‘Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding’.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Shot on Sony Nex 5n. Cropped and desaturated in Gimp.
Take Flight
Road on the Hill
A shot from the Summit of North Head in Devonport, taken yesterday during a bike road. Shot on the Galaxy s2 using the pro hdr app and edited in post with afterfocus.
Still having internet issues at home, which is very annoying. Im quite surprised and unimpressed its taking so long to rectify…maybe tomorrow!?!?…
Shades of Blue
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.
Rain Away
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!
Off to Another Land
Another short and sweet post text wise today. Image shot on the Sony Nex from Mt Victoria, Devonport, North Shore.
The Dry Hilltop
I mentioned it not long ago, but looking around my local area, we sure have a lot of dry areas. Fire services around the country have been busy putting out bush fires, and rain, aside from one day earlier in the week, seem elusive in Auckland.
Today’s shot is of the weather station up Mt Victoria in Devonport, with the ‘toadstools’ (I think I have featured them in the past) in the foreground.
Shot on the Sony Nex with 16mm pancake lens. In Gimp I added a adjusted ‘National Geographic’ filter, rounded boarder and resized.
The 20km Stroll
What started as a ~1 hour walk out and about, turned into a 20km 5 1/2 hour walk today! Quite enjoyable, but it would have been better if I didn’t only have my jandals (thongs/flip-flops) on.
Starting off (entirely on Auckland’s North Shore) in Eskdale Bush, I worked my way to Kaipatiki Bush, and then followed the Glenfield costal trail, before hitting the suburbs, over to Milford, Takapuna and Devonport.
As well as only planning a short walk today, I took along the Olympus E-500 DSLR – the heaviest of the bunch I have at hand.
The above image was captured in the first section of today’s walk. In post-processing I added vignette, converted to B&W and adjusted the curves a little to assist in giving the image a dark look.
Feet worn and sore, its time for a rest. Until tomorrow.
Down the Hill to the Village
Its been one of those weeks where things fly by, but on auto pilot. I have not had much time to just take a step back and relax.
Heading home today I took a stroll up Mt Victoria in Devonport (actually this id where I am writing todays post). The hot summer weather has taken its toll on the mountain and all the grass has gone a dry yellow. Only the lush trees remain green.
Casting ones vision down the hill we can see the Devonport village. Around 5pm, traffic is building as people head in and out. After the break in the harbour is the eastern side of the CBD- where the ports shipping things in are found.
Image wise, todays shot is taken on the Galaxy using Vignette.
Tree on the Horizon
Tree on the Horizon was captured at an old residential estate in my local area that has since been pulled down, and is currently overgrown park area. Drains that were covered in sheets of ply have disappeared under the thick bed of grass that has covered the area. Many of the paths/drives have also broken up and are in the process of returning to nature. I always find the thought of nature taking things back fascinating, so a wander through this empty (of buildings) area is fun when doing so.
Captured on the Nex 5N with a legacy lens on (I’m pretty sure it was my Industar 61). In post processing with Gimp, I adjusted levels, desaturated and added a faint tint. I find that the slight sepia (or similar shade) tint helps add ‘a little something’ to B&W images
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!
MikeHawkey.com 