Andrew Spencer Photography

It’s Spring, Kaikoura Wedding time

Spring is here, although some days you have to wonder with the rampant weather that cruises past.
It felt like spring this weekend though, with a beautiful couple, a great looking bridal party, bright spring colours and some sunshine, we had all the elements of a very super spring day.
Thanks for sharing the fun guys and there sure was much fun to be had.

Flowers by Carrie

Hair – Waves Hairstylists in the West End  Ph 03 319 5780

Makeup – Indulge

Accommodation – Waves

Venue – Donegal House

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Kaikoura Real Estate photography

There is an interesting mix of architecture in Kaikoura. I get to sample the diversity when I photograph properties for a couple of the astute real estate agents in town. There is everything from cutting edge architectural masterpieces to contemporary seaside baches to 1950s designs from the state house era.

One thing that makes Kaikoura different for photographing houses and properties is that almost everywhere you go there is a view of the ocean or the mountains. When I think of the photography I have done of houses in the city I really do enjoy the big vista of Kaikoura as a backdrop.

I usually get the tricky jobs, the houses with big windows that let the bright sunlight stream into huge living areas, contrast that real estate agents with Fuji pocket cameras are never going to deal with and I am constantly telling them to do the selling while I make the marketing material.

Using lighting, a variety of lenses and having good local knowledge for when to photograph, along with efficient post processing systems I can usually (weather dependent, and I call the shots on when I photograph) deliver images very quickly and cost effectively. All images are delivered as a print and web copy on CDROM. I am about to trial a flash drive exchange system for file delivery with my key clients in a bid to do our bit to save the planet. I shudder when I think of all the CDROMs sitting around or thrown out after marketing programs.

A guy a few days ago asked me how I was going to make a photo of his kitchen with the Seaward Kaikouras in the background and sun pouring through the windows. I told him I would rather be dealing with sun and mountains than a next door neighbours clothes line and that he had forgotten what a beautiful place we live in.

Kaikoura Realty – Joe Van Rooyen

Harcourts Kaikoura – Janice Dreaver

CRT Kaikoura – Kathy Thompson

Bayleys Kaikoura – Robin Gibson

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Kaikoura New Wharf – no more.

Call me old fashioned but progress doesn’t always seem like a step for the better. I’m thinking about the New Wharf, it ‘s been part of the Kaikoura landscape since around 1909 (The Old Wharf is around the corner and wasn’t up to the job of a busy town so the New Wharf was built). For all these years it has jutted out into the ocean amongst the lime rocks braving the forces of nature.

The fishing careers of countless kids have started here, some of them using the wharf to land their catches when they grew up and became fishermen. It has been used for work and play for 90 years.

I spent hours at the wharf and made 100s of images of it and from it. It was a place where you could almost feel the history. The creaking, gnarly planks had weathered a thousand storms, strained under 1000s of tons of cargo.

The Wharf is the first place to see the sun in the morning and the last to loose it at night and I would be there. I would go there in the middle of the day and I would go there in the middle of the night. I would go and watch the angry ocean pummel the poor old Wharf, I would paddle under it on my kayak.

It was one of the most favourite places for wedding images with wedding couples loving it almost as much as me. Standing on the Wharf on a clear day you are surrounded by an ocean of blue sea and sky. On a rough day there was the rustic timber of the decking contrasting with the beautiful people.

But the New Wharf was getting old, the osteoporosis in it’s piles meant it was no longer safe and something had to be done. For months now there have been cranes swooping over the Wharf, picking pieces off it like a shag dismembers a fish. There was just a carcass. There are noises of pile drivers putting in new pieces, the foundations of some concrete pier that Kaikoura is soon to inherit.

I’m sad, I can’t even look now, I don’t want to know what is going on down there and when I drive past I look straight ahead so I can’t see what is happening.

And I can’t help thinking that surely the New Wharf could have got some new legs, a hip replacement or whatever it took to make it strong again. I’ve lost a good old friend.

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