious friend couldn’t go. Uffff ... I had to say no. The next couple of days are jam-packed and I’m baby-sitting Little Miss 5 for a couple of weeks, and she’s graduating from Kindy tomorrow, so me and my camera need to…
I love secondhand books ... especially out here in the non-English-speaking worlds where I’ve wandered these last 7 years. Finding truly excellent secondhand books in English is even more delightful than when it happened back home in New Zealand. My latest find is titled The Flanders Panel, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, and it has pulled me into its pages but more deliciously perhaps, was the Goldair Handling ticket stub I found inside the book. …
Our lovely friend, Stefano, was out town when we arrived but Gert and I spent those days wandering with the cameras, usually 10kms+ each day, and catching up with other friends. We were lucky enough to have…
Can you tell how much I love these places of worship? It was the same in Istanbul, when I discovered the peaceful beauty of the mosque.
The Empathic Civilization is emerging. A younger generation is fast extending its empathic embrace beyond religious affiliations and national identification to include the whole of humanity and the vast project of life that envelops the Earth.
Win a Free Photography Session with Me ...August 29, 2010
I love family photography ...August 29, 2010
Family Photography Session Today ...August 28, 2010
At the Zoo when a Giraffe Strode by ...August 26, 2010
For the young who want to by Marge PiercyAugust 26, 2010
you have after the novel
is published and favorably
reviewed. Beforehand what
you have is a tedious
delusion, a hobby like knitting.
after the play is produced
and the audience claps.
Before that friends keep asking
when you are planning to go
out and get a job.
had after the third volume
A moment of fierce emotion ...August 24, 2010
I’m Better - Happy Monday!August 23, 2010
Hookah-Coals Production Line, IstanbulAugust 23, 2010
Late Night Memories of Recent Days ...August 20, 2010
A Boy and his Bear ...August 20, 2010
A Cowgirl Passed By ...August 20, 2010
A slice from Montmartre, ParisAugust 18, 2010
Rainy Day, Montmartre, ParisAugust 18, 2010
…
Monmartre, ParisAugust 18, 2010
…
I Dreamed Red Teapots in Paris ...August 16, 2010
Madness and Delicious Mayhem here in my WorldAugust 13, 2010
The Day the Pirates Parked in the Harbour, GenovaAugust 10, 2010
Second shift breakfast for Miss 6.
Third shift cup of tea toa sickly Ms 23.
Phone call from London.
Phone back to…
Giuseppe Garibaldi, by Italian sculptor Augusto Rivalta.August 10, 2010
The Children and I ...August 10, 2010
Author Unknown On Loving Family Portraiture ...August 09, 2010
Nick Vujicic - Devastatingly InspirationalAugust 08, 2010
Dream big.
And never give up.
Nick VujicicSteve Jobs and True-SelfAugust 08, 2010
Steve Jobs
August Break - Happy FeetAugust 08, 2010
RainAugust 07, 2010
…
August Break - Lemontines 365 and a Polaroid Generator too.August 07, 2010
Today ... a day spent stalking the flowers.August 06, 2010
I love flowers ... August Break SeriesAugust 06, 2010
Introducing Miss 6 to the Land of Puddles, AntwerpAugust 05, 2010
New Zealand Sunrises and AllergiesAugust 05, 2010
The August Break Series, Day 2August 05, 2010
The August Break Summer Series of PhotographsAugust 04, 2010
My NEW Photography Website is Online ...August 02, 2010
- What I Do
- What I’ve Done
and
- What I’m Planning to Do.
It would be so good to see…
A Me-Pot, Friend-Pot, Tea-Pot.August 02, 2010
Gent, Turkey and a few Excellent BooksJuly 31, 2010
Meet Kai-Mook ... Antwerp Zoo’s Baby ElephantJuly 30, 2010
Hippo Roar, Antwerp ZooJuly 30, 2010
In Need of a Window to Lean On the Sill of ...July 30, 2010
Yes, a day off ... could be nice.
Intuition and FeelingJuly 26, 2010
Laurel Mellin
A Remarkable Evening ...July 24, 2010
Thought-filled ...July 24, 2010
5 minute photography ...July 24, 2010
Never-the-mind, I was pleased with this.
Once Upon a Time, In Genova ...July 21, 2010
A memory from my last time in Genova alone ...Our House, AntwerpenJuly 19, 2010
Little Feet ...July 18, 2010
Still haunted by Herculaneum, NaplesJuly 16, 2010
The Art of Solo Travel: A Girls’ Guide by Stephanie LeeJuly 16, 2010
Bubbles and The Magic Flute ...July 14, 2010
a curve in the path ...July 13, 2010
Books and Backbones and Secondhand Cigarette SmokeJuly 13, 2010
Life Goes on in Genova ...July 12, 2010
Tall Ships, AntwerpJuly 11, 2010
The Tall Ships on the River Schelde, AntwerpJuly 11, 2010
Table and Chair, City Pavement, AntwerpJuly 11, 2010
Dar Mlodziezy, a Tall Ship, AntwerpenJuly 11, 2010
Another from the So Much Love Series ...July 11, 2010
My Girl ...July 11, 2010
A BBQ at Our Place ...July 11, 2010
And now for something different ...July 07, 2010
GENOVA - in reflectionJuly 07, 2010
The Future ...July 06, 2010
Caged ElephantJuly 06, 2010
A Few Hours at the Zoo, AntwerpJuly 06, 2010
Kay’s Meme ... about meJuly 03, 2010
Amsterdam Man ...July 03, 2010
Caught in Reflection ... meJuly 03, 2010
Through These Lines, by Cheryl WardJuly 02, 2010
from A Walk in the ParkJuly 01, 2010
God Visits New ZealandJune 28, 2010
remember when hugging your dad made you feel safe ...June 27, 2010
Our Funny Little Belgian GardenJune 27, 2010
from the So Much Love Series tooJune 26, 2010
From the So Much Love Series.June 25, 2010
Art and Fear ... and a little bit of Belgium.June 25, 2010
The Busker, Hendrik Conscienceplein, AntwerpenJune 22, 2010
Arnold Newman.
Modesty Forbids ... and yet Market Myself I must.June 22, 2010
that day i got hypothermia ...June 22, 2010
David duChemin, Photographer - answering the question ‘What is Photography?’ and ...June 21, 2010
David duChemin, photographer (and, Di’s Photography Guru Guy)
Begin. Life doesn’t…
My Office Space ... redone.June 21, 2010
Who can resist Michael Jordan being wise ...June 21, 2010
Michael Freakin’ JordanA Lovely Day for the Kiwis ...June 20, 2010
The New Zealand Herald, writes about today’s World Cup match against Italia.
Seth Godin, Business GuruJune 20, 2010
What happens if you wear too many hats ...Chris Guillebeau, (and a course that seems vital)June 20, 2010
‘When I Grow Up ...’June 19, 2010
Slaap wel.
Graduation Day ...June 19, 2010
Sunday 20th June, 4pm!June 19, 2010
Learning to Read ...June 19, 2010
Pavlova ...June 18, 2010
Me and My HP Pavilion DV2000June 17, 2010
Christine Mason Miller and David Whyte’s BookJune 17, 2010
David Whyte, The Three MarriagesMy Friends ... i love themJune 17, 2010
The Flanders Panel, Arturo Pérez-ReverteJune 17, 2010
Special People, GenovaJune 17, 2010
For me, Genova is not just a place full of beautiful buildings, situated on a coast that reminds me of home. It has its share of people I really enjoy seeing and admire too.A place of quiet beauty, GenovaJune 17, 2010
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