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  • Kennedy Park Erodes

    After being stuck inside all day, with OK weather outside, I took a stroll after work at a place called Kennedy Park, found on the coastline of the North Shore. As I got out of the car it started spitting rain, and the last of the days light slowly began to retreat. Walking through the park, on the cliffs edge, I sank up to my ankles in mud – it was pretty boggy. Following the coastal path I ventured down a long set of stairs to the beach below. To no surprise, the sodden land had given away in places, and I caught this image of one of the land slips.

    Its not a totally unusual occurrence along the coastline, and as the multi-million dollar houses remove their trees for a greater view, the cliffs seem to give way more and more with nothing to hold them up. Even areas with trees will eventually give as the wild weather of mother nature washes away the mostly muddy sandstone cliffs of the area.

    Initially shot in bleach bi-pass mode on the camera, I reduced in size and switched to Black & White in post production in Gimp. I think it gives the image a bit more dramatic depth.

  • Swallow Dogfight

    On the same day I caught ‘Air Brakes‘ I also just managed to catch a few swallows darting around. Cool little birds, unless they are perched, they seem to travel at lightening speed and zig zagging all around, hence todays title ‘Swallow Dogfight’.

    Captured on the Nex 5N and Jupiter-11 lens, I was quite happy I managed to get one as the Jupiter is not the fastest to focus manual lens! Cropped to get the loosing dog fighter (well – other swallow), the long narrow format reminds me of some of the skinny long portrait Japanese paintings – something I might have more of a go at some time.

    Oh – and just in case there is confusion in my title, I mean dogfight as in two planes in close combat – not the bad (other bad?) kind…

  • Cheltenham at Dusk

    A misty rainy day today left the sky a washed out white, and the constant drizzle was less then ideal for my walk after work with camera in hand. I took a stroll down Cheltenham beach in Devonport from dusk to dark looking for some interesting images. Again with the Ricoh, I used my mini tripod, found some semi-sheltering foliage and took some 30-60second exposures with the lens stopped down. I love the effect long exposures have on the ocean, or moving water. As the sky was washed out I decided to convert the image to B&W in post processing, and cropped the image to give us more of a panoramic feel.

    My new-old Juipter-8 arrived in the post today. It looks and feels pretty good, so I will hopefully give it a test out on the nex some time later in the week.

  • New Life

    Walking along a small bush path I came across a fern with a number of seedlings growing from its leaves. From memory I don’t recall ever seeing this before. There were a number of similar ferns around, but this was the only one with seedlings on it. Getting up close I caught this image. Its not crystal sharp, but I like the softness of it combined with the limited colors and dark background.

  • Beyond the Mangroves

    Walking down some lesser known streets (to me) on the North Shore, I came to a dead end at Charles Street. It had a great view looking over at the Harbour Bridge (almost directly to where I took my night shots of the Bridge several weeks back). Armed with the Sony Nex and Jupiter-11 at f4 I got down to the height of the small mangroves and followed the water track to the view of the bridge. Aside from being straightened and cropped slightly, no other post processing.