Panoptikal*: Roots and Rock--Rangitoto (January 15, 2010)

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Roots and Rock--Rangitoto (January 15, 2010)

Taken on Rangitoto Island, the day I arrived in Auckland. I decided to go for a boat tour of the harbour. Such an easy indulgence there, but a rare treat for me, loving boats and the wind and the sunshine as I do. There was no real humidity and the day was bright and colourful.

I love how it looks as if almost nothing will grow on Rangitoto other than these pohutukawa trees, which manage to squeeze sustenance out of this igneous volcanic (though distinctly cone-shaped) lump perched off Auckland's east side. In fact there is a broad range of plant life that's already taken hold in the 600 or so years since Rangitoto's formation, but the determined-looking trees are the most visible sign of this colonisation of lava by flora. I love the way the tree here seems to have become a part of the ground to which it clings.

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More about...

The pictures I post here were taken between 1994 and today. There are some breaks during that period, generally because I had no working camera, or because I processed many negatives and made few prints (generally this is the case for 1994 to 2000 or so). I also have many prints from that time that have not yet been digitised.

The reason I call this a "photojournal" is that I tend to document my life with images, where possible, rather than words. I find it much easier to remember moments, and then events, when I have some kind of picture with which I can associate them. This is probably why I've always taken pictures when I could--even when there was "nothing" to photograph--and why I have such a difficult time keeping up a written diary or journal of any sort.

Technicalities

I've used a number of cameras over the past 15 years or so. The bulk of these were SLR, manual or semi-automatic, and of course non-digital (35mm film) cameras (photos shot from 1994 to 2004, roughly), though for a period I used both (low-quality) digital and film (around 2002-2003).

I first used a fully manual camera when I was 14, which was borrowed; the first SLR that I owned was a Vivitar, which rapidly deteriorated. It was followed by a Pentax, and after that, the Minolta XD-11 that I have used for film ever since. I use it with a 35mm or a 28-70mm lens with telephoto and macro. In addition to these, I also used Mamiya 220 and 330 medium-format (120 film) cameras while at NSCAD in 1997-8, and very occasionally, I used an old Agfa range-finder (from roughly the 1940s) which produced 6x9cm negatives on 120 film.

The first digital camera I used would probably have been in 2002, and I used it periodically over about a year (it was borrowed). In 2004-05 I again used a digital camera (also borrowed; specs not available); I stopped shooting on film beyond 2004 because of the expense. Finally in October 2006 I bought a Sony CyberShot, 7.2 megapixels, a very small camera (not an SLR) that I used for almost 4 years before replacing it with a CyberShot DSC-TX5, in July 2010. This camera now travels with me almost everywhere and is the only camera I use regularly.