City over the Water

Another busy day, especially for a Monday. I managed to shoot off down to the waterfront after evening training and catch the end of the sun retreating behind the hills. I know I have featured the city several times before – at slightly different focal and view points. There is something about a cityscape that I love looking at. Living just outside the city allows beautiful views of it, and distance wise, if I need to go in, that’s no big issue either.

Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV at 6 seconds ISO80 in its only 28mm focal length. Aside from resizing, no post editing tricks and no in camera filters either today, just a straight shot in its natural colour. It was quite an awesome sky!

January 21, 2013 4

Evening Path

Not much time for written content today…its been a long one & bed beckons.

Shot on the Sony Nex ISO 3200 1/50th sec and converted to B&W in Gimp.

January 20, 2013 0

Music in the Parks: I Am Giant

A hot day out in the sun with Auckland’s Music in the Parks – a local government funded series of events bringing a variety of bands to the public.

There were a number of people there with their cameras, shooting the bands straight on, avoiding the audience. In todays shot, I looked for a slightly different perspective. Capturing the lead from I Am Giant over the girls shoulder, I think I have caught the moment of the band and audience, yet kept all in the photo relatively anonymous.

Shot on the Sony Nex with 210mm telephoto lens. Converted to B&W using CS5 .

January 19, 2013 0

The Rooster of Old Albany

Up to old Albany Village for dinner this evening I caught this snap of one of the local art works.

Now down the road from the Albany Mega Mall, the old village used to be locally famous for having a mass of roosters living and walking the zone. Sadly now days none can be found. You will find ducks and a cat colony… The roosters were culled and relocated around a decade ago.

My other memory of the village, back when it was rural and the tip of the North Shore was picking for pears in the local park. Open to the public, I assume it was once an orchard.

We walked this area after dinner and I was happy to find many of the pear trees were still there and in fruit…desert!

Image wise, shot on the galaxy, edited in afterfocus.

January 18, 2013 2

Flowers in my Garden

It wasn’t that long ago in life that I had zero interest in gardening. My family had always had large gardens full of fruit, veg, and flowers. I’m sure as a small child I would have helped here and there, and do recall planting the odd tree, but I guess once ‘teenagedom’ hit, the appeal of gardens also wained somewhat. Now, years later, I am by no means any form of botanist, but do strangely enjoy the odd potter in the garden.

Our current residence was fairly bare when we shifted in, and determined to do something with it I built a range of planters and boxes for mostly vegetables, but also some small fruit trees and flowers. This summer has been pretty nice to date (excluding today’s intermittent dark clouds and strong winds), and the whole garden has taken off amazingly.

Coming home from work, the light was quite nice to get the full colour of the flowers in our back garden, so I put on the Sigma 30mm onto the Nex and took a few shots, the above being today’s pick.

In post processing I adjusted the levels a little, slightly pushed the sharpness and cropped.

As we approach the weekend, it looks like I will be off to see a group playing music somewhere. All going well I’ll take along my camera and see if I can capture any band shots. Still Friday to go yet!

January 17, 2013 0

Keep Clear

A quick mid week post.

Keep Clear. Shot on a recent town stroll with my Ricoh GRD IV in hand. Post processing involved adding a heavy vignette, converting to B&W, adding contrast and a slight colour tint.

More words and another image tomorrow!

January 16, 2013 0

Tree on the Horizon

Tree on the Horizon was captured at an old residential estate in my local area that has since been pulled down, and is currently overgrown park area. Drains that were covered in sheets of ply have disappeared under the thick bed of grass that has covered the area. Many of the paths/drives have also broken up and are in the process of returning to nature. I always find the thought of nature taking things back fascinating, so a wander through this empty (of buildings) area is fun when doing so.

Captured on the Nex 5N with a legacy lens on (I’m pretty sure it was my Industar 61). In post processing with Gimp, I adjusted levels, desaturated and added a faint tint. I find that the slight sepia (or similar shade) tint helps add ‘a little something’ to B&W images

January 15, 2013 0

Stairs to Freedom

In today’s post, Stairs to Freedom, I wanted to create that visual experience we all get when adjusting to different light sources. Be it turning on/off a light in the middle of the night, or coming out of a dark tunnel into bright daylight as in this image. The eyes take a moment to adjust to the differing light. Until then things are not quite clear.

Today’s image was shot in one of the old tunnels used for WWII. Coming from the other side, ones eyes slowly adjust to the darkness, only to turn a corner and be greeted by a staircase with bright light shining down.

Shot on the Sony Nex with a old legacy Industar 61 lens, using Gimp I converted to B&W, added a light vignette and adjusted the levels.

January 14, 2013 0

Kitekite Falls

My last posting from the Piha area, for now. Krishna asked yesterday if I had any shots of the Kitekite Falls. With the beautiful green and dense growth on the surrounding track to the falls, it was hard to get a clear view. I did find a slight clearing however and took today’s shot. Aside from this walk I had taken my filter set with me all morning – it would have been ideal here also to assist with the blown out grey sky.

As can be seen in the image, the falls in full are made up of a number of units. The final being about 40m, the other 40m is built from several smaller falls, gathering into pools.

In post processing I adjusted the levels a little and lightly tinted the blown out sky. There was nothing there to rescue, so its all I could do with limited time.

I think the final image really highlights well the lush green environment of New Zealand bush. A great place to visit when in the area!

January 13, 2013 2

Out from the Kitekite

About a 5 minute drive from Piha is a track leading to the Kitekite Falls – a 40m drop waterfall (or 80m if you count the 3 tier of pools above it). A beautiful, well maintained bush walk, well worth visiting whilst in the area. There are several tracks to choose from, the shortest taking one about 20minutes of fair pace walking to reach the falls. Here you can take a cool dip in the chilled fresh water.

The falls were used once in attempt to transport felled trees downstream for processing. A fairly commonly used method in New Zealand, dams were built at the top of falls and rivers, logs floated, dams opened, and logs rushed down to the mouth of the river. This practice always damaged a number of logs, but in the KiteKite case, more logs were ruined than saved and it was not used again in the same manner.

Today’s image was shot downstream on my journey back. Leaning out at a corner, I focused upstream and captured the river straight on, disappearing into the bush. Using Gimp, I cropped the aspect a little, adjusted the levels and used the ‘National Geographic’ plug-in.

January 12, 2013 3