Tag: Gimp

Cheddar Gorge

My beautiful picture

An old film archive from some years ago now. Visiting England, we drove through the beautiful Cheddar Gorge. A limestone based gorge, Cheddar is home to the oldest British human skeleton (9000 years). Voted at one stage as the second wonder of the UK, Cheddar George, from my memory, was a beautiful spot to pass through. Reflecting back, I do recall just sitting there and taking in the beauty of the surround – quite different to that of New Zealands beautiful landscape. I only wish I had got a few more shots!

Shot on the Minolta 7si. Scanned negative to digital and resized in Gimp.

 

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New Zealands Milford Sound

Milford Sound

 

One more from my photo trip down memory lane of the South Island holiday. I mentioned yesterday about the amazing enormity of the mountains. Often rising up above the flat land, it confronts you face on.

Todays shot, taken in Milford Sound is another location when you can get up close to this once glacier formed landscape. Sitting on the flat ocean, looking up, the ranges almost disappear from sight.

Currently Milford Sound is part of a controversial debate whether to bipass the traditional road track (up to a 12 hour return journey from Queenstown) down to a two hour one way by train. This will however mean cutting into our national park – protected land. Some of the tourist stop towns may loose out, and some of the more quiet and beautiful places, Glenorchy, may become a busy traffic bipass. No argument the bus journey is a long one, but its also a beautiful one, and critical to some of the small stops.  Then again, in this changing climate of tourism, many of those who travel to New Zealand to see the sights dont always want to bother about the small bits, and generally under estimate the real time it can take to take in our little country.

Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV, resized and bordered in Gimp

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Tasty Snacks

SONY DSC

 

An image from the archives today. It must be several years ago now that I was invited by friends to come and photograph (and eat a little) some finely produced foods. Placed on a table by a wide open window, I worked with the natural available light, and took a series of images. I think it was my first attempt at food photography at the time and although I might do one or two things different now, I was happy with the overall result, and looked back on the series again today with similar feelings.

Todays image was shot on the Sony A230 DSLR. Originally edited in CS4 from RAW and slightly cropped and scaled in Gimp today.

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Guava Muffins

Guava

 

I was pleased to see a small guava tree when we purchased our house. Its a berry I dont see around much, and I have memories of guava jam/jelly around at relatives when I was young.

Searching around the net, I found this tasty sounding recipe from G&H:

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
  • 3/4 cup C&H® Granulated Sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup guava nectar, canned
  • 2 kiwifruits, peeled and diced (1 cup)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; reserve. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. On low speed, beat in half the flour mixture and then the guava nectar. Add remaining flour mixture; mix just until blended. Fold in kiwifruit. Divide batter among paper-lined muffin cups filling almost to the top.

Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool muffins on wire rack.

Image shot on the GRD IV and edited in Gimp.

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From the Dark, Into the light

Path

 

Taking a quick walk after work, onto an upper track from a walk I did almost year ago, I set the Ricoh to high contrast B&W – determined to get a few shots I liked using this setting. Its been very overcast these last few days, with bad weather around the country, & the night is beginning to draw in earlier as we approach winter.

Heading back to the car, exiting a particularly dark patch of the track, I caught todays image. Using Gimp I slightly upped the contrast a little more to reduce the grey, and resized for the net.

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On Rolls Autumn

Tree Leaves

 

Its been a busy few weeks with moving out of the flat and into our first home. Sadly, its been pretty hard to find much time recently to really get out there and take some images. We have moved into an area surrounded by great bush walks, so all going well…sooner rather than later… I will get some more time to get out there.

Todays image, shot down the road, was from a quick stroll in between sorting out things at home. The heavy rain and thunderstorms seem to have missed Auckland, but have hit south, with flooding and storm damage.

Shot on the Sony Nex and edited in Gimp.

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Mount Wellington

Mount WellingtonAs any of you who regularly follow me may have noticed, I have been running series images from single outings a little of late. Im in the process of moving, and also have had a bit of a boost in work business at the moment, so have not had the daily photo fix I usually enjoy. Combined with this, sometimes when out and about I get multiple images I’d like to share and putting them in a series makes sense.

Todays shot is from near the summit of Mount Wellington. The title both referring to the peak and the surrounding suburb, it received its English name from the Duke of Wellington. Local Maori know it as Maungarei.

Of interest, as well as the amazing views when there, is the massive water reservoir (45,100 cubic meter) built in the 60’s – its the flat part to the left of the image.

As with many volcanic craters around Auckland, people often use the stones in the craters to write messages that can be seen from the summit (or higher).

 

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View from Highbrook Park

Highbrook ViewIn between showers, a quick shot of the view from Highbrook Park, looking North. Just after this was shot, the two rowers near the signal pole somehow hit it. No sinking disaster, but it made a fairly loud bump. The mix of rainy clouds and sunrise lent for some nice lighting. In the background we can see Mt Wellington. Tomorrows image source.

 

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Oakura Beach

Oakura BeachJust to the left of yesterdays image (about 15km down the road actually) lies the seaside surf escape of Oakura Beach. Easter weekend in New Plymouth happened to also have a VW club meet on, so it was quite cool to see a good handful of well kept and restored Kombi van’s parked up along the beach, as their owners surfed (or swam) the waves.

Of interesting note, the township was hit by a tornado in 2007.

Image wise, I desaturated the blue from the sky and slightly pushed contrast before cropping. All done in Gimp, and shot on the Ricoh.

 

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Port Taranaki Power Station and Sugar Loaf Island

View from Paritutu SummitOne of my favorite shots from last weeks holiday in New Plymouth is from Paritutu – a tall headland point to one side of the main township. Looking down, under a falling sun I captured this image of the old power station, and offshore island.

The power station, a natural gas/fuel oil station was opened in 1974, and decommissioned in 2008. Asbestos discovery was noted as one of the reasons for the closure (NZ has widely banned any new use of asbestos for several years now, and its often very costly to deal with in old homes etc).

Off shore was see Sugarloaf island. The remainder volcanic vent piece from an estimated 1.7 Million years ago. Now part of a protected Marine area.

Shot on the GRD, resized in Gimp.

 

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