Struan Farm

Sheepish

While Struan Farm has had cattle and calves on its hills from time to time, it has always been, and we expect it will continue to be, primarily a sheep farm.

In light of this heritage, thinking about decorating the Homestead I've become a bit of a sheep afficionado, hopefully without going too far overboard or (heaven forbid) getting too cutsie:

 
Couldn't resist this Andy Warhol-esque tea towel below. I took one this past June to California as a gift to my friend Grace Olinski, who made it into a cute pillow; think it might also look interesting framed:

 

I found an old sheep iron bank and these vintage photographs at antique shops in Nelson and Richmond, respectively. Both the shop and the framer think the photographs were hand colored:

    

I stumbled upon some other old B&W photographs of sheep herds at an antique shop in Paeroa. The owner had purchased a photography collection that had been displayed at New Zealand House in London, the images at one time were used to promote New Zealand:

 

 
  

They are now in the Struan Farm Homestead mudroom, I hope this isn't too much of a comedown after living with the NZ High Commissioner!

Last but not least, my flock of colored "Herdy Banks" from http://www.herdy.co.uk  imported all the way from the UK:

 

I like the fact that proceeds from their purchase went to help preserve England's Herdwick Sheep.

 

 

 

 

It's All About Me?

Everyone has an inner compass. Where we sometimes go astray is in not using it to guide ourselves. As I started to become a reasonably serious nature photographer, it dawned on me that I actually had my own way of seeing things--I'd look at grand vistas and see "pieces," details of texture, line and color within broader landscapes, things that other people didn't necessarily see.  Some might say that I couldn't see the big picture, or that I missed the forest for the trees. I prefer to think what what I saw, and what I still see, are often overlooked details that might represent the essence or heart of a particular scene.

These are some of my photographs, all taken quite awhile ago, and all copyrighted:

 

   

I remember taking each of these images, sitting in the sand shooting the Elegant Terns at Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach, CA, fighting off the sand flies in misty rain at Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park, stopping along roadsides.

These are all images from my past.

What I'm excited about is that I'm about to get a "real" digital camera. I can't wait to walk around Struan Farm in the photo zone, something I haven't done as yet. I'll be starting to take pictures for our website, and want to capture "our" landscape in different seasons and moods to share with you.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." --Proust

                                                                                                                                  -                                                                                                          

 

 

 

 

A Chance Encounter

Over ten years ago while I was vacationing in NZ, well before I moved here, I stumbled upon two sepia toned black & white photographs by a Dunedin photographer named George Chance (1885-1963).  One was a scene of "Poplars beside Lake Wanaka," another of "Pastures beside Lake Hayes" (both South Island locales that I travelled to). As someone who has dabbled in photography myself over the years, I decided these were worthwhile acquisitions.

I have since acquired three other images by this early NZ photographer: "Autumn South Canterbury," "A Wayside Chat-Otago Central," and most recently, "Matai Valley-Nelson."

Chance was born in Liverpool but emigrated to Dunedin in 1909. He was an advocate of a style of photography called "pictorialism," whereby photographers composed their images like paintings. I have since learned that during the Depression his photographs were published widely in magazines and newspapers, and that he had quite wide appeal.

 

Above is his photograph of Matai Valley, Nelson. I'm interested both in his landscapes as well as the scenes of rural life he depicted.