Just taken, National Hockey League match in Whangarei New Zealand, Northland vs Midlands. Northland have a very strong team this year and have won all 4 games to date. In this match, Northland won 2-1. This photo shows New Zealand representative player Charlotte Harrison, of Northland, outrunning the opposition. More photos of this and other games can be viewed at my photo hosting site:

Thanks to the Mrsich family for providing this photo. The task was to restore the photo of the bride and groom, and remove the others in the wedding party. Main task was to fill in the surrounding area with more curtain and carpet. The customers were very happy with the results.

A medium size project requiring I scan 110 photos and print multiple copies. Graham called me saying he had whole lot of photos of his wife, now deceased. They spanned numerous years and he wanted to give copies to all his sons, before, in his own words, “it’ll be too late to do.” The photos were of varying sizes. All the black and whites images were contrast corrected, the colour ones adjusted for colour shift and fade. The photos were printed to a standard 6 x 4 size looking like new again. Graham was thrilled with the results.

Or should I say: “Right from the horse’s mouth”. In this photo, the mouth of the horse was open, distracting from the overall image. The task was to not only close the mouth but make it look perfectly natural. Hence the woman’s arm and bridal needed to be adjusted according to the difference in angle caused by the mouth being closed. Very difficult to get perfectly right, but it came out looking a pretty good horse… of course….

Thanks to Dave from Auckland for providing this excellent photo to be printed onto canvas (This is just a small portion of a 58 x 45cm print). Dave was at the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona in July 2006. At the time Dave was trying to get his girlfriend Cec to take a photo of him having a mexican standoff with the bull.

In Dave’s own words, “It was a bit of an “accidental volunteer” as the bull turned around and everyone else ran backwards. I was creeping forward to try and touch the bull). We were standing looking at each other for ages (2 seconds) before the bull charged and I pulled out a sidestep - even managed to slap the back of the bull with the newspaper you hold to fend off bulls and did the whole “Ole!” - that arrogance was to get its come-uppance later as that was the second closest I got to a bull that day! Later on I went straight over the top of one (I had to jump or get trampled when one went on a mad charge).

It was an exhilarating experience, but also tempered with some regret as when the bulls get cornered they start to get really scared (I hated that part, but enjoyed watching the bull absolutely cream some people - their horns are taped up so the damage is more broken bones and bruising, except the person who got collected big time and ended up flying about 20-30 feet unconscious!). This photo was taken in the bull ring with the small bulls that are released after the main run (you run through the streets with the big nasty dangerous bulls used for fighting and when you get to the bull ring they herd those off to the stocks and release the little “safer” ones for 1/2 an hour).

The Spanish Bull Fighting culture is not for everyone (definitely not for me) but it is a cultural experience I won’t forget (Along with being chased by elephants and waking up in a tent with a lion pacing outside in Africa). ”

This taken from a 3 Megapixel camera on the 1 Meg setting. Great shot Cec, cheers Dave!

Thanks to Krystan for permission to use this image. Krystan called me last week needing the photo of this boy put onto canvas in a hurry. It was Monday and she needed it done before Thursday. This was to attend the wedding of the boy’s mother. The wedding date had been brought forward as the bride’s father was dying from cancer. Krystan is the boy’s god parent and wanted a memorable gift for the occasion. I was happy to pull out all the stops and get the print done in time. The photo was turned to black and white and background clutter removed.

This watercolour was painted by Harriet Watson in 1924 as she toured around the upper North Island, New Zealand. In total there were 17 images painted on her tour, done on a tiny notebook about 3 inches wide. Most were in good condition. Even though there were no instructions I decided to give this one a partial clean up then print (at no extra charge). Thanks to B. O’Shea for permission to use this image.

Recent project completed for the Maungatapere Interdenominational Memorial Church, 15 minutes west of Whangarei, New Zealand. They had a group of photos of soldiers killed during the First World War. Many were suffering from decay. My job was to scan the photos in and fix them for redisplay. Of note, the church was apparently only one of two established in New Zealand to memorialise fallen soldiers of World War I. Thanks to the Groves for giving permission to use this photo.

Getting a web log up and running - sorting out categories and presentation. I’m doing this to show the many varied and interesting jobs I get to do. Over the years I’ve heard a lot of stories of family histories and thought it would be great to share some of them. Also show some of the  canvas and photo printing projects that come my way - with the permission of the owners of the photos.

Now added banner from one of my image collections. Starting to collate information to put on blog. Look better now, more to do…