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  • Once Was Pukekohe Raceway

    A recent weekend took my small follower and I to Pukekohe. Armed with my ‘vintage’ Canon EOS 300D we ventured to what was known as Pukekohe Raceway. At the time of visiting, I thought the place looked a little run down from memory… my observations were founded in that the actual raceway (opened in 1963) closed in 2023, bar a couple of later events, the last being D1NZ (drifting) giving the track a final farewell.

    As well as the ‘run down’ feeling, the visit was awash of memories – Supercar Races, Open Class, V8’s, Drifting, NZ Grand Prix… some just relic history in NZ Motorsport today. The noise gone, but almost still present in the ghost of the breeze passing through on a otherwise hot day.

    It’s still in a stage of decommission as it turns into a race horse venue. Gone are the pit buildings, the over bridge and armco barriers. Remnants of race life still visible in a non locked shed and the demolishing area.

    So much of historical Pukekohe township (to me a visitor) is built around the shadow of its motorsport history – it has a Possum Bourne Retirement Village! (One of our great Rally Drivers now gone). Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon, Paul Radisich – all big names of their time who tested vehicles to the limit there. The area feels a little odd without it frankly. But times always change. The owners decided to repurpose to thoroughbred ventures and we have a nice world class car facility/track an hour down the road from there in Hampton Downs. Also, digitally the track has been scanned for future e-racing with iRacing – which was cool to read about.

    So a belated farewell from me Pukekohe Raceway. Thanks for the memories!

  • The MS Noordam Visits Auckland

    A relatively new ship, the MS Noordam was launched in 2006 as the final member of Holland America Line’s Vista-class. It is a mid-sized vessel that blends traditional maritime elegance with some additional modern refurbishments added in 2024. The ship has a guest capacity of approximately 1,916 to 1,972 passengers served by a crew of about 800, ensuring a high level of personalised service across its 11 passenger decks. Throughout the year, the Noordam follows a seasonal deployment, primarily operating 7- to 14-night Alaskan voyages from Seattle and Vancouver during the Northern summer, before transitioning to Australia and New Zealand for the Southern summer (March 1st in NZ). Its diverse itineraries also include expansive South Pacific crossings and “Legendary” voyages to the Arctic Circle, catering to a demographic that values art-filled interiors and refined destination-focused cruising.

    Though I have no actual scale of reference, whenever I look at these big cruise ships, I wonder how large they are compared to the Titanic… according to google, the MS Noordam is near double the internal tonnage, longer, wider, taller- but interestingly slightly less human capacity (2353 compared to Titanic’s allotted 2435). Simply put – it’s bigger all around and offers guests more space, hence lower max head count… and its only ‘mid sized’ by todays standard.

  • New Old Camera (Minolta SR-1) and Sunny 16

    I got a new old camera. The Minolta SR-1. First released in 1959, it was Minolta’s second ever SLR produced. It needed a lens, so I got an equally antique Rocker 55mm F1.8

    As prior posts have stated, I have always had a spot for Minolta. They are probably my favourite 35mm SLR producer. Though gone, their optics company is what really launched Sony into the main market as the digital era took over.

    ‘Sen’ F5.6 1/125th
    ‘Windows’ F8 1/125th

    Being such a vintage model, the SR-1 is 100% manual and mechanical. No light meter – though there is a mount space allocated for one. It’s been a real long time since I attempted the ‘Sunny 16’ rule – that is looking at the weather, making a call on the brightness and setting your cameras settings based on this. To make this more of a challenge (aka too much for such outdated practice), I had a roll of Lucky 400, which I read to shoot at ISO200. So for those unfamiliar, as an example, a bright clear sunny day on ASA100 film you would shoot 100th of a second at f16, or in my case at 200ASA, f16 at 200th of a second. Open your aperture a stop to F11 and your time doubles. It all makes sense (as long as you judge the light right), but if you don’t slow down, it starts getting muddy in the mind for a cloudy sky, shooting into the shadows, backlit etc…

    ‘Rail’ F4 1/30th
    ‘Layers’ F8 1/60th
    ‘Under Motorway’ F8 1/60th

    I didn’t quite get my timings 100%… it was also pretty sunny and I really wanted a ASA100 rather than a 400 I was shooting at 200. But, limited success still prevailed and I have some images that I like the mood and feel of. They were overexposed in most cases.

    The Minolta itself worked flawlessly. There is a real nostalgic pleasure in using a machine somewhere around 60 years old (mine is not the first 59 release based on some body indicators). I look at my digital bodies and wonder if any of them will make that age – at the least, modified batteries will be needed – but more likely they will fail or part of the media will become temperamental to support. Lets be fair though – as soon as film ceases one day, all these mechanical relics also become paperweights…

    So Sunny 16 needs some work, but that is part of practising something new. Stretching outside comfort zones and re-learning was of doing. I could have used a light meter and nailed all exposures, but I wanted to be completely analogue (at least until I scanned them for here). It was fun.

    I do have a couple of other impulse purchases of the 60’s era I am yet to test – same deal, no light meters. The Lucky 400 is all I currently have for home development, so I’ll just need to make a call if I try again pulling to 200, or shooting at 400 – Im limited to F16 and 500th of a second (or less) on most the units, so it might just depend on the weather next time…

    ‘Stairway Down’ F8 1/125th

  • Through Someone’s Vintage Eyes – Israel and Iran

    Today’s “through someone’s vintage eyes” takes us to Iran and Israel. Shot by the same unknown photographer as my Hong Kong series, we drop into some of the oldest cityscape on this planet, and view some sights before some of the areas have seen more modernisation.  Im estimating, like Hong Kong, these are 1960’s era approximately. The only indicating giveaways I can see are the cars – none specifically models I can date without any real digging online. Perhaps some key buildings or the cable car/tram might be a giveaway for some readers?

    I also don’t have any real sense of geography for the areas. Ive not travelled to that part of the world. This combined with the fact that these photo collections were incomplete and bar the main destinations, unlabelled, I have absolutely mixed up places and cities into the image decks displayed (they are out if order)

    What I do know is that one area is Akko Israel. For some better known as Acre.  To blatantly take googles summary or Akko: Acre (Akko) is a port city in northwest Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. It’s known for its well-preserved old city walls. In a tunnel in the walls is the Treasures in the Walls Ethnographic Museum, depicting daily life from the Ottoman times to the 20th century. The mosaic-covered Or Torah (Tunisian) Synagogue has 7 torah arks. The 18th-century Al-Jazzar Mosque has marble pillars and underground pools. 

    Also in Israel we have Jerusalem – I think the cablecar image is the Masada fortress here: Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

    Isfahan in Iran is (I believe) the final destination of this collections journeys: Isfahan is a city in central Iran, known for its Persian architecture. In the huge Naqsh-e Jahan Square is the 17th-century Imam (Shah) Mosque, whose dome and minarets are covered with mosaic tiles and calligraphy. Ali Qapu Palace, built for Shah Abbas and completed in the late 16th century, has a music room and a verandah overlooking the square’s fountains. Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque is known for its intricate tiling.

    Quite the trip. As I understand it, assuming 1960’s all were popular or emerging tourism spots, especially if this is late 1960’s after the 6-day war which surged visitors under Israeli control unified the city split at the time.  Who are the tree kids posing in one photo – strangers? Whanau (family)?… unlike Hong Kong series, no suggestion of the photographer themselves. 

    Not the last box of slides I have from our mystery photographer. Im holding off viewing the next box still – perhaps the next will have a self portrait reveal?

    If you do have any information which might place a date of the images please do pass a comment. 

  • A GF2 Stroll: Manu Practice

    Recently in late night impulse I acquired a Japanese only Panasonic GF2. My Lumix GF1 remains my favourite walkabout and holiday camera due to its ‘just right’ size and pleasing images coupled with its excellent 20mm lens – but I thought I’d get a GF2 to back it up. Internally, sensor wise, not a lot has changed. It has a few less physical controls and a touch screen – but shooting in aperture priority a lot of the time, not much changes. Japanese language is not much of a hurdle – most menu options have imagery also, and one can always use translate on phone if needed.

    Anyway… once it arrived and I coupled it with my 14-42mm Zoom (28-84 full frame), we took a stroll into Auckland’s CBD to see what was going on.

    One thing going on was practice for the Manu World Champs in the relatively new inner city sea swimming area. A great addition for inner city folk, it offers a fenced off, life guard patrolled place to swim. In our heavily populated ‘city of sails’ direct swimming in the ocean within the CBD has been limited over the years due to safety. The new setup is nice. Manu world champs? – for those out of New Zealand, this might be renamed ‘Dive Bomb World Champs’ – Manu’s Maori translation is often Bird or Kite – but we also in recent decades referred to a bomb as a Manu also. I remember kids Tombstoning as a kid too – but I think that was more dodgy bombing off rocks and into iffy water holes (the name hinting at the danger).

    Quite the art to Manu’s – watching for a while, there was no correlation to the size of the person and the size of the splash. Some pretty small fella’s were making much bigger splashes than the real big fella’s. It’s also not just splash – like all sports, there is a raft of different sections and bomb types to be judged on. People were having a splash regardless!

    Circling back to the car, we wandered through some of the new apartment areas and past the tram on its circuits. Ive never lived inner city. Some elements of my lifestyle would fit in fine, but not others. Things like the above swimming area must really help when you are in close proximity to others and have no land/garden space. On that, we also past the community gardens – little plots each allocated to their own gardeners to get the green fingers growing.

    Then it was back to the car and away from the CBD off home. The Panasonic GF2 performed well. Like the GF1, nice and compact so no neck breaking. Not too hard to see in direct sunlight – though I mostly use rear screens for centre focus and recompose rather than looking at detail. I’d love to get a 14mm for it, but the cost more than the camera, so I might just have to keep my eyes out for a bargain one day.

    Today’s images were shot in RAW and edited in darktable using a Portra 160 LUT as a base.