A lovely day on Oriental Parade beach

This morning I woke up and thought 'I should make a piece of art today' knowing it would make me happy :)  Having recently watched some great instructions on how to create watercolour paintings in Photoshop I did some experimenting. 

The original photo was taken on a lovely autumn afternoon on the Wellington waterfront. Frank was skate boarding while I wandered down on the beach camera in hand.  It was delightful on the beach that day and so lovely to see karoro gulls chilling out, bobbing around gently in the shallow clear water with the famous fountain spraying water far in the air way in the distance.

I liked how this brush combination made lines like a coloured pencil drawing or etching as Al suggested.  Feel free to click on the image as it's best viewed large!


Such fun! I look forward to the next creation.

Storm brewing; the urban view

These clouds were like a little slice of magic. 

It was a wonderful day of watching them. 

They rolled through menacing

as if they would break

into a thunderstorm any moment.

Masking the sun then giving her back

for a few minutes at a time.

We basked in the semi tropics

enjoying the tepid temptation.

Jumping into the warm salty pool

when the clouds finally broke.

Fat droplets made pretty sploshes

when they hit the rippling surface.

Fun times were had in that Ponsonby pool.

While the clouds pretended to crackle

but only twice broke into thunder.

Not praying mantis

This tiny praying mantis was hanging out on the table outside at our friend’s house. To ensure his longevity I decided to move him to a safer place in the trees. When I put my hand out he happily walked on and of course photos had to be taken (which weren't entirely easy with only one hand available!). 

I was blown away with his amazing movements which were also rather entertaining. He started on a walk up my arm, stopping for a quick prayer then some crazy head twisting. I’m pretty sure it turned 180° for cleaning (I think) or maybe he just enjoy contorting his body! In one photo he is barely recognisable as a praying mantis. 


When I went to put him on a tree he wasn't terribly happy to go. After I had encouraged him to get on the plant he stretched out towards me almost like he didn’t want me to go. So I put my hand out again and what do you know he leapt back onto me. I had a new friend! And I found out that praying mantis can jump.

Eventually I had to socialise with humans so found another tree and encouraged him to alight again then wished him a fond farewell.  Feeling uplifted by the experience.

Enjoying this as my desktop background

The wonderful vista looking west from the summit of Takaka hill. 

Yummy recipe

YUM! Thanks Mum :)

Sylvie doodle with a dash of Photocandy

Our good friends have a beautiful cat named Sylvie. She has a gorgeous tabby coat with beautiful black eyeliner and the most amazing ear whiskers I've ever seen, they are so long they curl back behind her ears, just one long white whisker in each ear. She's a very sweet and cute cat who loves to chase a piece of grass around.

Photo candy app

Zen habits; enjoy the mist ...

More excellent advice from LEO BABAUTA
Zen Habits - Why We Struggle with Change

Such a fun night I can't believe it's a year ago already!

That's 3x me playing with pod poi play in the lounge at Jon & Bigi's summer party.  Thanks to Andrew for the photos.

Wellington Railway Station

Trusty old Railway Station. Central Wellington.  Such a grand old beauty she is!

Who knows if it's true but it could be :)

Happy new year everyone!

Apologies for the shakes!

Catching up with cousin Tony

Always a good giggle to be had hanging out with Tony, he's a legend. I'm super impressed to snap a pic of him looking normal, this is highly unusual!

Oh that made me jump!

Geez only 4.4 that's tiny, Cantabrian's would scoff at my sensitivity!

Standing on the beach thinking

Whangamata beach cropped with a dash of the oil painting filter in photoshop with masking of the people.

Title is an ode to Jane's Addiction as Danny nicely pointed out!

A few reminders of India 8 years ago

What a wonderful adventure generously sprinkled with amazing eye opening moments! Lucky me.

Double exposure exposure!

Just bought Eugene designs double exposure action set. What fun awaits creating and evolving with these new tools. Day one work in progress ...

Funny cause it's true ...

Idiots animation.
So very clever, clean, transfixing and rather amusing.  Great work by BLR

Vadim Tereshchenko's awesome timelapse

Slim Shady

Two guys on one guitar do a cover of Eminem's The Real Slim Shady
Wow what a great beatbox with an awesome interpretation of the lyrics and all while they seamlessly share a guitar. Such talent and inspiration!  
I couldn't help but move to the beat & have a big smile on my dial. 

Ligar Bay panorama

Poor old seagull lost his head flying into the in-camera panorama

White Noise by Seraphine Pick

Cruised down to the Dowse Art Museum for Seraphine Pick's beautifully curated exhibition.  I found the artworks stirred emotions, they are beautiful and so cleverly put together. Below are just a few of the paintings on display although the photos don't do them justice!

Everything old is new again - oil on linen

Torn up Phrases - oil on linen

White Noise - oil on linen

Pocket full of rainbows

Easy living I & II

Latest artwork on Society 6

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Oriental Parade artwork

I've just added this little gem on Society 6. 
Oil painted Oriental Parade, Wellington.

Mist in the morning valley

Cloudy waves

Time lapse at the airport

So I was playing with the movie settings and accidentally turned this one black and white which is a bit of a pity as I rather liked the changing blue sky.  Anyway, here's a 29 second time lapse over approximately one hour from the 8th floor of a Sydney airport hotel.  I'm now even more amazed at the logistics it takes to have this mini city running so efficiently.  
Sydney airport time lapse

Pattern translation

The pretty patterned steps of Wat Arun played tricks with my eyes in the thumbnail so had to be exposed.

Photofriday collection

This little image nut has been posting photos to Photofriday for years.  Realising it would be nice to see them in together imajanes Photofriday blog was curated.  Bringing together photos of a different theme each week makes for an eclectic collection.

The late starter ...

Took a while but finally got started on instagram.  Uh Oh ... another way to lose hours surveying the wonders of others lives & views. Great to see so much creativity, image manipulation & aesthetically pleasing collections of light. And then there's all the wonderful connections to old and new friends, yay.  

A wonderful inspiring story

Father recreates photos of trailblazers with his daughter

Congratulations bro you've done it again!

Great to see another of Sean's stories has been published Concentration in Landfall