Sep 29, 2009

35 years ago. Mum, Kingfish and a smile.

From the day she could walk to literally the day she died she was fishing or thinking about fishing.
These beauties were caught in a couple of hours fishing with a hand line off Sanfords wharf in Tauraga harbour. This was a very regular catch...mum had the nack.
Now we can travel for 80 kilometers in our little boat and fish all day in the deep ocean and almost never get a haul like this.
Her dad, his dad and his dad were all fisherman....its what we do. (Well except me!)


Saturday out and about




Sep 25, 2009

21 Years Ago


Paul, David, Robert, Elise.
1988 just prior to the first Tauranga harbour bridge being completed.
These kids are all adults now with full and interesting lives.
To me it's yesterday. How fast time flies when you are having fun.

Sep 24, 2009

Football season over for 2009

Phew! what a season.
So what the hell have I done all winter out there on the park?
As all you family members know I am seldom seen on Saturdays between 2pm and 5pm . This is when I get out on to the football field and shoot pictures of games . Then I am lost in the computer room for another 3 or more hours processing all the images.
I like to try and capture the peak of action. Its a challenge and its enjoyable and very good practice. Usually after two games I will have up to 150 shots (I don't used multi frame sequences. All single shots)
After processing I send a package of selected shots of each game to the web site manager for the OFC (Club web site), burn a disc of all the shots for the overall games organiser and maybe send off individual shots to people who have asked for them.
The teams I have followed this year have been all the senior mens teams from the Otumoetai Football club and the Bethlehem Boys 1st XI.
I always get asked why do you do this?
Well its enjoyable, its photography, its giving back to the community just like all the people around out there who help and encourage sporting activities and make them happen. It never ceases to amaze me just how generous people can be with their time and energy in particular when it comes to helping our kids into sport. I am also amazed at the commitment and conviction of some of the more senior people who play football.
Its not all niceness and joy out there. Some of the things I see and hear just can't be put on this blog!
I still don't understand the game!
I enjoy and appreciate the people I have met through taking football photos and they continue to try and explain all the little quirks and regulations of the game to me. Poor them!
Here are a couple of the teams from 2009.


Sep 16, 2009

Kiwi Melting Pot

This quaint little chapel at the Wakapuaka cemetery in Nelson sits right alongside a number of this family's ancestral graves. All unmarked (Typical no money!).
Which brings me right to the point of this post. Like many Kiwi families we come from a long line of mixed cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Its long been a discussion point when we get together and frankly most of the "understanding" that prevails in regard to where we came from is incorrect or unclear or too complicated to remember.
So now I am happy to clear it up here and now.
This branch of the O'Sullivan family has the following origins.
Our fathers side = Irish/Irish(GG Grandparents)
Our mothers side = French/Maori/English (GG Grandparents)
Sorry to all those who believed we had Norwegian origins.


Ken & Pauline 1980's


Sep 7, 2009

California Wildfires

California Wildfires a spectacular documentary...very scary...very humbling! Nature rules end of story.
Link

We didn't start the fire

An old...but good Billy Joel song put to pictures. Its 50 years of history in 3 minutes according to my friend Jerry who sent it on to me. This is especially for the slightly older set. Its a little slow to down load. Turn the sound up.
Link