Cuba Street in Wellington is pretty Iconic. Cuba Street is where the cool people go, the bearded hipsters, the fashionable in mind and spirit. The wannabe’s and the once were. The right on, right now and the faded jadeds. The tattooed ladies and the skater boys. Cuba Street is a place of street food, expensive food and retro shopping. Vinyl records and vinyl furniture, probably. Quirky things on the street and in the shops. Cuba Street is colourful. I decided to spend a morning taking photos in Cuba Street. This is the work of one hour, one morning. This Sunday Morning in March.
There are many photos and (almost) no captions. Sometimes images speak for themselves.
That’s Callum, this isn’t Cuba Street, but is in Glover Park. Glover Park is just round the corner from Cuba Street. So almost Cuba StreetAlso not actually in Cuba Street, but nearby in Glover Park
OK, this isn’t in Cuba Street. This is Berhampore. But it’s very colourful.
For the sake of clarity, I don’t surf. I don’t even swim in the sea. I know that if I do I’ll be eaten by a Great White Shark immediately upon entering the water. People might say that’s a phobia. I however know I simply have a rational fear of a dangerous predator. That aside, I love the sea and love being near the sea. I also like photographing sports. I’ve decided one of my favourite sports to photograph is surfing. So here are some surfing photos. All of these were taken in Houghton Bay which is just 15 minutes or so from the Wellington CBD on the South Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Hence the title City Surfers. I’m not going to write captions for the photos because that would be superfluous. I hope you enjoy the images.
While I usually take photos of the great New Zealandness of New Zealand, or travel photos, or NZ Native birds, or sports. Lately I’ve been trying to see art in other things, trying to take photos you might describe as ‘Abstract’. I’m sure there is a definition somewhere. I looked up Abstract on the internet and hopefully most of these images fit that description. You tell me. Here I’m trying to see art in the everyday or the unusual. Sometimes you have to look twice, and in a different way, to see a potentially artistic photo where you might not have thought any sort of intriguing image was on offer.
Art?
Infrastructure AwaitingLadderTate Modern, The OutsideBlue Chair3 flatsContained.Out Of Service.The Other Side Of The Fence.Cruise Ship Inmates.Closed.Space Age.
Art, Abstract? I don’t mind what you call it, It’s good to step outside your comfort zone sometimes. I think I’ll do it more often.
I also photograph our beautiful native birds, there will be a bias towards the Tui, because it’s my favourite New Zealand bird. Enough words, now the birds…
Robin, yes we have our own Robin, a couple of different kinds.Bellbird.Kea.Kereru, or New Zealand Pigeon.Reef Heron, quite rare.Shearwater.Royal Spoonbill and Pied StiltTuiTui leaving.Tui, leaving again.New Zealand Falcon.Tui.Giant Petrel.Takahe.Royal Spoonbill.Kotuku, or White Heron.Kotuku.KotukuKaka
I was looking at my photography blog and realised I hadn’t put a post up for a while. I was also considering the rubbish weather we have had over the past few weeks. I seem to remember the sun coming out, and staying out all day one Saturday.
For no good reason I decided to create a new post about one of our most iconic mountains. I titled this ‘The Lonely Mountain’ because Mt Taranaki occupies a place all by itself, far from other mountains. There is a Maori legend you might like to look up about how Mt Taranaki got all the way over to where it is, so far from the other large Volcanoes in the North Island. Mt Taranaki is actually a live volcano but it’s last activity was in 1860. It’s a pleasingly symmetrical mountain.
A nice photo of some Geese and Ducks in Lake Mangamahoe, with extra Mountain for effect.The Te Rewa Rewa Bridge is quite famous for looking like a Whale’s skeleton or something.On a clear night you can see for miles. About 200 kilometres in this instance as this image of Mt Taranaki was taken from the Central Plateau.Sheep, relaxing.Road trip, the road less travelled.Like the earlier photo of Mt Taranaki really far away, this is farther. About 230 kilometres from Himatangi Beach.They don’t make that anymore.Cardiff. True story, not the Welsh Cardiff though.Cloudy coolness.That’s also really far away. I just can’t remember where from.Tree weirdness.Pastoral, volcanic.Looks like Kilimanjaro.I like a nice barn in my photos.Hey, Hay!Hydrangeas but not in anyones garden. Opunake side.Red barns are best.
So there you go. Epic Symmetrical live volcano, all by itself in Taranaki. Mt ‘Naki, as I like to call it, which is probably frowned upon by those who value pronouncing things properly, is mostly covered in cloud, so this lot took a while to accumulate. The mountain actually makes it’s own clouds. You’ll see that happening while you are driving around looking for a good place to take it’s picture.
I recently had to return to England over Christmas, I say had to, I was happy to go of course. It’s been over 3 years since I returned home to New Zealand from my 20 plus years living in England. I was interested to see how it would look as a visitor, rather than a resident. I took my camera. What England mostly looked like, was foggy, although we did have a sunny day, so that was nice. Images in no particular order.
St Paul’s with Blitz memorial statue.Looks like a Russians outing. Not sure it isn’t.Corner of Frith and Old Compton Street in Soho. Spent many good nights round here.Standing on top of the Tate Modern Art Gallery. I decided to try my hand at making some modern art, I didn’t have any crayons though, so I used my camera. I expect the Tate Modern will be in touch any day to ask if they can hang this in the foyer of the gallery.People having a modern art moment in the boiler room of the Tate Modern.Oxford Street. Quiet.Putting it on…River crossing, foot bridge.Looking West up the Thames.Like I said, foggy.The Tower.Man blowing fire out of his Tuba, as one does.Air traffic over Big Ben.Bath, foggy.I got up at Sparrow fart to have a poke about in this cemetery in Bath.Old, early.I was taking a photo of this characterful book shop when some urchin parked their bike in my shot.Liz and Phil’s, they’re not home.Castle Coombe, no racing in this bit.Them next door…I believe the four legs on the plinth means something, don’t know who he is either. Above Horse Guards parade ground.Highbury Fields, on the sunny day.London, not Moscow. St James’s park.Horses ready.Who doesn’t like a nice ornate building. This is Horse Guards parade ground in front. History fans will know what that building is.Route Master. Old Skool.Horse Guards.
So not the usual touristy shots perhaps. It’s actually quite hard to take a photo a bit different to what is obviously on offer and on a million postcards. My lingering impression of my revisit to England though was that I’m very pleased I live in New Zealand. It’s good to be home.
Once upon a time. I spent a lot of time out and about before and during the sunrise. I should do that more often.
State Highway One in the Rangitikei, from Leedstown Road. Most people don’t know where that is.Halcombe cows don’t care about the sun coming up.Shed, early.Road to nowhere, literally.June the 6th.Same place, different day.I love Kawau Bay.Once again, Kawau Bay, different day. Place of contrasts and all thatYou know the phrase ‘red sky in the morning’? Well this is an epic warning.The sunrise was so awesome, even the seagull stopped to watchLow fog, or mist, or whatever. Creeping over a farm fence. Manawatu.
Get up early. Sunrise is often way cooler than sunset.
We had a big earthquake recently. Bigger in the South than it was in the North, but big none the less. There are many buildings in Wellington still closed, cordoned off and some to be demolished. Big buildings. We also had a Tsunami warning. So I thought I’d go and take some photos of the capital city before it gets destroyed in the next big earthquake and washed away in the following Tsunami. You know, for the archives. I took an eclectic mix of photos, not the stuff people usually photograph in Wellington. It is quite a diverse, colourful and interesting place. See? Due to the number of photos, I’ve gone for the ’tiled mosaic look. Welcome to Wellington.
In New Zealand, as I believe they do in some other places, we refer to the big city as ‘The Big Smoke’. Auckland is the nearest thing we have to a big city, however it’s not very big and is more like a collection of villages. The population of Auckland is about 1.4 Million which is a big chunk of our total population of around 4.4 Million. New Zealand is quite empty of people. I have attempted to convey that by photographing some parts the inner city of our largest city. The Auckland CBD between 8.30 and 9.30am on a Saturday morning. Plus some other bits during the day.
No SmokingWalk on byNo ParkingClosedBelgian beer at the Occidental, the pub was built by an American sailor.No horsesTiledArcadeArt houseOpen soonNo books here todayFeeding winged rats at Wynard Quarter.Smoko break, probably.The Wharf bit of North Wharf.Queen Street, Auckland City.Apartments and Sky towerPonsonby Road.The Esplanade, I once won a surfing competition in there.Mt Eden Road, Mt Eden Village, 8:30am, Sunday Morning.Looking the other way, towards the cityMt Eden art stuffParis, Mt Eden.Busy Saturday at the beachBoat sheds beside Tamaki Drive.City Skyline, from Stanley Bay.The view rich people on Paraitai Drive have.
I’ve lived in Wellington for about 6 months now, it’s not the first time I’ve lived here. Last time I lived in Wellington in 1990, was for about 6 months. That’s not to suggest it’s time to leave though. Not a bit of it. Not yet anyway. A selection of random shots from around Wellington, not so much in Wellington, as around it.
Erskine College, Island Bay. Derelict old convent school, probably haunted.Winter in Island Bay. I live in Island Bay so you may experience a bias in these photosSunset in Island Bay, see? Bias.That Island is called Tapu te Tanga. It’s in Island Bay.That’s the way in to Wellington Harbour. If you come by boat that is.Surfer dudes at Titahi Bay.Wellington from Wrights Hill, long exposure to get that cool line of light thing on the motorway from the Hutt Valley.Oh look, it’s Island Bay again. Actually this is Houghton Bay, the next bay along.Cool clouds above Owhiro Bay. The Kaikoura Ranges in the distance, 200 kilometres distant.Pauatahanui, Porirua Harbour, Not many Paua in there though I reckon.Pencarrow Lighthouses at the Wellington Harbour Entrance, for when one Lighthouse isn’t enough.Pilot boat escorting a container ship out of Wellington.Cool Sunset clouds above Makara, making the huge wind turbines look puny.Sea thing. Karaka BayBoat shed thing in Lowry Bay. Hasn’t stored any boats for a while. Not sure what it’s for now.Chopper dude, Lyall Bay. Probably reading ‘Zen And The Art Of Bicycle Maintenance’.Tararua Ranges above the Hutt Valley. Taken from Oriental Bay.Those rocks are really big. This was the day after the ‘Great Storm’. I call all good storms, the ‘Great Storm’. It amuses me.The Interislander ferry heading for the South Island. I take this boat every month. There and back, obviously. Otherwise I’d live in the South Island now.Wavey.Kite Surfer in Lyall Bay. Good and windy.Two things, Air New Zealand didn’t crash into the hill and the sea is full of Dolphins, Lyall Bay.Colourful, in Lyall Bay.He survived, so did his cell phone. He actually ran away. I also have a photo of that.I believe those shed are empty and the land soon to be used for something more modern. Flash apartments would be best. Wait and see.OK, so this could be anywhere of course, but this cool surf shot was taken by me in Wellington. Houghton Bay to be precise. That’s a Nor’Wester blowing above Wrights Hill at Sunset. Windy Welly.Miramar Peninsula, in the mid-ground.Oriental Bay, people walk along the waterfront there, or run in colour co-ordinated lycra wearing headphones carrying an unnecessary water bottle.The Road to nowhere, one of those ‘there and back’ sort of roads.Like everyone, I love a brightly coloured boat shedSpring, Princess Bay. Pretty.Boat shed in Ivey Bay, Paremata. Actually many boat sheds. Just that one is more obvious.The Classic Cable Car shot, you can buy a postcard just like this one.
So there you go. There’s much more to Wellington of course. But I’ve had enough of thinking up things to write in captions now. You could always visit and see for your self.
Sandy's Views - Photography 