Month: May 2012

Friday unwind

Some weeks it seems like Friday has taken a long time to arrive. This week felt a bit like one of those. With a questionable weather forecast for the weekend ahead, I made sure I had time to go for a bit of a wander after work to get some fresh air, unwind and get a few shots in before sunset. The light was particularly nice this evening and I managed to get a number of images to choose from for todays post. I settled on this macro shot of a small wild flower staring out across the grass at the ocean below the cliff top. I think the image reflected my mood to unwind, forget the working week and begin to relax for the next few days ahead. Taken on my ricoh with rounded boarder and a slight brightness adjustment in post processing. Have a great Friday!

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Pink Flowers

95% of the time I either carry or are at arms reach to one of my handful of cameras. Every now and then, as with the above photo ‘Pink Flowers’ I find myself seeing an image I like, but not having a camera on me – not a traditional dedicated camera anyway. Mobile phone cameras have come a long way from those initial .5MP sensors a few years ago. This image, taken on a Samsung Galaxy 3 (not S3), whilst not as high a quality as my usual cameras, still does a fair job when one is stuck without a camera. Although the recent release is playing up on my phone, I rate the android app Vignette (used for this image). It has a host of customizable options and filters etc. For some impressive mobile phone photos, head over to mobilephotogroup.com – I came across them recently and am impressed with the images some people are pulling out of their iPhone’s, Galaxy’s etc. Todays image, taken on a crisp cool morning caught my eye as the sky was a rich blue and the morning light gave the pink flowers a soft glow.

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Wild Thing

I was sad to hear this morning about the passing of Maurice Sendak, the author of the great children’s book (or adult children) ‘Where The Wild Things Are’.  A story spanning generations I grew up with this book ~20 years after it was written, and those a little younger may have seen the 2009 feature film based on the book. I recall when young going to a stage show of it even. If you have never read the book I encourage you to do so. Also, a simple Wikipedia will give some fascinating background info on the story.

Sendak’s passing influenced me to post up this image I took in 2011, in Sydney Australia. I cant recall the name of this beast, but its a now extinct mammal, about the size of a  small hippo. Taken on my Sony A230, 50mm 1.7 lens, took advantage of the selective low lighting to isolate ‘the wild thing’.

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Path to the Sea

Another photo from the files today. I intended to head out after work to take some images, but the wet weather hit hard late in the afternoon, and neither I or my camera was prepared to venture out. Todays image was taken just outside a penguin colony at Oamaru in the South Island New Zealand. A great little place worth visiting for its historic nature, we had to make a stop rather then drive through. Again on my Ricoh, straight from the camera with its bleach bypass setting. Prior to owning the GRD IV, I was never a fan of built in effects on cameras – I always shot in standard RAW or Jpg. Ricoh however have really put some thought and a huge amount of control into its menu’s and process options on many of its cameras. I still shoot unedited on all my other cameras. I think I just like it because I can fine tune its on-board editing and then share the pictures without spending any length of time in editing – after all, why spend hours in post production when you can be out shooting?

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The Lighthouse

On a recent holiday down in the South Island of New Zealand I visited Taiaroa Head, an albatross breeding colony, just outside of Dunedin. Armed with My Ricoh, I captured this great shot of the coastline. Setting the camera to bleach bypass at the time, I love how the contrasty nature of the image highlights the natural scenery, and the lighthouse can just be spotted in the distance. As well as spotting albatross, its a beautiful semi-remote region, well worth the trip if your ever in the area!

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Nex in the City

I ventured across the harbor for a stroll in town today with a new old lens for my Sony Nex 5N. One thing that makes the Sony great is the wide range of adapters you can get to fit other branded and era lenses. My newly acquired lens is an old 55mm Soviet FED Industar 61. Overall I found it a nice lens to use with good smooth controls and some nice images produced. The Industar 61’s can be a bit hit and miss quality wise, but they are generally a cheap and cheerful purchase.. I did struggle today with the 35mm equivalent of around 80mm – I generally use my GRD IV day in/out with its equivalent 28mm.  All being said, after an initial struggle I came up with some images I was happy with. Street photography is not an area I have practiced enough, so i’ll have to get out there a bit more. Todays image is taken in the lower section of Auckland City. The only post processing being done is a small crop and converting to B&W.

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Wild West Coast

Continuing on from my last entry where I discussed B&W being one of my more preferred mediums, I though I would post up a photo from my archives. I took this image on a Sony A230 on the windy west coast beach, Muriwai. The west coast gets battered by waves and wind, both forming and at other times destroying the sand dunes along the coastline. Muriwai is also home to a fairly large gannet colony, well worth a visit if you are in the area! In B&W I love how the wild nature of the area is highlighted with the contrasty sky and exposed roots of the tree.I ended up having this printed on A2 canvas, so its in my personal top pics for the last few years.

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Hilltop View

Another clear blue sky marked the end of the working week today. I took a stroll up one of the local hills to take in the ‘golden hour’ as the sun dropped low on the horizon. Whilst I liked each of the three images alone, I decided to combine them to show the progressive journey to the final shot, peeking through the harakeke (flax) towards Rangitoto on the other side of the harbor.

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Autumn Seaside

Now we are in autumn here in NZ we are getting some amazingly clear and fresh days as we head into winter. The temperature has dropped, but its still awesome weather in the sun with no wind. I was on my way back to the office and pulled over to take a shot of the clear blue sky. With an abundance of evergreens and lack of deciduous plants I wanted to create that autumn feeling still. I give my image a bit of the old washed out film look. To me it creates the visual feeling of a cool, crisp and clear day.

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Nature

One of the things I love about New Zealand is how close we are to all aspects of nature, even if we live in the central city. The beach, mountains and forests are all relatively easy and quick to get to. I had some time to kill after work, on the way to a mates house and stopped off for a quick bush walk. One minute in and you are away from the cars, traffic and people. The lush green freshness radiates the senses and offers a calming element to ones busy lifestyle. We are approaching winter at the moment, so it gets dark fairly early. Looking up at the moon through the rapidly darkening bush, I caught this shot with my GRD IV. With some minor editing I placed it into a square format and bumped the contrast a little to make the clean black silhouette of the forest.

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