Christchurch Earthquake Stopped Moving the Ground, But Not The People

This has been a great shoot thus far and as put by Curt Dahl, quite the frat boy trip.  I laughed and agreed with him and then remembered one key element to this frat boy gallivanting...I'm the only single frat boy.  That said, there has been much talk of why I'm single and how to resolve that...issue.  I'll spare you on the ideas as I'm sure you've already suggested at least one of them to me.

That said, it really has been a fun and we've had some incredible days of shooting.  Paora in Christchurch was awesome and his family is just stellar.  The earthquake has certainly had an effect on the city as seen by many brick and mortar walls leaning -- supported by two-by-four structures -- while others lie in heaps on the sidewalk.  At first glance you'd think the city has a serious construction problem with roads blocked off or dug up, bridges closed and under repair, buildings too.  Then you see the true impact... We were searching for a Thai restaurant to eat at and as we followed the GPS we noticed buildings that had chunks of them missing and lying in the street, holes in the street where water mains had broken and then we arrived at the restaurant.  It was about six feet high and resembled an imploded building of bricks and splintered wood.  The water is still not drinkable as it has been contaminated from broken sewer pipes, gas tanks and who know what else.  And strangely, other parts of town seemed completely unaffected.

We've been in Wellington now for a few days and the portraits are just great.  Things just keep going great and I'm looking forward to more.


We shot some great stuff with Paora as he ran his basketball clinic, got his 3 boys ready for school and everything else.  We ended with him at the club pool and gym doing his workout.  Fun stuff.

Below are some freeze frames from some of the portraits.