Lake Tekapo at last

Our late Saturday starts are getting earlier as the days lengthen...by 7 am I was all done with sleeping in. We took the boys to Caroline Bay park where they had a jolly time going as fast as they could on the roundabouts and other equipment. Blech...We were heading home around 10 but didn't want the day to waft - we had no other plans and so decided rather spontaneously to visit Lake Tekapo. We had never been and were starting to feel embarrassed at people's reactions to our 'no' answer of whether we had been there. Turns out it's not that far away at all - for Joburgers, it's just a little more than a trip to Pretoria but through way prettier landscape! The lake itself is beautiful - an unbelievably turquoise colour with a rocky bed and very clear, clean water, surrounded by the Southern Alps which are still partially snow-covered. The mountains seemed to want to shout about God's majesty and grandeur! The little historical church below is apparently one of the most photographed churches in the world.We took a picnic lunch which we shared with ducks and seagulls who are obviously very used to food-bearing tourists; Nick and the boys played a bit of football. After lunch we drove the 4 ks to Mount John Observatory which is way high and has a 360 degree view of the lake and surrounding mountains. It was cold and windy enough to knock the snot right out of me (I confess that this is a literal statement...I just couldn't sniff fast enough). The boys got out the car just long enough to feel the left-over snow which was icy and ... wait for it ... cold. But mostly it was windy. The car was rocking and I was nervous, but enough St Helena driving had Nick well prepared for the descent. After the observatory we stopped in at the hotpools and ice arena. At $11 each we decided not to let the boys have a go! First time we'd seen an outdoor arena though. It runs from mid-April to mid-September so I guess it should have closed for the summer already, but perhaps it's been cold enough to prolong the fun. Looks like it's nearing the end though as parts of the arena were very sludgy; a fall meant completely soaked jeans for one unfortunate lady!

Chocolate for meals

Nick and the boys helped me with Meals-on-Wheels today...I was glad not to have to do it alone. After his late night at the bakery Nick was a bit out of it but so long as I navigated and pointed him in the right direction, it was all okay. The boys did the actual deliveries; the elderly folk who received the meals just loved their fresh young faces and two old ladies bestowed gifts of chocolate on them. I think they will have good memories of Meals-on-Wheels - should be easy to get them involved again next year when our church takes its annual duty! Bronwyn had enlisted me and my camera to get a few pics of Jesse before his big school ball; his buddy April had come down from Christchurch for the occasion and they made a fine-looking pair (in the platonic sense) in their formal attire.

School, homeschool, deliveries, shopping, school...rest!

When I started doing Bible-in-Schools earlier this year, I thought I was doing it to be a blessing. I had no idea what a blessing it would be for me...but isn't ministry so often like that?! I just love my class of bright, shiny faces and their eager questions. The curriculum does not dance around the outskirts of the gospel - it takes the kids right into the heart of the matter, that salvation is found in Christ alone and that we can enter into a 'friendship' with God through Jesus. And all this while still being careful not to be offensive in case the whole program is thrown out of the school. We must be wise as serpents and gentle as doves!
At 11.30 Bronwyn and I had our second attempt at Meals on Wheels and this time all the little containers were waiting for us (last week there was some sort of muddle-up and we were not needed). Did the 11 stops in about 45 minutes with Bronwyn driving and me hopping in and out. Just had time to do the grocery shopping before the next engagement of the day: our clubs at the school. Nick and Aaron did guitar; Caleb and I did photography. I discussed the use of light, one of the most obvious and basic principles (and also probably the broadest category) in photography (the very word means 'to depict with light')...encouraging my students to look at things from different angles and at different times of the day when the quality and colour of light changes.

Miniature upside-down world

Had a bit of a 'this and that' day...was busy all day but nothing quantifiable...took photos for a friend (veering into a new direction of photography with which I am not entirely comfortable - self-portrait fashion!! (photos will not be displayed)); sewed a bit, cleaned a bit, baked and so on. Enjoyed the early morning frost from a macro perspective...The boys had to paraphrase Habakkuk's prayer for history (Hab 3:17-18); yesterday's beach expedition was obviously still fresh in their minds:
"My brother might be meen;
my feet are wet, my hands are cold, I press against the wind;
my boots are full of stones and I have hiccups
Yet I praise the Lord." (Caleb)
And Aaron's:
"Though my head might be in pain,
or I am very hungry,
I might have lost my bible
or my hand is bruised,
I will rejoice in the Lord."
Bless these boys!

Clean, dry, ironed washing!

By 7 am the skies were already clearing and I knew we were in for a stunning day. There was a bit of early fog but it added to the beauty...I couldn't resist traipsing through the wet grass to the bottom of the garden. These spring blossoms looked all snowy and wintery! Got loads of stuff done in the day - washing, ironing, cupboard sorting, baking, cleaning...the warm day was definitely conducive for spring cleaning. By 5 pm a southerly had blown in but brought with it some amazing clouds. Nick went with Rene to Oamaru and the boys and I took a quick trip to the northern wetlands. The boys complained bitterly - I can't blame them, it was really super windy and freezing cold (well, Aaron tried to be cheerful about the whole thing). Caleb got splooshed by a wave and his boots filled with water. Thus it was that our stay was cut short - I need to get the boys interested in landscape photography so they can brave the elements with me...

Back in winter?

The weather was just cross today - cold, damp, windy, miserable. I find it difficult to get anything done when it's like this, feeling more inclined to 'huddle'. But I scrapped instead of huddling which was a more enjoyable option. Caleb had his piano lesson at 3; the rest of the day we were at home. Caleb is already improving and learning - Joan does a great job with him.Love this flocked paper!

Being deaconly

Scored an invite to lunch at the Kempf Juniors today, following Sunday School and the morning service in which Nick expounded the roles of deacons and touched on church membership. Lunch and the fellowship was great; Les and Marg were also invited and so a great afternoon was had by all. We played Dutch Blitz although the Niewoudts begged out on account of age and older brains; Rene brewed authentic Chinese green tea and served it in impossibly small cups but four or five refills were appropriate. Church again at 4.30 and Nick took us through Psalm 9 - an exciting insight on being able to worship in all situations by reflecting on God's person and work.

Ducks, horses, sheep, goats, lambs, kids and cameras

The first thing to happen in a somewhat busy and very interesting day was Cynthia telephoning to congratulate me. Huh? I had a photo published as 'pic of the week' in the Timaru Herald. Yay!! Nick and the boys took a quick walk to the BP garage across the road to buy a copy. While I was washing the breakfast dishes I noticed that the sky was filled with bands of cloud diffusing the soft morning light, so we hurried off to the northern wetlands with our cameras. I discovered that my hiking boots are completely unwaterproof and had very squelchy socks after not too long. Couldn't stay too long as we needed to be at Rachel's Riding School at 10.30 to take some group photos of the Otipua Pony Club for the paper. Stuck around to watch a bit of the action as well as the girls had a lesson with Rachel in preparation for a big competition in Invercargill. While down in the paddock area I wandered over to see a new-born kiddie...he had just been born that morning and was still stringy and bloody, flopping around on his little stick legs and trying to figure out how they worked. It's truly amazing how the animals just get on with the birthing process by themselves - no waddling around before-hand and complaining about being fat or not seeing toes; no cursing husbands and huffing and puffing during birth, and certainly no languishing in hospital beds during recovery! Meanwhile, Matt had enlisted the boys to help with filling in potholes in the driveway so they were gainfully employed and out of trouble (sort of). We took rolls and franks for lunch, then stayed for the rest of the day and helped with some farm duties; I got to feed the pet lambs and herd sheep - pretty exciting stuff for a city girl! In the afternoon Nick, Rachel and I took a short photo walk along part of the wetlands creek but grey skies were not fun. Back to the farmhouse for tea - we were treated to KFC, pizza and chips. Yum!

Mrs, Mr and Mrs Kempf

Bronwyn and I were down to deliver "Meals on Wheels" today for the hospital. Our church has September duties each year, with volunteers driving around town with the pre-made meals in containers. We duly arrived at the hospital to collect our polystyrene box but alas! no box. Waited around in case someone came back with a wrongly-taken container but no one did, so Bronwyn took me to lunch at Blue Bay in town. I had some seriously garlicky garlic bread and soup (delicious) which Nick did not appreciate the next day either. It was great to spent time with Bron and chat about all sorts of stuff. Nick took the boys for a walk to Ashbury Park; I've been a little under the weather with a cold and laryngitis so stayed home and had a 20-minute snooze. Tea was at the Kempfs. The boys fed Kurt's fish and then tried to teach him how to play Dutch Blitz but I don't think it took, while Shirley put the finishing touches on a yummy meal of meatloaf and home-grown veggies. As always, a very enjoyable and interesting evening with the senior Kempfs.

Three schools in a day

I took the boys with me to my Bible-in-School class today...they helped me by being Onesimus and Philemon, each reading a small section to the class. The Waimataitai kids kept staring at Caleb and Aaron throughout the lesson and I had a hard time keeping their attention! During the workbook part of the lesson Aaron wandered around looking at books while Caleb assisted a couple of the boys with filling in missing letters. Caleb is a natural instructor; although only a year older than the average class age he had no problem taking charge. Back home then for the rest of our school day. We have been planting and studying beans and corn now, with some left-over radishes happily growing in a pot in the kitchen. Played around with the macro a bit in the early afternoon - Nick uncovered some woodlouse and bugs for me - and then we had the second week of clubs at the Christian school. Caleb has joined in with this club now. I instructed them in 'taking a photo of something'... adding foreground interest or a subject to an otherwise-empty landscape setting. We took a walk down the road but it was soooooo cold and I was glad to get back indoors. The kids don't seem to mind the cold as much. After photography and guitar, the boys joined Matt in the hall for badminton. Caleb seemed to improve somewhat from the beginning to the end of the hour, while Aaron gives us great hope that he can only get better from here...it was his first time, after all.

I've got my eyes on you

Nick has been tinkering about with his new macro set-up, and wanted to share it for the benefit of other enthusiasts. What follows is his discourse on 'poor man's macro'. Alas, I have no words of simple English to interest the non-photographer; these last two days have been somewhat dull.

HOMEMADE MACRO

There are several ways to shoot macro. Firstly, buy a macro lens, Nikon make a nifty 105mm perfect for the job. However for all the others who are poor like us there are various other options. You can buy diopters, add an extension tube, use a bellows (only for the rich), or stack lenses. We have made been experimenting with this last method with some pleasing, though restricted results. The lenses can be stacked head to tail or head to head. The tricky part is connecting them. We have a Pentax 50mm 1.7 manual lens that we face mounted with sellotape to the face of a 52mm Sigma 35-70mm. The 49mm pentax fitted snugly into the rim of the 52mm Sigma making the use of sellotape possible. Not everyone will be able to copy this method. However various lens sizes can be fixed to each other using what is called a macro coupler. This is a ring that screws into the front of the lens, but has a male thread on both sides. This screws into the filter thread at the front of most lenses. Different thread sizes are accommodated, and they even make rings to attach the 49mm Pentax to the 52mm Sigma. (They also do 52-52, 52-55, 55-55, 55-58, 58-58, etc). The lens that goes on the front will have to have an aperture ring, this then needs to be set to wide open (In other words older lenses, this a great use for all those old 35mm fixed focal lengths that are going unused on those film cameras stashed away ready for the next garage sale). If you make the aperture on the reversed lens smaller you will notice vignetting in your images. Also the lens on the front needs to be of a smaller focal range than the lens it is mounted to, this will aid with the magnifying effect. The greater the difference between the two lenses the greater the magnification. So putting a 50mm on a 200mm will give you more macro ability than a 50mm on a 70mm. Our present macro ability is greater than 1:1, which is the ratio of the Nikkor 105mm.

Once you have got your lenses fixed, flick your camera to manual focus. Set the focuses on both lenses to infinity. I recommend the use of a tripod or setting the camera down on a surface, and then introduce your subject. Your depth of field is going to be miniscule so set your camera to about f11 for a functional depth of field to begin with. You are going to have a very small focusing distance and are going to have to get right in the face of whatever you are photographing. For this reason the best subject for this sort of photography is something that is not going to crawl or sway in the breeze. For our lens combination we have about 5cm between the front of the lens and the subject, so you aren’t going to get the close up of a skittish bug or venomous snake. Any flashes besides ringflashes will have to be bounced back at the subject using reflective surfaces; using the body flash your subject will be in your own shadow. It is limited, but it is fun and cheap and yields some great results for the persevering.

Sunrises and blossoms

Up, dressed, breakfasted and out the house by 6.15 am to watch (ie photograph) the sunrise. We had carefully studied the weather forecast and knew it would be a clear morning. It was, and warm to boot! Fantastic being outdoors so early in the morning on such a lovely day but our location didn't yield great results and Nick and I both came home a little disappointed with our takings. Still, it was a beautiful morning (around mid-morning a southerly started blowing in gale force, bringing in clouds and cold). Nick made me a macro lens by coupling together his 35-70mm and 50mm lenses with sellotape. Seriously! I have a deep interest in macro photography and although this lens arrangement is somewhat limiting and limited, it was still awesome to play around with (below: daffodil, muscari (I had to google that) and an apple/cherry/peach blossom). I was having so much fun playing with flowers that I nearly forgot to get Caleb to his piano lesson with Joan! He's loving his lessons and is very keen to progress. Joan taught him about crotchets, minims and semi-breves and a whole lot of other interesting stuff.

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