October 2014 - More Photography

As much as I enjoyed planning future trips sometimes February seemed very far away which is why in October I finally signed up for a photography course and for the second time a salsa course. The salsa course was inspired by a friend who wanted to learn so I decided to go along with her whereas the photography course was something I had been hoping to do since I realised I would be staying in Wellington long term.

The photography course was a great success. I met some interesting people and learned lots of new things about my camera as well as new techniques. The main benefit was that it gave me a reason to take my camera out and practice. Our first assignment involved a day trip out to Makara where we concentrated on my favourite kind of photography, landscapes. Despite being my most comfortable area I felt that I learnt a lot and it was nice to be in a group of people who were as excited about photographing the same thing 20 different times in 20 different ways as I am.

Our second assignment was portrait photos of friends and ourselves. I roped one of my flatmates into being an impromptu model one afternoon then attempted to take some self portraits using my tripod and timer. The photos of my flatmate turned out a lot better than the ones of me. Partly this was due to the fact that it’s hard to smile when it’s just you and partly because I’m never overly fond of being on the other side of the lens! I was fortunate that another friend was also happy to pose. She like me is a keen photographer so she was happy to help me improve my skills and even lent me her prime lens so I could try it out. Our third assignment was low light which was much more in my comfort zone. There was a heavy emphasis on varying exposure times to see the effects of a shorter versus longer exposure times.

I think the photocourse helped rejuvenate my enthusiasm for life in Wellington as in October I managed to see my friends a lot more. Of course this could also have been due to the fact that one of my favourite people returned to Wellington later in the month just in time for me to help her celebrate her thirtieth birthday. The salsa course with my friend didn’t go so well and we both lost interest in it fairly quickly but we were happy that we had given it a go and it is always nice to spend time with my friends as finding the time could be difficult when I was working every weekend.

Wellington is a brilliant city and my dissatisfaction in previous months was very much due to my inability to enjoy all it has to offer so I was delighted to find my enthusiasm returning just in time to go see the T-Rex exhibition at Te Papa. Finally as if dinosaurs, Dr Who and friends weren’t enough I ended the month on a great high. Lorde had returned to New Zealand and we playing a gig in Wellington on the very last night of the month. Since her music had been the soundtrack to our road trip the previous year I was really excited about going with the same two friends. She was brilliant live and came across as a genuinely lovely person. It was brilliant end to a much better month which I hoped was a sign of better times to come.