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A couple of months ago I visited my friend Dave for a weekend of photography. It's always fun to take photos with someone else as they view things in ways that differ from you so you can start to see a little what their world looks like. We started by driving out in the forested area near where Dave lives. Since I'm meant to be travelling back down to Dave's for another photo jaunt I thought it was probably about time I put some of the first lot of pictures up here.

Wood Explosion: This was one of my early photos from the trip when Dave was playing with my macro lens. I stole it back off him to take this picture. I liked the way that the wood looked as if there was a minature explosion happening that had become frozen in the wood.

While wandering around in the woods I spotted what I believe was a sheep skull just sitting on it's own near a tree. Dave seemed quite taken with it and since it was clean I popped it in a bag so Dave could take it home to try photographing it in more controlled conditions. It wasn't long before I spotted another one, Dave questioning how I could possibly spot these things in all the chaos of the forest floor. It probably helps that I, more luckily than Dave, don't have to wear glasses. This was also popped into the bag and on we walked. The final 'skull' I spotted and pointed out to Dave was a bit 'fresher' than the others and still had a spine and some ribs attached. It was also sitting in a pile of loose hair. I'm not one to be put off by some rotting flesh and a slight lingering of smell so I got up close enough to capture the following picture, which I guess now I've explained the conditions of capture, probably doesn't seem as cool to you as it still does to me!

Animal Skull: An animal skull and accompanying spine and ribs.

I'm not sure what sort of animal it was as it didn't look like other sheep skulls I'd seen but that might be because it was small enough to have been a lambs and so the propotions may have been sufficiently different to confuse me. The visible teeth were grinding vegetarian type teeth though I believe.

Further on in the day we came across a stream.

Leafy Waterfall: My friend Dave spent a good 30 minutes trying to get this mini waterfall to look how he wated it by poking it with a stick. We got some strange looks from a passing horse and rider who wondered what the hell we were doing. Eventually I ended up sliding down down the bank on my bum into the middle of the stream (he reckoned he would sink) and taking this pic to memorialise our grand stuggle against the forces of wet leaves.

Another of the places we visited on our travels was a cemetery. Cemeteries are cool as they provide lots of atmosphere and cool statues. We spent a bit of time playing with my infrared filter and looking at the old tombstones.

Cemetery: A memorial to soldiers from New Zealand who died in the Second World War.

Sky Portal: I went for a slightly unnatural look on this one but I think it works. It's a view through one of the windows at Racton Monument.

Since Dave has put a picture of me up on his blog entry for this weekend I thought I woud return the favour.

Dave: Since Dave put up a picture of me on his blog I thought I'd return the favour. I like this picture as the angle of the tripod leg appeals to my warped sense of humour. ;-) Plus it shows him doing something he enjoys.

Towards the end of the weekend Dave decided to try his hand at taking a set of pictures to form a panorama. After a short discussion of how he might do it he set up his camera while I sat off to the side to watch. I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of Dave during the 'creative process' which I've strung together into a short mov video file. It kept me amused while he was doing his thing and doesn't look too bad in the process.

Overall it was a fun weekend and hopefully next weekend will be similar.

You can see Dave's version of events over at his blog in 'Kat's Weekend'.