Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens

Yesterday, Sunday 20th November, I was invited to the opening of Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens Exhibition opening for 2012 near Helensville - just passed Kaukapakapa. Besides the glasses of bubbly and cream scones being a draw card for someone as perpetually hungry as me, I had a great time looking at the sculpture. When I mean looking, I mean staring at each piece through my camera pretty much the whole time and on the run. I had about an hour and a half to go round, which sounds a lot, but not really when there are something like 61 sculptures to view. I had baby sitting, but just till 5pm (and as it was I got back a half past five), which was added incentive to make the most/be efficient with my time.

So there I was looking, looking my brain rattling an internal monologue something like, 'light, more light, faster shutter, no slower shutter, change the iso, zoom in, move over there a bit, nearly, bugger, shutter too slow overexposed, where's the best angle, will those people move?, where's the backlight coming from?, don't breathe, nah that's blurry, oooh good shot! don't twist an ankle, wow that's beautiful, wish so and so could see that...' and words to that effect.

Really, despite the fantastic sculpture being the main draw card, I think it was also the exercise of photographing each piece that made it a distinctive experience for me. I had to think on the run, process each piece quickly, ask questions about lighting, how it fit the space and so on. My experience was immediate and strongly based on how I could compose a good shot. The photos shown here, are not just my favourite pieces, but also the ones that made good images - the ones that didn't photograph so well were mainly due to my fault (blurry), not because they weren't any good as sculptures!

If you want to visit for yourself, see Kaipara Coast Sculpture gardens website for details. Essentially it's about an hour's drive from central Auckland and takes about 1 to 1.5 hours to walk round the 1km trail, no wheelchair access but kids buggies are fine. They are putting a cafe into the plant centre apparently which I vote for with both hands up, but currently there is really nice seating undercover for picnics (wine please!). The plant centre is a great view and there are loads of little garden decorations to buy - I love the glass wall flowers for $9.95 each!

View from my seat on the grass during opening speeches