Tales from the Valley

Everything here comes from the Pohangina Valley.


[Sometime within the next day, Leonie will post another short piece by me on Weekends Collected. If it isn't up when you visit, check later. Remember to submit something yourself, too.]


All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

The path we all take

A composite. The main photograph's from No. 2 Line in April 2011.

Over to you.


All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Dawn in the fjords of Chile [III]

The first sunlight grazed the peaks at about 5:30 a.m. as we sailed steadily north through the fjords of Chile. Only a few other keen people had risen, but the early start rewarded us with scenes like this.


[6 December 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 45 mm, ISO 100, 1/125 at f11]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

On the edge

All life lives on the edge.


All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

On the train from Oruro to Uyuni

I have no idea how people survive in places where water seems like a fiction, something old people tell stories about. "When I was a chica, it rained here," she says, but her granddaughter doesn't understand.

The thunderclouds always seemed to rise somewhere else, behind mountains, over someone else's shrivelled crops.

[Read more on Pohanginapete]


[22 October 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 34 mm, ISO 200, 1/1250 at f8]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Patē on the No. 1 Line track

For the first time in a month I walked up the No. 1 Line track. Not to the top, mind you: just to the lookout at the top of the steep section, roughly halfway up. After a month of no significant exercise – thanks to the 'flu, the weather, and work – I've decided to regain my fitness gradually rather than wrecking myself trying to do too much too soon.

I enjoyed the walk, and on the way down stopped to prowl around with the camera, mostly looking for textures and patterns. This small Schefflera digitata insisted on being photographed. Note that although the English common name for patē is seven-finger, leaves can have 3–9 leaflets, so when you count eight on this, please don't think I've misidentified it. The finely serrated edges and the texture of the leaflets make this easy to identify [he says, crossing his fingers].

I felt as if I'd arrived home after a long absence.

[Update/Public Service Announcement: New post up on Pohanginapete. A continuation of thoughts and impressions from last year's travelling in South America.]

[14 September 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 38 mm, ISO 800, 1/25 at f8]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

No. 1 Line midwinter

Rain had begun to close in over the valley as I drove back down No. 1 Line at the beginning of August, after a walk to the top of the track. Some paddocks had been grazed so hard they seemed little more than bare ground, gnawed and trampled. I couldn't help thinking of the devastation caused by the nineteenth century european colonisers, whose main means of farming was to burn everything and sow seed into the ash.


[1 August 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 100 mm, ISO 100, 1/160 at f8. Lots of post-processing in Lightroom and Photoshop.]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Kennels, plum, sky

Back in May this year, autumn had begun to grip the land. Low sun, the leaves shrivelling, a nip in the morning air. Now, at the other end of winter, this kind of scene can be seen again, but I much prefer the promise of lengthening days, warming weather, and lower river levels that allow safer access to the Ruahine.


[12 May 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 14 mm, ISO 200, 1/200 at f8]
  
All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Dog on the Salar

Not all the wildlife was wild—some of the domestic wildlife was just as appealing. This little guy lived where we stayed on our first night on the Salar de Uyuni.


[24 October 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 45 mm, ISO 200, 1/100 at f11]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

James's (puna) flamingo

At somewhere around 5000 metres, the ability of anything to live seems astonishing. Yet the saline lakes of Bolivia's altiplano were home to hundreds of birds, including many of these James's (puna) flamingos (Phoenicoparrus jamesi). I never tired of seeing them.


[25 October 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 300 mm, ISO 200, 1/2000 at f8]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor