Autumn, Easter, War and ANZAC

As a landscape photography subject I find autumn very challenging, so this year instead of the obvious photos I've made in the past, I've been learning to "see" things a little differently.

Easter has given me some time to reflect on this, and also as ANZAC day falls in this time I've decided to visit the past for this post. To do so means examining just what Easter is all about too: the seemingly indisputable death of Jesus and his rising from the dead.

So as I compose here I've realised it is a three theme post. A trinity if you like!

Generally this shot typifies how I've framed the subject of autumn in the past...


My dad grew up in this sort of landscape above, and I knew that he loved it dearly. But here he is in another setting though - he's the one on the left holding the glass [beer I assume as it was always his favourite]...


This is a bit of a grim story so I want to intersperse it with some of the colours we all love [my "new" way of seeing autumn]...


Dad was a trained butcher, and I think this looks like him doing some work on dressing a cattle beast - on the back of the photo it says: "Before Florance"...




Africa may have been a lot of fun with his mates as above, but at Cassino in Italy he was the only survivor among them, and was wounded while in a railway station, during an engagement with a Tiger tank. I'm not sure if it was before or after this photo 'tho, probably afterwards. "26 & 27 Batt"...


He never wanted to talk much about the war, but as a kid I found these photos in the garden shed, and over the years he did drop the odd comment. "Cassino from the Front"...


There was one story that has stuck in my mind: it was how he described taking a day off of killing with the Germans to bury the dead. I was amazed on scanning this photo an hour ago to see, on enlarging, at least one person in this one, and possibly 3-4, and towards the right there seems to be someone carrying a body. "Cassino from the side"...




Somewhere in Italy. It says on the back of the photo: "tank knocked out by our Corp"


It seems as I upload these photos that the world back then had no colour, but it must have had, yet there is no evidence in the aged photos above


Roma...


"The way to Venice" - these people seem happy and I wonder why - did they feel "liberated"...




Many never came back, and then as now we use the cross as a symbol [that has such a link to our definition of Easter!], to remember them. "NZ Graves Sora"...


Sometimes the veil between different times or worlds seems very thin, and for myself it often shimmers...


So today we honour what our father's did. But in that knocked out tank as above, and in all the rubble there were other people too! The son's of other mums and dads.

It's complex even now, as we have the benefit of hindsight, to know the right or wrong of it all. The American Civil War seemed a clear cut "wrong" in that had it been avoided, the same outcome, sans the horrific loss of life, may have been achieved with the passage of a few years.

As I ponder this I'm reminded of the stunning example the Dalai Lama sets, as we continue to marvel at his love and patience, whereas he could have easily taken his people to war too!

Mountain bike race around Lake Hawea and personal responsibility

Over the last few months I've quietly been working on a timing database for a relatively new annual mountain bike race which was held yesterday, The Contact Epic.

The thing I love about this race is the way my friends Dani and Aaron, the race organisers, have put the issue of personal safety and responsibility squarely, where it belongs, in the hands of those competing: There are no pre race bike checks for the course which is between 90-125 Km around Lake Hawea and a long way up the Hunter Valley, and no check on clothing and food - just recommendations. The course is very rugged and with lots of ups and downs with a serious river crossing and nearly all is very exposed to the weather. My friends in Wanaka Search and Rescue do monitor the remote sections and it's an invaluable exercise on checking our communication systems.

The start was at dawn and incorporated with an ANZAC Day Dawn Service on the Hawea Dam. It was very moving as light fell on the mist on the lake, with a prelude of classical opera singing [which seemed to de-amp many of the athletes]. I stood there before taking this shot with my iPhone, contemplating how my grand-father and father who served in the Boer War and WW2 respectively, survived the horrors and how they maybe would feel now, on moments like these, when we increasingly honour their fallen mates to the tune of a sombre bugle call...


My timing crew...


One of the first athletes home negotiating the height difference transtition into the Hawea Hotel's lovely back garden...


And the weather was great! 577 folk finished. There were some nasty falls this year which seemed due to drafting - where the person behind fails to anticipate the changing nuances of the track.

So after what was a 14+ hr. day for me, this morning I'm enjoying the rest and the warm weather preceding a few days of forecast rain.

There was a bellbird in these trees in my backyard just before...




And while a bellbird's chorus comes from heaven, you should check out the surprise singing of an angel here: Susan Boyle

... if you'd like insights into why this angel has rocked the Internet: Bob Cringely explains

Gregor, thanks for the "heads up" on Susan.