Innocence

I was photographing the NZ Ultimate Frisbee National Championships on Saturday, on a beautiful Spring day. Unfortunately, the champs were being held in the indoor arenas... At lunchtime I wandered outside and found a rugby match in progress—it was a game between Manawatu and Taranaki, but I'm not sure of the grade.

With so much glorious sunlight around, I decided to take a few photos, mostly for the sake of enjoying the ease of taking them: the poor and horribly-coloured light indoors had been frustrating me intensely. I got a few nice action shots, but this was my favourite—the ref had just pinged this Taranaki player for a head-high tackle. Obviously the player felt hard done by... The subsequent shot at goal was successful.

I'd like to have something more profound to say, but I don't. I seem to be in one of those periods when so much is happening, when there's so much to think about, that concentrating on one issue somehow seems like ignoring others, which may be more important. The problem is that I don't know if they're really more important because I haven't thought enough about them. Something of a conundrum, really (actually, I suspect it's not so much a conundrum as an excuse).

But maybe it's also that I have so much on right now. This is shaping up to be the week from hell: more photos to process; another OutsideIn session to photograph and process; the image files for the exhibition to select and prepare; and, I'm contract editing again. Might be some late nights coming up. Like this one.

Oh yes, as I mentioned several weeks ago, there's an election on Saturday. We get to have our say about our Government for the next three years. As is the case with most elections, the proliferation of cynicism, spin, attempted vote-buying and mendacity depresses me, but it's the refusal of most parties¹ to address the really important issues that's the worst feature. For example, while the price of petrol is rocketing, both major parties are promising to build a new motorway in Auckland; moreover, they're arguing over how fast it can be built. And National's even saying they'll scrap the proposed carbon tax. Presumably their logic is that the more we use our vehicles and the less we care about global warming, the faster the planet will heat up and, consequently, the less we'll have to pay in heating bills.

I dunno. It would be easy to just switch off and pretend the whole thing was just a bad dream. But it isn't; it's real; and the only switching off I intend doing will be intended to conserve energy, not as a tacit mandate for irresponsible politicians.

1 But not all. You shouldn't have to think too hard to realise which parties have actively campaigned for human rights, peace and justice. And if you want to see how the parties stack up regarding their environmental policies, check out this site. Finally, if you're overseas, here's how you can vote.

Photo and words copyright 2005 Pete McGregor