Swift in the West

A quick archive shot for today. Work took me out of the office and down to Hamilton for my 12 hour day. Unfortunately, between doing what I was down there to do, and driving, I didn’t get the opportunity to take any shots. Hamilton has an excellent garden park, and I’m told a great Zoo, so I will need to head down for them again at some stage.

Todays image, shot back in summer when I took a trip to Piha on the West Coast. I recall the clouds still being low in the sky as I looked back to the car park, and up into the ranges.

Shot on the Sony Nex, converted to B&W in Gimp.

April 18, 2013 0

Keys to the House

In what must be record time (for us), our internet issues have been resolved and we are back online again. One tick in the ‘to do list’ for our new home. Next on the list is re-seating and sealing our laundry tap. Things built up in the last week of packing, and my clothing is starting to whittle down in the selection pool.

Todays image was the first I shot with the transfer of ownership and key’s collection. Using the GRD with high contrast B&W on Macro, I shot from the bench, towards the brick ‘theme wall’ in the lounge.

High contrast B&W is a popular option for many Ricoh GRD fans. I have not used it a whole lot, but think I’ll give it a bit more of a go for a while. Being very contrasty and [digital] grainy, one can bump up the iso, if required, with little affect to the image.

On the subject of Ricoh and it’s GRD range, I am excited to read the GR V is finally on its way – albeit not officially announced yet. Fitting a APS C sensor (like that used in the majority of DSLR’s) makes it an amazingly small package with a lot of promise for delivering amazing images, yet still fitting in your jeans pocket.

I dont think I will be shifting up any time yet when it is released (If Ricoh sent me one I would happily use it!). My GRD IV is still as good as the day it was released, creates great images, handles well…and just does what was designed to do. Its all too easy to jump on the need, want, must have band wagon without really assessing if one genuinely does need. Back in the film camera days you might own the same camera for several decades. In our current Technology age, one year is sold to us as being a lifetime (hello Samsung and Apple). There is no argument the latest models are [usually] a step up, but whether its a required step up is another question. When my Sony 5N was replaced with the latest 5# and the improved Nex6, both models gained function, but lost battery life – image quality was essentially identical also. I love playing with new toys, but have also started to reflect a lot on how much the ‘consumerism and marketing god’ pulls at our wallet strings. Branded is a fun movie I caught a while ago which creatively plays with this idea.

That will do for today. Its only Wednesday!

April 17, 2013 0

New Plymouth Waterfront

My last image from the New Plymouth holiday. Down on the waterfront looking towards the old power station.

Anyone visiting New Plymouth really should spend some time on the waterfront area. They have a great walkway that stretches for several Km. The Wand, and various walking tracks that begin down by the sea.

Not much else to add today. Photos back up in Auckland tomorrow!

April 9, 2013 0

Field of Long Grass

Another image shot from yesterdays walk. Not much word content to add today – but shot on the Ricoh GRD IV in cross-processed mode. In post I reduced and added rounded corner boarder.

Weekend time!

March 8, 2013 2

Logs sitting, waiting

Another hot day in Auckland. Out and about doing chores and similar, I have not yet had a chance to take any images today, so will post another from yesterdays visit to Long Bay.

Wandering through the park, there are a number of overflow car parks. At its peak in summer this year, Long Bay had about 25000 visitors (!) and a 2 hour car jam waiting to get in. Fridays visit, with schools and work back, was substantially less, and I wandered through the closed off car park with only the sound of the birds and wind through the tree. The ranger must have been chopping up a few trees recently, and I took a few shots of the pile of logs left. With a total fire ban at present due to dry conditions, these logs were unlikely to be used for a BBQ or similar any tie soon.

Shot on the GRD IV. Using Gimp I rounded the corners and resized. Otherwise as is from camera.

March 2, 2013 0

Swallows Take Flight

Today celebrated my workplaces annual Big Day Out. Held at the beautiful Long Bay beach, the sun was beating down by early afternoon, and those of whom had not brought our togs, wished we had.

Taking a moment for a stroll, armed with my Ricoh GRD IV, I captured a number of images, both showing the beautiful beach, and also the drought like conditions that have been sweeping the country (Luckily for Auckland, no where near as bad as farmers North of Auckland). Walking under a selection of trees, I was amazed to see literally multiple tens (lets estimate 30) of Swallows darting in and out of the trees. All the other animals I had seen were sheltering under trees out of the heat.

Now looking to capture any close up action of a small bird with a 28mm lens is never going to happen, so I framed up the trees and sky and looked to capture a silhouette of several birds as they flew overhead. Todays image being my pick of the bunch for today.

Using Gimp, I slightly cropped the image in post processing.

Weekend time!

March 1, 2013 0

Construct Zone

I am generally one of those people who get a sense of relaxation and re-energizing from nature. Walking through the forest or bush, or along the beach the air feels cleaner, we have less (not none) forms of modern technology buzzing around us. Its a unloaded simpler feeling.

However, I also enjoy exploring ‘things in change’ – areas under construction (as well as areas returning to nature). Sundays walk took me to a new development area in Long Bay – the northern point of the North Shore. Here open fields and scrub has made way for carefully planned and measured sections for residential use. There is one road in/out with a monolith of a structure announcing you have entered this likely prestigious area. Today’s image was taken at the edge of this boundary, just before entering the area. For me, the title Construct Zone both signifies an area in change, literally being constructed, but also the mental symbolics of construct being the putting together of planning and theory to create a new suburb and the people within it.

Shot on the Sony Nex with the Sigma 30mm lens, I only slightly adjusted the levels before resizing to publish.

I’m also working my way through the 35mm film I took to the music festival yesterday. I initially thought I had a 24/27 shot film, but it must be a 36, so not too much longer until I can develop!

January 29, 2013 4

Rolled Hay

With another great day for the long weekend, I went for a stroll both in a small bush park I had not been to before, and to explore a recently developed area behind Long Bay Reserve. I am assuming, in some form of preparation for the land, Hay had been rolled out in the soon to be housing developments.

Not having much real life experience on farms and the like, I love the look of giant hay rolls, or stacks of bails as tall as a barn. There is something appealing about the simple raw product that has been gathered straight from the ground.

The rolls in today’s image were quite some way past a tall fenced off area, so I had to zoom right in with my 55-210mm lens to capture them as viewed above.

In post processing, using Gimp, I added a ‘lomo’ filter and adjusted the contrast a little.

Off to the music event Laneway tomorrow. All going to plan, I will be taking my Pentax MG to get some B&W 35mm shots, and likely my mobile, so we will see if I have some shots from there tomorrow, or later in the week. I did get some more shots today from my bush walk, so will look to share them on a day I don’t have much.

January 27, 2013 4

Monarch in the Sun

I think if people were ever inspired by the children’s book ‘The Ugly Duckling’, than the story of the Monarch butterfly must be awe inspiring! Here is a creature that starts life as a little caterpillar, eats and eats and eats until it is about to burst, makes a little sleeping bag to sleep in and then one day emerges with beautiful coloured wings and dances off into the sky!

Today’s image, from our back yard, features one such monarch that floated in to sample the local flowers. There was a bit of a breeze out, so watching it come in was a little like planes landing in Wellington on a windy day!

As with many creatures in nature, their colour serves to warn off would-be predators like birds, for whom they are poisonous. Surprisingly, reading a little more about them, the monarch butterfly is classed in the near- threatened grouping on a conservation level. We seem to get a good number of them around Auckland at least!

Shot on the Sony with 210mm lens (315mm 35mm equivalent) , I bumped up the contrast and sharpness to compensate for the fairly flat image that came out the camera.

Wind aside its been a great start to the long weekend, so I will get back to it!

January 26, 2013 4

Keep Clear

A quick mid week post.

Keep Clear. Shot on a recent town stroll with my Ricoh GRD IV in hand. Post processing involved adding a heavy vignette, converting to B&W, adding contrast and a slight colour tint.

More words and another image tomorrow!

January 16, 2013 0