Tag: Gimp

Scramble of Reeds

Passing by some swampland today between meetings I came across a mass of reeds and took a quick stroll. Within them there was a variety of bird and other life – something I would have captured if I had a closer than 28mm view. I took a few shots, and settled on this one today. I like the random haphazard layering of the reeds as they have been washed over by the water, walked over by Pukeko, and tangled in the wind.

I had a few call outs in between editing this evening, so lost track on exactly what I did in Gimp, but I can say it included some cropping, sharpening and adding a cross processing filter.

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Nature Wins

Whilst out for a walk the other day I happened upon a strange little bush area on the side of some industry. Curious I stepped over the chain fence and went to explore further. Initially it was mostly long grass and a lot of clay and topsoil that had been dumbed at some stage. As I walked in further the clay and topsoil had all grown over with lush grass, and the bush and trees got a bit larger. The area was full of Tui (New Zealand Birds) and there was little indication how close of the buildings and road one actually was.Looking a little deeper, it was obvious that the area had been a bit of a dumping ground over its time in the making and i found this wrecked motor scooter being covered in grass.

In its own little way it got me thinking about what things might look like if we went like the dinosaurs one day and disappeared. – Nature would slowly creep back and retake the earth. I’ve read some interesting articles about the Chernobyl area, where in ways this has partially happened with wildlife moving back into the areas now closed off to humans. Movies like I Am Legend portrayed it a little also, as have numerous TV Documentary series’.  Its an interesting thought anyway…

Taken on the Sony Nex  with my Jupiter-8. In post shot within Gimp I added some vignette, bumped up contrast, saturation and applied a little sharpening.

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Door to Wonderland

I took the Nex and Jupiter-8 for another stroll today, this time around the Lake House Arts Centre in Takapuna on Auckland North Shore. On the outskirts of the property I came across this awesome wooden carving. With a little imagination, one can dream that this is the entry door to Alice’s Wonderland, or a back door to Narnia.

In post production using Gimp, I did a bit of bluring, sharpening, desaturating and color balancing. I wanted to give the tree a bit of a stand out presence without totally ignoring its otherwise normal surroundings.

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Kennedy Park Erodes

After being stuck inside all day, with OK weather outside, I took a stroll after work at a place called Kennedy Park, found on the coastline of the North Shore. As I got out of the car it started spitting rain, and the last of the days light slowly began to retreat. Walking through the park, on the cliffs edge, I sank up to my ankles in mud – it was pretty boggy. Following the coastal path I ventured down a long set of stairs to the beach below. To no surprise, the sodden land had given away in places, and I caught this image of one of the land slips.

Its not a totally unusual occurrence along the coastline, and as the multi-million dollar houses remove their trees for a greater view, the cliffs seem to give way more and more with nothing to hold them up. Even areas with trees will eventually give as the wild weather of mother nature washes away the mostly muddy sandstone cliffs of the area.

Initially shot in bleach bi-pass mode on the camera, I reduced in size and switched to Black & White in post production in Gimp. I think it gives the image a bit more dramatic depth.

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Air Brakes

We had some more great weather today, so after some tidying around the house I managed to go for a several hour walk. I brought along my Nex 5N and two of my old legacy lenses – the Industar 61 and Jupiter 11. Todays image ‘Air Brakes’ was captured on the Jupiter 11, a 135mm soviet lens, which equates to about a 200mm lens when coupled with a APS-C sensor like that on the Nex. For the price, its a nice old lens that I have spoke about before. I think I will take it apart and re-lube when I get some time as its a bit stiff to focus, which makes all the difference when focusing on moving targets.

In post editing, I did crop the photo, both to remove a branch in the left, and also to give a larger shot of the bird. Shot in .jpg, I wish I had been also saving in raw as it would have given me some more detail to play with.

I have a Juipter-8 on the way from Ukraine also and cant wait to give it a run on the Nex (and some 35mm rangefinders) as I have read some positive things about it, most suggesting its a better lens then the Industar 61 (which I like anyway).

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Face 2 Face

Meeting up with a friend after work, my main goal was to finish off the film on the Fed1. Strangely with film, I find the 36 exposures too many – yet with digital it would not be enough. However, being I have a number of the 36 exposure sets left I also don’t want to waste film. To cut the story short, I finished the film in the Fed and got around to developing it tonight also. Considering I was guessing the exposure, it looks like I had success. I’ll scan and post something in the next few days hopefully.

As I was walking around in the CBD I came across todays piece of street/wall art. Mostly peeled off the wall, I loved the two faces left looking eye to eye. For some reason they reminded me of the movie Tron (the original) – their masks suggesting some future world (in which we need to wear masks!?!) Armed with my Samsung Galaxy I got up close and snapped the image. At home in post on Gimp, I desaturated, fixed/altered the white balance, added the blotchy boarder and slightly pushed up the contrast.

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Fenced in Forrest

An old 35mm from the archives (cropped and post edited). I remember taking this image and being amused (and worried) about the trespassers warning sign. When you go close up, it looks like the trespasser is being shot… I decided not to venture further into the ‘Fenced in Forrest’.

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Wall of Bricks

I’m not sure why, but I always like a photo of brick or stone walls/fences. I cant quite pinpoint the attraction. Perhaps its just respect for a well made wall!?

So a wall it is for todays image! – Taken on the Ricoh with bleach mode, I played around with the color levels a little to bring back the red-brown of the bricks.

Most of this evening was spent putting my Fed-1 35mm rangefinder back together. Ive loaded it with a roll of B&W, so between that and my cellphone, thats all the camera equipment I intend to take with me to New Plymouth (…unless I swap it out for the initially intended Rollei 35). Im going to brush up on my sunny 16 skills as the Fed does not have a lightmeter.

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The French Moat

Scanned from film, I caught this image when visiting France for the UK. Moats are a rare sighting on this side of the world, so it was always a novelty for me to see one. Found in many of the continents of the world, ones like this were possibly just as ornamental as anything, but they have/had been used for protection for about 4000 years going by findings archeology. When you look at the steep walls in this image its no surprise they could be very effective in defending from invaders.

Taken on the Minolta Dynax 700si in 35mm, scanned and post edited in Gimp, I brought down the saturation and added a light sepia filter. Finally I upped the contrast a little. It looked fine from the negative really, but I quite like this slightly more ‘washed’ look.

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Bees Eye View

As short stroll with fading light and not much of interest perspective wise caused me to start looking smaller at the closeup/Macro options with the GRD the other day. With a breeze constantly waving through it was quite difficult to keep in focus so close up to the flowers. When I caught this image I liked the soft dreamy nature the image projected – perhaps this is a ‘Bees Eye View’ as they fly in!?

Captured on the Ricoh GRD IV and resized in Gimp.

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