Sunday afternoon relaxation

A beautiful day in Dunedin, finished with a good book and a glass of wine on the deck.

Standing out from the crowd

A nice walk in the botanical gardens.

Self portrait

Wandering around the Octagon, camera in hand.

Regent Theatre

The Regent Theatre is a beautiful old theatre in the centre of the Octagon. I love how retro the sign looks.

Owl butterfly

Caligo memnon or Owl is from Central and South America and is 12 to 15cm in size. I had a lovely time walking around in the butterfly house at the Otago Museum. Well worth a visit if you are in town.

Gecko

I saw this guy today at the Otago Museum in the tropical rainforest enclosure.

Circles

New York state of mind

Chick's Hotel

My boys are in a four piece band called Gunslinger. They have been playing at the Chick's Hotel in Port Chalmers on Saturdays. It is a very old and beautiful building.

More St Clair Poles

Another photo of the jetty poles at St Clair.

St Clair Poles

I have been playing with depth of field. In this image I liked how the most distinguishing feature of St Clair Beach was sent out of focus, giving an indication of where the photo was taken in a dreamy like way. A bit like a hazy summer time memory

Otago Champs

It was the Otago Champs athletics carnival and of course the girl was in fine form, placing in hurdles, sprints and relay.

Warmth and reflection

I bought myself some beads in a lovely shop and couldn't resist taking this shot. I quite like the clarity of the reflected image as well as the warm colours.

Blue sky

I have a friend who takes amazing photographs with the blue sky as the connecting element. He inspired me to take this picture of an old bike in Oamaru.

Boats in Oamaru

My daughter had a touch rugby tournament in Oamaru today, so I had the opportunity to look around and take some photos. The water was such a stunning colour and the contrast with the yellow really caught my eye.

Chair thing take 2

I wasn't that happy with the photo I took yesterday on my iPhone so I went back today with the DSLR to have another go. I like this a bit better.

Embracing the chair thing

I have decided to embrace my need for photographing chairs and play with the idea. This is a playground in St Clair.

Master and apprentice

I spent the day in Christchurch yesterday with our CORE media team. It was great to see how we each work, and share ideas.

Kidz @ Conference

I have spent the last two days at Kidz@Conference at the Dunedin College of Education. We have put this event on now for the last five years and it is always so exciting. The kids come for two days of workshops using all different technologies with the idea that they can then help implement these back at school. Each school also sends a teacher along with a couple of kids so it is good PD for the teachers too. My job is to get all the kid's work up onto the wiki before the end of the second day. I have tried to include links to information about the software as well so there are examples of work and information for how to get started in your classroom.

Another run to St Clair Beach

Finished the day with another run to the beach. This is taken on my iPhone. A friend has pointed out that I seem to have a thing about chairs lately. So I tried not to take a photo with a chair in it, but if you look carefully to the very left - oops.

St Clair Beach run

I have a new favourite route for my daily run. Now that the sun is shining and Dunedin is so stunning, it is a real treat to run down to St Clair Beach, enjoy the sights and sounds and then return home.

Follow the leader

It was a beautiful day and as I walked around Balclutha, I couldn't help but muse about how lucky we are to live in this country. I miss some things about the big city but beauty is in every corner of New Zealand and I never get tired of it.

Balclutha bridge

I spent the day in Balclutha today while my daughter tried out for the Otago touch rugby team (she got in). Balclutha is famous for its bridge and the beautiful river it spans.

Love teacher

Sitting at my desk today I noticed this gift that I was given by a student a few years back. I love what I am doing now and I enjoy seeing the big picture of education, but every now and then something like this reminds me of how much I miss the kids.

Mt Cargill

Was a glorious day in Dunedin today so I climbed Mt Cargill. I used my iPhone Nike GPS app to see how far it was - 3.4km up to the top. I used my iPhone Foursquare app to tell the world I had got there, and I used my iPhone to listen to the TWIT podcast on my way up and down. Somehow I think my whole adventure into nature sort of missed the point.

This is the view from the top.

Christchurch flower gardens

My last shot from Christchurch was taken on the morning I was leaving. The flowers in the bright morning light were so vibrant. Loved my week at ULearn10.

Blossom in Christchurch

The blossoms were out and beautiful in Christchurch. The week was perfect, even though the ground kept shaking.

ULearn10

I have spent the last week in Christchurch at the ULearn10 conference. What a wonderful week! Nearly 2000 people all getting excited about the education of our children and sharing with each other. My week was spent interviewing people for the CORE EDtalks website and I've got to say, I enjoyed every minute of it. It was great to meet so many people and get to talk for a little while about what they are passionate about within education.

Blossom

I went for a drive out to Oamaru yesterday for the North Otago ICT conference. My presentation was on how to use video in the classroom. These striking blossoms caught my eye against the clear blue sky backdrop.

St Clair Beach

A beautiful sunny weekend in Dunedin. These are the abandoned poles of a long forgotten jetty on the shores of St Clair Beach.

Spring

The flowers are starting to bloom, the sun is peaking through and Jessica is back out in the garden. It must be spring.