Sony Nex 5N
A View from my Yard
Little Flowers
“Butterflies are not insects,’ Captain John Sterling said soberly. ‘They are self-propelled flowers.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
Opunake Beach
A drive further along from yesterdays post took us to Opunake. Without meaning offence, as with many townships around NZ (well…the world), its one of those ‘blink and you miss it’ places. A small, and nice township, first surveyed (by westerners) in 1868.
Stopping in for a packed lunch, the waves were strong. Typical of these west coast areas. A number of people were fishing off the beach, although with no success in the time we sat and watched as we ate our sandwiches.
I didn’t really spend much time in the township, but for anyone passing through, have a look ‘here’.
As with others – shot on the GRD IV and resized in Gimp.
Green and Pink
Last week I managed to get some extra shooting time in, which was great, but possibly a signal that I would not be able to do so much this week. Misfortune would have it that the day after my half marathon I stood on a nasty big rusty nail, which has left me limping around home on meds. My cameras are looking at me, but I cant get much further than the front door… the weather is amazing also!
Not much of a story to tell for today’s image, shot on the Nex 5N. Close up of some bright pink flowers with the kit lens.
Catch you you tomorrow!
The Colour Lavender
Dropping in to see some family after work today, I caught a quick snap of the lavender in full bloom.
Using Gimp in post processing, I desaturated several colours, slightly adjusted levels and added a little sharpness.
Sort and sweet for today!
‘Follow the Yellow Brick Road’
So…its not a brick road, or a yellow one at that, but ‘follow the orange flower trail’ didn’t have quite the ring to it that came to mind when I took, or view today’s image.
When out in the bush, in general, we get an amazing mix of forest colours – browns and greens essentially. These orange flowers that had fallen from the trees really stood out when we went through a trail in Fiji. When I captured the image, I was drawn to the trail of orange disappearing into the path ahead.
Originally captured in portrait, I went for a square format in my post processing – keeping all the subject matter in the image and not loosing anything of any relevance. Some people shoot a lot in square format – whether it be the traditional medium format 6×6 film, cropped digital or various smart phone apps. I do quite like the format, so may look at doing some more, probably B&W in it at some stage.
Cropping aside, I also pushed the saturation a bit to make the flowers pop, and slightly sharpened the image also.
Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV.
Spring is Near
Last night we had a massive storm with thunder and lightening that seemed never ending. I woke this morning to a clear blue sky, and what turned out to be a reasonably warm day. One can definitely tell spring is on its way.
I had hoped to shoot a roll of film on my little Olympus Mju 1 today, and did get 5 shots off before it was dropped and run over by a dodgem. Alas it did not survive the incident and I’m left mourning this fantastic compact cameras passing. I have transferred the film into my Ricoh R10, so hopefully those last 5 images can be saved at least.
Today’s image was snapped several days ago on my GRD IV in bleach mode. Resized in Gimp, otherwise untouched, it was the perfect mourning and spring is on its way image for the day!
Pink Flowers
95% of the time I either carry or are at arms reach to one of my handful of cameras. Every now and then, as with the above photo ‘Pink Flowers’ I find myself seeing an image I like, but not having a camera on me – not a traditional dedicated camera anyway. Mobile phone cameras have come a long way from those initial .5MP sensors a few years ago. This image, taken on a Samsung Galaxy 3 (not S3), whilst not as high a quality as my usual cameras, still does a fair job when one is stuck without a camera. Although the recent release is playing up on my phone, I rate the android app Vignette (used for this image). It has a host of customizable options and filters etc. For some impressive mobile phone photos, head over to mobilephotogroup.com – I came across them recently and am impressed with the images some people are pulling out of their iPhone’s, Galaxy’s etc. Todays image, taken on a crisp cool morning caught my eye as the sky was a rich blue and the morning light gave the pink flowers a soft glow.
MikeHawkey.com 