Dark by the Sea

Some heavy digital pushing of today’s image ‘Dark by the Sea’. Mucking around in Gimp, I was pushing the sky to get some dynamics, and then the foreground to get the cliff sides. I think the result, although requiring more editing effort on my part where the foreground and background collide, gives quite a dynamic surreal feeling to it.

With the weekend here (at last!) I am hoping I will get some time to develop my film – and start a new one. I also took delivery of a budget 2.2x telephoto lens to try on the Nex. I wanted to see how acceptable a result it would give me on my 210mm leans, as well as the possibilities it may offer when I am travelling light with the standard kit lens.

February 1, 2013 9

The Lion of the West Coast

Taken from the lookout point at the south of Piha, today’s image is a great profile of Lion Rock. If you look carefully (or imaginatively) you can see the lions eye and nose on the left, his Mane and lower back. Climbing up, one come from the right hand side of this image (clearly we don’t start in the ocean) and take the gradual carved staircase up.After the first 1/3rd, you can see where the most recent slip from a number of years ago occurred.As you hit the lions ‘mane’, approx 2/3rds, that’s where the track now finishes. It used to come along the side a little more before going inwards again (back when you could climb to the summit).

Although a very overcast day, looking in the background, one can see the sea spray drifting overland towards the dense bush areas. I think the tide was more out than in at this time of the day when the photo was shot.

Once a place of camping and a few holiday homes, Piha is now a growing in population area. In 1951 it had 73 residents. in the 2006 census that figure had grown to 822. 6 years on, I expect it will have easily cracked the 1000. Many of the houses are fairly flash now days, and a great option for the work from home types who love to be by the sea and surf. There are still multiple camping grounds in the area (although very limited shops), and its well worth a stay if you are in Auckland for a period!

Piha also had its own TV show – Piha Rescue. Essentially a real life lifesaver show filmed around the typical summer periods of Piha.

Shot on the Sony Nex 5N and post-processed in Gimp. I adjusted the levels a fair amount – this helped a lot with the hazy, slightly over exposed original. Cropped the aspect a little and added wording.

That will do for facts for today. I’ll let the image say the rest! Have a good Friday!

January 11, 2013 0

Lion Rock, Piha

For visitors to Piha, the most memorable, or at least recognisable part of the area is the famous Lion Rock. a 16 million year old piece of volcanic neck standing ~101 metres high. It got its name from the shape of a sitting lion when viewed from the south of the beach (left in the photo).

Over the years Lion rock has claimed a number of lives – both from people falling, and also from those fishing off the dangerous yet rewarding rocks of the unforgiving surf beach. As a child I recall the terror of climbing to the top up a (at least what felt to be) dodgy eroding track. The reward once at the top was a magnificent view (and sandwich with Piha black sand stuck in it somehow). In the late 1990’s, there was a significant landslide with the double tragic result of dis-forming the lion a little, and preventing all but foolish risk takers from now climbing to the summit (another example of tragedy).

Now days one can climb up about 2/3’rds of the rock where you will reach a Maori stone and blessing of the area and valued rock. You may also be able to make out a small plaque near the middle of the base with the roll of honour for WW1 soldiers from the local area.

There is something special about Lion Rock for me & I love photographing it. One day I will get the perfect shot of it (for me)…one day.

Image wise, it was shot on the Sony Nex, with duo-tone filters and edited in Gimp. I adjusted the levels, added a vignette and converted to B&W.

Some more Piha tomorrow probably!

January 10, 2013 0

Flowing out to Sea

As I transition back into the usual flow of work, its time to share some images I captured over the last week.

As stated the other day, I went to the West Coast of Auckland and took some images at Piha Beach. Nice and early in the morning, the water flowing to the beach was still (the surf beach that Piha is still had waves crashing) and the haze and spray of the sea drifting in. Although the sun was yet to come up properly, it was overcast.

I set my tripod up and took a few shots, both with the Sony Nex and the Pentax MG, looking out past Lion Rock and into the island in the distance. I also attached a graduated tone filter to both, trying to give the sky some colour in the Nex, and bring out a little cloud on the MG.

Today’s image, from the Nex, is straight from camera, unedited aside from scaling and adding my sig. If I was to edit it, I think I might crop the aspect a little, but I quite like it as-is.

I will write some more about Piha in the coming days as I have a few images I wish to share. Today’s image brings about childhood memories for me. The stream in the foreground was great for sailing boats (model ones) and building dams on. I also recall as a youngster falling in fully clothed and being less than impressed. Piha is a black sand beach – it always seemed to stick much better than white sand, and ALWAYS got into my sandwiches as a child!

January 9, 2013 13

Balmain Reserve and the Beach

As the days rapidly count down to the end of Holiday time, I have decided to continue on with my ‘digital Polaroid’ theme for the last few days. Hitting 25 degrees in Auckland today, we headed down to Cheltnham beach for a swim (I have written about the beach numerous times in the past so wont spend time on it today)

As with the last few days, image was shot on the Samsung Galaxy S2 using the vignette app. I made some minor tweaks to the film type and exposure today, giving it mostly an overexposed quality – as a comment pointed out in the past, this almost gives more of a feeling of bright, hot summer. Photoshop CS5 provided the written content and resizing.

I have used CS5 these last few days simply out of convenience in that its on the laptop in front of me, rather than my usual desktop unit with Gimp 2.8. Its been, lets say refreshing to use CS5 these last few days – more just so I don’t totally forget how to use it (just almost).

With two days left on my break I am hoping to get to the West Coast – Piha. Fingers crossed for tomorrow or the day after. I will take a combination of mobile, digital and film shots all going well.

Until tomorrow!

January 6, 2013 0

Farewell 2012

A quick shot in between bits and pieces for the last day of 2012. Heading out for a bike ride, it was a beautiful day to cycle around, and for the beach.

Today (as anyone reading knows) marks the end of 2012. Typically a time of the year when people make resolutions and changes heading into the new year. For some its a change of jobs, improving those eating habits, cutting out drinking etc etc… I’m not generally one to have strong new year resolutions. Last year it was to not buy any more digital cameras for the whole year. I survived that, but do have more 35mm film cameras (at a fraction of the cost generally). 2013…I’m not sure yet. I guess I have several hours to decide…maybe

Image shot at Narrow Neck beach on the Ricoh GRD IV and resized in Gimp.

To all of you who follow my posts and read the content, I wish you the best of wishes heading into 2013. Happy New Year!

December 31, 2012 4

Whites beach Piha

An archive shot with a bit of a processing twist today. I was thinking about the growth in android and apple camera apps, as well as what may be a slowly growing trend (at least in the more compact/non dslr field) of built in apps on phones.At the very least, it is becoming more common for people to upload their photos to various mobile devices.

So for today I uploaded an old image from my Fujifilm J15 to my samsung galaxy sII. Editing wise, I used Afterfocus and applied a vignette and vintage filter.

Image wise, the photo was shot at Whites Beach, just to the side of Piha on Aucklands West coast. A beautiful yet wild beach well worth visiting.

December 19, 2012 0

The Beach

Another beautiful day weather wise in Auckland – bordering on hot. Todays shot is taken from North Head on the North Shore, looking north up Cheltnham beach towards Takapuna. A good number of people were out in the water, possibly experiencing the first swim of summer. We passed groups and couples relaxing on the hill in the sun and watched the various boat races out in the harbour.

Today’s image was shot on the Sony with my Juipter-8 Lens. It had been a while since I had dug out the manual lens on the Sony, and today’s walk proved a good outing to do so on. Although a little softer as it gets to the corner, it gives a nice feeling to the images.

Editing in Gimp, I did bump up the contrast a notch before resizing and adding rounded corners.

That’s the end of Sunday, on rolls another week!

December 9, 2012 2

Out to Sea

A busy day today, so one from recent archives. Shot at one of our local beaches on the Sony Nex and Sigma 30mm lens.

In Gimp I adjusted the colour levels and added simulated film grain.

Tomorrow afternoon work has a bit of a team afternoon/outing, so all going well I will have something to show a little different than usual…all going well.

November 29, 2012 2

Summer Rolls In

A fantastic Saturday in Auckland today brings along the hope that Summer is starting to arrive. The beach hosted a number of people sunbathing, relaxing and swimming.

Stepping back into non mobile cameras, I brought along the GRD IV to capture today’s shot. Using Gimp in post processing I added a cross processed filter, which added a duckish blue tint. I also cropped to square format, before resizing to post.

Off out for the second BBQ of the season tonight. I still have several shots of film left on my Rollei 35 to finish.

Enjoy your Saturday!

November 10, 2012 1