Word Verification

I'm not complaining. At least not about any of you, your blogs, or Blogger. Per se. I have very bad eyesight (so what am I doing with photo blogs, you might ask: autofocus; often I listen to the camera) and I'm finding word verification my Weapons of Mass Distraction these days. Has anyone noticed the strings are getting longer, and sometimes they are squished so close together that depending on the font you can't tell where one letter ends and the next begins? This afternoon I got one with a few m, n, and r strung together, and it just looked like a worm.

PS: Blogger spell checker wants to use 'autopsies' in place of 'autofocus'; was that a hint?

Air New Zealand Safety Regulations Regarding Rugby Watching

Distributed at your nearest New Zealand airport.

Dear Cristina

I do wish Daily Photo wasn't so darned daily or members so vigilant; not only do I feel threatened about preparing posts on timely basis, (kind of like 4PM on Sundays when it's technically still the weekend, but the mind dreads school), but if you go away for a week, it takes so darned long to visit everybody's, especially the ones where I enjoy the writing as much as the pics*&^%$#@

Love,
Grumpy

A Few More from Auckland

On the waterfront there is a complex meant to look like a cruise ship; not a bad attempt, but I think commerce won over art; the location would have allowed something awesome like the Sydney Opera House.
I am trying to emulate some of your artistic DP photos; this one I just found when I looked up at the stop light. Maybe next time.
Monday morning was foggy; if you click to expand, you can see the Auckland Museum in the middle, and the hills beyond floating like islands.
Albert Park at the University; there were so many of these huge trees.

Auckland was Awesome

Auckland is our New York to Wellington's DC. It's a vibrant place, with the largest concentration of Pacific Island population. Lachezar's new Auckland DP has beautiful photos of the city, but here are a few I took while up there last week.
From a ferry to Devonport.
My absolute favorite restaurant, Sultan's Table, apparently went out of business a few months ago. I was crushed, not only because I could no longer eat there, but because parts of the building had been vandalized.
An Aussie rugby player cited for punching; I swear he, or someone with an uncanny resemblance, was on our elevator Sunday afternoon from the 26th to the 17th floor, but what do I know...
Auckland Zoo's elephants are used to people; every day they walk amongst visitors. We were early for the walk, but got to see this girl snacking from about two or three meters away.
On our way home, just outside Ben's window, was Mt Taranaki, near New Plymouth; one can't help being philosophical about looking down at a mountain one knows from... down below.

Godzone Spectacular

I took 42 shots during a 25-minute spectacular outside my living room on Saturday 20 August. It didn't have the dramatic colors of dusk, but the cloud formation made it a rather special experience. Ben was so tired he was snoring on the couch and missed the whole show.

Not a Suspicious Individual

Northern Nomad,

The aforementioned, self-policing, quickie card to shottees I made up on DP Day 2. We didn't put our phone or address because we are the only Nakagawas in the Nelson phone book and our email is in the Profile.

On DP Day 3, I had a light-bulb moment and started to print my 'regular' business card on the back of some of these.

Blogging is for Wannabe Journalists and Ego Maniacs?

Broadcast during Nine-to-Noon on National Radio, Thursday 17 August. This link is valid until around mid-day NZ time, Thursday 24 August. National Radio is a commercial-free, publicly owned radio station; Nine-to-Noon is its flagship magazine-style morning program; I understand the audience consists largely of 'chattering class' and some 'old fogies'. Since the mid-90's, under Kim Hill's rein, the program has been alerting the listeners the goings-on in cyberspace. (Now, THAT's a word I haven't used in a decade or so.)

The host, Kathryn Ryan, was the political editor for Nat Radio for a few years prior to landing this job. Helen Clark is our Labour prime minister; Don Brash is the leader of National party, our main opposition party. Incidentally, I discovered Daily Photo on 31 July through Beirut Daily Photo.

Louise, can I alert them about your Wellington? I don't think Nigel has seen yours, and what a fantastic blog to introduce NZ to the rest of the world.

Disclaimer: Comments are made about other countries and politicians, which may offend.

All these Alphabets...

A) The squiggly word verification is driving me nuts. We have it on, and I don't for a minute suggest those of you have it should turn it off, but am I the only one who gets asked to try it... three, four times, even by one's own blog? I was never a good speller, but I can't even spell non-words.

B) My maiden name started with M, and I liked the initials MM because it's symmetrical. For 10 years I was MM living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nice. Even when forms and systems made me MXM because I have no middle name, it was still symmetrical.

I never liked MN, (even though we are the Nakagawas living in Nelson, New Zealand) until this morning, when, for the first time since I started dating Ben 19 years ago, I thought, Minnesota. Wow!

Yet another reason why DP is good for you. And what an absolutely riveting post to let the world know. (I refer to my next/above post.)

Caption Contest

No, not here. Slinger has a great photo here: sharper minds than mine can have great fun with THIS one.

"Cabbage Trees"

From the Nelson Public Art & Sculpture Walks map:
The "Cabbage Trees" (ti rakau) were created by noted new Zealand 'corrugated iron' sculptor Jeff Thomson in 2005. The cabbage tree was important to Maori and its leaves were used by guide Kehu to make sandals in the epic exploration he made with Brunner of the Buller River.

The two tree sculptures stand on each side of the side entrance of the City Council annex building; if we knocked down the Bed, Bath and Beyond to the right of the photo, this could create quite an attractive area, I reckon.

My map says the Maori name for cabbage tree is 'ti rakau', Wikipedia calls it 'ti kauka', and my book "Which native Tree: A Simple Guide to the Identification of New Zealand Native Trees" calls it 'ti kouka'. Kehu hasn't made it to Wikipedia, but is mentioned in Brunner's entry.


Opposite the Cabbage Trees are the what I think are toothed lancewood trees (Pseudopanax ferox). These are real plants, not sculpture. I am no gardener, but I think one is dying.

"Symonds Gas Lamp"

The lamp which was popular in our August 11 NDP post had a name: Symonds Gas Lamp. I've included this in a comment, but here it is again.

From the Nelson Public Art & Sculpture Walks brochure:
The "Symonds Gas Lamp" is a replica of the original, which was erected in 1880 at the intersection of Hardy and Trafalgar Streets as a memorial to John Symonds, a leading local merchant. In July 1906, a council workman detected a gas leak and lit a match to investigate. The resulting explosion demolished the lamp and killed the workman. The replica was a Nelson 150th celebration project, erected in 1992, based on enlarged photographs of the original.

The 'single' lights must have been created, possibly in 1992, to match the Symonds Gas Lamp.

Tahunanui Beach to Haulashore Island

Taken on August 9. Ben 'pasted' the bits into a panoramic view, but the photo is too short & too wide for NDP. (Kinda like the photographer.)

Dear Cristina

I hope you had a good day. The few words we exchanged about photographing people had me thinking all afternoon.

When I was 13, I became interested in photography as I realized I was accumulating a 'past', that I could recall "10 years ago", and I was not living just in the here and the now. I felt the need to chronicle my life lest I forget an important person. I photographed school events using the school camera, and learned to develop B&W.

A few months after I got my first job, I bought myself a camera. I became interested in portraits so I went to a few exhibits and read about photographing people. I particularly liked capturing spontaneous expressions on the very young and the very old.

Today, with my latest new camera in my pocket, I walked past a school during lunch break and saw beautiful children; some playing soccer, some exploring among the trees, some watching other kids play. A big little girl was being mean to a little little boy whose ears were turning pink. A boy with round, brown eyes was shouting "Konnichiwa" to me from a distance.

I used to talk to kids I didn't know and have fun finding out what they were thinking; I used to marvel at the intelligence and the power of observation these little people have; I used to envy their intense presence in the here and the now. And they used to love telling me stories, too. Stories about their big brother, their big dog, their day at the park.

But times have changed and I don't do that any more. I don't talk to kids I don't know, unless I'm within earshot of their parents, and then, just hello, how are you, you have a nice hat. I try not to linger while watching children from the school yard fence. And I dare not photograph them; I don't even imagine what a great picture they would make.

New Zealand is suffering from lack of male teachers. In Japan, children are not taught to be kind to the elderly, but to be suspicious of everybody, and not to respond even when spoken to. I have become afraid of openly admiring children I don't know. We hear so much about cruelty done to children, and in trying to protect them, we avoid them. And with my shiny, new camera, I photographed lamp posts.

We'll talk again.

Meg

Old and Grumpy in a Modern World

I'm getting old and grumpy, and finding it hard living in this modern world.

Ben has a Canon G3, and since we joined DP, I've been carrying it around most days. He is perfectly happy for me to use it, but he missed a lot of photo opportunities, (and he's the one who takes most of NDP's scenic shots), and I found this camera much too complex, big, and heavy.

Thus started the search for MY ultimate digital camera. I knew mine had to be smaller and lighter, and with fewer options. I asked Ben what the numbers and acronyms meant, and he told me what to look for. (Probably 5 or 6MP; I like wider angles; pay attention to optical zoom.) Then I went to Nelson City Cameras to ask Simon which brands and models he suggested based on what I was looking for. He chose four, (three of which I held and tested), and recommended web sites to compare specs. I went to appliance/electronic stores (not somewhere I frequent) to hold lots of models and to look through/at the view finder/LCD.

I liked the ring-around-the-shutter type zoom control, not the thumb-controlled type. I have small hands and short fingers; on some, I couldn't reach important-looking knobs and buttons. Many I liked cost twice my budget; Ben wasn't crazy about the ones within my budget. (So, now, I was old, grumpy and cheap.)

Then I found my deal breaker: I needed the best quality and the biggest LCD. I have been struggling with bad eye-sight for over a year despite my optometrist being one of the best in Nelson, and have several single- and multi-focal glasses, none of which works perfectly. Some days I was aware I couldn't see Canon's postage-stamp-sized LCD, so I just aimed, listened to the camera focus, and shot.

Meanwhile, every night at home, Ben checked web sites after web sites, talking to me in Techno-Gibberish, while my eyes glazed over. But we persevered.

I found the prices in camera shops were comparable to, and sometimes even better than, those in the chain appliance stores. One of the latter, who carried both my last two candidates, let me hold the cameras but refused to put batteries in until I bought one, and "Don't worry, if you don't like it, you have a 14-day money-back guarantee." I tried to talk Simon into getting my first choice, even if he had to up the price, and he tried but to no avail; the manufacturer dealt only with appliance stores. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer to buy a camera from a man who knows cameras, rather than some hair-gelled youth preoccupied with where he was going to hang out tonight.

To make a long story longer, we went to the said appliance store that wouldn't put the batteries in, twice, because the first time around nobody wanted to serve us, and shortly before closing time, we finally bought it. I am a proud owner of a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01. The store had a 2-day only 10% off birthday sale, and the clerk who served us was a clean-cut, handsome young chap with great manners. So all in all, it wasn't half as bad as I imagined. And I can get on with taking pictures.

PS: In a totally different vein, I wondered how all of you good, left-handed people cope with buying a camera in a right-handed world. Seriously.

Copyrights: Pros and Cons

Nelson Provincial Museum has, on its upstairs balcony, an intriguing ceramic mural of Nelson's historic buildings' facades, most (or all) of which have been demolished. I really like it, so the other day I went to photograph it. I checked with the receptionist to make sure I was allowed, and she said, "If anybody asks, tell them I said you can." So I went my merry way.

On my way down, I noticed for the first time a stained glass window with native birds, plants, and Maori symbols above the stairway. A good NDP subject. By chance they were dismantling an exhibit upstairs, so I asked one of the workers for permission. She went to check, and told me the CEO refused, "to protect the copyright of the artist." She then politely asked what for, but she wasn't interested in my answers at all, nor was the CEO interested in speaking to me directly. (In a small place like Nelson, there is a good chance CEOs and such come out to explain.)

On the one hand, I am aware of the efforts in New Zealand to a) protect and observe copyrights in the first instance, and b) especially what belongs to the Maori people and culture; and c) the Internet is a dangerous place where evil-doers lurk to defy laws, decency and good taste, and at this stage we know little about this Blogasphere. I endorse the first two, and can understand the third, especially where children are concerned.

But this is a provincial museum, of which there are many all over New Zealand, showcasing the region's history, and sometimes, art. I would have thought they wanted visitors, and getting a picture on somewhere like a Blog read by even a small number of potential visitors might be a good thing. For them.

I came home fuming and started emailing friends, but on reflection, I'm undecided on the issue. So here's what I'm going to do: 1) I won't post the mural until I get some opinions around town, and then I might ask if I can post; 2) from 12-1pm every Friday, I'm going to carry out a vigilante watch in front of ANZ Bank across the street from the said stained glass window to make sure no unsuspecting tourist photographs the window.

*****

This afternoon I went into town and stood in front of the ANZ bank and looked up across the street at the window. I discovered they had put the stained glass 'window' behind a proper glass window, so when seen from the outside, we see a not-so-clean piece of plain glass window, with something colorful stuck inside it. My first vigilante action thus ended before it even began.

Lotto Man

Saturday 5 August, Lotto Draw Number 1000 took place in New Zealand. Lotto Man turned around to let me photograph him, but I didn't ask if I could put him on the Internet, so the unattractive 'hiding of his true identity' thing. For the record, he was a nice chap with a brilliant smile.

Crying Fowl

Continuing on the theme of New Zealand suburban wildlife, our neighbor's to our left have had three chooks for the last five or six years; the birds free-range in their garden bordering our bedroom. In July I saw these brown lumps on the trellis of our neighbor's to our right. Shock, horror! This when the government was screaming "Bird Flu" at every opportunity, and a TV campaign encouraging everybody to stock emergency kits just started. And these guys free-ranged in OUR place.

After a week or two, however, they disappeared, so:

a) our neighbors had a big feast,or
b) one, two, or all three of their cats ate them, or
b) we have the bird flu in Nelson, or
c) the birds were holidaying in relatively-Sunny Nelson while the rest of the country was experiencing:

1) record cold temperatures, and/or
2) record snow, and/or
3) flood, again, and/or
4) power outage, and/or,
5) land line outage.

The exact position of their daylight domicile was behind the Wet Firewood in Plate 1, 6 August post. Come to think of it, the cats could have staged a bloody massacre right in our front yard.

Hiroshima Day

It's raining in Sunny Nelson today, again, and a bit cold, too.

Plate 1: Wet Firewood

Plate 1 shows about two-thirds of the second lot of firewood we bought this year; we normally get by with one load or less, but June was uncharacteristically cold, so we ordered a second lot. We didn't move them to a dry spot right away because:

a) we had a fair good amount left in our dry spot,
b) I have been battling tendonitis since February and Ben cut himself splitting dry wood, and we were both waiting the other to do it,
c) in Nelson, a couple of days of rain is usually followed by a couple of days of "sea gust". The location where the Wet Firewood is stacked (Plate 1) is the windiest part of our place, so we just leave them there to dry, and...
d) it's been getting warmer and spring-like so we started to mistake it for an outdoor sculpture.

Plate 2: Dry Firewood

However, this morning, I discovered we probably have two or three days' worth of Dry Wood left in the dry spot, as seen in Plate 2. So I went outside to see how wet the Wet Firewood were with the thought of covering with tarp, but took a photo (Plate 1) and came back inside instead because I was getting wet.

The area behind the Wet Firewood (Plate 1) is also a popular feline dating spot; directly above the garage (to the right) is our bedroom. We came from Japan to be closer to nature, but these guys know no boundaries.

Speaking of Japan, today is Hiroshima Day and we went looking for an appropriate image in Nuclear Free Aotearoa New Zealand, but found none. Nevertheless, our thoughts are with communities and people who are currently suffering from war. And we will be thinking of you.

More Christmas Presents for the Discerning

Genuine New Zealand possum fur nipple warmers and G-string; let me know if you want these posted. They come in several different colors, and can be mixed or matched.

Page & Blackmore

Independently-owned bookstores are endangered in New Zealand. Page's used to be a magazine and textbook store across the street from the current location. Blackmore's was a long, cave-like shop with endless novels, garden and cookery books, and a jolly good children's section, at the foot of the Cathedral. Instead of bowing to the pressure of big chains, on-line bookstores and discount shops, they combined forces to become... Page and Blackmore.

Ben and I joined DP Wednesday night. On Thursday I went looking for a book on Nelson's history so we have accurate information about our adopted hometown. I came home with a mighty heavy hardcover with lots of words. Yikes.

This is Peter; for ten years Ben & I thought his family name was Page. At least the Blackmores are Blackmores. I think.

Three cheers and a big bouquet to all the independently-owned booksellers of the world.

"Vessel"

From the Nelson Public Art & Sculpture Walks map:
"Vessel" is the sculpture on the Trafalgar Street face of Millers Acre Centre, Taha o te Awa. The work was deigned by Nelson jeweller and sculptor Gavin Hitchings and constructed by haven Marine & Engineering Solutions in 2005. Four meters long, and made of stainless steel, Vessel refers to Nelson's maritime heritage.

Welcome to Nelson

If you arrive at Nelson by land, chances are, you will go around the corner of Gavin's sculpture and end up in the Millers Acre car park, just to the right of the Information Centre building.

The main road is Trafalgar Street, and at the other end of this street, up on Church Hill, is the Nelson Cathedral. Looking up Trafalgar Street, to the right on the kitty-corner, is the magnificent City Council building with the Post Office on the ground floor and Inland Revenue somewhere above it. (Living in a newish country and a newish city, I have a bad case of Old-Building envy, which will manifest itself in due course, I'm sure.)

Unless, of course, you take the Intercity Bus, in which case you will be dropped off at the Nelson Suburban Bus Line/Intercity Bus building on Bridge Street. Walk up Bridge Street to where all the commotion is, and that's Trafalgar Street; Millers Acre and the City Council building are to your left, and the Cathedral is to your right.


If you're meeting me, I'll be waiting at Zest on Bridge Street, on the ground floor of the house almost across Bridge Street from Intercity, not to be confused with Zest on Church Street. I'll buy you coffee; it's really nice to meet you.

(As many of you have commented, one notices new things in familiar surrounds when seeing it through the lens. I go to Zest two to three times a week but I never noticed the building is shaped like ... a house.)