MikeHawkey.com

photos and other things…

recent posts

about

  • Project Supra

    Project SupraSeveral 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

    Mini 2A 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

    ZooLooking 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

    LogsAnother 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.

     

  • Swallows Take Flight

    Swallows take FlightToday celebrated my workplaces annual Big Day Out. Held at the beautiful Long Bay beach, the sun was beating down by early afternoon, and those of whom had not brought our togs, wished we had.

    Taking a moment for a stroll, armed with my Ricoh GRD IV, I captured a number of images, both showing the beautiful beach, and also the drought like conditions that have been sweeping the country (Luckily for Auckland, no where near as bad as farmers North of Auckland). Walking under a selection of trees, I was amazed to see literally multiple tens (lets estimate 30) of Swallows darting in and out of the trees. All the other animals I had seen were sheltering under trees out of the heat.

    Now looking to capture any close up action of a small bird with a 28mm lens is never going to happen, so I framed up the trees and sky and looked to capture a silhouette of several birds as they flew overhead. Todays image being my pick of the bunch for today.

    Using Gimp, I slightly cropped the image in post processing.

    Weekend time!