Archives for posts with tag: photography
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Cancelled outing

October 13, 2012 //
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The past week we had the most beautiful spring weather and I had promised to take Devil down to the boat ramp today, to catch a little sun and talk our puppet workshop through. For us humans it’s a little trip, just across the road and down a tiny lane and we are there. But for Devil it is a huge event.

Would you believe it? Every day this week I woke up to the sound of singing Tuis. Sadly, today it was the sound of pounding rain. First I thought Devil had his hand in it, but when I spotted him kneeling on the sofa gazing into the grey yonder I changed my mind. He is truly upset. He was all dressed for the outing. (As you might know, the Dedes have only five dresses and he had booked one of them as soon as I had told him my plans).

I had a hard time consoling him. As we say in German “Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben”. It means the trip is only postponed, not cancelled.

I do have an ulterior motive for the outing. I have to talk to him about how I should go about running the workshop. How shall I start the session? I am not sure if I should introduce the puppets by their name and character (as on the character page) or whether the participants of the workshop should come up with names and traits for the puppets they adopt for the session. What do you think?

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Photography

What is old age?

October 8, 2012 //
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I read a disturbing article. It wasn’t really an article, but a profiling piece by a German foundation that helps older women to find jobs.  It said that women over 50 have a hard time finding  jobs when they become unemployed (I think for men it is not that easy either). I have heard this before from other sources but thought it was scare-mongering. I find it hard to believe that a society can discard such a large group and valuable resource by making 50 the cut-off point for participation in working life. When I was still living there, Germany didn’t have a huge culture of volunteer work either. So what are you doing when you are over 50 there? Is it really old age? Do you really have to start preparing for retirement? S-c-a-r-y!

It slowly dawns on me there is no way I could go back to Germany, even if I wanted to. This door is firmly closed. There is, however, this other interesting research I read a while ago, and it has stuck to my mind: In old age, you revert back to your first language, as you will loose the ability to speak your second language. I think old age might become very frustrating for me. Ah well, I always can talk to my puppets!

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Categories Art, Life, Photography, Relationships

Two hundred

October 7, 2012 //
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It is my two hundredth post today. Time to reflect on what I am doing here :).

In my self-experiment, I have come to the conclusion that, yes, the blog sphere is a parallel world. It magnifies what happens in the real world. One can potentially connect with everybody, but connections are still based on chance encounters. Not unlike going to a bar and starting a conversation with the person standing right next to you. You can have a brief chat, a lovely all-evening conversation and that is it – or if you like the person very much you can even meet again and become friends. But like in real life a solid connection takes time and effort.

I am a bit of a fossil. I love to have long and meaningful conversations and I treasure the luxury of time to process the given information. In the parallel world I am struggling with this valuable commodity of time. I  read heaps of  interesting snippets, but often I have the feeling I can’t process them correctly.

It is a cycle of  taking in, taking in, taking in…. alert, alert, information overload… Crash! Reboot… Maybe I need a new operating system!

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

End of Silence

October 6, 2012 //
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Silent week is over. I thoroughly enjoyed choosing  the black and white images for my blog and I might continue with it for a while.  The image today was taken on Coromandel peninsula. You might have noticed that many of my images show deserted places and low clouds. It is not a feature I am searching for, it is just sooo New Zealand. In Maori the land is called Aotearoa, which means “land of the long white cloud”.  When there is a thick layer of fluffy sheep clouds I often have the feeling of being under a lid in a huge toy world.

In real life, the production of puppets has slowed right down as life has taken over, but I am slowly getting back into the right mind-set. My next two projects are a puppeteering workshop with the Older Women Network in Auckland early next month, and I am also working on an exhibition of puppets. The exhibition is firmed up in my head and I now have to find a venue.

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Categories Art, Hand Puppets, Life, Photography

Black & White Week

September 29, 2012 //
2

This week will be  Black & White Week on my blog. I will even go one step further and make it Silent Week as in Silent Movie. Let the pictures do the talking! No twittering from me :). If anybody has a comment, I will of course reply.

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

Sunday in Munich

September 27, 2012 //
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On Tuesday I had to take some pictures at a gathering for one of my clients. That is something I usually don’t do. I don’t like to take images of people I don’t know. I always have the feeling that I am intruding and stealing their soul. It was a business meeting and it was surprisingly easy (I am not saying there were no souls to steal). On my way home I tried to remember any images I had taken showing strangers from the front, apart from the two tourists I posted earlier this week. My thing (when I photograph people) is to take images of everyday solitairy situations. Usually it is just  me with my (rather large) camera  and the other person on the scene. It’s very unlikely the other person doesn’t notice what I am up to.

Yesterday I sifted through old photographs and I found this one taken at the Viktualienmarkt in Munich. The Viktualienmarkt is a permanent farmer’s market dating back to the 1800’s. It is located wham bang  in the middle of town, only a few paces from the Townhall.  You can get all sorts of edible treasures here and the place is usually hustling and bustling during the opening hours. But Sunday is still a day of rest, so I must have taken this image on a Sunday in winter (as there are no leaves on the trees). In Winter the market opens when it is still dark and closes after night has fallen again.

This is something I easily could do without: Sunday trading. Even though I am not a religious person, I believe there is a good reason to have one day of rest in the week. It is a day when the entire family can do an activity together. Some sort of pastime that excludes shopping. I think Sunday trading has a lot to answer for in regards to the disintegration of family values.

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

On the way

September 5, 2012 //
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We had a visitor for a few weeks who is leaving today. We were supposed to travel around much more than we did. Never mind! You can see a lot of the country from the car, just passing by.  Here a few impressions I took on the way up to the North. I love to see the country flying by. I certainly have to get out more. That’s my resolution for the next few month…. summer is on its way too :)

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Categories Art, Photography

Scenery

August 31, 2012 //
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This is an image of the Hokianga Harbour taken last weekend. Yes, we do have an amazing scenery in New Zealand – It is particularly pretty when the sun is shining :) Hope the weather lasts over the next weekend.

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

Winter blues

August 11, 2012 //
2

Oh, this winter is starting to get to me. It is raining, raining, raining. Alright, this is not quite true. In the morning when I make breakfast it looks like a really nice day, but by the time I’ve finished the clouds are back and it is raining again. The light is dull and grey.

I come from a cold winter country, with thick layers of snow, but I was never this cold in Germany. The houses there are well insulated. In New Zealand insulation is just starting to become more widespread. Old men walk down the road in the middle of winter in shorts and gum boots. Okay, the temperatures are generally above freezing point in Auckland, but they must be measuring it in wind-still corners. There is nothing between here and Antarctica and blasts from the South can freeze the proverbial off a brass monkey.

Thankfully the worst of winter lasts only a month or so. So it should be over soon. My magnolia tree already has buds, the first sign of spring. Hurrah.

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Categories Art, Life, Photography

Devil’s home

August 10, 2012 //
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I find it difficult to capture the essence of the thermal fields. Disappointingly, the resulting images look like proof of a very careless industrial site. Something you could take to the environment court to get the place shut down. But it is all natural and just a reminder that we are only here as guests. Nature has its own mind!

Places like this must have inspired all the stories about the Devil being smelly and appearing in a cloud of smoke. It is very eerie. I am sure he lives somewhere around here.

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Categories Art, Photography
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