Sometimes, the temptation to play with photographs ... as was done in the darkroom, is too much and so I play. But I resisted the polaroid frame and opted for a simple edge. And stuff ...
Back home in New Zealand, we had Albatross circling one day, down there at the end of the Otago Peninsula. I adore them. For me, it feels a bit like seeing God go by, in that they are these enormous graceful birds, quite unlike any other I know.
My niece, Katie, recently sent me a copy of her end of year artwork. It's a delicately beautiful static image. She received 3 excellences for this work but even if she hadn't, I'm so proud of her talent.
And although I adore her, truly, madly, deeply ... she melted my heart some more when she wrote that I was represented by an object there too, as one of the people she loves.
She was the littlest creature when I left New Zealand and when I went home, I discovered both her and her sister are becoming the loveliest young women.
Oh yes ... I'm so proud of these girls.
Claire mailed me a link to a beautiful video clip from home, see below ...writing, 'hope you don't get too homesick!' I did but I loved it so much that a little bit of homesick really doesn't matter.
Meanwhile I've had the pleasure of spending the last couple of days in the company of Lynette - one of the loveliest kiwi soul's I know. We were up at 6.30am two mornings in a row, taking Miss 9 to school because Jess was fighting with the nastiest kind dental abscess pain and Lynette thought it would be fun to come wandering. Remember we're mid-winter here in Belgium.
Jessie's antibiotics have kicked in now and it's Saturday today. A 9am wake-up was so welcome this morning.
And I'm rapt with the small pile of new shells here on my desk, fresh from one of the exquisite beaches in Nelson, NZ, sand still clinging to some. I'm a shell and stone-gatherer. My desk bears witness to this. Included in her bag of New Zealand goodness Lynette also bought Miss 9 a Magpie soft toy, complete with the really special call of the New Zealand magpie.
It has a lovely few days of 'home' ... and I'm still listening to Fran Kora. A most excellent way to begin a day.
The Waters of Greenstone from Nathan Kaso on Vimeo.
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
"Though some, in darkness of heart, seeing their land ravished, might wish to take arms and kill the aggressors, I say it must not be. Let not the Pakehas think to succeed by reason of their guns ... I want not war, but they do. The flashes of their guns have singed our eyelashes, and yet they say they do not want war ... The government come not hither to reason, but go to out-of-the-way places. They work secretly, but I speak in public so that all may hear, " Te Whiti-o-Rongomai III told his people in March 1880.
You can read more of the man who was rumoured to have influenced Ghandi in his peaceful resistance. Tim Finn and the Herbs sang about Te Whiti too.
Regarding the music clip at the end of this post, Mark Bell asks the question of Little Bushman, regarding the 2009 collaboration between Little Bushman, composer/arranger Psathas and the NZ Symphony Orchestra – did he actually manage to enjoy the experience given the enormity and pressure of such an undertaking?
His reply, over on Mark's interview, made me laugh.
I am loving all this digging around and finding New Zealand music and movies I've missed.
Raf came to dinner last night, asking if he might use my camera flash while he was over. He was curious about the process of using the master/slave set-up on his camera. Neither of us had attempted it before and it was the best fun I had had in a while. More to follow as I experiment with that in the months ahead as it turns out the Gert's Metz flash is able to make a wireless connection with my Canon flash.
The photograph following was taken when Raf put down his beautiful Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, with its battery pack attached and picked up the smaller Canon EOS 550D, laughing over how to hold it in his big hands. I liked how it looked and took a series of images with my beloved Canon EOS 5D MkII.
It was a lovely evening. Thank you, Raf, for opening the door into this new way of working with light.
