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  • Emily

    I don’t take that many portrait shots in the scheme of things – even less that I make public. ‘Emily’ is one exception today. The daughter of two of my friends, Emily came along to help me celebrate my birthday the other week. I managed to attract her gaze away from the ice cream bowl for long enough to snap a few shots, today’s being my favourite of them. Her ice-cream covered face and expression cracks me up – how cute it that!

    Shot hand-held on the Sony, in very low lighting, with no flash, I was very happy with the result. Sure its not pin sharp, and there is noise present, but if you had told me a few years ago I could do this on a digital camera in such light without flash I would not have believed it! for those interested its shot at 3200iso and 1/30th sec with a 16mm pancake lens.

    I really did like this image out of the camera and resisted making any changes aside from a small crop and resize.

    Thanks for posing Emily!

  • Black and White Fern

    I captured ‘Black and White Fern’ when visiting Kell Park in Albany on Tuesday. Getting up close with the Sony Nex 16mm, at a wide open aperture, I love how the fern leaves fall into the background.

    For those who didn’t know, the (silver) fern is one of New Zealand’s symbols for multiple sporting teams like the All Blacks (Rugby), The Silver Ferns (netball), The Football Ferns (women’s football) etc. etc. It has also been worn by Kiwis at war in various locations.

    In post production, using Gimp, I simply converted to B&W and resized.

    Today will be my first day of my holiday, so all going well, I am landing in Fiji as my post comes live.

  • The Standoff at High Noon

    I had a planned day off today, with the intention to start to unwind from work before jumping on a plane tomorrow. It didnt quite all go to plan, but I did manage a walk along a beach called Waiake in the northern region of the North Shore.

    As I passed a bunch of seagulls, not thinking much of it, three of the four suddenly stood up, squarked at me and came marching at me. I took a few steps towards them, neither of us backing down. Most of the time, unless you carry food, they try to keep out of the way, but not these three! Anyway, I got a few photos in and backed down.

    At one end of the beach is a small island. At low tide, as it was today, one can walk around it. We had a beautiful sunny day and I sat down to relax on a rock. Every now and then I kept catching something in the corner of my eye, but when I looked there was nothing there. Then, as I was about to get up and leave I looked around, and just to the left of me, not more then 2 metres away was a seal basking in the sun, blending in perfectly with the surrounding sandstone. Once it realised that I realised it was there it stood up on its front flippers (I think that’s the term?) and let out a growl. I decided it was time to retreat, but did get a few shots of it as I left.

    Photo wise, I used Gimp to desaturate all but red and cropped the aspect again. Shot was taken on the Sony Nex 5N and Jupiter-8 legacy lens.

  • Rope by the Shore

    My last day of work before breaking for my holiday ended up being two hours longer than usual, and by the time I got home it was dark and cold (almost like winter again!) I took a stroll down to the jetty after dinner, Nex 5N and tripod in hand.

    If one shoots cameras as a form of relaxation, shooting night images must be the ultimate in unwind. A single exposure might run into the minutes. All you can do is sit and wait, or count, breathing slow and relaxed as you take in the surrounding environment. I also like how you are gathering not just a split second of time into one image, but minutes of time, all frozen into one picture…a time capsule in a photographic sense.

    Today’s image, ‘Rope by the Shore’ also happened to be my quickest exposure of the night at 52seconds @ 100iso. Breaking my usual practice of capturing the appealing light of the night, I converted today’s image to B&W with Gimp, pushing the contrast slightly, as I often do with my images. I cropped it, giving a wider aspect, and resized for the net.

  • The Fan

    Taking a different route home today I passed by a small bush area called Stancich Reserve. In the middle of suburbia, the reserve contains a 1/2km bush-walk around one side of the reserve. Well covered/floored, the track proved popular for locals out for a walk and people training. It actually took a minute of waiting to get a clear spot for the photo.

    As I passed through the track I came across this small fan/windmill that someone had stuck into the side of a tree. The bright yellow stood out amongst the forest greens and browns as I leaned out from the walking track to line it up for the shot.

    Taken on the Nex, again with the 16mm lens, in post production I used Gimp to crop the aspect ratio, slightly change the contrast, and resize for posting.

    Last day at work tomorrow before heading off on holiday – I’m ready for it!