toddling in twizel

The last days have been getting up before dawn and driving up towards the face of Mount Cook to shoot the early light on the snow topped peaks and then spending the day driving from one amazing view to another then staying out late to shoot the setting sun on the glaciated waters. This equals days that start at 4 am. and finish around 10:30pm Those of you who know me are chuckling right now at the idea of me being coherent in any way at 4 am. (not exactly known as a morning person) The whole routine makes for a sleepy Bobbi way to early at night, and with the days lasting longer here it is really strange to be ready for PJ's when the sun is still out.

I have to say, that there are some pretty funny things in this country. Like, I bet you never saw this on the local Sub Way menu:




And even though every one warned me that there are quite possibly more sheep than humans in this country, I NEVER expected to meet one named Shrek...who grows such thick wool that they can't keep up with keeping him trimmed.. There are pictures of him looking like a giant stuffed animal, but I'm here to tell you that a big woolly animal that gets wet smells way way worse than an old wool sweater!




And then there are things like this, a super old Ford that we saw stuffed inside a wooden shack at the back of a little garden/shop we stopped at to have yummy hot black currant juice...

and the really really big dog that helped serve us dinner last week...who wears a sign that says not to feed him.

Of course there is a whole lot of amazing too....The lakes near Mount Cook are fed by glacier water and snow melt so they are the perfect color of cyan..not blue, not sort of green.. cyan.. The blogger version of this image won't show it well, but this is a KRAZY color for water.


Oh, and just in case you can't tell how big the glacier blobs in this picture are, that tiny yellow thing is a raft big enough to hold twenty people in it.


We got to take a helicopter to the second highest peak next to Mount Cook so that we could shoot from the snow patch we landed on... seriously one of the greatest things I've done in a long time.. the space and views are just glorious... that really is the only word I can think of to describe it.

The Lupine are all blooming, so the landscape smells and looks amazing. We are fighting with the wind to try and get some good wide shots for clients to use, but even just trying is great work. To be honest, I may never want to see another Lupine again after this trip!




The next two days are wrap up days and travel back up the coast to Christchurch. I'm sorry to be leaving, but really glad to be getting back home to Mark and the puppies! As soon as I can, I'll post the real set of pictures for you all to see if you'd like .
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Holiday! I watched Women's Net ball (which is a really strange form of basketball with no backboard and girls that don't dribble the ball.) but even without pumpkin pie it was easy to spend time thinking of our friends and families and missing them a BUNCH!

best,

bh

a life time of experiences - a dirth of sleep

long long day.... I hope it will be alright if I just post some quick selects of images taken recently. The bird shots aren't exactly my area of expertise, but just getting a chance to see them in the wild is enough to be worth it to me. so, please, forgive the snapshot nature of some of these...

Middle Earthy equals No Internet

In the last 7 days I have traveled and shot in Christchurch, Oamaru, around the entire Otago Peninsula, the cities of Dunedin and Portobello (yes they grow the mushrooms there) and around Te Anau - Milford Sound.

I have gotten up at way too early and to sleep way to late on a regular basis to get to some locations prior to sunrise and then lay in wait for fog to lift off of mountain peaks and hiked about in amazing mazes of hides to see elusive creatures like the yellow eyed penguin (there are estimated to be less than 24 breading pairs in all of New Zealand, less than 1500 in the world) spent hours waiting for fog to lift from the top of Mitre Peak, shot dozens of images in vain trying to capture an albatross in flight (they may be big, but man are they fast!) and most recently driven 3 hours before dawn to catch morning light on waterfalls that feed Milford Sound.

Those of you who have enjoyed the visuals from the Lord of the Rings Film series may be able to appreciate this: The scenery is amazing.. the old growth rain forests are lush and the animals (Kea birds, Seals, Oyster Catchers, Sheep, Deer, Albatross, Penguins) are abundant... but the trade off is that the world that made up Middle Earth for those films...is not so internet friendly. All this is to say, sorry for taking so long for my next blog post. I'm sitting in a nice little motel room in Mildford Sound after a 17 hour day of early driving, shooting, waiting, shooting, swatting at the scary little black biting flies and more shooting. Tomorrow we get a "late start" and drive out at 8a.m. to See if Lake Manpouri has any pastoral scenes worthy of our clients.

I'm exhausted but happy.. too tired to really pull any images to show, so I'll just include two low resolution versions of the yellow eyes penguins that we waited in a blind at a special reserve to see if we could capture a glimpse of. I'm told there are less than 24 breading pairs in this country. In addition to some shots of a parent keeping an egg warm near a man made safe space, we managed to capture two more wild adults returning from the sea with food in their tummies to bring to recently hatched young. The pictures I'm posting here are of a single adult that waddled his lovely little fat body up from the beach and then after we watched him preen for quite a while he finally moved his way up from the sand and right past where we where hiding on his way to his little family. I was hoping to just be able to see one from far far away... this little man walked past us and then stood with his back to us contemplating his long waddle home and then trudged his way across the grasses to his spouse and new born to trade places and watch the nest.






I hope to be able to post more soon. We should have access to the internet for the next couple of days.. then we are on our way to Queenstown. so there should be some shots of kingston flyer railway line (this is all in the remote area where a lot of the Lord of the Rings was actually filmed...

Mark and I love it when you guys add comments to the blog ( you don't have to register or anything...just click on the comments link below this posting and let us know how you are and or say Hi etc. it makes us feel like there are people we know out there when we travel!

best regards from Middle earth!

bh

The Bee Gees and The Rain

Breakfast this morning was at a little place next door to the motor lodge...how very Route 66 of them. Except of course for the menu itself, I don't think Marmite and 14 grain toast with passion fruit filled yogurt was ever served to people with white wall tires on their rides. For those of you who haven't tried Marmite, it's a salty sort of brown paste made from yeast that turns out to be pretty tasty on toast...they swear it is good for you, but it does make me wonder if I'm turning the wheat from the bread I just ate into some form of beer in my tummy with all that yeast.


It took me a moment to decide if I wanted any after being offered a pot of "plunger coffee" maybe it is the jet lag, but my first thought was of scary use of plumbing equipment and not what basically turns out to be a French Press. I'm sure the waitress thought I was daft when I had to ask "so, the plunger coffee, it's made here?" The best thing about this place is also the most strange: The Bee Gees are blaring through the place...not just a single song from a play list, but whole albums now I have the song "tragedy!" stuck in my head and indeed it is one...


Yesterday was "cup day" (this is part of the week long horse racing and shows going on here in Christchurch.) So, besides the obvious racing and horse shows, there is apparently a contest for things like best hat and best dressed people.. with outfits that would have made Eliza Doolitle proud (as well as the Queen Mum!) But the best part is this: one of the prizes goes to a category titled "Edge Dress" which would appear to be whatever outlandish costume a person is willing to show up in.. the winner? A woman wearing only a hat and skirt with the rest of her outfit painted on. I'm no prude, a full salute to anyone daring enough to go for it...my issue is that it was less than 60 degrees yesterday and this poor woman was using pink paint to keep warm!


It's raining in a way that only New Zealand can conjure...now I know how this place stays so middle earthy green! But we can see the sun trying to burn through on the horizon line so this afternoon's shooting should still be a go. We are 18 hours ahead of central time here so the whole today/tomorrow thing won't make any sense, but Wednesday morning we are leaving Christchurch to Grab shots near the Selwyn River and then over to the Pacific Ocean to a town called Oamaru. Looking forward to lots of beach and Moeraki boulders to shoot there.

The curious healing powers of a good soy latte!

Travel is a funny thing...for me, it isn't so much the actual time in the air, it's the total time it takes from leaving our home with freshly packed bags to dragging myself through customs and arriving at the first hotel. I've added it up...door to door from Chicago to Christchurch (with a stop in San Francisco and one in Auckland) comes to 34 hours of travel. When you add the whole international date line craziness of loosing an entire day just for dipping a bit too far to the west, it makes me tired to think of it.

I'm trying to keep myself awake until something that resembles evening time so that I can get onto the schedule (It looks like we will be getting out at dawn every morning for the next two weeks to catch the best light) which meant dropping my bags off at THE CAMELOT MOTOR LODGE (yes, there is indeed a suit of armour in the lobby - with a new Zealand scarf on it.)

I walked through the center of Christchurch (that's Canterbury Christchurch by the way) and then around a large park and over to a wonderful little coffee shop called VIC's. A shop full of tasty treats all made from organic veggies and eggs, with a staff that brought me a second latte for free when they found out how far I had traveled to be there. An interesting mix of two people studying physics books and others who are debating who is going to win the "races day" tomorrow. (horse drawn carriages no less!)

Parts of Christchurch very closely resembles those small countryside towns right outside of London. Little cottages line the streets and every garden is so crammed full of roses and other flowers that the scent is intoxicating.


















The photo tour starts tomorrow, we'll be at the harbour and light house location first and then moving on from there to to the Banks peninsula.

I'll be posting the photos from this trip (the ones that don't belong to our clients, or the book I'm working on) once I get back to the states.. the photos in the blog will be from my iPhone = which was exclaimed to be a "magic tool" by the clip board carrying flight attendant who's name was actually MURRY! (if that means nothing to you than I must insist that you join our social discourse by going to itunes and downloading at least one episode of "flight of the conchords")

Even after only a half day here I feel safe in dubbing this the land of the painfully polite... When handing you your coffee the shop staff say thank you, and when you leave even the smallest of tips (man the money here is COOL!)
you get such an effusive "LOVELY!" that it's almost embarrassing. hmmmmm, maybe I better check the exchange rate again and make certain that I'm not doing the conversion backwards and leaving 120% tips eh?



More tomorrow after a day of exploring the Christchurch area with a proper guide...

Ships that pass in the night?

Mark got back home from Bulgaria this afternoon, Tbilisi is still under a state of emergency so the decision to postpone that leg of the trip was clearly a good one...   The puppies are so glad that he's back that the two of them are piled on top of him while all three take a much deserved nap.

I'm busy packing my camera gear and getting ready for my flight that leaves tomorrow morning.  I'm on my way to New Zealand.  

Spring has just begun in the southern Hemisphere, so this should be an amazing time of macro/nature/landscape shooting.  14 days of traveling around the South Island and then a day in San Francisco to shoot at two wind farms should just about fill every bit of drive space I have with photos.

I'll try to post some of the New Zealand sites as I travel - not sure I can do as good a job as Mark has done with the Blog so far, pictures are my thing...not words, but I'll do my best!

bh

Sweet & Savory Sofia; It’s Bulgarilicious!

INDIA ADVISORY: When you travel out of the country, beware: though they seal your checked luggage after it goes through security, it’s meaningless; some bastard broke the ziptie I watched them place on my bag, opened it up, dug thru and stole my trusty leatherman. Grrr…

Anyway, on to Sofia… What a cool place! We had a nice sunny day under the watchful gaze of the snow-capped mountains, which the local ski buffs are no doubt eyeing with anticipation. Magical MotoMaggie, and our very cool drivers Latchezar and Spas, took us all over this compelling city. It’s quite interesting; there’s a deep history—Roman ruins and all that--and very fabulous old buildings (especially the old Communist buildings, like Party HQ)….but they’re not all that old, as the city was bombed heavily during World War II (Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Axis…oops!). But the parks and the fountains and all the very nice people were just a treat. Passed a fun flea market, in the shadows of the cathedral, that seemed to be dominated by old wristwatches and very authentic old Nazi stuff. I must say, I was very tempted by a Nazi-issued Leica M2 camera, but…nyet for me. Bulgaria in general, and Sofia in particular, is yet another place I very much want to explore again—especially knowing that Sofia überambassador, the lovely and very well-connected Maggie, is here to help. But for now, it’s 5pm on Friday, and in about 12 hours our client Paula and I leave for the airport and flights home. Suffice it to say, it’s been ANOTHER truly amazing global adventure, and it’ll be wonderful to see Bobbi—even if only for half a day—before she goes on HER solo adventure, to New Zealand. Be sure to stay tuned to the blog, as Bobbi hits the keyboard with her adventures starting next week!

Crazy travel continues; Bombay to Bulgaria

Apologies if this rambles a bit---it's been a wacky 48 hours. Bombay day #2 was great, headed over to New Bombay actually for our shoot--excellent interview. Crazy driving in Bombay. In fact, I'm convinced that all automobile travel in India would cease if the technology of the car horn didn't exist. Somehow we got to and from where we needed to be, then back to my hotel for another fabulous dinner, then a nap in the lobby before my overnight flight. Left for the airport at midnight, and even then the streets of Bombay were teeming. So much activity. Our 10 hour flight to London commenced at 3am, so already my body clock is all upside down. I slept well on the plane--woke up briefly as we flew over Tehran...a clear night, so I could see the well-lighted city very well, and also the stars--millions of them! Landed London Heathrow about 6:30am, then transfered to my flight to Sofia, Bulgaria. Got to a sunny but rather chilly Sofia about 3pm...me and almost all of my bags. Turns out my gear bags, with tripod and lights and chargers and such, didn't make the flight. And our interview with the customer was set for 10am the next morning. Fortunately, the magical Maggie, of the local Motorola office, was able to secure the necessary rental gear....with only 2 hours left in the business day! That was----Wednesday, right. So, she and our client Paula brought the gear to the hotel, and I was able to check it out and of course it was all great and I was relieved---until about 11pm, when the extreme need for pepto bismol kicked in with a vengence. And so I was up all night--stomach cramps and worse...a very unhappy system indeed. Fortunately, Thursday was an easy day--four interviews, all in the Motorola offices. Got done with them, got back to the hotel midday, and alternatively slept and kept an eye on the BBC. Why? Because the next stop on my production tour is supposed to be Tbilisi, Georgia--which has just declared a news blackout and a State of Emergency. So now it's Friday morning and the rising sun is just kissing the snow-capped peak of Vitosha Mountain, and it feels like the bad, bad stomach bug has passed, literally. And with reports in this morning's news about the current goings-on in Tbilisi....water canons and rubber bullets and tear gas and journalists being beaten and their gear confiscated or destroyed....we've decided that the Georgia leg of the journey is off. So it looks like Saturday is now a big travel day home.

Mumbai

This is the most incredible place I've ever been. Somehow I had the presence of mind to consult with the concierge, who mapped out an all-day itinerary for me then sent me off with the most excellent hotel car driver Milind. Highlights included being chased away from a temple with my camera by a man with a big gun, and the best meal I've ever had. I'll let the pics speak for themselves.