going round in circles - no beast from the east down here

As you know, I am in Oamaru, working for a couple of months to escape the beast from the east and the dark nights that winter brings.

Since I arrived in the town I have been going around in circles trying to think of something interesting to post.

I have been working quite hard, and taking a few bruising comments from folks who don't think that a female from up-top is a good enough replacement for the man that they have been trusting their problems to for many years. The disappointment is clear on their faces when they discover that their beloved MJ is not here today. And then I have to work extra hard at being nice to try and gain their trust.

So the ocean is a welcome relief from work, and I have set myself a task to photograph the Pacific from the same point every day during my lunch break.

This involves a 10 minute walk down a steep hill, a few minutes to take the photos, and then a very steep walk back up. It is keeping me fit after sitting on my butt all morning in front of my computer.

Circles are my favourite thing right now, so I am choosing one image each day to make into a circular image. When I have enough I will find a way to present them - maybe a giant grid, a series or a book.

I should really capture sunrise, as I am sure that would be more colourful, but I am not committed enough for that.

I enjoy the ever changing colours.

Blue skies and grey.

lunch break, Oamaru

Sunshine and cloud.

evening, Oamaru pier

The occasional evening shot just because the light is different.

Gita, Oamaru

We even had a storm.

Not the beast from the east, but anticyclone Gita.

The ocean reflecting the colours of the sky.

Oamaru pier

Back at home, OH ( my other half) is lighting a log fire and turning up the heating to a level that would keep me awake at night if I were at home.

Everyone is posting images of snow on social media, and the M80 is apparently closed, with folk trapped in vehicles.

I feel far removed.

I am not sure what images I am going to come home with, for I haven't settled into a project.

So I will just keep on running up and down the hill, and will come home with far too many photographs of waves and water.

Pacific

the sun always shines

I am in Vancouver.

It rains a lot here, so I have resorted to making work from above the clouds where the sun always shines.

So much more colourful than grey.

People here compensate for the weather by doing lots and lots of yoga, dressed in very colourful, fancy fitness gear.

If  you can't beat them, join them.

I was wearing some very old M&S leggings and T-shirt in black and navy. And my water bottle was PLASTIC. OMG. I hardly dared use it. No one would know that I refill it with tap water.

I have experienced chalk and cheese in my two exercise classes. One was a boot camp that nearly killed me, and was run by a guy who fancied himself as a drill sergeant. He made us chant about our pelvic floors and pretend we weren't going to poop on an imaginary small dog whilst doing about one thousand arm exercises.

Suffice to say that he and I did not hit it off. He threatened to write my name down in his little black book. I really didn't care whether he did or not. I never learned his name.

The other was a warm and friendly Hatha yoga class, with cushions for my sore knees, and some relaxing music. Rachel said 'hello' to everyone and had a beautiful smile.

I know which one I will return to when the sun is still not shining.

Waiting...............for the rain to stop.............photography in Iceland

on the road in Iceland.......at the filling station

Here I am in iceland again, hoping for some snow and ice.

It seems that I will need to be patient, as it hasn't stopped raining for more than a few minutes in the last 24 hours, and the snow and ice is high on the hills in the central highlands where we cannot go. It feels rather like being in Scotland on a bad day. The group I am with are mostly male, which means that I can't pass the time discussing the merits of the latest Prada handbag or this spring's Jimmy Choo's. Instead we have the merits of D800 versus 1D, large format versus digital, and last night the chemical structure of ergotamine complete with 3-D images of the molecule rotating beautifully in space on an iPad.

Having had 88mm of rain overnight, we set off Eastwards from our hotel in Ger∂i ( just got lucky with the ∂ by pressing alt-d). Icelandic is a challenging language, with many new sounds and rules, which I am failing to master.

Suffice it to say that it rained ALL day. Not light rain , but the serious stuff that causes rivers to swell and  fields to flood.

Meanwhile back in the UK I hear it is freezing and there is snow on the ground.


Such is life. Here is has not gone below 7-8 degrees centigrade since I arrived.

driving in the rain 

The only dry places were service stations and cafes, so the day was spent driving from one cafe to another, stopping at locations along the way to test the weather and confirm that it really was too wet to take pictures.

But we did find a great little book in the petrol station called 50 crazy things to do in iceland. One recommended activity was to 'challenge your driving skills', which we felt was appropriate for the weather, but perhaps a little too crazy for a minibus containing real people........

am wondering what the text suggests here..........

More appropriate would probably be the mud bathing option.

much more appealing than overturning the vehicle

Earlier in the day we had been discussing Gursky's photograph of the river, that earned him enormous sums of money.

I took a photograph of some items in the shop and was accused of copying Gursky's images of shop displays. Given that no photographic idea that I ever come up with is likely to be  a new idea, this doesn't worry me too much. I can simply say that  I am aware of my influences.

I was attracted to the 'cockpit cleaner'.

It seems that drivers in Iceland hanker after being aeroplane pilots.

cockpit cleaner

We continued eastwards to Stokksnes, to the wonderful black sandy beach with dunes.

It was raining there too.

Stokksnes © Caroline Fraser

This picture is a colour image. It was a very moody grey day.  I enjoyed the wind and the rain, and just being there again. I snapped a few shots with my tiniest camera, with my hand over the lens to keep the rain drops off.

Then back to Jokulsarlon to the glacial lagoon, which frankly looks a bit of a mess right now , with lots of flat melting fragments of ice. The fragments are all washing up onto the beach in their hundreds, so when the rain stops we will be down there for some joyful ice photography.

But for now the only option was another cup of tea.

Cafe, Jokulsarlon © Caroline Fraser

working with the weather

Today I have to get on with taking some photos. I have two plans for the day, neither of which I can currently execute because the weather is wrong; I want to try a collage of some houses in my road, but would like a little bright light. Failing that I really want to try getting some more shots in the rain, but the forecast today is for high pressure. Such is life; I also tried to get a video of the dog speed-eating her breakfast, but the camera was cold from being in the car, and steamed up at the critical moments; will try again , but sadly can't give the dog two breakfasts!

Having been to Andrew Watson's talk on Monday about the Segsbury Camp project, I now understand why he mentioned researching glue when I mentioned my interest in collage; he has been there and done that. I could, of course, create digital collages, and there are even websites that will create a Hockney polaroid effect for free on any image that you choose, but having tried it on a couple of photos decided that there was no creative control whatsoever.  Andrew's work with an archeological site involved using a camera on a pole taking aerial views of the ground, something that has also been done to good effect by Andreas Gefeller in his studies of empty buildings in Japan and Dusseldorf. Both photographers have used extremely methodical techniques to create exact plans of the ground; my plan is to be less mathematical and possibly to experiment with scale on a vertical and horizontal plane.

I was amused to see that Andrew's work was displayed in large plan chests, in a similar way to work that I didn't understand at Elusive. This confirms for me the importance of understanding the intention and background of the work; Andrew's use of chests seemed entirely appropriate and practical, in allowing the viewer to get really close to the images despite the entire work being enormous. If I had been asked to look at them without knowing anything of how or why they were there I would probably have passed them by.

www.arch.ox.ac.uk/segsbury-camp.html

 www.andreasgefeller.com/supervisions/works_since_2005