Tag: Devonport

Clothesline Sculpture

Today we attended the NZ Sculpture Onshore art even running over two weeks at Fort Takapuna in Devonport. A very windy day, when the rain and wind were not present, it was beautiful weather. Some really cool art works by various artists, I will display some more over the next week. What I failed to do for all but a few was capture the art work name and artist – if any happen to come across my blog, make a comment and I will duly recognise you!

Today’s image, or piece was a massive clothesline spanning several trees with colourful knitted works on it. Shot on the Sony Nex with the kit zoom, I got nice and close and shot wide open. In post processing using Gimp I resized and applied the ‘lomo’ filter.

More tomorrow!

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Storm Warning

New Zealand has been hit with a mild weather bomb (depending which part of the country you are in) these last few days. Overall in Auckland we have only had a bit of high wind and low cloud. Yesterday this combined with a little light rain – nothing to get excited about.

In between appointments I snapped this image down at Narrow Neck beach in Devonport using my Ricoh with a tweaked bleach bypass setting.

Using Gimp, I cropped the aspect a little, removing some of the tree and more grey sky. I applied a light softening blur, slightly desaturated and lightly adjusting the hue. Lastly I added the rounded corners.

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Cheltenham at Dusk

A misty rainy day today left the sky a washed out white, and the constant drizzle was less then ideal for my walk after work with camera in hand. I took a stroll down Cheltenham beach in Devonport from dusk to dark looking for some interesting images. Again with the Ricoh, I used my mini tripod, found some semi-sheltering foliage and took some 30-60second exposures with the lens stopped down. I love the effect long exposures have on the ocean, or moving water. As the sky was washed out I decided to convert the image to B&W in post processing, and cropped the image to give us more of a panoramic feel.

My new-old Juipter-8 arrived in the post today. It looks and feels pretty good, so I will hopefully give it a test out on the nex some time later in the week.

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Friday Sun

We have had a lot of dull cloudy and wet days these last few weeks, so it was a refreshing change to get a clear sunny day today. Fingers crossed it holds for the weekend! Although I am now carrying one of my Rollei 35T film cameras with my in my bag, its been nice to leave it sit and get back to some digital shooting. Between the weather, long work days and wanting to shoot film, I’ve been ending up diving into archives more and getting out less (Which is not as enjoyable as getting out there to get shots).

Friday Sun was the result of a stroll with the Sony Nex 5N and its pancake lens. Using its built in HDR setting, something I need to experiment more with, I caught this lazy shot sitting on Mt Victoria in Devonport on Auckland North Shore.

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The Great Wall of Mt Cambria

So in reality, todays image is of no great wall, and not really a mountain either. I had been look at some photos of the Great Wall of China the other day, and the winding path on todays stroll reminded me of it. Now as far as a mountain goes, Mt Cambria, found is Devonport is placed between our two other volcanic cones, Mt Victoria and North Head. Unlike the former two however, Mt Cambria is little more then a elevated park now days. Once a small mountain in its own right, early settlers to Devonport turned it into a quarry, and did so from ~1883-1985.

Taken on the Ricoh (as usual), I like images where paths lead away into the distance and you have to imagine where they are taking you next. Post photo I rounded corners and reduced in size, all in Gimp.

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Mt. Victoria Mushrooms

On the summit of Mt Victoria sit a patch of giant mushrooms. Big red mushrooms with white dots. Actually ventilation ducts, the ‘mushrooms’ have been painted multiple times over the decades, and make an intersting site for people visiting the Mt Victoria to get a view of the North Shore, town, and Rangitoto (in the background of my image). I believe originally they were painted by a local Devonport artist, her boyfriend and his mate – it featured in a local paper article many years ago.

Being the oddity they are, I wanted to highlight them in todays image. After taking the image on the GRD, I desaturated all but the mushrooms in Gimp. I then slightly tweaked the sharpness and contrast to get the most out of the mixed color/B&W image.

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Pukeko Among Ducks

Some more fun today with the Nex and some legacy lens. Todays shot was taken on an old soviet Industar 26 – a 2,8/52mm lens. Shot stopped down to 2.8 I was happy with the images it gave me today, even with todays image being shot at dusk – credit to both the land and the Sony.

In Devonport, on the North Shore is a fair sized gold club (swamp land a long time ago). Surrounding part of this is a small stream/river, and a mass of ducks. Fed often by locals, there has been an increase of Pukeko in the area also. Pukeko’s, known overseas also as swamp hens are one of New Zealand’s more common iconic birds. The have a beautiful purple coat and amazingly dexterous feet. Whilst they can fly, its not often you see them doing so, and they more often then not retreat from ‘whatever’ on foot.

For todays image I selectively desaturated the image to ‘reveal’ and highlight the Pukeko amongst the Ducks. Shining in the center of the image, I liked the final result with the Pukeko creaping forward into my image as most of the other birds just ignored me.

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The Beach

Overall today was a stay at home day, but we did pop out to do some shopping. I took the opportunity to have a stroll around the village and take a few snaps. In this heavily contrasted image is Devonport Beach. Great in the summer time, but getting a little chilly to swim in now.

Hope peoples weekends are going well!

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