photos and other things…
A quick shot from the archives today, ‘Underleaf’
Being in a country full of green lush bushes and forests, a quick walk into this wilderness is always great after a hard day at work. Listening to the song of the native birds and breathing in the fresh breath of nature.
I have been a bit busy with bits and pieces today, with tomorrow looking similar again, but hopefully I will find some time to get out and take some shots!
Catch you tomorrow!
My last posting from the Piha area, for now. Krishna asked yesterday if I had any shots of the Kitekite Falls. With the beautiful green and dense growth on the surrounding track to the falls, it was hard to get a clear view. I did find a slight clearing however and took today’s shot. Aside from this walk I had taken my filter set with me all morning – it would have been ideal here also to assist with the blown out grey sky.
As can be seen in the image, the falls in full are made up of a number of units. The final being about 40m, the other 40m is built from several smaller falls, gathering into pools.
In post processing I adjusted the levels a little and lightly tinted the blown out sky. There was nothing there to rescue, so its all I could do with limited time.
I think the final image really highlights well the lush green environment of New Zealand bush. A great place to visit when in the area!
I took a big walk in the CBD area today, searching out places I have no memory of going, or had not been for a good many years. One such place was the Symonds Street Cemetery. Now a historic parks area, I found it quite fascinating, with mixed emotions.
Established in 1842, by Western New Zealand terms, this is a very old graveyard, home to many early Auckland settlers, and several people of notable title. From the road, the cemetery is selectively maintained, but as you walk in and dwell a little deeper, nature really has taken over.
On one hand it is sad to see this history being cracked up, overturn and overgrown, but from another perspective, its almost the ultimate return to nature. I cant say I have placed much thought on where I want to end up at end of days, but I don’t think I would be that upset if after a century passes I have been engulfed by a tall tree that was once a shrub by my headstone.
Walking through the Cemetery I saw a number of homeless, or evidence of them staying there. A tent hidden in the overgrown wild bush being one of the more ‘high class’ establishments. Parts of the lower cemetery, where the highway has cut across, had been used for a dumping ground of tyres. Everywhere I went there was evidence of gravestones that had fallen into disrepair, or literally been absorbed into bush and tree as the forest took over. One other thing I found interesting is how the city also has ‘overgrown’ over the graveyard. Grafton Bridge, a tall two lane vehicle bridge cuts over the graveyard- leaving but inches over a number of headstones, and likely meant relocating a number more.
For those in the CBD looking for a walk, I highly recommend it. There are a number of tracks one can explore, and although I made mention of vagrants, I have never had an issue with such folk as long as you are respectful (there was only a handful anyway). Its a beautiful inner city bush. As the cemetery is divided into two with Symonds street breaking it down the middle, I will likely visit the other half another day when I head that way.
Photo wise, taken on the Ricoh GRD IV with bleach bypass, all I did with post in Gimp was crop the aspect a little and resize for web.
I took a stroll into part of Unsworth Reserve today after work. I have passed it may times throughout the years, but never stopped. A great little bush, albeit easy to walk down a dead end track. On my return leg I dove down another dead end path and came across this seat in the middle of no where.
How it got there I don’t know, but it made me think of the storybook ‘where the wild things are’, and various articles I have read about people who essentially abandon society and go bush (or desert, or island etc).
Depending how one looks at it, its either a slightly creepy image, or a cool one, imagining oneself waking up in the forest and sitting down for a morning cuppa on your couch.
In gimp I played around with levels and added a vignette lomo filter. The focus of the image was not quite right, but I liked the content, so ran with it anyway for today.
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.
Another 35mm film shot from my Ricoh GR1 in the forest of Fiji I walked through to get to a waterfall. Following the river down, we can see the irritated horse I featured a the day before last (I think its the one anyway), before the river disappears into the forest.
Not a lot more to say about this image as we reach mid-week and I am slowly getting back into the ‘work mode’ – Its funny how just over a week away can both go by so quick, yet seem to last so much longer. I’ve never been to good at getting back into the swing of work after a holiday away!
Photo wise, after scanning the film I used Gimp to play with the levels slightly, apply a sharpen and give the image a very slight sepia like tone.
Whilst I have had a camera on me at all times, I have not really taken many images so far this week. I still have a few more of Fiji I want to share before getting back to my local production, so there is no chance of running out of images anyway!
One of the things I love about New Zealand is how close we are to all aspects of nature, even if we live in the central city. The beach, mountains and forests are all relatively easy and quick to get to. I had some time to kill after work, on the way to a mates house and stopped off for a quick bush walk. One minute in and you are away from the cars, traffic and people. The lush green freshness radiates the senses and offers a calming element to ones busy lifestyle. We are approaching winter at the moment, so it gets dark fairly early. Looking up at the moon through the rapidly darkening bush, I caught this shot with my GRD IV. With some minor editing I placed it into a square format and bumped the contrast a little to make the clean black silhouette of the forest.
MikeHawkey.com 