MikeHawkey.com

photos and other things…

recent posts

about

  • The 20km Stroll

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

    What started as a ~1 hour walk out and about, turned into a 20km 5 1/2 hour walk today! Quite enjoyable, but it would have been better if I didn’t only have my jandals (thongs/flip-flops) on.

    Starting off (entirely on Auckland’s North Shore) in Eskdale Bush, I worked my way to Kaipatiki Bush, and then followed the Glenfield costal trail, before hitting the suburbs, over to Milford, Takapuna and Devonport.

    As well as only planning a short walk today, I took along the Olympus E-500 DSLR – the heaviest of the bunch I have at hand.

    The above image was captured in the first section of today’s walk. In post-processing I added vignette, converted to B&W and adjusted the curves a little to assist in giving the image a dark look.

    Feet worn and sore, its time for a rest. Until tomorrow.

  • Damselfly on Leaf

    Dragonfly

    I spotted this little guy on a leaf when out for a walk in the bush. Initially thinking it was a dragonfly, a quick read up suggests to me it is a damselfly – the difference being (well, one difference) dragonflies when at rest hold their wings perpendicular to their bodies, whilst the damselfly tucks them into their body. – I’m quite open, and happy to be corrected if any of you are entomologists out there?

    Shot wise, taken on the Sony Nex and edited in Gimp. Editing, I cropped, adjusted levels, contrast and sharpness.

    I got around to developing my 35mm film this morning, so will look to scan and share something from it in the next few days.

  • Dark by the Sea

    By the Sea

    Some heavy digital pushing of today’s image ‘Dark by the Sea’. Mucking around in Gimp, I was pushing the sky to get some dynamics, and then the foreground to get the cliff sides. I think the result, although requiring more editing effort on my part where the foreground and background collide, gives quite a dynamic surreal feeling to it.

    With the weekend here (at last!) I am hoping I will get some time to develop my film – and start a new one. I also took delivery of a budget 2.2x telephoto lens to try on the Nex. I wanted to see how acceptable a result it would give me on my 210mm leans, as well as the possibilities it may offer when I am travelling light with the standard kit lens.

  • Up and Down

    Up and Down

    Not much time for written content today sorry. ‘Up and Down’, shot at the Auckland Airport on the Ricoh GRD IV. Using Gimp I converted to B&W, adjusted contrast and sharpness and resized to post.

    I have finally finished my film in the Pentax with the music festival on Monday – just need to find the time to develop it now!

  • The Long Walk

    The Long Walk

    Being a fan of sci-fi of all sorts, I recently caught the latest Judge Dredd movie, and re-watched the earlier Stallone version. As a teen, I remember reading episodes of Judge Dredd in 2000AD comic. On one such storyline, and in the Stallone movie, the Judge takes ‘The Long Walk’ out into the wild lands, bringing the law to the lawless. It is portrayed as a hostile environment, and one they are not expected to return from.

    Using that as a concept today, I imagined stepping out into the sun swept wild lands, the sun being too harsh to allow the eyes to see into the distance, a land of nothingness.

    Shooting with my Ricoh, I captured the image in cross processed and then converted to B&W in Gimp. removing the land in the horizon and pushing the contrast, I then gave it a colour tint.