My effort to make Katikati SAFE !!!

I know I am stating the obvious here – but Jo Bryant is an animal lover.

I am a member of a few animal welfare groups – one of them is SAFE. Safe does much in the way of educating both everyday people and [hopefully] our government about the plight of New Zealand’s animals.

Sadly over 3,000,000 animals live and die tortured lives here every year in New Zealand, because of battery farming and animal testing.

LET THAT SINK IN…3,000,000…EVERY YEAR…IN NEW ZEALAND.

Insane I know. Much of this comes about through ignorance. The general public does not understand just how bad the conditions are for these animals. SAFE is committed to exposing these practises and hopefully changing the abysmal legislation we have in New Zealand regarding their welfare.

It also comes about through greed and stupidity. We use so much grain up feeding these animals. It is a fact that factory farming does NOT add to global food production but actually reduces it.

So much land is used to produce grain to feed these poor animals that could be better used to feed us in more productive ways. If you’d like to know more ANIMALS AUSTRALIA has a wonderful FAQs page that will surprise and hopefully make you angry enough to take a stand.

Okay – I am done with the SOAPBOX !!!

Today I took to the streets of Katikati to help with their annual fundraising. Many collectors for SAFE go all out. They walk the streets as crocodiles, pigs, dogs, chickens and a whole lot more ! I was a little more conservative, but I gave it a go.

I do love bees – so…

Although you can’t see them, I even have wings. By the end of my march up and down the main street they were rather soggy wings, but the bucket jangled when shaken.

It was an interesting experience. I met many wonderful caring people…and a few…well let’s not dwell on those ones. I also caught up with a few friends…after chasing them down, calling out “Hoi, stop and get back here with your wallet you !”

I am going back out tomorrow – to waylay a few more unsuspecting people out Christmas shopping. Hopefully their feelings of holiday cheer will extend to helping New Zealand’s animals.

Last night I went out on a Christmas Lights Trail ramble with two lovely friends in Tauranga. We ate fish and chips and scallops by the water, with a lovely glass of wine to add to the ambience.

Watched the sunset over Pilot Bay.

Then saw sights like this one…

I was trying out the new Canon camera and some night photography. I played around with different shutter speeds, aperture openings, white balance and ISO settings so that I could better understand what worked, what didn’t and why.

The following image obviously wasn’t a good one. Way too dark.

But you know me…so I found a GIMP tutorial online that for once was in language I could understand and follow how to fix that problem without blowing out the lighter areas. It still needs tweaking, but I found another tutorial to fix shadows on areas. That is for another time however.

What do you think so far ???

I know – it’s B & W – but I was playing with that too.

Aren’t they just the cutest ???? Oh and they are very, very patient with me. Or maybe it was the wine ????