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  • The Leaf With Holes In It

    Taking a short stroll close to home to get some fresh air after work I caught todays image ‘The Leaf With Holes In It’. I had been mucking around with some of the built in camera editors, todays image taken in a bleach mode, with warm tones. In the unfocused background we can see the beach (bordering on a mud beach), with the sun just prior to setting as it glows around the leaf. Theres something calming about todays image. As a viewer I am looking into the background, wondering where it leads to…home I expect.

    Catch ya tomorrow.

  • Big Green Leaves

    I took some lieu after a meeting today and went for a stroll around the Chelsea Sugar Heritage Estate area – while the sun was still in the sky! Home to a variety of bird life, today was one of the rare days I wished I had something with more zoom then my 28mm Ricoh. I almost caught a Tui in flight… I’ll take the Sony along next time. All in all it was a nice walk consisting of some open grass, lake and more dense forest sections. I need to go back again some time to explore the other half.

    ‘Big Green Leaves’ is just that, a patch of low lying leaves. I got up close and made sure no other plants or whatnot were in the image. Taken on the GRD IV in cross processed mode, it pulled out the green of the leaves. Simple & basic, but a nice image I think. Aside from resizing for web, no other adjustments made.

  • Old Golf Course

    I finally got around to developing my film I took at the beginning of the month on my Rollei 35T. Its the first film I have developed myself in quite some time, so I was eager to see how it went (also because I had not tested the Rollei 35’s light meter). From loading the film in complete black, to the smell of the mixing the chemicals, to holding ones breath as you open up the tank to see how/if the film turned out – it was a great experience (once more) and hugely satisfying compared to our instant reward of the modern digital age. I don’t think I would ever drop digital, but it has reminded me of my passion for film when you develop it yourself.

    Todays image ‘Old Golf Course’ was taken up at Gulf Harbour. Aside from scanning to digital, adding the signature and resizing for the net in Gimp, I have left it untouched as it came from the camera.  As mentioned, taken on Rollei 35 T on 100asa lucky SHD100 film, developed with Ilford products.

  • Waterfront City

    I took a stroll through the city tonight after catching up with some friends. The WRC is all setup in Auckland this afternoon, so I hoped to see some of the cars, but I guess I arrived a little late in the evening. Turning back to the city, I caught this shot down by the waterfront. I love how even though it was captured in color, its almost B&W. The bright lights, but dark city and weary looking sky also creates a bit of an ominous feeling when I look at it.

    Shot on the GRD IV in bleach, I cropped a little of the foreground out of the image to create more balance in the final image. Otherwise unedited.

  • Mt. Victoria Mushrooms

    On the summit of Mt Victoria sit a patch of giant mushrooms. Big red mushrooms with white dots. Actually ventilation ducts, the ‘mushrooms’ have been painted multiple times over the decades, and make an intersting site for people visiting the Mt Victoria to get a view of the North Shore, town, and Rangitoto (in the background of my image). I believe originally they were painted by a local Devonport artist, her boyfriend and his mate – it featured in a local paper article many years ago.

    Being the oddity they are, I wanted to highlight them in todays image. After taking the image on the GRD, I desaturated all but the mushrooms in Gimp. I then slightly tweaked the sharpness and contrast to get the most out of the mixed color/B&W image.