Around Wanaka: landscapes, fires and drawing

We've had a few interesting weather episodes this week, particularly over this weekend. However while it's nice to hire a few DVDs and keep logs on the fire there can be some interesting light around for some landscape photography.

Lake Wanaka, and Black and Fog Peaks just before a southerly snowstorm beset the scene...


Two nights ago a house at the end of my street burnt down. The papers reported that the baby crying woke the family (two adults and two children age 3 and 1) and they were able to get out. I took this shot just minutes after the above landscape, in the teeth of a snowstorm, but it was fascinating [and scary] to poke my camera about the site. From memory the burnt dwelling [it's all still there barely 2 meters high if that] was about the same size as the "near miss" on the house on right [note the fence did not survive], and that's a burnt out car there as well...


Mid week I again attended my night school drawing class. I'm doing these for a variety of reasons, one being to bring a new perspective to my landscape photos. The aim of this cup and tea pot work is for me to draw exactly what I see so I learn observational skills. I find that putting the first positioning marks on an A3 sheet requires commitment! So I sit and study the composition in detail for ten mins. before beginning. Then I tend to think that after this time I've seen what it is I have to draw, but this I'm finding is not the case: An hour later I find I'm seeing the object[s] in an entirely different way, or rather noting and recording different nuances of tone and shade, perspective and reflections...


To give myself further New Zealand landscape perspective I'm spending a lot of time looking at this wonderful landscape of the Buchanan mountains and Lake Wanaka, painted by my tutor Robyn. It's really captured my fancy, and this winter [as it does depict snow] I'm going to wait for an opportunity to capture "the look" with my camera. Early morning it'll have to be...