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  • Totem

    As the weather forecasters promised, the weather packed in this afternoon. I had planned to go for a stroll after dropping into the mall, but unprepared for the rain just didn’t manage it today.

    Looking over recent outings, I selected ‘totem’ for today’s posting. Located by the Lake House Art Centre, I am always drawn to totem or statue like creations. Rapanui/East Island is on my top five list of places I want to one day go – mostly to see the giant stone statues that dot the small island.

    In post processing I made some adjustments with the saturation and color balance. I also tried out a plug-in filter ‘national geographic’, which does render an image reminiscent of the old National Geographic pages.

  • Laze by the Lake

    Some weeks go faster then others. This week didn’t particularly feel that way, so come Friday works end I was ready to unwind for the week.  Taking a trip to Lake Pupuke in Takapuna I inadvertently took a wrong turn and came across a walking track I had not seen before. The heavy rain at various times over the last month had soaked the ground and my flat bottomed business shoes struggled to keep me upright on some of the more sloped sections, but it was a great track all the same. A nice finish to the working week.

    Shot on the GRD IV, I spent some post time in Gimp softening and diffusing the original to get today’s image.

  • Smiths Bush

    As spring slowly approaches the days are starting to lengthen out again. This still does not leave much light when I finish work, but left enough today for me to take a brisk walk around Smiths Bush in Northcote on Auckland’s North Shore.

    It must have been about 5 years, possibly more, since I last went through the bush. It has turned into a wonderful local walkway there one could spend three quarters of an hour on a loop trail. The tall trees with mixed canopy, along with rotten fallen trunks really gives one the sense they are out in the bush/jungle.

    Armed with my GRD and light fading fast, I captured a number of forest shots. In post processing in Gimp I played around with a few contrast and special layers, with the result being today image. When I get some more time I will definitely visit Smiths Bush again!

  • Scramble of Reeds

    Passing by some swampland today between meetings I came across a mass of reeds and took a quick stroll. Within them there was a variety of bird and other life – something I would have captured if I had a closer than 28mm view. I took a few shots, and settled on this one today. I like the random haphazard layering of the reeds as they have been washed over by the water, walked over by Pukeko, and tangled in the wind.

    I had a few call outs in between editing this evening, so lost track on exactly what I did in Gimp, but I can say it included some cropping, sharpening and adding a cross processing filter.

  • Nature Wins

    Whilst out for a walk the other day I happened upon a strange little bush area on the side of some industry. Curious I stepped over the chain fence and went to explore further. Initially it was mostly long grass and a lot of clay and topsoil that had been dumbed at some stage. As I walked in further the clay and topsoil had all grown over with lush grass, and the bush and trees got a bit larger. The area was full of Tui (New Zealand Birds) and there was little indication how close of the buildings and road one actually was.Looking a little deeper, it was obvious that the area had been a bit of a dumping ground over its time in the making and i found this wrecked motor scooter being covered in grass.

    In its own little way it got me thinking about what things might look like if we went like the dinosaurs one day and disappeared. – Nature would slowly creep back and retake the earth. I’ve read some interesting articles about the Chernobyl area, where in ways this has partially happened with wildlife moving back into the areas now closed off to humans. Movies like I Am Legend portrayed it a little also, as have numerous TV Documentary series’.  Its an interesting thought anyway…

    Taken on the Sony Nex  with my Jupiter-8. In post shot within Gimp I added some vignette, bumped up contrast, saturation and applied a little sharpening.