View to New Life

Todays image brings my One Tree Hill/Cornwall Park series to a close. The building in view is the local hospital, once known as National Womens. Many mothers when there back in the day to have their children. It was not always practice that the father/husband could come into the birthing area with the mum to be. With One Tree Hill just behind, some fathers to be may have taken a stroll up to this point, listening to the lambs and eagerly awaiting their own youngster!

As this post goes live, it also signals the end of my Easter break. All going well, I’ll be back tomorrow with some new images from where I went. Catch you then!

April 2, 2013 4

Gulls of Flight

“Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight – how to get from shore to food and back again”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

March 21, 2013 0

Groves on the Seashore

I was drawn to the patterns made by the sand and water as the tide was out for todays shot. The mangroves must be some of the few smaller plants around the area that have no problem in the drought type weather.

Shot on the Nex with 210mm lens. In post processing using Gimp I cropped aspect, slightly adjusted contrast, saturation and sharpness.

March 19, 2013 0

Rain and Earthquakes

After what seemed like (and can’t be far off) all of 2013 to date being sun, and then drought, Auckland finally got its first reasonable drop of rain today. Unfortunately for the Volunteers at the Devonport Fire Station, it occurred on our open day – but all went well all the same.

Some of our other big cities in the country have a total outdoor water ban at the moment, so planning ahead, and doing my bit to conserve water, I laid out buckets in the ‘common drip areas’ around the property to collect the rainfall to use later in the week.

Just after the rain calmed, we were hit by a relatively rare, for Auckland, earthquake! a 4.0 on the scale and 5km deep, it was felt widely around the area, with mixed reactions from those I listened to calling in on the radio. One lady thought the washing machine was on, another thought the building was going to fall over…just image somewhere in the middle, lower it a bit, and you are about right.

Image wise for today – shot on the Nex with 210mm lens. Using Gimp I added contrast and resized.

March 17, 2013 6

The Still Lakeside

Silence is a source of great strength.
Lao Tzu

March 14, 2013 2

Overgrown Quarry

I revisited an old quarry on the way home this evening. I’m sure I have featured an image of it before, but for the life of me (well, for a fairly quick image search) I can’t find it.

Closed a bit over a year ago I think, the quarry has sat unused and fenced off. Gradually the gravel paths have become overgrown with weeds, and areas perhaps once maintained have started to flourish in relative lack of human day to day activity. At the bottom of the quarry is a small lake. It was almost totally calm, and I snapped a few shots of the far bank with the reflection in the water.

Shot on the Sony Nex with a legacy Jupiter-8 lens. Whilst it looked quite nice in colour, I think it also lends itself nice in black and white. Converted in Gimp with a faint colour tint, otherwise as from camera.

March 13, 2013 0

Molly the Cat

For a few days at the house we have a special guest, Molly the Cat. Molly is staying with us in preparation for a big move to Hamilton in the weekend.

Being another hot day, I felt a bit like Molly when I arrived home – hot, tired and not really up to heading out to take any shots…so out came the mobile and there was my model.

Shot using the factory camera app and edited in Afterfocus, I then opened it with Gimp and quickly covered some of the contact details on Molly’s tag.

Its meant to cool down a little tomorrow evening, so I will aim to head out then!

March 12, 2013 5

Auckland Round The Bays 2013

A bit of a montage for todays shot at Auckland Round the Bays fun run. All shot on the Samsung Galaxy s2 using the Vignette app, I combined in Gimp to show the beginning, middle and end of the 8.4km run that goes from Auckland’s CBD to St Heliers park.

As it has been most days, the weather was hot this morning! With a relatively late 9.30am start time, the sun was right up and beating down on the waiting crowd. with ~70,000 total runners, if one is not near the start line (as I was) when the race begins, you can take an additional quarter of an hour to just make it there. Weaving in and out of runners and walkers, it takes over half the race (unless you are fast) to feel like you have enough room to keep at a constant pace. Whilst some of these points potentially make it sound less than ‘fun’, Round the Bays is a great run, and all money goes to some great charities. All said and done, I’ll be back again next year, as I have been for several years running.

March 10, 2013 0

The mini Mini

Not one of my own projects today, rather a spotted project in the St Heliers area of Auckland’s central coastal area. Compared to most cars since the 70’s, the Mini has always been a small car – however a mini Mini makes a normal Mini look like a family saloon! Being they are constructed with a front and rear subframe, bolted to a mono construction body, the mini Mini is a ‘moderately easy’ (for those who know what they do) modification. I toyed with doing one years ago, but was put off at the time with the certification process. A very unique fun little car – rare as hens teeth now days too!

Image wise, shot on the Sony Nex with a Sigma 30mm lens. In post I slightly cropped, desaturated and added additional blur in the background to keep focus on the Mini.

Auckland Round the Bays run tomorrow morning. Its the biggest fun run in the country I believe, so I will be there running, and with mobile in hand to capture an image or two – at the very least whilst I wait for the start canon!

March 9, 2013 0

Project Supra

Several vehicles (projects) before yesterdays Project Mini, was project Supra. I remember this car sitting across the road from my then flat for about 6 months. At some stage it got a for sale sign on it. Upon enquiring with the owner, it had two blown turbos. A negotiation later and I was the owner. Driving it back from my flat to where I worked on it was an adventure. I topped up the oil to save the engine, but this in turn helped the turbos become the most powerful smoke machine in existence!…

Starting as a slightly rough grey unit, I sanded it back and painted green (not the best paint job I have done as my compressor had some issues), swapped out the auto box for a 5 speed, added the Mk5(?) Supra wheels and no doubt made a few more modifications here and there. In the end it was a fun vehicle (albeit heavy on fuel). I used to see it driving around, but have not for years now. I guess its either down the line, or has disappeared from the road!?

Editing wise, as with yesterday I desaturated the background in Gimp. I must have lost and recovered these images from somewhere as I cant see what they were taken on, and all are low res. Still, good enough for records of memory!

March 5, 2013 2