New Zealands Milford Sound

One more from my photo trip down memory lane of the South Island holiday. I mentioned yesterday about the amazing enormity of the mountains. Often rising up above the flat land, it confronts you face on.

Todays shot, taken in Milford Sound is another location when you can get up close to this once glacier formed landscape. Sitting on the flat ocean, looking up, the ranges almost disappear from sight.

Currently Milford Sound is part of a controversial debate whether to bipass the traditional road track (up to a 12 hour return journey from Queenstown) down to a two hour one way by train. This will however mean cutting into our national park – protected land. Some of the tourist stop towns may loose out, and some of the more quiet and beautiful places, Glenorchy, may become a busy traffic bipass. No argument the bus journey is a long one, but its also a beautiful one, and critical to some of the small stops. Then again, in this changing climate of tourism, many of those who travel to New Zealand to see the sights dont always want to bother about the small bits, and generally under estimate the real time it can take to take in our little country.

Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV, resized and bordered in Gimp

May 3, 2013 2

Mountains beyond the Grass

Looking over one of the blogs I regularly follow, I was inspired to have a look back, and reflect on my trip to the South Island in December 2011. My second time travelling from New Zealands North Island to the South Island, I cannot express how beautiful parts of our wonderful little country are.

Todays image was shot somewhere in the region of the Routeburn track (a stunning 32km track down the bottom part of the South). What takes ones breath away when down near the Souther Alps is the shear size and enormity of this great mountain range. Its something that simply must be on your travel list if you come down to New Zealand.

Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV, resized and bordered in Gimp.

May 2, 2013 0

Secret River

Secret River is in my mind.
I can go there any time.
Everything Mother Albirtha says is true.
The sky is gold and the river is blue.
Secret River, I love you

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan, The Secret River, Scribners, 1955, p. 56

Shot on the Olympus four thirds E500, edited in CS5 and Gimp.

April 30, 2013 2

Morning View

Before a busy day in the garden, I managed to get a walk in early morning today. One of the great things about out new home is that its about 5 minutes away from a great coastal bush walk.

I brought out the old Olympus E500 four thirds DSLR. Although getting a little long in the tooth, it has pleasing colours, and still handels well compared to my newer units.

Looking out across the water to the next peninsula I captured the calm, golden morning.

April 28, 2013 0

From the Dark, Into the light

Taking a quick walk after work, onto an upper track from a walk I did almost year ago, I set the Ricoh to high contrast B&W – determined to get a few shots I liked using this setting. Its been very overcast these last few days, with bad weather around the country, & the night is beginning to draw in earlier as we approach winter.

Heading back to the car, exiting a particularly dark patch of the track, I caught todays image. Using Gimp I slightly upped the contrast a little more to reduce the grey, and resized for the net.

April 22, 2013 0

Swift in the West

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.

April 18, 2013 0

Logs sitting, waiting

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.

March 2, 2013 0

Forgotten Jetty

I am a bit sick today, so excuse the limited text. Forgotten Jetty, shot last week on the Olympus E-500. Converted to B&W in Gimp with vignette added as well as pushing the contrast a bit.

February 11, 2013 2

Blue and Yellow

With ongoing in/out internet connections this weekend, I have managed to finally upload today’s shot, ‘Blue and Yellow’.

Shot on a recent walk, I love walking through the bush and looking up at the leaves of trees stretching up to the sun. On a clear day, the plain background highlights the details of the tree, and makes for a refreshing colour burst on the camera.

Post shooting, I pushed the contrast some in Gimp and resized.

Fingers crossed the internet is back proper tomorrow!

February 10, 2013 2

Feeding the Waitemata

Just a quick mobile post for this evening. Auckland has its first rain in 2013 and my home internet is playing up.

Shot at the uppermost point of Glenfield/Greenhithe, this scenic little river flows down into the Waitemata Harbour.

Shot on the Olympus E-500 and edited in Gimp.

February 4, 2013 0