• QuarryI revisited an old quarry on the way home this evening. I’m sure I have featured an image of it before, but for the life of me (well, for a fairly quick image search) I can’t find it.

    Closed a bit over a year ago I think, the quarry has sat unused and fenced off. Gradually the gravel paths have become overgrown with weeds, and areas perhaps once maintained have started to flourish in relative lack of human day to day activity. At the bottom of the quarry is a small lake. It was almost totally calm, and I snapped a few shots of the far bank with the reflection in the water.

    Shot on the Sony Nex with a legacy Jupiter-8 lens. Whilst it looked quite nice in colour, I think it also lends itself nice in black and white. Converted in Gimp with a faint colour tint, otherwise as from camera.

  • Molly the CatFor a few days at the house we have a special guest, Molly the Cat. Molly is staying with us in preparation for a big move to Hamilton in the weekend.

    Being another hot day, I felt a bit like Molly when I arrived home – hot, tired and not really up to heading out to take any shots…so out came the mobile and there was my model.

    Shot using the factory camera app and edited in Afterfocus, I then opened it with Gimp and quickly covered some of the contact details on Molly’s tag.

    Its meant to cool down a little tomorrow evening, so I will aim to head out then!

     

  • Take Flight

    ‘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.

  • Round the baysA 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.

     

  • Mini MiniNot 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!