Sun Beats Down

Finally a stroll after work! – its been a very busy few weeks, with a lot on both in and out of work. However, today I managed to head out for a little walk by the motorway. Its been another hot day, with a large percentage of the country now in, or close to drought. Todays particular area had a lot more green than many places I have seen lately. It is near a water collection area, so may have some springs around perhaps. Armed with the GRD IV, I got down to knee height, aimed out and up, adjusted compensation and shot into the sun. I think it highlights the sun beating down on an area with light shelter.

Shot in cross-processed mode on the Ricoh, I resized and added rounded corners in Gimp.

March 7, 2013 4

Road to the City

With great weather outside, I managed to go for a bit of a ride on the motorbike for an hour after work before heading to the mall to begin Christmas shopping. Up in the Albany area of the North Shore, I dismounted and went for a bit of a walk around some land that is currently green pasture, but just as likely to be shops or industrial in the next decade.

At the edge of the field ran a waist height barbed wire fence – stopping whoever/whatever from passing through and onto the motorway. There is no stock in the area, and even a short person could get over it, so its function is a little questionable. It did serve as part of todays image ‘road to the city’!

Using Gimp I processed a cross-processing filter after applying a lomo effect. I then added ‘film grain’ and resized for the net.

oh, and the Christmas shopping – the shops were already busy and full. Thankfully I got the majority of presents today as its only going to get worse next week!

December 13, 2012 2

NZ4115

One of my last Motat images I will post up for now I think – NZ4115. Outside the main hanger where a large number of restored planes sit, is the outside storage yard. Here sit a number of planes awaiting restoration, and until then, gradually weather away. Built in the 30’s, the Short S.25 Sunderland flying boat would have been used to patrol shorelines in wartime, and by the looks of this one, perhaps used as some form of transporter later in life. I believe plans are for it to be restored and stored undercover eventually.

Image wise I did a fair bit of playing around today. After straightening and cropping foreground I used the national geographic plug-in, added vignette and cross-processed with a brown tone. I then played with levels and colour balance.

Auckland (and wider New Zealand) got hit with some fairly fierce weather this afternoon, sadly with a few people loosing their lives to a tornado. Little known to myself at the time, but I must have been within a half km of the tornado as it struck. I didn’t really think much of it until a large number of emergency vehicles headed back in the direction I came from. Initial reports advised of about 150 homes damaged and widespread flooding. I’m sure a lot of thoughts go out to the families of all affected.

December 6, 2012 0

Over the Tracks

Sometimes its the imperfect images that appeal. Again from my visit to Motat, I snapped ‘Over the Tracks’ whilst waiting from the tram to take us to Motat II. More often than not I will delete out of focus images, but today’s had a bit of a interesting feeling to it. I’m not sure if its the lack of focus that draws one in more, trying to work out the situation, or simply the placement of the people. Perhaps its one of those shots that the shooter likes, but does not appeal to the wider group?

Post processing wise I did a little cropping and added a cross-processed filter with a clay brown tone. I rounded off the image and resized for the net.

December 4, 2012 0

Up the River

Prior to visiting Motat with work on Friday, I had some lunch at Western Springs – the large freshwater springs next to the venue. Once upon a time Western Springs was the primary water source for much of Auckland (Like the Pumphouse on the North Shore I have written about). Now days it makes a popular place for a walk, run or to have a picnic and feed the ducks.

Surrounding part of the springs is a little river where the water flows. Armed with my Sony Nex 5N and 210mm lens I got as central to and low as I could and shot into the distance.

In post processing using Gimp I slightly cropped and straightened, added a cross-processed filter, pushed the contrast a notch and desaturated by several points.

December 1, 2012 2

Sun Searcher

I think whenever one is struggling to find an interesting shot, its always good to switch to macro and explore the smaller world a little. ‘Cant see the wood for the trees’ is not quite the right expression I am looking for – but sometimes stopping, sitting and looking a little closer opens up a whole new world…’Stop to smell the flowers’?

Today’s shot, ‘Sun Searcher’ came about from a walk I took the other day. It had been a long day, and searching for inspiration felt a little like it was hiding. Taking a short stop I noticed a line of buttercups on the crest of a small grass mound. Almost approaching sunset, the light was getting quite low – the golden hour. I took a few shots and settled on the above for today.

Using Gimp in post processing, I added a cross-processed filter and then adjusted the levels more to my liking. Something about cross-processing always adds a bit more of a ‘memory’ effect to images. Its quite popular with a range of modern smart-phones (and digi cameras) at present – a sort of instant retro I guess.

October 25, 2012 2

Scramble of Reeds

Passing by some swampland today between meetings I came across a mass of reeds and took a quick stroll. Within them there was a variety of bird and other life – something I would have captured if I had a closer than 28mm view. I took a few shots, and settled on this one today. I like the random haphazard layering of the reeds as they have been washed over by the water, walked over by Pukeko, and tangled in the wind.

I had a few call outs in between editing this evening, so lost track on exactly what I did in Gimp, but I can say it included some cropping, sharpening and adding a cross processing filter.

August 8, 2012 0

Lost Sunset

I have mentioned that with Winter approaching the days have been getting shorter and shorter. As a consequence, it’s often dark as I leave and go home from work during the week. Today I left just prior to sunset. It was a particularly amazing red sunset tonight, glowing off a mass of clouds. I battled the traffic to get to a local beach to catch it, but missed most of the sunset but the time I got to my destination… never mind!

Taken with the GRD set to ‘cross processed’ and with the saturation bumped up in post process, I caught the last ray of color before it all vanished.

Happy mid week!

May 23, 2012 0