Photoshots Blog by Tony Stewart

I cant help but reflect on how quick both national and local relief services have swung into gear. It seems we have been blessed with a massive and immediate response effort. To a lay observer, it seems the reaction of the local council (as well as governmental and corporate agencies), has been nothing short of magic. There seems to be a plan, people have tasks, things are happening… Best of all, people are making decisions.

It would appear (again as a lay observer) that damage from Saturday’s quake would largely be due to two main factors. The age, therefore construction style of the property, and / or the soil base upon which they were built. I was about Opawa & Mairehau today. By and large, things looked pretty normal in those two different suburbs. There was a distinct lack of liquifaction mounds, and little obvious structural damage. Weird, unlike Halswell, there are virtually no ground fissures.

Observations to date;

- expect the unexpected when you least expect it!

- there is a pretty good reason the ads tell you you might need an emergency kit. The problem is most people think they wont need it, and any disaster will be someone else’s concern.

- my wife is convinced chocolate is an emergency staple!

- CHCH drivers all of a sudden appear more courteous!

- there is no rhyme or reason sometimes. See the photo below where concrete has snapped, but glass remains intact.

- the TV actually looks a bit better on the floor. The cat is chuffed as all artwork, vases and frames remain at ground level so she thinks this was for her benefit!

- actually, there seems to be very, very few broken windows.

- We were bloody lucky. If the quake happened say 12 hrs earlier, deaths would have been inevitable when shops were trading and streets busy.

- There will be many stories of humanity, near misses and what could have been. Like the petrified family staying on the 24th floor of a hotel, the diary owner’s ‘make-an-offer’ payment when power to his till was down. Like the army of students giving their labour for free while varsity was closed. People who normally sleep in a certain place, but didn’t that night only to find bricks where they would been. Personally, I put two extra bottles of water in the freezer on Thursday, just in case we ever needed them. Why? I cant be sure.

Glasshouse safe, concrete cracked. Go figure?!

Workmen making repairs, and popped drain cover, Halswell, Wed 8th Sept 2010.

Roadside cracks, Halswell, Wed 8th Sept 2010.

Severe damage to road and bridge, Sabys Rd, Halswell, Wed 8th Sept 2010.

Garage with 'popped' forecourt, Bexley, Wed 8th Sept 2010.

Will update some quake photos here, largely taken about town today.

There were three main aftershocks last night, all over magnitude 5. This has continued to keep people on edge. Many parents look tired, from the anxiety of property damage, as well from as poor sleep having children sharing their beds at night.

Yet the community’s clean up efforts amaze me. Life goes on, and folk are hard at work.

Today roading crews were out scooping up waste dirt, rubbish trucks maintained their usual curb side collections, and neighbours continued to assist each other. Of course I can’t speak for other parts of town, only from my own observations. I do know there is immense devastation that still requires a great deal of input.

Post quake, CHCH, Monday 6th 2010

The quake has caused many fissures, often through people’s foundations. Despite the fact virtually all houses remain standing, and the structural damage is not initially obvious, yet is widespread through the city.

Post Quake, CHCH, Monday 6th 2010

Road asphalt lifted and pushed over the end of our driveway. Not a catastrophe by any means, yet common of damage throughout Halswell. There will be many 100’s kilometres of roads like this needing repair in the coming months (maybe years).

Post Quake, CHCH, Monday 6th 2010

To all the hard working engineers, fire crews, Police, civil defence staff, bulldozer drivers, etc… I have immense respect. They are all working damn hard, and many remain in harms way in the central city.

Post Quake, Central CHCH, Tuesday 6th 2010

Post Quake, CHCH, Tuesday 6th 2010

Workers scale a multi storey building in Latimer Square to check exterior damage.

Post Quake, CHCH, Tuesday 6th 2010

Police car used as bait trap for wild animals loose in the central city.
(just kidding – not wanting to be one to start a rumour).

Post Quake, Central CHCH, Tuesday 6th 2010

Manchester St – upper storey restaurant damage.

Post Quake, Central CHCH, Tuesday 6th 2010

Manchester St damage.

Post Quake, Central CHCH, Tuesday 6th 2010

Urban Search and Rescue team members assist shopkeepers remove valuables prior to likely building demolition, Manchester St.

Post Quake, Central CHCH, Tuesday 7th 2010

Central city police cordon and status report on checked building.

Post Quake, Central CHCH, Tuesday 7th 2010

Iconic Baptist Church, Madras St.

Post Quake, Central CHCH, Tuesday 7th 2010

Repertory Theatre, Kilmore St.

Post Quake, Central CHCH, Tuesday 7th 2010

Knox Church, Bealey Ave.

Post Quake, Central CHCH, Tuesday 7th 2010

Thank you to all the folk who have sent kind words and expressed concern on hearing about the Canterbury Earthquake early on Saturday morning. (4.35am Kiwi time, Sat 4th Sept 2010 ).

The reason for my delayed acknowledgement, I’m sorry, is that we were out of town!! We arrived back this morning, and spent most of the day getting everything sorted.

Long story short, we are all OK and our house has been lucky to escape with minor damage. Our road has lifted up 3-5 cm outside our drive, there are sand ‘volcanos’ all about (a natural occurance where mud is forced up to the surface upon soil liquifaction). Flying in this morning, the city didn’t appear to be a lot different to normal. But at commercial speed and altitude, this belied the obvious and grave danger that faces the central city, and seaward suburbs on sandier ground. Many buildings have been deemed ruined or unsafe.

Thoughts go out to the many hundreds of residents who have not come through with the same ease.

Water and sewerage are now major issues, but I have to say civil defence, emergency services have all swung into full gear. Thank goodness we live in a modern country with uncorrupted building codes, and first world resources. This was as bad as Haiti (in fact 7.1 vs Haiti at 7 richter scale, and similar depth). Yet they had significant deaths. So far we have had none.

Personally, I feel very, very lucky. Despite this, there is immense damage to civic infrastructure, & huge disruption to peoples lives businesses.

This afternoon, the sun was shining. In fact, was quite pleasant. You would never know it wasn’t life as normal in one sense. Yet snow is on the way tonight supposedly to low levels (don’t you love the NZ weather), and things can change at anytime. Schools are all closed for now. Buildings at our local school in  Halswell still stand, but on inspection the grounds are riddled with fissures, liquifaction mounds, and cracked concrete. In fact, that seems to be the case for most of CHCH.

I made it out briefly today, in part with some work recording some damage for insurance clients. I’ll paste photos here from the suburbs of Avonside, Sydenham and Haslwell.

Avonside earthquake damage, CHCH, Mon 6th Sept.

Avonside earthquake damage, CHCH, Mon 6th Sept.

Avonside earthquake damage, CHCH, Mon 6th Sept.

Halswell, CHCH, Mon 6th Sept.

Sand ‘volcanoes’ all throughout a paddock.

Halswell, CHCH, Mon 6th Sept.

Mounds of dirt left in the streets for collection. Many residents have cleaned their drives, drains and properties of the bubbling mud that oozed up.

Halswell, Mon 6th Sept.

Central city damage, Mon 6th Sept.

Central city damage, Mon 6th Sept.

Central city damage, Mon 6th Sept.

Central city damage, Mon 6th Sept.

Here two engineers survey Colombo St in Sydenham for damage. Normally a busy street full of cars.

Central city damage, Mon 6th Sept.

Had a smile here. All of Colombo St in Sydenham was cordoned off – except the WINZ office!

Damage to Dairy in Dallington, Mon 6th Sept.

Road damage, Halswell, CHCH, Mon 6th Sept.

Road damage, Halswell, CHCH, Mon 6th Sept.

Road damage, Halswell, CHCH, Mon 6th Sept.

Please enjoy this selection of wedding photos – they were all shot last summer, and is my latest portfolio AV.

Tony Stewart Weddings 2010 from Tony Stewart on Vimeo.

I’ve had a great fortnight with quite a variety of photographic content. Not everything can be shown here due to workflow in progress and production embargoes, but some snippets are posted below.

I feel very lucky to have a job that takes me out and about so much, meeting so many neat people.

Kids rugby training with the All Blacks for a banking client. Here Ritchie McCaw oversees tackling.

My hairdresser, who I was pleased to give her something back.

First song and these conference attendees were dancing hard out!

Destined for CD covers worldwide – good luck Rochelle!

Nearly had a long weekend! We were away at Tekapo with friends, and woke on Sunday to a wonderful blanket of snow. Burkes Pass was closed, and chains were required elsewhere. In all, about a foot of snow fell – up to half a metre in some places. By lunchtime the roads were cleared, and we had the green light to leave town. Actually, a bit of a disappointment if I was to be honest. Snowed in round a warm fire wouldn’t have been too bad.

For all prospective wedding couples, it gives me great pleasure to announce a special wedding discount. Book any package, for any staff member, for any summer 2010-2011 wedding date, and receive a 10% discount off the entire package price (and that even includes a saving on the gst rise due in October!).

All packages have been revised, and are offered for the first time this week.
The package discount is a winter special, for a limited time only. Email now for details. Book by the start of August to take advantage, to save hundreds of dollars.

In the past I have alluded to the fact family holidays and serious photography ventures are not great travel buddies. With that in mind, my family had planned a break up north in the school holidays. Having some existing commitments, I couldnt make it away for as long. Taking the chance, I managed a few days away for some ’strategic reorganisation’ and to work on some personal project ideas that have been brewing for a while.

I had such a ball, I’m thinking it might become an annual event!! It was just magic to have some space to think through some ideas, and to shoot to my hearts content. Despite the cold, I was even shooting every evening doing some night photography as well.

I’ll share a few shots below.

Not a true landscape, I know. But part of a series at an abandoned psychiatric institution. Now, this was neat…

With the back of a camper van as my office, I couldn’t help thinking this wasn’t too bad. Mt Cook, Mt Tasman as a backdrop, perfect weather, amazing scenery – this is NZ at its finest.

One of the really neat things about photography is the range of people I get to meet. Particularly those who have something important to offer, or those active in the direction of this country. Over the years, I have learnt a great deal at industry conferences, awards dinners and keynote presentations. While some industry specific presentations are beyond me, others are most intriguing ie accountants conference where you actually learn about immigration policy and the effect this has on the economic wheels of Treasury. The sort of thing you don’t really get informed about in the general media, but provides a clear understanding for ‘ahh, that’s why they are doing…”.

Likewise last week was John Key and his address to Canterbury Exporters about the ETS, and the philosophical benefits this has for our nation (note, forecast pay rises for politicians wasn’t mentioned!). I find it very enlightening to hear such influencial folk provide an insight into their spheres of influence. Included last week were the likes of John Allen, (ex NZ Post, now CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade) & Frank Owen (CEO, Tait Radio Communications).

Quirky photo, shot between evening sessions at AMI stadium.

Boy, what a day. I’m still finishing up post production from today’s inaugural Mud Sweat & Tears event at Motukarara Raceway. It rained, it poured, it blew, but their were smiles and cheers for Africa (well at least for the first couple of kms!).

Well done to Kim Preston for pulling in over 800 hardy Cantabrians to give it their all over a rugged cross country course. The MST event is in part fun run, part commando course, part cross country, run in two parts – either 5km and 10km. Yet community spirit and fancy dress won out over the elements today judging from where I lay (most of it on my belly shooting the barbed wire obstacle).

Smashing effort everyone, with full galleries live tomorrow in the event gallery section. I look forward to seeing you next year.

www.mudsweattears.co.nz