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  • Portrait of a Sheep

    I managed to get out and about to several places with my camera today. First exploring some closed off cliff tracks, and then off to Cornwall Park for a around the base walk. Cornwall is full of cows and sheep (mostly sheep) and today’s image was of one sheep who came up to me to see what I was doing.

    Shot on my Sony Nex with my recently received Sigma 2.8 30 Lens (50mm equivalent), I am more than happy with the quality this lens produces, especially when you consider it is about the cheapest lens built for the Nex at this point in time (not counting the plastic holga’s and lenses with adaptors). The focal length is great and the overall size, although bigger then the 16mm prime, is still nice and compact.

    I also captured some interesting shots of a graffiti covered area on my closed off (fenced off to the public) walk, but will save them for a less active day.

    Baaa for now.

  • Above the Grass

    Down here in Auckland New Zealand we are still experiencing the changeable nature of spring. One minute it is sunny, the next rain. Temperature wise its mildish. NZ Band Crowded House once sung the song ‘four seasons in one day’. It really can apply here!  Its all a signal that summer is on the way though…I think…

    Shot on my Sony Nex 5N @54mm, ‘Above the Grass’ is a simple capture of these beautiful little flowers standing out in the green grass field.

    Aside from resizing, I didn’t do any post processing work on this image. I love the simple soft and peaceful summer like feeling it creates.

  • Surface of the Earth

    Been a pretty flat out day and I have run out of time to write much.

    Snapped this on my GRD IV on the way home today. In post processing I added several selective blur layers in Gimp and cropped to play with the sizing perspective a little.

    More tomorrow!

  • The Tree

    I got talking with a guy I sold a camera to today. Like myself, he had a collection of both film and digital cameras – the film being anything from 35mm to large format. One thing we discussed was how far the level of digital photography, or I should say its quality has come.

    For the average (and non average) Joe, many of our images are either displayed on TV and computer screens, or perhaps a handful printed out. Often, they are shared on various online forums, blogs and sites at a much reduced quality than produced by the camera (for example, my first 2MP camera makes bigger prints than my resize size for my posts). Aside from some particularly nice monitors, your average TV screen is far below the quality of your average camera.

    Sure, the non branded cameras can be of a lower quality, but even the average smart phone captures a decent image no days.

    When specials come up on A3 and A2 photo canvases I like to grab one to print out a recent personal favourite. Looking around my room, 3/4 of all my A2 canvases were taken on my Ricoh GRD IV. Arguably it has a fantastic prime lens, perhaps one of the best for compacts, but the ‘film’ (aka sensor) is still an older CCD 1/1.8″ (larger than many compacts, but still tiny).

    I guess at the end of the day, today’s rant is really just a self reminder, and a thinking point to others out there asking the question “do I/you really need to upgrade?” there are always arguments in the ‘for’ category (low light capability perhaps one), but for those of us who remember film days, we have far exceeded some of the limits film placed upon us – maybe its just a case of knowing your camera(s) and their capabilities and pushing that, rather than reaching for the next new model?
    Oh – and today’s image! – Shot on my Sony Nex5N, kit lens. In post using Gimp I pushed up the saturation a little. Felt like some colour!

  • Burried City

    I’m fascinated by archaeology. All around the world you hear of digs where ancient ruins, cities and tombs lay. Whether it be forgotten, reclaimed by nature, or purposefully encased and locked away. If I hadn’t studied anthropology and sociology, I think I would have studies archaeology.

    Today’s image is actually just a piece of art work at a central city park (a highly post processed one that that) that I snapped on my Galaxy S2 when taking a stroll through several days ago.

    I wanted to create a scene where the building had been buried on a grass plane. The original of the photo is actually just next to a walkway, and behind that a main road and shops. I cropped out those items and cloned in grass – which worked OK if you don’t look too close. I then applied multiple layers and filters making the old building quite hard against its green background.

    I wonder what our cities will look like a millennia from now?