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  • Family Pride

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

     

    Lions. Those giant cats of nature. Fearsome fighting machines, yet beautiful animals whom are generally fairly social and family, or pride orientated.

    The Auckland Zoo is home to a small pride of lions, sitting on top of their little half island (the un-glassed/walled part open to the public is separated by a strip of water). With the poor weather during our visit, it looked as though they were enjoying some of the sun for what was left later in the day. Often this small pride is given interesting toys to play with – things they dont see in the wild. This keeps them inquisitive and playful.

    Lions are the second biggest of the cat family (Tigers taking that award). Interestingly, in captivity, Lions can live a little longer than in the wild (10-14 years wild vs 20+ years captive).

    With a top speed, for a limited time, of 80kph (50mph), one would not want to be on the receiving end of one of these cats. Luckily they generally dont hunt humans…although thats not to say there are not a number of lion attacks and deaths around the world. Some interesting reading for able googlers could be the Tsavo Man-Eaters.

    Lions can be bread with tigers to make Ligers and Tigons, with Leopards to make Leopons…not that any of you will be doing such…

    Shot on the Olympus e-500 and cropped in Gimp.

     

  • Jungle Den

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABattling on/off rainy weather, we ventured out to the Auckland Zoo today.  Some animals looked to enjoy the rain, others indifferent, and then the rest – the primates all sheltered out of vision, keeping dry.

    Armed with the Olympus e-500 I got a number of shots today. Some good, some average. With the larger zoom, it had troubles with focusing today in the average light. Even though todays image is in B&W, I still enjoy the colour from this older four thirds DSLR.

    Todays shot, the Chimpanzee enclosure, was captured just after one chimp swung out to check the weather, and then back under the building out of sight and in shelter. Using Gimp I converted to B&W after first tweaking the separate colour channels.

     

  • Orko and childhood toys

    OrkoThis little character brought me back to my childhood. Orko. One of the characters from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Although not this particular copy, I recall having Orko alongside He-Man, Skeletor, Moss-man…I sure I had some more of the vast array of characters in the collection.

    Orko was a Trollan, and one of the few who knew He-Mans identity. Although a little bit of a easily scared character, he always did the right thing and could be counted on when it counted. (in ones typical lesson learning childhood cartoons). Some countries knew him as Gorpo in the earlier series.

    I think most of all (as far as ‘action figures’ go) I was into Transformers. I dont know where they all went – likely part of my take apart to see how it works stage, but I had a ton of them. Who else… GI Joe of course – their rubber band waist’s were hard to get back on when taken apart, I do remember that!

    Reflecting on these toys of the 80’s, there were a ton of them. Many have since been re-released, with originals being worth a few dollars for the collectors. Like many, mine were handed down, given away, or boxed up and taken to charity.

    Then there are the long standing toys – Lego!, Matchbox cars – unless you are a hot wheels or Corgi fan – I recall the hot wheels being faster, but suffering more axle bends. The Corgi’s were well made, but slow. Matchbox was the leader in my day. Meccano. I had some hand me down Meccano. It never seemed to be that big when I was a child, but I loved building with real metal and nuts and bolts etc etc.

    Memory lane. TV shows are another. I’ll need to find an appropriate image to shoot for that post though!

    Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV in very low light – hence the ‘grain’.

     

  • Remembrance Walkway

    Graveyard WanderA quick stroll after work around one of the local graveyards. The weather has been pretty bad around the whole country these last few days, so it was nice to be out in the clear blue (and fairly chilly) sky.

    Graveyards are interesting places to walk through – something I have featured in the past. Its an interesting walk through history, looking back a hundred years at lives once been. For me, in New Zealand, none of my close family have been buried- cremation being the final step in the bodily life. I know back in UK I have more buried family, from many generations ago.

    Its also interesting to look at different funeral practices from culture to culture and religion to religion. For some its a bright and colourful celebration of ones life, for others a mourning and dark passing. Some cultures openly talk about it, and for others its one of those unspoken taboos that we avoid, perhaps in fear of the unknown?

    Walking through the graveyard shows a mix of maintained and kept tombstones, as well as overgrown, forgotten and illegible ones. Have the family moved  out of the area, are there any family left? Who knows?

    Todays shot was taken on the Ricoh GRD IV and post processed in Gimp. In this I gave the image a mild squish profile wise, converted to B&W and adjusted the contrast.

     

  • Towards the Journey

    The Path to the Side

     

    “Not all those who wander are lost.”
    ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

    Been a busy week with little time to write. Almost the weekend though, so hopefully I will find some time then!