A few Drinks.....

The drinking culture in New Zealand is not unknown nor public knowledge.  In fact, it would not be unrealistic to compare NZ with the UK drinking culture!

In fact, on the website Alcohol.org.nz  it is stated that Alcohol is one of the most commonly used drugs in New Zealand.  Now this drug is freely available in varied outlets across the nation, the level of consumption has increased since the 1990s.

The affect from, alcohol on the body is quite amazing to consider.  It affects all parts and over consumption has long term effects.  I have certainly been brought up through the 80s and 90s buried in this culture.  In fact, when I was employed in the NZ Forest Service it was rife.  And I developed a cognitive dissonance about the whole issue with drinking.  Also, there is no doubt that if you have a major life event that swings you off the rails, drinking is where people often turn too.  However, the result is putting you in a worse position than when you first started.

So, next time you decide to have a drink, consider having one to enjoy the company of others, while knowing your limits and having the strength to say 'when'.  Make sure you have a responsible driver pre-organized. And be a great awesome buddy to ensure you look after your mates.

Andy Thompson

Andy Thompson Photography NZ

The Beach, Politics and Keeping Grounded

Last night we were walking along the beach at Aramoana.  The peace, serenity and quiet roll of the ocean soothed our minds after an upside down frantic day.  Waking up to this morning announcement on the American election results leaves me with a feeling of unease for the future.

If you consider Hitler's rise to lead a nation that was based on fear and injustice, this all looks to familiar. People forget history far too easily. In 1919, Hitler attended his first meeting of the German Workers' party, an anti-Semitic, nationalist group as a spy for the German Army. However, he found he agreed with Anton Drexler's German nationalism and anti-Semitism. He disagreed with how they were organised leading him to make a passionate speech. Hitler quickly cemented his reputation as an engaging orator through his passion about the injustices faced by Germany as a result of the Treaty of Versailles.

In a chaotic world that needs great leaders with authenticity and genuine care for the greater good, the result of Americas political elections last night it seems they are heading down the same path. If you look at the history of the winning candidate, he too based his election on a similar vein as Hitler. I quiver at the thought and can only hope he ends up having little ability to do much, while the rest of the government water down his intentions.Let's hope that the tangle of the political world keeps some normality and that people rally together to ensure the newly elected candidate of America is held in check.


If you are worried, scared or overwhelmed, then take that walk with your loved one somewhere you can find some solace and peace. Find a beach, breathe the air deeply, see the intricacies of life that will endure humanity, and take the time to make sure you keep your own feet on the ground.

You are invited to visit our Facebook and click and like at https://www.facebook.com/andythompsonNZ/

and follow me for more updates at my Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/andyt659/


Andy Thompson


Andy Thompson Photography NZ

Loving Spring

Kia ora,

I love Spring!  There is so much new growth, sunshine, longer days and plenty to discover.  Today we trotted up Bethune's Gully after spending the morning writing on study (nearly done on the draft!).

Here are some fun photo from the day while out walking the dogs up Bathunes gully and doing a fittness test with Jo at the Botanical Gardens

I hope you are getting out there and enjoying the seasons

Regards

Andy

Andy Thompson Photography NZ
www.andythompsonphotographynz.co.nz

Street Photography - Capturing unmediated chance encounters and random incidents with people.

Capturing unmediated chance encounters and random incidents with people is the most wonderful yet intense and scary photographic challenge I have experienced so far.  It is such a layered recipe; cultivating ingredients like nerves, anticipation, rawness, excitement, stress, and pure wonder at what the human species is up to on a daily basis.

I enrolled on a street photography course with Alan Cox (http://www.nzphotoworkshops.com/), with the intent to learn 'How To?', and to consider the implications of 'Can I?' and to ponder the most important question for me, the 'Why?'

Photography to me is art.  And there is an endless spectrum of possibilities for the way a photographer may want to capture and display their art.  My photography is about capturing the essence of people, seeing them interact and impressing the images I capture in times when someone or a group of people are engaged with either themselves or others.  It is about finding that moment in time of authenticity. 

One definition of Street Photography is "a type of photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places. Street photographs are mirror images of society, displaying “unmanipulated” scenes, with usually unaware subjects.”

There are many questions around what can you shoot and what can you not shoot, what are your boundaries and are you allowed to?

Can you shoot in public places i.e, streets etc. The answer to that is yes.  It is no different to the press, tourists or other photographers that shoot in the same places.  You can't shoot in private areas e.g, malls, shops or other confined areas.  What is very important is to understand your intent as a photographer. 

My intent is to capture images that celebrate the humanity and diversity we have around us.  I am not out to harm anyone, however I am still part of the rich tapestry of life photographing people live their days in the complexities of life.  

Street photography should also not be about bringing others into disrepute or negative light.  The intent is positive, to create a gallery of wonderful images that show the colour in other people.  Ironically I have shot most images in black n white.  This resonates with me, as I find it is striking and gives a grit about life.  The colour is from the people's expressions and what they are doing in each image. Although some images I have chosen to introduce are in colour, as I consider it suits the photograph.

On several occasions I was asked and was challenged as to what I was doing?  As advised by Alan, and rightly so, I was honest and told them up front.  I showed my photographic business card.  These encounters were all I experienced, however if I was to be challenged more, or someone did not want their photo taken, I would happily show them what I had taken, offer to send it to them and also happily delete the image if requested too.  The best policy is to be honest, however it is raw and nerving to be challenged by the public.  You are encroaching on people's boundaries, and it is challenging to be faced with randoms.

I learnt quite a few strategies and techniques during the day and have a long way to go to build this sort of photography, however the results are wonderful (I think).  It is photography at its essence for me, capturing unmediated chance encounters and random incidents with people and to celebrate the amazing diversity of others in 1/320 sec or less is incredible.

Thanks to Alan Cox's tuition I have a better understanding of street photography and found that I love this sort of photography.  Of course I acknowledge I have an endless amount to learn - that's the exciting part - being humbled by the incredible things I see and experiences with people and photography.  Celebrating the diversity of humanity in everyday life.

Link to my Street Photography can be found at:

http://www.andythompsonphotographynz.co.nz/Dunedin-Art/Street-Photography/

Andy Thompson

Andy Thompson Photography NZ

'People in Action'

www.andythompsonphotographynz.co.nz

Backyard Adventure 2016

What's to explore in your backyard?  Often we travel far away for adventures and holidays to far away locations, either in our own countries or overseas.  But what about your own environment?  What about your own backyard?  How much of that have you really truly explored, and have you managed to gain a deeper appreciation of your local environment.

Backyard Adventure is part of the Diploma in Outdoor Leadership Level 5 programme at the Otago Polytechnic.  It is an outdoor education project based in the Dunedin local area. During the 'Backyard Adventure' our year 2 Diploma students prepare, plan and run a journey based around the the Dunedin Harbour area, exploring their local area. Clientele are usually local school students. Along the way they learn more about biking, tramping, camping and sea kayaking. Embedded within the journey they interact and learn about themselves, peers, local communities and leadership; through adventure. Through the collaborative interaction with local communities, people, organisations and ecosystems all participants get to share stories and interact with their own backyard and community.

Backyard Adventures was the brainchild of Jo Martindale and Andy Thompson in 2015.  It was initiated and inspired from Jo's research project for her Masters.  With the help of myself we designed the route and logistics.  It was a win/win for our Diploma students and Jos research and a great opportunity for young students from a school to be involved.  Now it has developed into its second year with two being completed.  In Jos research proposal she wrote, "If we are to learn anything from this decade we need to find solutions to our over use of resources and many of our unsustainable, everyday practices. We must teach our young to value and respect our own place, the local and what it contains. To do this we need to be in the environment. Outdoor education has the potential to lead us towards this sustainable future (Hill, 2013).  She continues to say,  "It has been argued that mainstream outdoor education in New Zealand still has adventure, risk, challenge and personal development as its main underpinnings (Hill, 2014, Zink and Boyes, 2007), with very little focus given to the traditions and history of Māori (Andkjær, 2010). By keeping these underpinnings, outdoor education is promoting the societal status quo of individualism and consumerism (Boyes, 2012). From my own experience working in outdoor education and at a tertiary institute, we travel vast distances to go to the ‘best’ locations for the pursuit, giving little thought to petrol use. Hill (2014) argues that this means outdoor education remains “distant from the goal of education for a sustainable future” (Hill, 2013, p.19).  Researchers and academics have been increasingly concerned with the unsustainable practices of outdoor education and how slowly outdoor educators have been prepared to change their focus for greater sustainability (Boyes, 2012)" (Jo Martindale - Research Proposal)

It is the first big experience for our Diploma students in planning, preparation and delivering professional instruction and guiding to clients.  To say the least most comments from students are; 'this is deep ending learning', 'total immersion' and 'amazing learning'.

This year, the journeys have continued, having just completed two weeks of journeys, one with Otago Boys High School and the second week with home school students, the value in the educational learning has been exceptional.  Through both weeks I have observed personal and professional development in our Diploma students.  It is exciting to see this, and also experience this alongside some fantastic young aspiring professionals.

Pre journey the Diploma students are given assigned roles. They are expected to prepare and plan the running of the journey,  this includes logistics, health & safety, accommodation, vehicles, budgets, liaison with clients, interpretation, medicals, assistant leader, leader, cooking, intentions, students wellbeing, equipment and intentions.  So plenty to do.  Often students will not understand or realise the importance of this phase, which comes back at them while on journey.  This often proves to be good learning in the value of preparation.

Key to the Backyard Journey being successful are: the pre meetings, frontloading what is expected on journey, during the journey the facilitation of reflective discussions each day, a careful eye on the overall safety of the journey, and the willingness of students to embrace and enjoy the learning they can gain from their experiences.  Coupled with this is how they choose to apply their learning into the future.  In conversations during the journey we discuss ways students can feed forward their learning.  And lastly discussion with students after the journey to challenge and see what they have taken out of the journey experience and how they may be applying their learning.  Paul Hager & Phil Hodkinson (2009) write a great article on 'Moving beyond the metaphor of Transfer of Learning'.  They discuss the limitations of the metaphor of transfer of learning and broaden their discussion to 4 lens that I consider important; the propositional learning lens, the skill learning lens, the learning through participation lens and the learning through transformation and reconstruction lens.  Combining these lenses is an important teaching pedagogy I apply to this part of the Diploma. 

It is also a privileged position to be able to observe the many layers of learning with the Diploma students, school students, colleagues and yet have an eagle eye on the over safety and flow of the journey.  Often a thin grey line when to step in if a safety situation may occur and letting situations unfold for students to be able to experience first hand the richness of learning in their own actions. Letting people be accountable for their own actions is the gold nugget within this journey.

In this journey I was fortunate to have AJ join me.  AJ completed the Diploma in 2012 and has been working a professional sea kayak guide in Abel Tasman. At facilitation meetings she was able to gave her perspectives and observations which were priceless.  It is something I can not replicate as I have been the orchestrator of this programme, conversely she has now been on both  sides of the fence: from student - graduate - working in the tourism industry - to working on our programme.  Her reflective comments were an important part of this process to help students learn.

There is no doubt development of this journey has more work required and I can see it will metamorphosize as time goes on and I reflect on how I can develop it into part of the programme that is more effective for all involved.  It is an exciting part of our Diploma programme and this journey supports many aspects of the Diploma programme that all staff contribute too.

A special thanks must go to Warwick Kain and Claire Latta for their support and commitment to getting students from school on board with this.  Thank you to the outside community people such as Ron Bull, Paula from horticulture, OP, Steve Parker and Quarantine Island people that give up their time to be there.  Also to Jo Martindale for your support and discussions on this continued project, and finally, and most importantly, to the students who put their hearts and soul into the delivery, instruction and guiding of this journey.  

Andy Thompson

Andy Thompson Photography NZ

'Get rid of your brain fuzz & A World First'

Initially I received a phone call from a colleague to go out to Aramoana to pay tribute on Anzac day.  What better way to remember those who dedicated their lives for such atrocities and a horrible war, than to go out to this special place, and remember those who have fallen and hope for the present wars that are occurring in the world to cease.

It was a howling southerly, and I was excited at the prospect of cycling out!  Jo wasn't that excited, however when we got out she loved it.

 We stopped in the windiest section to catch the above image.  Jo battled to hold the bike still - tricky with a tandem.  The ride out was a breeze with mainly tailwind with some wild cross winds.  As we biked down the mole I realised this could be the first sunrise tandem ride that has ever occurred on the mole.  Ah yes a 'world record' I say - I will calm that until proven otherwise.

At the mole we lazed out of the wind to enjoy breakfast and hot chocolates.  Jo makes the best hot chocolates and if you see her ask for one - super yum!  Unknown to us was a seal not far.  Their hard to sometimes spot and we only introduced ourselves as we left for home.

Once again the effort was worth it.  What we have discovered is a great way to 'start the day' and get rid of any brain fuzz for the day.  Some research says that technology ie screens, ie your computer and phones are a culprit to reducing your creativity and give you brain fuzz for the day.  We were certainly experiencing that.  So our recipe to start the day well, is to:

1. Do not look at the phone or computer first thing.
2. Do something that connects you to your body - activity ie swimming, cycling, walk the dogs, yoga, breathing with feet on the floor etc.
3. Do something creative - mine is photography, Jo is drawing.
4. Make a 'to do' list for the day

Then you may look at screens and phones.  So far it has helped our study and we are having far more productive days.  This sequence could be a short 15 minutes of longer.

Try it!  It is certainly a great way to reduce the brain fuzz and appreciate what is around you and loved ones.

And yes remembering those who have fought in many wars, including my Dad.  I miss Dad every day (and Mum), and there is not one day that goes by I don't think of them, nor my children and others.  Remembering should not be about re opening scars, but should be for healing and moving forward for a better place.  Can we do that.  My Dad got up for ANZAC day every time and would march in honour and it was a very different generation then.  I miss Dad every day!  And when you loose your parents there are so many conversations you wish you could have had.

Andy Thompson
www.andythompsonphotographynz.co.nz

Chasing the Sun's

There is a song called 'Chasing the Sun' by The Wanted and they sing;

I'm better

So much better now

I see the light, touch the light,

We're together now

I'm better

So much better now

Look to the skies, give me life

We're together now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIyYMjI-xFg  The song was used in the movie 'Ice Age' (better than their other version they have- more friendly).  It seems both Jo and I love doing exactly this - Chasing the Sun!  It is rather insane how we both love doing this.  It is beautiful to get out of bed and race out for that amazing spot to watch for a mere 15 short minutes the sun creep over the horizon to start our day.

This morning the plan was to do just that.  We got up at 0500 and raced out to what Jo had calculated to be just the spot. I also was hoping to get some star shots, however the coast had a light veil of cloud so it was not to be.

We arrived at Alans beach, and by torch light, with dogs on lead, we sunk through the sand to the beach.  Sea mist floated around and filled our torch beams, that reached out into the darkness.  We were on the alert for sea lions!

As we travelled down the beach to our viewing spot, one sea lion lolupped its way up the beach.  Avoiding her we gave a wide berth.  She was tempted to follow up, however finally seemed more intent on finding a nice spot to watch the sunrise as well.

While we stood on the beach, the sun seemed to be not where it was calculated to be.  We discovered that Jo had looked up the incorrect beach.... doh!

The hot chocolate Jo had kindly made helped.  Laughing at our mis calculation, we scampered off with just enough time to get to Taiaroa Heads.  We only just made it, however what a wonderful display of colour and awesomeness.

http://www.andythompsonphotographynz.co.nz/

We finished breakfast and trottled back home for study for the day.

Is the effort worth it?  In my opinion it is.  In fact I just saw Adain Summerfield take his kids up to Mt Cargill for the sunrise on FB - how cool is that and what a wonderful experience for them.  So it is worth chasing the sun.  Taking in the most wonderful colors and drinking the beautiful serenity or wildness of the mornings or evenings.  Way better than TV or other alternatives.  Next time you think its going to be a great morning do it, and encourage family, fiends or lovers to get out there and drink in the wonderful experiences we have on this planet.

Andy Thompson