Red Boat at Shelley Beach

Shelley Beach is located on Waiheke Island a short 30 minute "Quick Cat" ferry ride from downtown Auckland, NZ. While staying there this past February I caught these seagulls availing themselves of this boat on the bay. It was early morning and the water had a beautiful glassy appearance.

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 220 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Elderly Woman Near Cook Islands Village

I snapped this shot of an elderly woman taking a break on the grass at the Pasifika Festival in March. This was taken near the Cook Islands village.

Tattooed Polynesian Guy at Pasifika

Tattooing is a traditional art form in Polynesian culture that was a mark of rank and warriorhood. Tattooing was an incredibly painful and drawn-out process in which the skin was actually chiseled! In pre-European days, the ends of pointed sticks were used to carve the flesh and rub ashes and charcoal into the wounds. Once the European settlers arrived, the sticks were abandoned in favor of actual chisels. And people complain today about how much it hurts! (More here about the origins of tattooing in the South Pacific and the art of Charles F Goldie, an early New Zealand artist who painted portraits of Maori with traditional tattooing, including ta moko, the face tattoo).

This photo was taken at the Pasifika Polynesian festival in Auckland in March 2007

Canon EOS 20D
1/50sec at f/5.6
ISO 100
Canon 70-300mm lens at 70mm

Cook Islands Dancer

Action on the stage at the Cook Islands Village at Pasifika 2007. A young Cook Islands woman dances traditional dance in bright orange headdress and grass skirt.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 22omm
1/400s at f5/5
ISO 100

Samoan Youth

This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year.

Canon EOS 20D
1/30sec at f/20
ISO 200
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm

Faafafine Performing at Pasifika Festival 2007

The Samoan "village" at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland in March 2007 was by far the biggest of them all. No wonder, since the Samoan community is the largest non-indigenous Polynesian community in Auckland. (The Pasifika Festival, by the way, features the Polynesian races of the south Pacific island, and does not include the Polynesian natives of New Zealand, the Maoris.

As mentioned in the previous post, Fa'afafine at the Pasifika Festival 2007, fa'afafine are cross-dressing Samoan males. They took the stage at the Samoan village before a very large crowd. This photo is of one of the fa'afafine performing with her group.