Fatherhood Friday: Adventures In Cooking
Ok so this isn’t a normal type of post but it was a fun experience so I thought I would share.
About a week ago Emily suggested that we make gingerbread houses (I’m pretty sure she meant real life sized ones, or at least dolls house sized ones) since every couple of weeks we make gingerbread men while Samantha has a lunch time sleep and then decorate them the next day at the same time. Sam usually wakes up once we have done most of it but there are always things left for her to do as well (usually eating the decorating things and left over dough as well as cutting the last few shapes out).
So I thought what the heck lets give it a go…
I drew out a quick sketch (thank you 5th form technical drawing) to make sure it was kind of what Em was thinking and then made up a small model to check it would work and also to be used as a cutting template.
We made the gingerbread like normal and just after we had finished making it Sam woke up so she got to help ( I secretly think that she knew we were doing something fun and woke up so she wouldn’t miss out).
We made enough parts to make 4 gingerbread houses (since this was a trial run) and the rest got turned into a conglomeration of Christmas trees, teddy bears, people etc…
Into the oven they went and 15 minutes later we had some slightly distorted but still entirely usable house pieces …
At this point the story was put on hold due to the fact that the next day when we were due to ice and decorate them Samantha had a blinding 30 minute tantrum and didn’t go to sleep and was grumpy for pretty much the whole afternoon.
Friday comes round and things go to plan, Sam goes to sleep and we mix up some icing ready to decorate (I was going to make the usual pink icing but Emily insisted that I make chocolate icing). I put together the first house but made the mistake of putting the walls on the inside of the ends which meant the roof didn’t fit so it had to be pulled apart and re-done which made it look a bit messy before we decorated them.
After they were all put together we put them in the fridge for 30 minutes so they would set and started decorating the rest of the gingerbread.
We each decorated 2 houses and I think for a first try at making them they turned out pretty well.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens.
Sleeper and Poem
I realised I haven’t posted a sleeper shot in a while. To be honest they have been a bit thin on the ground with the cold winter weather. The fine spell has meant that they have started to appear again.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Another Book Sale
I think this is the biggest one that is held at the TSB Arena every year. The light wasn’t as good as the rowing club one but there were certainly more books. This was taken on the second day so it also wasn’t quite so frenzied.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Storm and Expired Pan F+
These are some shot taken on the same day as the other storm shots I posted.
These one were taken on my Nikon F5 with a Tokina 19-35mm lens and some Ilford Pan F+ 50 ISO film which expired in 2006 and a red filter.
There was some seriously funky things happening with the film including mold on a couple of shots so most of these under went a fair bit of Photoshop retouching.
I really like how old they feel… I still have about 10 metres left on a bulk roll so might have to try this again next storm 🙂
While I was out shooting I had a woman come up to me aghast that I was taking photos in the middle of a full on storm to which I replied “but its a great day for photography” I think the images speak for themselves… I really need to look into getting a Nikonus 5 underwater camera for this sort of stuff though…
Nikon F5, Tokina 19-35mm Lens, Pan F+ 50 ISO Film (Expired 2006), Cokin Red Filter, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Half Frame Architecture. Part 2
Part 2 of yesterdays post. Back of a parking building.
Canon Demi S Half Frame Camera, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Half Frame Architecture. Part 1
Some half frame shots from a couple of weekends ago. It definitely takes a while to get through 72 frames on a half frame camera, even when shooting a fair few multi panos like these.
Canon Demi S Half Frame Camera, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Vegetable Peeling On Cuba Street
School holidays are still going strong here which is still limiting the amount of shooting I am doing but everything should be back to normal next week. I have missed a couple of great shots, including a sleeper on the waterfront complete in sleeping bag, from not having a camera because of biking or general two kid activities. I’m not complaining since we have had a pretty good holiday.
These were shot while the kids were playing on the Tuatara and slide on Cuba Street.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Wrights Hill Fortress WW2 Remains
Wrights hill Fortress is THE best preserved WW2 fortresses that I have been to. It is currently being restored by a small group of enthusiasts and is open on most public holidays. If you are in the area on a public holiday it is definitely worth going to see it.
I managed to get a bit of a look round without the crowds when one of the photographers, Bev, who I do some assisting for planned a photo shoot there so we went along to do a recci before the shoot and of course I took some test shots also 🙂
It was originally meant to have 3 guns but only 2 ever got built. The only time they were fired was when they were “proofed” and the force of the shock wave broke the windows of houses at the bottom of the hill.
Nikon D70s and F5
Storm
So there is a bit of a winter storm happening over New Zealand at the moment so when the first snow flurries started to hit I decided it would be a good time to head to the south coast and get some images as the storm rolled up from the south island.
Its school holidays which meant that Amanda was home to look after the kids as I put on as many clothes as I could find and headed out.
The great thing about owning an aging digital SLR is that you don’t mind so much if it gets a bit wet so even though the spray off the waves was pretty bad I still got some shots. I also took my F5 which was pre loaded with some expired Ilford Pan F+ 50 ISO film so it will be interesting to see how they come out since I was getting up to about a 10 second exposure, hopefully I will develop that roll in the next day or two.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, ISO 200. 1st two shots with a Cokin ND8 and Cokin ND4 Gad
Fort Buckley WW2 Remains
Some shots of Fort Buckley. I stress these were just test/location shots as the day I went the light was super bright 🙂
Fort Buckley at the entrance to the Kaiwharawhara gorge housed a couple of guns for defense of the inner harbor and was originally built around 1885.
When I was there at the end of 2009 it looked like the area was getting an upgrade with a new walking track down to the gun pits.
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8, ISO 200
WW2 Fort Dorset Remains
More location shots of bunkers again today. This time above Seatoun, these were to protect Port Dorset which lay on the other side of the ridge and the harbor entrance.
There are some old images of it HERE although the two gun pits are pretty much just rubble.
These were by far the most overgrown battlements and it looked like someone had been living in one of them. I especially liked how the metal shutters on one of them had rusted to look like lace.
In some places houses have been built only meters away from some of these structures so it makes you wonder how much longer they will last…
Nikon D70s, Various Lenses, ISO 200.
Sinclair Head WW2 Forward Observation Post
Looking back at some images on my hard drive I found a couple of series of WW2 Gun Emplacements and Observation Posts that I wandered around from late 2008… The idea was to go round all the sites and take reference images and then go to the National Archives, National Library and Military Museums and get historical images and try to put a book together…Maybe with all the renewed interest with the military selling off lots of its land this is something I should re-look at.
Sinclair Head Forward Observation Post was a radio post used for spotting ships coming through the Cook Straight. I assume that it was relayed up to Wrights Hill where the main battery of guns were. You can see where the radio antenna was located in the main lookout.
This was about a 3 hour walk around the Red Rocks Reserve and then straight up a hill bordering on a cliff… That being said these were the best preserved and least graffiti-ed remains that I have found to date.
Nikon F5, 50mm f1.8 Lens. Ilford Delta 400 ISO Film, Noritsu Scanner.
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