MikeHawkey.com

The Beach (part II)

December 10, 2012

As always, Mondays a busy day, so here is another shot from yesterdays outing. It really highlights the distance of the raft from the beach at high tide. I have memories visiting the beach as a young one and the journey it took to swim out to the raft, well above ones head height deep. That was with the old raft also, made of wood, which became very slippery after the first wet kid clambered on top of it.

Out to the ocean we can see some of the smaller boats that were racing off Narrow Neck Beach around the corner.

Post photo wise, I cropped and used a modified ‘national geographic’ plugin in Gimp. The image itself was overexposed a little (and this emphasised by the plugin), – its given the image a feeling that somewhat reflected my own eyesight as I squinted wishing I had brought along some sunglasses or a hat…
The Beach

December 9, 2012

Another beautiful day weather wise in Auckland – bordering on hot. Todays shot is taken from North Head on the North Shore, looking north up Cheltnham beach towards Takapuna. A good number of people were out in the water, possibly experiencing the first swim of summer. We passed groups and couples relaxing on the hill in the sun and watched the various boat races out in the harbour.

Today’s image was shot on the Sony with my Juipter-8 Lens. It had been a while since I had dug out the manual lens on the Sony, and today’s walk proved a good outing to do so on. Although a little softer as it gets to the corner, it gives a nice feeling to the images.

Editing in Gimp, I did bump up the contrast a notch before resizing and adding rounded corners.

That’s the end of Sunday, on rolls another week!
On the Hill

December 8, 2012

A lazy view relaxing in the long grass and sun from Mt Victoria on Aucklands North Shore. From here (if you look the right way) you can see the CBD, the Harbour Bridge and out towards West Auckland. A quick scamper over the crest and the rest of the North Shore, and local islands off it can be viewed into the distance.

Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV, using the bleach bipass mode. In Gimp I resized and added the rounded corners, otherwise as is from the camera.

Its been a wildly various week of weather for us here in Auckland – a beautiful hot sun today, heavy rain and tornadoes only two days ago. Here is hoping we are coming into some stable summer months.

Christmas is well and truly near. Shopping wise I adopt the ‘not time yet’ attitude, but heading into the shops today, I can see many are already stocking up.

The sun is still shining, so I will log off here and get back out into it!
Standing in the Window

December 7, 2012

A quick mobile shot for Friday. Taken on the Samsung Galaxy S2 and edited using Afterfocus.

Until tomorrow…
NZ4115

December 6, 2012

One of my last Motat images I will post up for now I think – NZ4115. Outside the main hanger where a large number of restored planes sit, is the outside storage yard. Here sit a number of planes awaiting restoration, and until then, gradually weather away. Built in the 30’s, the Short S.25 Sunderland flying boat would have been used to patrol shorelines in wartime, and by the looks of this one, perhaps used as some form of transporter later in life. I believe plans are for it to be restored and stored undercover eventually.

Image wise I did a fair bit of playing around today. After straightening and cropping foreground I used the national geographic plug-in, added vignette and cross-processed with a brown tone. I then played with levels and colour balance.

Auckland (and wider New Zealand) got hit with some fairly fierce weather this afternoon, sadly with a few people loosing their lives to a tornado. Little known to myself at the time, but I must have been within a half km of the tornado as it struck. I didn’t really think much of it until a large number of emergency vehicles headed back in the direction I came from. Initial reports advised of about 150 homes damaged and widespread flooding. I’m sure a lot of thoughts go out to the families of all affected.