ARTIST PAUL PETCH

Lucy.

I’ve photographed Lucy quite a lot and every time, making images is such a great experience. Lucy is a masseur, and we often exchange massages for photos, and this visit she was keen to capture her with ‘Peach’ the cat at home amongst the beautiful plant life, that her mum is obsessed with. I took a handful of images before the little tiger decided that life was better away from the camera. If you want to trade portraits- let me know.

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Yashica MG1- First Roll.

I’ve just had the light seals repaired on my recent acquisition, a Yashica Mg1 rangefinder 35mm camera from the mid 1970’s and took it for its first proper roll at Hagley Park. I’m becoming more and more obsessed with trees and their wonder. Once upon a time I would ride my mountain bike or blaze past trees while running and not really notice their glory. Yet as an avid walker, with the slower pace, I’m now overwhelmed with their presence. Doing a loop yesterday of Hagley I mediated on the light and forms which surrounded me, and this camera just feels great for this type of work. I’m really happy with the way the images look, feel and portray the wisdom of these elders that surround us.

I’ve also been using a new film from Rollei- RPX 400 for both 35mm and 120 recently. It’s cheap, gritty and so far lovely to develop and scan. The ability to pull back highlights or over exposed frames is pretty spectacular too if I’m honest. Actually, for 35mm work I much prefer this film to my usual Ilford HP5 now. This series of images are going towards a larger project as I capture more trees in Hagley over coming months after spending what seems like an eternity trying to work out how I could share my love for this Christchurch park though photography.

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Beekeeper Robert.

I met Robert at the North Canterbury Beekeeprs Club (like many I’ve captured!) and he was kind enough to invite me and Thomas to his home to capture his portrait with his dogs and chickens. We chatted about family mostly and Robert helped suggest some more leads within the Beekeeping community to help me capture more diversity. Some chat about technology unfolded, and seems to be a topic in the community that divides. For example, technologies such as automatic weighing sensors underneath hives indicate optimal honey extraction vs traditional methods of checking by hand. It’s these types of electronic methods and approaches that commercial ventures, not all it seems, can utilise for better yields of Honey. Or liquid gold, you could say.

During the development of one roll of three, I unfortunately removed the ‘light sealing funnel’ from a development tank and the whole roll was instantly ruined. It’s never nice when you loose images and especially when they were the ‘kookiest’ of the set. Robert would be game to re-shoot this set I’m sure, but part of me believes what is meant to be is meant to be, and re-shooting is not true to the natural progression of the project. I’m pretty happy with the set regardless.

Yes, this is twice within a week I’ve messed up during the development stage, and I disrespected the process, so it disrespected me I guess. I declared that I would stop developing in the evenings and went ahead and did exactly that while tired once again. I’ve now swapped things around, and moved development 100% to the following day, and scanning negatives if required into the evening. I’ve learnt my lesson. Next week I’m going to slow things down more. Anyway, next week I’m going to photograph a husband and wife operation near the Southern Alps, and they employ all casual staff who are Mums. I may have hit a jackpot for documenting more females within the community, and I’ll share more about this later.

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Megan and Steve – Mount Lyford Honey.

This photoshoot was in two parts and my Wife Amy, and Son Thomas came along for the experience. We headed to Megan’s Amberly home first on route to Mount Lyford Honey where we met her Daughter Sophie who is also a beekeeper (who I’ll be photographing soon), and her five + dogs. We then headed to meet Steve, Megans partner, who owns the Mount Lyford operations, and based in Lyford. We got there quite late and the light was perfect, but fading fast, so we got straight to it, with views of Mount Lyford who really put on a beautiful display for us with no cloud covering her peak.

We captured around the property, inside the honey packing operations, and finally in Steves living room and a truly magnificent mirror- a giant Piranha. We chatted about all sorts of bee talk and mostly surrounding the technologies in the industry as well as how not disturbing the bees during honey extraction not only keeps them alive, it also improves the yield. By all accounts it can take upto 2 years for a colony to settle, grow and be happy enough to then produce excess honey outside of the amount required to sustain the colony.

Mount Lyford Honey prides itself on the fact their honey is 100% natural and derived from the available flowers, rather than feeding the colonies refined sugar. A practice that apparently is very common within the New Zealand beekeeping community. After I capture Sophie, who is a keen horse rider, I would have documented the complete crew at Mount Lyford Honey, who have all been brilliant to get to know and spend time with. Thanks for organising everything Megan! During the development of one roll, the ‘funnel lid’ of the Paterson tank fell out when I was pouring the chemistry back into the bottle. The light thankfully was not direct from above and leaks were manageable during post editing. The negatives were mostly OK but I lost a few images due to fogging and a crazy contrast shift, that breaks my heart. It was a mistake that could have been avoided too if I had simply the next day, as I was very tired. I must slow down and respect the developing process more.

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Safe & Effective.

An exploration and observation of COVID 19 anxieties and fears related to lockdown and the 2021 New Zealand immunisation program. The text to voice recording is a small sample of resources and information found at https://covid19.govt.nz.

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Rakaia Gorge Track.

The Rakaia Gorge Track is about an hours drive from Christchurch and I’ve walked this beautiful hike maybe 5 times now. I’ve been craving some wilderness time since lockdown, and as much as I love Hagley Park and the walk to it along Papanui Road, I would be happy to never take that route on foot again after more than 150 KM.

We are blessed to have such stunning parks in Christchurch and the rolling Port Hills, but the mountains are where I feel most freedom and a profound connection to Mother Nature. The Rakaia Gorge Track was a good introduction back to hikes with climbs, with the Southern Alps literally shouting to me with their sweet sweet winds. The sun was shining, birds singing and people on the track were happy and open. The hike lasted about 4 hours with some detours, tree hugging (yes I’m a hippy at heart), and meditating on the light at the main attraction- the stunning Rakaia Gorge. It was a shock to the legs though after so much flat. The burn was real.

To walk amongst Earths wonder is a grounding experience for me, and always utterly profound the wilder it gets. During a deeply forested part of the trail, I stopped with the sun glinting through the wisdom that surrounded me, and I had an overwhelming realisation that everything was going to be OK. Mother Nature is fighting back and being even closer by her side moving forward is the right path. If you actually stop, look and listen next time you are surrounded by her wonder, you too will feel this realisation too.

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