2kiwis

Got a nice email the other day to make up for Photo5 disappointment. One of my entries for the UK based Travel Photographer of the Year competition has been short listed (i.e. down to the final 25 entries). This is a big international competition and even if I don’t get any further at least it shows I’m doing something right. I’m short listed in the TPOTY New Talent Category and these are the photos that make up the portfolio:

Flat tyre, flat landscape.

Camping in Patagonia.

Campfire under the moon.

A new day.

The weekend just gone saw Travis fly down from Auckland for a short two day visit. This coincided nicely with the All Whites “One shot for glory” match vs. Bahrain, so that sorted out Saturday night. After picking Travis up at the airport we drove out to Island Bay and found somewhere for some brunch. We ended up at a seaside place called The Bach and had some good food while watching the waves crashing. It was a windy day that just got windier, our post-brunch walk along Owhiro Bay watching sets of waves swell up and crash against the rocks.

Owhiro Bay Waves

Heading home to Epuni we had lunch and played on the Wii. We had been thinking of getting the train in for the football but a review of the timetable (unhelpful not changed from a normal Saturday evening) and the thought of waiting a hour for a train after the match quickly changed our transport from train to car. So we drove in and parked by Catherine’s place, turning up early for our pizza dinner with Catherine, Paul, Keston, Jon and Greg. Once the pizza was eaten we (being Catherine, Jon, Travis, Keryn and myself) wrapped up and headed out to join the crowds walking to the stadium. There was quite a buzz and while it was cold and windy no one seemed to mind, the mood buoyant. Many people were dressed in white, a surprising number in boiler suits or coveralls.

Keryn and I had not been to an event in the Stadium before (the home show held in the concourse doesn’t count) and it was nice to see how minimal the fuss was getting past the gates and inside to our seats. We had good seats facing east pretty much in line with the 18 yard box for the home end in the first half. The good crowd mood continued inside the ground and the yellow seats of the stadium were soon enough almost gone behind a sea of white (with the occasional black) clothed people.

Westpac Stadium packed for the World Cup qualifier

The game itself was great, the crowd really getting into the spirit of things with chanting and the obligatory ohs and ahs whenever the ball went near a goal. Bahrain started the better team in both halves but after weathering the storm the All Whites came back into the game more assured and looking the more dangerous. The crowd quickly cottoned on to the Bahrain play acting; the first foul resulting in a Bahrain player writhing around on the ground only to spring up and race away as soon as the free kick was awarded.

The All Whites goal came after a period of pressure on the opposition goal, a number of corners coming across and finally the perfect ball meeting the rising head of Rory Fallon and flying into the net. The crowd went nuts and with only a few minutes until half time the atmosphere was perfect at the break.

Rory powers the ball home

There were anxious moments in the second half, especially when the All Whites conceded a penalty. Thankfully Mark Paston was up to saving the admittedly weak shot, another massive roar from the crowd and despair for the Bahrain team. The kiwis held on, near the end almost scoring again, and the referee called full time to send the All Whites on their way to the World Cup next year.

White is the new Black?

Sunday morning we took Travis out to Kaitoke for a short walk. The weather wasn’t the best but thankfully the rain stopped as we started walking. We had the track to ourselves (most people were probably drinking at Toast Martinborough) and the sun even came out a couple of times. At the end of the walk we went own to the river and watched some ducks and a solitary duckling searching for food at the waters edge, all very peaceful.

The Rivendell set for the Lord of the Rings movies was built around the bend of this river

Ducks of Kaitoke

Heading back towards Wellington we had some lunch at a bakery in Upper Hutt and then relaxed at home before heading into Wellington to meet Amanda and Jocelyn at the Parade Cafe. Jocelyn is getting married next year and Amanda had suggested I be considered as the photographer so we talked about requirements and also about Amanda’s forthcoming move up to Auckland.

With time to kill before Travis flew out we drove around Miramar and took photos at Hallswell Point and Seatoun with a flying visit to the Weta Cave (which I didn’t think would be open, but was) in between.

The Hallswell Point Lighthouse

The Seatoun Marine parade Wharf

Travis was dropped off and flew out safely and we went home to again relax and watch a movie. Another busy weekend completed in windy Wellington.

I didn’t get shortlisted for the Canon Photo5 contest. Oh well, never mind, better luck next year. You can see the shortlisted entries here:

Canon Photo5 2009 shortlist

Last night on Fair Go they had an item about photo copyright and talked about a woman who claimed to have found her photo plastered all over the Internet after having it printed as on canvas (implying without actually saying that the un-named company published the image onto a website somewhere). The show showed the image on a number of websites including one site where another person claimed to have taken the shot.

This is being discussed in one of the Flickr groups I frequent and people were pointing out that maybe the photo was taken by the person on the website. I looked at this, clicked a few links and have decided that he did take the photo. What this means for the Fair Go claims I’m not sure, but I’ve written them an email which I submitted last night (and various others have submitted comments to the Fair Go forum on the TVNZ website here: Fair Go forum). Here’s my message:

Hello,

It may be that others comment on your story last night about copyright and photography. In particular I'd like to comment on the case of the stolen photo and its appearance on American websites.

The story stated that Greta Ashton had one photo printed on canvas and then it started appearing online. You also said Greta took the photo two years ago.

Looking online at the site that you flashed on screen and doing some simple name searches it looks like the photo was in fact taken by the photographer who has claimed it is his, rather than Greta Ashton. Additionally, the photo has been online for more than three years, taken in February 2002.

Is this a case of mistaken photo identity? If you look some other sites by the American photographer Dan Bush here:

1 - Dan's portfolio: www.pbase.com/missouri_skies/portfolio
2 - Dan's Website: www.missouriskies.org/rainbow/february_rainbow_2006.html

You will see a number of his photos, he looks like a talented man. The 2nd link gives the story of how he took the photo and, significantly, shows a number of other photos from the same location, and a map section showing the location on Google maps. The location is certainlty not in New Zealand. More information on the photo can be found by examining the EXIF information embedded in the photo which includes the following information:

Model - NIKON D70
FocalLength - 10.50 mm
DateTimeOriginal - 2006:02:02 17:21:46

EXIF information CAN be modified but this all looks farely accurate for the photo. What camera does Greta claim to have used and what time does she say the photo was taken?

Personally I think there should be a follow-up story digging a little deeper. I have had photos taken and used without my permission in the past. I'd hate for someone to be accused of theft when they haven't done anything wrong, especially when they are in another country and don't have the chance to defend themselves.

Kind Regards,

Brendon Doran

For a long time now we had been planning to go camping last Friday. As it happened the weather forecast was really good and earlier in the week Keryn started sending me suggestions of things we could do. One of these suggestions was to visit Kapiti Island and it took me all of 10 minutes to read the suggestion, look it up and then book our boat and sign up for the required DOC permits.

I also emailed (well, Facebooked, is that a verb yet?) our friend Lydia to see if she wanted to come along. Lydia is a lady of leisure until the school term starts in January and as such has time on her hands. She agreed to come along as well.

Now, everyone knows I like taking photos and I carry a camera with me everywhere. On Thursday night this saw me taking photos from the roof terrace of a restaurant on Oriental Parade while a quite wonderful fireworks display took place. It looked like this:

Wellington Fireworks.

Upon getting home I downloaded the photos and started charging the batteries. I realised I had left the camera and batteries next to the computer the next morning as I bend down to look in my bag and found only sunglasses where the camera should have been. Damn.

So, for photos (and a description of the day) you’re going to have to look at Lydia’s blog which is here:

http://lydsadventures.blogspot.com/

The moral of this story: always take someone else with a camera with you when visiting islands covered in interesting birds.

We camped at Otaki Beach and managed to put our new tent up with a minimum of fuss. Dinner was fish and chips, sitting outside our tent on camp chairs with a cold beer (me) and cold cider (Keryn). We sat on a driftwood log and watched the sun setting, taking a break to go grab some ice-creams before returning to the beach and this time a more comfortable bench.

The tent came down the next morning with only a little fuss, though it doesn’t quite fit in it’s bag anymore. We took the advice of our neighbours and drove to Otaki Forks where we had a pleasant walk for an hour or so and then went back to Otaki for some retail time. We ended our trip with a drive around the Queen Elizabeth Park further south – looks like a nice spot for camping and BBQ in the future.