Over the Molesworth Station - Day 1

It's been a while since updated my blog.  I've been slowly working on my photos from overseas, and because my foot has been healing, I've not used my camera much lately.  However, when sorting out photos, I came across my Molesworth station two day trip and thought it about time I put these up.

The Molesworth Station is NZ's biggest working farm. It is very remote, very alpine and covers 1800km2. It's only open to the public over a short summer period for four wheel drive vehicles.  They are a business run farm, so over the winter period, cannot be rescuing people that aren't prepared, hence the short open season.

We left very early in the morning. I think it was before 5am.  Something that I'm definitely not used to! The first part of the drive was through farmland, and we didn't stop until nearly at the Molesworth.  Just a quick loo stop at the Hodder Bridge for a few quick photos...

After the Hodder Bridge, the sights started becoming really interesting.  Beautiful early morning light, and lush green valleys...

The mountain landscapes were so vast, I felt tiny. This is land where there are hardly any people.

I got Keith our driver, to stop here, as I loved the shadows of the clouds on the hills.

We arrived at the old cob cottage at morning tea time, where we had a hot drink and something to eat.  We explored a little.The cob cottage was built in 1865, and is now owned by the Historic Places Trust. Next to the cottage is a campsite so people can stay over. There's a long-drop toilet, and the water comes from the nearby stream.

Inside the cottage.  A place where once fires roared, and tales told after a day on the farm!

Blue Borage grew everywhere at this time of the year making pasture to be fields of blue rather than green.

After morning tea we kept driving through amazing countryside and besides beautiful rivers..

In the distance you can see the homestead where the current managers live...

The horses used for mustering are free to roam the farm when not in use.  They were a very curious lot... Posed for photos and stopped and chatted to us!

The mountains are amazing.  We had excellent weather, but apparently it can snow at anytime of the year.

The Blue Borage turns the pasture into a sea of purply blue.

Blue Borage apparently makes wonderful honey.  We saw the odd beehive...

 

And lots of bees - this one looks like it's using the flower as a tool!

Bridges are erected on the station just to get the cattle over rivers at mustering time.

We arrived at the Cob Cottage at the Acheron River and stopped to explore and have a late lunch. There is also a campsite here.

All very dilapidated and worn out...

Love the kitchen...

We arrived at Hanmer Springs late afternoon and had a very pleasant hot swim at the pools before dinner. A really excellent day.

Adding Textures to your Images

I've been having fun the last few weeks playing around with some of my images, adding textures to them in photoshop.  I've known about this technique for quite a while, but noticed that it's becoming more popular on photography sites such as Redbubble so decided to dabble. 

First thing I did was google for free textures.  I won't do this very often, I would much rather go around and photograph my own textures, however, with my foot still in my moon boot and too much time on my hands, it was easier this way for now.  I chose Anna Lenabem textures - I downloaded about 10 from her site in Flickr.  

I then took a photo I love, that I took in Morocco, however I had plans to do an HDR on it as it lacked a bit of what I call 'oomph'.  Instead I opened up the image in photoshop.  Then I opened up a Texture image, making sure it was exactly the same size in pixels as my original image.  In my case it is 5184 px by 3456 px, but you can check this by going to the Menu, then clicking Image Size from the drop down menu on your original image.

Make sure your image and texture are floating in the window, not tabulated up on the menu bar.  This makes for much easier moving around.

Then select the Texture and using the move tool (top arrow), move the textured image onto the original image.  Line it all up properly so you can't see the original image at all.  

Then in Layers, where it has 'normal', select the drop down menu and choose either Soft Light or Overlay.  You can use the Opacity slider until you get what you like.  Flatten the image and save.  That's the basic instructions, but of course you can do much more if you want to.  Experiment and have fun

The following images are of my experimentation of the Kasbah in Morocco.  Firstly - the Original image.  The bird is really there - I didn't notice it until I had it up on the computer - it was flying straight for me!

Overlaying and blended with  Texture from Anna Lenabem

The same again overlayed and blended with another texture from Anna Lenabem 

Another texture from Anna Lenabem

And my favourite texture from Anna Lenabem, which I have used twice so far in this one...

In all textures I've used, I have had to use the Hue/Saturation tool to bring down the yellow tones as they were a bit much.  Still I'm very very pleased with the result so far and am having loads of fun.  The favourite texture I also used on my New York City image.   This image was taken in 2006 on my first visit to NYC.  I was in a friends sports car and it was taken from out of her windscreen - a grab shot.  But there's no way I could get it by standing in the middle of the road!!  The first image is the original put through the HDR process to bring out the detail and colour.

The following image is the same one but with the perspective straightened and my favourite texture overlaid.  I really like the result.

I understand using textures is not for everyone.  There are many 'purists' out there who just want to see an image that is straight from the camera, but I like to think that using textures is being more creative.  Not all textures work either so experimentation is definitely the key to success.

I look forward to seeing yours - please link me if you do upload them anywhere.  Oh and leave me a comment to tell me which one you like and why.

Lastly, if you do use someone elses texture to make sure you credit them for their part of the job!

Storm Aftermath

Yesterday it rained all day.  That gentle rain that's so good for your garden and I was quite happy with it, as Blenheim can be on the dry side most of the time.

Then last night as I was watching the Olympics, I suddenly realised I couldn't hear the television as the rain had become so loud, and then I noticed my house shaking in the wind and I realised that a storm had developed outside.

I simply turned up the heat and ignored it.

I woke today to find everything a little sodden, and noticed that their were warnings in place where roads were closed!  At 4pm I decided to venture out with my camera to see for myself!  This is what I found...

You know that little ford that is always dry on Old Renwick Road?  That's the Omaka River which is completely dry 99.9% of the time.  When it's not dry, there's a little trickle of water.  I guess this is what happens when it rains heavily...

Highfield Winery - the vines were flooded.   And the road was closed.  The little one way bridges were on Dog Point Road were nearly underwater as well.

Here's the Omaka River in full flood.  At this point a motorist stopped me and said that I had the wrong equipment.  It was a Kayak I needed, not a camera!  Yeah right!

I then drove into town to take a look at the Taylor River by Raupo Cafe.  I've seen floods up here before in my 2.5 years I've been in Marlborough, but this is the highest I've seen it yet.  The little foot bridge is almost submerged.

And be very careful - it's very slippery down there when it's frosty!

No walking the dog along the pathways beside the river today...

And everywhere there were danger keep out signs!

There were a number of photographers about, and I got talking to one of them.  He told me the little footbridge is designed to float of it's foundations if the current of the river gets too great.  Then once the river goes down, a digger goes in and pops it back up again.  Interesting!

Despite the cold wind and rainy conditions, some hardy soul was still enjoying his pizza on the steps, while watching the water levels rise!

On the way home I stopped at the point where the river sometimes breaks its banks and flows over the road.

Guess a picnic on the picnic table is out of the question!

Apparently this isn't the worst Blenheim has had.  The Taylor Dam stops the Taylor River from getting really bad.  Although the Wairau breaks its banks every 20 years or so - the last time in 1983.

More rain is expected tonight!  I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

Rock the Wonder Dog and Mt Olympus Station

I had the opportunity to head up the Waihopai Valley to Mt Olympus station last week, bearing gifts of chocolate from San Francisco that a friend had sent out to Lynne Russell the owner, as a thank you for a visit a while back.  I love going out there.  There's nothing like getting away from the 'city' or 'town' to breathe fresh country air and feel space around you, and to see the animals and watch Lynne work with them is just lovely.

I'll introduce you to a few here..

First - meet Rock - the wonder dog who is a Border Collie extroadinaire. A few years ago, Rock started showing signs of a bad back.  It got to the stage where he could no longer jump into the back of the ute, or even work for any period of time and it was obvious he was in pain.  Off to the vet, where the vet thought with lack of movement, and the amount of pain Rock seemed to be in, that it was most likely cancer in the spine. He asked Lynne if she would like the dog put down as that seemed the most humane thing to do.

Lynne wasn't ready for that, she was very fond of the dog and said no, that as a dog owner and farmer she would take responsibility for it, so took the dog home laden with lots of pain killers for him.  After a couple of weeks, Rock was no better, in fact seemed considerably worse and miserable, so she decided that she had to do the humane thing and ease his suffering.

With tears running down her face, she took him into the barn, pointed a rifle just behind Rocks ear and shot him point blank range.

With a yelp Rock leapt up and jumped to the other side of the barn where he sat there panting.  Lynne waited for a few seconds expecting him to collapse and die as he should do, but he just sat there panting.  On investigation she found the bullet was a dud, it had gone off, and there was gunpowder all around his ear.  Yet it was obvious that he could now move freely and had no pain, and was eager to get back to work!!

Seems that the shock of the noise of the rifle gave Rock such a fright that when he leapt up, whatever was lodged in his spine was released and fixed the problem completely.  Rock went on to become one of Lynne's best herding dog.

She has other dogs being trained up to replace Rock now, as he is getting on slightly.  First - Sweep.

Sweep is a bit of a character - you ask him to smile and he does.  He's not sure of the clicking of the camera though.  But he did perform way up high on Mt Olympus for me and I caught his signature smile!

Then there's Mike..

He's a bit younger and is in training.  He's very very eager to work and takes off at the first whiff of a sheep! Great fun to watch.

Now meet the National Endurance champion horse for three years running.  Retired now and living the life of Riley on Mt Olympus...

Lynne then popped us into the four wheel drive and we headed up to the top of the Mountain.  We were on the lookout for falcons.  We were also testing out Lynn's new camera before she heads out overseas.  I lvoe the layers of the valleys and hills in the next photo.  This is about three quarters of the way up.

At the top - looking over to the chain of mountains known as the Inland Kaikouras.  You can tell winter is on the way because of the light dusting of snow on them! 

Looking down the other side to the Wairau Valley, and the Richmond Ranges.  In the middle of the image, you can see Mt Fishtail, which I can see from my lounge.  It's interesting getting a different perspective of it.

I thought the tussock grass was an interesting pattern.  Made from the sheep going through it and the wind.

After a hot cuppa back at the farmhouse, I started making my way back up the Waihopai Valley towards home.  I had to keep stopping to take photos as the late afternoon light was really gorgeous.  Here is the river with the winter willows reflected...  Autumn in this part was truly over..

I stopped outside the Benhopai Station.  They have some interesting buildings.  The big old barn...

And an old dilapidated cottage with the last of the afternoon sun on it.  I took a few shots on the road first, but then walked into the driveway and shot it a bit closer.

A closer shot with the shadows of the winter trees and the peeling paint.

As I left I took another shot of the big barn - which lost that light very soon afterwards..

As I left, I noticed that the sun was shining through the leaves of a tree that had still not quite lost all it's leaves.  Out came my macro lens.

At this stage I was wishing I had my tripod, but on opening the boot found that it was obviously still in the garage.  I could have kicked myself!

A tiny bit of silhouette around the leaves on this one makes it interesting too..

I could have stayed in this one place for ages.  There was so much I could have photographed, but the light was fading fast.  I made one more stop to photograph the birds on the wire.   Note the southerly storm gathering in the hills.  It bypassed Blenheim as it usually does and headed over to Wellington instead!

The reason I stopped for the above photo is this....  I have always wanted to copy a cartoon, but photographically, where it states that Wireless Technology ain't for the birds...

So this is my first attempt!  It needs a bit of work still - but I'm almost there!!

Yet another fantastic trip out to the station.  Thanks Lynne!

Silly Games

Human behaviour never ceases to amaze me.  It shouldn’t surprise me, as I’ve been around now for 50 years, and I shouldn’t expect adult behaviour from every adult.  But when bad, silly behaviour comes from supposed leaders of the Deaf community, it saddens me.  These people should actually know better.

It’s childish to defriend people from facebook suddenly, without reason.  It doesn’t give you any power.

It’s further childish to slander those people you have defriended when they can’t defend themselves.

Worse, it’s terrible to mislead others in the Deaf Community by not giving the full story, or full and correct information.  

It’s unethical to whisper in innuendos and open ended questions, open to anyone’s interpretation.

This is bully behaviour, like you expect in a school playground, not what you expect of people in leadership positions.

It’s time that this behaviour was stopped.  Deaf leaders have a responsibility to their community to lead by example, not picking on people without factual information.  They need to embrace positive causes instead of tarnishing projects negatively.

If you have questions about ethics or if you’re concerned about something, it’s far better to go to the source of the matter and ask the questions straight.  If you are still unsure, you can seek legal advice, but remember this; the law states very clearly that a person is innocent until proven guilty not the other way around.  Any written word on the contrary is harmful, and can be proven as slander.

The Deaf community can only grow and prosper when these types of behaviours are stopped.