Tag: Gimp

Fiji Forest

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!

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Choose, Sit, Relax

I stayed at a resort for the base of my holiday to Fiji – ‘Fiji Beach Resort & Spa, Managed by Hilton’ to be more precise. It was a nice place – great service, rooms, food etc. – not something I am very used to really (pitching a tent is more what I am used to).

Getting up one morning early (it appears only the staff aside from me did this) I made my way to the breakfast restaurant and caught this image. I was drawn to the orderly nature of the chairs & it got me thinking how organised the whole relaxation ‘thing’ is. Here we have rows of deckchairs overlooking a beautiful beach with a couple of great clean salt free pools. People travel thousands of miles to get in early with their towel to book a chair they can then lay in the sun on for the rest of the day.  Most people read books, but with the advent of mobile technology I cant help but think that many were still keeping tabs with work and not really relaxing (one reason I chose to go technology free aside from my camera).

Personally I get more relaxation going for a walk, which I did a lot of, checking out and discovering new sights and sites. But throughout the week, when returning for a swim I got to recognise the same individuals in their favourite chairs getting browner and browner – or redder and redder. I’m certainly not knocking it, its just a bit foreign to me!

Back to the image, I did a little post processing in Gimp. I first gave the image a light lomo effect filter with some vignette, followed by a cross-processing filter with a blue tint.. I then cropped the aspect a little, removing some dead space in behind the first chair in the image. Struggling to find the title I wanted, I finally settled on ‘Choose, Sit, Relax’

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The Bridge

There is something appealing about bridges and walkways through the bush to me. You get the sense of nature, and almost a feeling of timelessness. Sure, the bridges are a lot safer and easier to cross then they used to be (depending where you live), but you are still right there in the bush.

Today’s image is again from Kell Park which I visited a week ago. I likes how the bridge crosses the river, disappears into the forest and then reappears at a higher point.

In post processing I washed out the colour a little and then brought out a bit more contrast. Unfortunately it was a horrible cloudy day, so the sky is a ‘washout white’.

A nice place to wander around and unwind after a hectic day!

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Black and White Fern

I captured ‘Black and White Fern’ when visiting Kell Park in Albany on Tuesday. Getting up close with the Sony Nex 16mm, at a wide open aperture, I love how the fern leaves fall into the background.

For those who didn’t know, the (silver) fern is one of New Zealand’s symbols for multiple sporting teams like the All Blacks (Rugby), The Silver Ferns (netball), The Football Ferns (women’s football) etc. etc. It has also been worn by Kiwis at war in various locations.

In post production, using Gimp, I simply converted to B&W and resized.

Today will be my first day of my holiday, so all going well, I am landing in Fiji as my post comes live.

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The Standoff at High Noon

I had a planned day off today, with the intention to start to unwind from work before jumping on a plane tomorrow. It didnt quite all go to plan, but I did manage a walk along a beach called Waiake in the northern region of the North Shore.

As I passed a bunch of seagulls, not thinking much of it, three of the four suddenly stood up, squarked at me and came marching at me. I took a few steps towards them, neither of us backing down. Most of the time, unless you carry food, they try to keep out of the way, but not these three! Anyway, I got a few photos in and backed down.

At one end of the beach is a small island. At low tide, as it was today, one can walk around it. We had a beautiful sunny day and I sat down to relax on a rock. Every now and then I kept catching something in the corner of my eye, but when I looked there was nothing there. Then, as I was about to get up and leave I looked around, and just to the left of me, not more then 2 metres away was a seal basking in the sun, blending in perfectly with the surrounding sandstone. Once it realised that I realised it was there it stood up on its front flippers (I think that’s the term?) and let out a growl. I decided it was time to retreat, but did get a few shots of it as I left.

Photo wise, I used Gimp to desaturate all but red and cropped the aspect again. Shot was taken on the Sony Nex 5N and Jupiter-8 legacy lens.

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Rope by the Shore

My last day of work before breaking for my holiday ended up being two hours longer than usual, and by the time I got home it was dark and cold (almost like winter again!) I took a stroll down to the jetty after dinner, Nex 5N and tripod in hand.

If one shoots cameras as a form of relaxation, shooting night images must be the ultimate in unwind. A single exposure might run into the minutes. All you can do is sit and wait, or count, breathing slow and relaxed as you take in the surrounding environment. I also like how you are gathering not just a split second of time into one image, but minutes of time, all frozen into one picture…a time capsule in a photographic sense.

Today’s image, ‘Rope by the Shore’ also happened to be my quickest exposure of the night at 52seconds @ 100iso. Breaking my usual practice of capturing the appealing light of the night, I converted today’s image to B&W with Gimp, pushing the contrast slightly, as I often do with my images. I cropped it, giving a wider aspect, and resized for the net.

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The Fan

Taking a different route home today I passed by a small bush area called Stancich Reserve. In the middle of suburbia, the reserve contains a 1/2km bush-walk around one side of the reserve. Well covered/floored, the track proved popular for locals out for a walk and people training. It actually took a minute of waiting to get a clear spot for the photo.

As I passed through the track I came across this small fan/windmill that someone had stuck into the side of a tree. The bright yellow stood out amongst the forest greens and browns as I leaned out from the walking track to line it up for the shot.

Taken on the Nex, again with the 16mm lens, in post production I used Gimp to crop the aspect ratio, slightly change the contrast, and resize for posting.

Last day at work tomorrow before heading off on holiday – I’m ready for it!

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The Field of Onion Weed

A quick stroll on the way home across the ‘river’ (not sure if it is natural or not) by the Lake House Art Centre I went to a while ago took me along a field near the motorway, and covered in onion weed. I had tried to get there on my last visit, but it was so boggy (as in more than what I often tackle) I had to wait for a drier day.

It was still too wet to sit down, but the onion weed field really brought a nice sense of spring to the otherwise cloudy and windy afternoon. Getting down into the grass I snapped off a few shots on the Sony, and chose the above for today’s shot.

In Gimp, I played a little with levels, contrast and cloned out a tall building from nearby Takapuna.

I also managed to finish the film in my Ricoh TLS SLR camera and develop it tonight. A quick look before going into the drying cupboard suggest I should have a nice shot or two I can share, so watch this space!

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Dove

Last Friday I visited the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens with work. About 40min north of Auckland in the Car, the gardens are a nice little stroll and visit for people into various forms of sculptural art work. Like photography, there are genres that one likes and dislikes. Some sculpture and art goes right over my head, and other pieces draw me in. For me, it was about a 50/50 around the walk. As well as sculpture, the gardens are well maintained, and this time of the year covered on wonderful blossoming fruit trees.

‘Dove’ is one of the art works I liked. Created by Jin Ling , the female form holding a dove is all about Ling’s desire and hope for a peaceful existence.

Taken on the Fuji J15fd, I cropped, pushed up sharpening and lowered contrast – all in Gimp.

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Planet Food

We were stopping through the CBD today, so I took the opportunity to test out my Ricoh TLS after giving it a bit of a clean up. I also brought along my mobile and the fisheye lens as I wanted to capture something else to document for the day.

Being in town there is always a wide range of images, especially with the likes of a fisheye. The first logical choice is to capture the tall skyscrapers towering over oneself and give the distorted image of them closing in on the viewer. Where I strolled through was quite contrasty, and the samsung struggled with the dynamic range to capture the details on the street as well as up in the sky.  I strolled by a lunch bar where the staff were getting in an early morning meal before opening and composed today’s image ‘Planet Food’ . About a foot out from the window, I like how the reflections outside are captured in the fisheye as we peer into the bowl/planet like image.

In post processing, I converted the image to black and white and increased sharpness a little in Gimp.

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