photos and other things…
A short stroll after work at the Beach Haven waterfront. Light rain precedes what is forecast to be a potentially heavy storm and possible isolated tornadoes tonight.
Shooting again using the B&W High Contrast mode on the Ricoh GRD IV and post editing in Gimp – cropping aspect and adding a slight colour tone tint.
Friday!
A quick archive shot for today. Work took me out of the office and down to Hamilton for my 12 hour day. Unfortunately, between doing what I was down there to do, and driving, I didn’t get the opportunity to take any shots. Hamilton has an excellent garden park, and I’m told a great Zoo, so I will need to head down for them again at some stage.
Todays image, shot back in summer when I took a trip to Piha on the West Coast. I recall the clouds still being low in the sky as I looked back to the car park, and up into the ranges.
Shot on the Sony Nex, converted to B&W in Gimp.
My last image from the New Plymouth holiday. Down on the waterfront looking towards the old power station.
Anyone visiting New Plymouth really should spend some time on the waterfront area. They have a great walkway that stretches for several Km. The Wand, and various walking tracks that begin down by the sea.
Not much else to add today. Photos back up in Auckland tomorrow!
A drive further along from yesterdays post took us to Opunake. Without meaning offence, as with many townships around NZ (well…the world), its one of those ‘blink and you miss it’ places. A small, and nice township, first surveyed (by westerners) in 1868.
Stopping in for a packed lunch, the waves were strong. Typical of these west coast areas. A number of people were fishing off the beach, although with no success in the time we sat and watched as we ate our sandwiches.
I didn’t really spend much time in the township, but for anyone passing through, have a look ‘here’.
As with others – shot on the GRD IV and resized in Gimp.
Just to the left of yesterdays image (about 15km down the road actually) lies the seaside surf escape of Oakura Beach. Easter weekend in New Plymouth happened to also have a VW club meet on, so it was quite cool to see a good handful of well kept and restored Kombi van’s parked up along the beach, as their owners surfed (or swam) the waves.
Of interesting note, the township was hit by a tornado in 2007.
Image wise, I desaturated the blue from the sky and slightly pushed contrast before cropping. All done in Gimp, and shot on the Ricoh.
Another hot day in Auckland. Out and about doing chores and similar, I have not yet had a chance to take any images today, so will post another from yesterdays visit to Long Bay.
Wandering through the park, there are a number of overflow car parks. At its peak in summer this year, Long Bay had about 25000 visitors (!) and a 2 hour car jam waiting to get in. Fridays visit, with schools and work back, was substantially less, and I wandered through the closed off car park with only the sound of the birds and wind through the tree. The ranger must have been chopping up a few trees recently, and I took a few shots of the pile of logs left. With a total fire ban at present due to dry conditions, these logs were unlikely to be used for a BBQ or similar any tie soon.
Shot on the GRD IV. Using Gimp I rounded the corners and resized. Otherwise as is from camera.
Today celebrated my workplaces annual Big Day Out. Held at the beautiful Long Bay beach, the sun was beating down by early afternoon, and those of whom had not brought our togs, wished we had.
Taking a moment for a stroll, armed with my Ricoh GRD IV, I captured a number of images, both showing the beautiful beach, and also the drought like conditions that have been sweeping the country (Luckily for Auckland, no where near as bad as farmers North of Auckland). Walking under a selection of trees, I was amazed to see literally multiple tens (lets estimate 30) of Swallows darting in and out of the trees. All the other animals I had seen were sheltering under trees out of the heat.
Now looking to capture any close up action of a small bird with a 28mm lens is never going to happen, so I framed up the trees and sky and looked to capture a silhouette of several birds as they flew overhead. Todays image being my pick of the bunch for today.
Using Gimp, I slightly cropped the image in post processing.
Weekend time!
New Zealand, being fairly isolated on a country scale, has a vast history of migrating. The indigenous group of New Zealand, The Maori have legends of the great Waka that brought them to New Zealand from Hawaiki. Some time later the European discoverers came to the South Seas of the Pacific – Abel Tasman,and most notably Captain Cook. Soon enough people from England (and other areas of Europe) came to the brave new land and settled. Skip forward a few hundred years (we are a fairly young country) and we still see people coming to New Zealand for its beautiful lifestyle.
As a side, this got me thinking about passports and the process involved in moving from place to place. If anyone has any interesting articles/books on when exactly the world was divided up to the level one needed ID and permission to move from one land to another please add a comment. We take it as the norm now, but it cannot have always been such.
Todays image, ‘Beach Migration’, influenced by my thoughts, is of a group of paddle boarders of Aucklands Takapuna Beach. Cutting out the beach in the foreground, I wanted to create some form of impression that they are heading to Rangitoto Island.
Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV and edited in the OSX version of Gimp 2.8
Feb 14th – Valentines Day! (some interesting facts there)
Today’s image, shot alongside yesterdays during the rain passing through. I loved how the environment had a mix of contrasts with the sun shining in areas, and the dark clouds in others. Not a lot more to say about it really. Shot on the Nex with 16-50mm lens. Small adjustments, but essentially out of camera.
After what feels like a few more weeks of amazing weather, works end welcomed the rain. I parked the car and strolled down to the beach, just missing the main rain cloud as it passed Rangitoto. The beach, flooded with rain, showed no sign of footsteps or human contact that no doubt crazed it earlier in the day. No sooner had I rolled off a few shots, and the next cloud of rain arrived, hastening me back to the car.
Shot on the Sony Nex, it was my first outing using the new 16-50mm power zoom lens Sony has released. Initially faulted on the 5N (due to firmware not being up to date enough for it), the latest firmware should fix most of its issues. I must say, it makes the Sony a nice small unit with a 35mm equivalent of 24-75mm zoom.
Image wise, in Gimp as usual, I resized, cropped adjusted contrast and sharpness a little.
Catch you tomorrow!
MikeHawkey.com 