‘Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding’.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Shot on Sony Nex 5n. Cropped and desaturated in Gimp.
Auckland Round The Bays 2013
A bit of a montage for todays shot at Auckland Round the Bays fun run. All shot on the Samsung Galaxy s2 using the Vignette app, I combined in Gimp to show the beginning, middle and end of the 8.4km run that goes from Auckland’s CBD to St Heliers park.
As it has been most days, the weather was hot this morning! With a relatively late 9.30am start time, the sun was right up and beating down on the waiting crowd. with ~70,000 total runners, if one is not near the start line (as I was) when the race begins, you can take an additional quarter of an hour to just make it there. Weaving in and out of runners and walkers, it takes over half the race (unless you are fast) to feel like you have enough room to keep at a constant pace. Whilst some of these points potentially make it sound less than ‘fun’, Round the Bays is a great run, and all money goes to some great charities. All said and done, I’ll be back again next year, as I have been for several years running.
The mini Mini
Not one of my own projects today, rather a spotted project in the St Heliers area of Auckland’s central coastal area. Compared to most cars since the 70’s, the Mini has always been a small car – however a mini Mini makes a normal Mini look like a family saloon! Being they are constructed with a front and rear subframe, bolted to a mono construction body, the mini Mini is a ‘moderately easy’ (for those who know what they do) modification. I toyed with doing one years ago, but was put off at the time with the certification process. A very unique fun little car – rare as hens teeth now days too!
Image wise, shot on the Sony Nex with a Sigma 30mm lens. In post I slightly cropped, desaturated and added additional blur in the background to keep focus on the Mini.
Auckland Round the Bays run tomorrow morning. Its the biggest fun run in the country I believe, so I will be there running, and with mobile in hand to capture an image or two – at the very least whilst I wait for the start canon!
Field of Long Grass
Another image shot from yesterdays walk. Not much word content to add today – but shot on the Ricoh GRD IV in cross-processed mode. In post I reduced and added rounded corner boarder.
Weekend time!
Sun Beats Down
Finally a stroll after work! – its been a very busy few weeks, with a lot on both in and out of work. However, today I managed to head out for a little walk by the motorway. Its been another hot day, with a large percentage of the country now in, or close to drought. Todays particular area had a lot more green than many places I have seen lately. It is near a water collection area, so may have some springs around perhaps. Armed with the GRD IV, I got down to knee height, aimed out and up, adjusted compensation and shot into the sun. I think it highlights the sun beating down on an area with light shelter.
Shot in cross-processed mode on the Ricoh, I resized and added rounded corners in Gimp.
Warkworth Prison
Whilst I did manage to get some picture taking in today, it was of someone at work for an article, so I wont feature it here. So- another archive image. A scene from the old Warkworth Prison… well holding rooms from the old village police officer days. Moved and displayed at the Warkworth Museum, it paints a fairly basic, yet not surprising look at the local shack you may have once found yourself locked up in back in the day if you committed a nuisance. Constructed almost entirely of wood (pretty heavy wood), it did have a small iron bar window on the front door.
Shot on the Ricoh, I added heavy vignette in CS5 and desaturated the image a little.
Project Supra
Several vehicles (projects) before yesterdays Project Mini, was project Supra. I remember this car sitting across the road from my then flat for about 6 months. At some stage it got a for sale sign on it. Upon enquiring with the owner, it had two blown turbos. A negotiation later and I was the owner. Driving it back from my flat to where I worked on it was an adventure. I topped up the oil to save the engine, but this in turn helped the turbos become the most powerful smoke machine in existence!…
Starting as a slightly rough grey unit, I sanded it back and painted green (not the best paint job I have done as my compressor had some issues), swapped out the auto box for a 5 speed, added the Mk5(?) Supra wheels and no doubt made a few more modifications here and there. In the end it was a fun vehicle (albeit heavy on fuel). I used to see it driving around, but have not for years now. I guess its either down the line, or has disappeared from the road!?
Editing wise, as with yesterday I desaturated the background in Gimp. I must have lost and recovered these images from somewhere as I cant see what they were taken on, and all are low res. Still, good enough for records of memory!
Project Mini
A photo, and project from the archives today. Although I have not done much of recent, in the past I almost always had a project car on the go. Todays image was of my old 1975 Mini Clubman 1000. The second Mini project I have completed, it started life (well started for me) as a somewhat run down blue Clubman (I might feature a before/after or project post one day). After driving it around for a day (initially it was just going to be a runabout), I stripped it down to a bare shell and started the restoration.
Image wise, I am not sure what camera I used at the time. Possibly a fuji superzoom, but my image on file is a tiny 600×800, so smaller than my usual down sized posts. Editing, I desaturated all but the red of the Mini.
Burma the Elephant
Looking back to my first post on MikeHawkey.com, I thought I would post up one of the images used in the post, and my cover art for the site. Hunting through my folders of images, I found it, Burma the Elephant.
Burma is Auckland Zoo’s only current elephant, sadly after its other, Kashin, died at a youthful 40 years old in 2009. An ‘Asian elephant’, Burma was born in 1982, and thanks to a dedicated team of helpers, although currently alone, Burma is in good health and doing well. Described as being much like a cheeky teen, she is energetic and mischievous. Sweet fruits, painting (which can be brought) and visiting other animals on daily walks around the zoo are amongst Burma’s fun-to-do things. I have read the Zoo is working hard to try and get some more elephant friends for Burma. No doubt its a slow process, but fingers crossed it comes together!
Image wise, this was shot last year on my Sony Nex 5N. I dont have any lens data, so I suspect it was on my Jupiter-11 lens. Editing wise, I cropped the foot of the rider off and lifted the saturation a little.
Logs sitting, waiting
Another hot day in Auckland. Out and about doing chores and similar, I have not yet had a chance to take any images today, so will post another from yesterdays visit to Long Bay.
Wandering through the park, there are a number of overflow car parks. At its peak in summer this year, Long Bay had about 25000 visitors (!) and a 2 hour car jam waiting to get in. Fridays visit, with schools and work back, was substantially less, and I wandered through the closed off car park with only the sound of the birds and wind through the tree. The ranger must have been chopping up a few trees recently, and I took a few shots of the pile of logs left. With a total fire ban at present due to dry conditions, these logs were unlikely to be used for a BBQ or similar any tie soon.
Shot on the GRD IV. Using Gimp I rounded the corners and resized. Otherwise as is from camera.
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