Flowers in my Garden

It wasn’t that long ago in life that I had zero interest in gardening. My family had always had large gardens full of fruit, veg, and flowers. I’m sure as a small child I would have helped here and there, and do recall planting the odd tree, but I guess once ‘teenagedom’ hit, the appeal of gardens also wained somewhat. Now, years later, I am by no means any form of botanist, but do strangely enjoy the odd potter in the garden.

Our current residence was fairly bare when we shifted in, and determined to do something with it I built a range of planters and boxes for mostly vegetables, but also some small fruit trees and flowers. This summer has been pretty nice to date (excluding today’s intermittent dark clouds and strong winds), and the whole garden has taken off amazingly.

Coming home from work, the light was quite nice to get the full colour of the flowers in our back garden, so I put on the Sigma 30mm onto the Nex and took a few shots, the above being today’s pick.

In post processing I adjusted the levels a little, slightly pushed the sharpness and cropped.

As we approach the weekend, it looks like I will be off to see a group playing music somewhere. All going well I’ll take along my camera and see if I can capture any band shots. Still Friday to go yet!

January 17, 2013 0

The Lion of the West Coast

Taken from the lookout point at the south of Piha, today’s image is a great profile of Lion Rock. If you look carefully (or imaginatively) you can see the lions eye and nose on the left, his Mane and lower back. Climbing up, one come from the right hand side of this image (clearly we don’t start in the ocean) and take the gradual carved staircase up.After the first 1/3rd, you can see where the most recent slip from a number of years ago occurred.As you hit the lions ‘mane’, approx 2/3rds, that’s where the track now finishes. It used to come along the side a little more before going inwards again (back when you could climb to the summit).

Although a very overcast day, looking in the background, one can see the sea spray drifting overland towards the dense bush areas. I think the tide was more out than in at this time of the day when the photo was shot.

Once a place of camping and a few holiday homes, Piha is now a growing in population area. In 1951 it had 73 residents. in the 2006 census that figure had grown to 822. 6 years on, I expect it will have easily cracked the 1000. Many of the houses are fairly flash now days, and a great option for the work from home types who love to be by the sea and surf. There are still multiple camping grounds in the area (although very limited shops), and its well worth a stay if you are in Auckland for a period!

Piha also had its own TV show – Piha Rescue. Essentially a real life lifesaver show filmed around the typical summer periods of Piha.

Shot on the Sony Nex 5N and post-processed in Gimp. I adjusted the levels a fair amount – this helped a lot with the hazy, slightly over exposed original. Cropped the aspect a little and added wording.

That will do for facts for today. I’ll let the image say the rest! Have a good Friday!

January 11, 2013 0

Lion Rock, Piha

For visitors to Piha, the most memorable, or at least recognisable part of the area is the famous Lion Rock. a 16 million year old piece of volcanic neck standing ~101 metres high. It got its name from the shape of a sitting lion when viewed from the south of the beach (left in the photo).

Over the years Lion rock has claimed a number of lives – both from people falling, and also from those fishing off the dangerous yet rewarding rocks of the unforgiving surf beach. As a child I recall the terror of climbing to the top up a (at least what felt to be) dodgy eroding track. The reward once at the top was a magnificent view (and sandwich with Piha black sand stuck in it somehow). In the late 1990’s, there was a significant landslide with the double tragic result of dis-forming the lion a little, and preventing all but foolish risk takers from now climbing to the summit (another example of tragedy).

Now days one can climb up about 2/3’rds of the rock where you will reach a Maori stone and blessing of the area and valued rock. You may also be able to make out a small plaque near the middle of the base with the roll of honour for WW1 soldiers from the local area.

There is something special about Lion Rock for me & I love photographing it. One day I will get the perfect shot of it (for me)…one day.

Image wise, it was shot on the Sony Nex, with duo-tone filters and edited in Gimp. I adjusted the levels, added a vignette and converted to B&W.

Some more Piha tomorrow probably!

January 10, 2013 0

Flowing out to Sea

As I transition back into the usual flow of work, its time to share some images I captured over the last week.

As stated the other day, I went to the West Coast of Auckland and took some images at Piha Beach. Nice and early in the morning, the water flowing to the beach was still (the surf beach that Piha is still had waves crashing) and the haze and spray of the sea drifting in. Although the sun was yet to come up properly, it was overcast.

I set my tripod up and took a few shots, both with the Sony Nex and the Pentax MG, looking out past Lion Rock and into the island in the distance. I also attached a graduated tone filter to both, trying to give the sky some colour in the Nex, and bring out a little cloud on the MG.

Today’s image, from the Nex, is straight from camera, unedited aside from scaling and adding my sig. If I was to edit it, I think I might crop the aspect a little, but I quite like it as-is.

I will write some more about Piha in the coming days as I have a few images I wish to share. Today’s image brings about childhood memories for me. The stream in the foreground was great for sailing boats (model ones) and building dams on. I also recall as a youngster falling in fully clothed and being less than impressed. Piha is a black sand beach – it always seemed to stick much better than white sand, and ALWAYS got into my sandwiches as a child!

January 9, 2013 13

The Beach (part II)

As always, Mondays a busy day, so here is another shot from yesterdays outing. It really highlights the distance of the raft from the beach at high tide. I have memories visiting the beach as a young one and the journey it took to swim out to the raft, well above ones head height deep. That was with the old raft also, made of wood, which became very slippery after the first wet kid clambered on top of it.

Out to the ocean we can see some of the smaller boats that were racing off Narrow Neck Beach around the corner.

Post photo wise, I cropped and used a modified ‘national geographic’ plugin in Gimp. The image itself was overexposed a little (and this emphasised by the plugin), – its given the image a feeling that somewhat reflected my own eyesight as I squinted wishing I had brought along some sunglasses or a hat…

December 10, 2012 2

Camping

An old archive holiday image from many years ago. I think it was taken on a digital camera, but cant recall which one – the data does not suggest it was a branded camera – not that it matters anyway.

Camping on the northern area of the Coromandel, North Island New Zealand – transported in my 1991 Lada 2105 (a bit of a rare car – not suggesting it was of any value). Sitting in the tent as sun went down, with the crashing of the waves – pure New Zealand camping magic.

No editing in today’s post.

September 21, 2012 0

MacGyver

When I was young I remember being a massive fan of the TV series MacGyver. An action adventure mega star, Macgyver hated guns, carried a pocket knife, and could get out of almost any situation with a pocketful of junk and some household items. Danger followed him wherever he went, and he always won the day.

I remember getting my first Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, a ‘Tinker’. I would make various things out of foam, cut bits and pieces, and unscrew all my toys. It was great fun. I think amongst a very hands on creative family, Macgyver was also somewhat of an influence as I grew up, always tinkering and fixing things. It great to be able to fix something on the go, with a limited set of tools.

Missing the sun after work, and pulling my pocket knife out of my bag, looking for an image, I reflected on my practical side and composed today image.I really need to get some better portable lighting at home some time – I had to hold the knife and book up to the room light in one hand and take with the other. In post processing, I used Gimp to add a vignette and push up the saturation.

September 4, 2012 0

Lion Rock

After taking work home, I only had time for an archive hunt again today, ‘Lion Rock’. Located at Piha, which is a west coast surf beach about 40km from Auckland’s central city area. Although this shot is of the back of the ‘lion’ and erosion has taken its toll, from the side one with imagination can make out a lion sitting and watching over the ocean. As a child I recall being scared to death as dad egged me on to climb to the top. Its since been fenced off halfway up and people can no longer go to the top, so I’m glad he made me back in the day. I recall the cold morning I got up and left to get this shot at about 5am on my day off. Looking to get it at sunrise, I was happy to also have the moody clouds in the background. Shot on my Sony A230 with a 20mm focal length, I later converted to B&W in photoshop and brought the contrast out a bit in the clouds.

July 10, 2012 0

Dark Skeletrees

Shooting in B&W again today I came across a bunch of trees that had lost all their leaves for the winter season. Adjusting the exposure for the clouds/sky behind we see the ‘skeletons’ of the trees. For some reason it reminded me of going camping when little and seeing shadows from inside the tent. As a child one would imagine they were long arms and fingers of evil creatures lurking outside. Just as well there was a tent and sleeping bag to protect!

Todays image was taken on the Sony Nex 5N with the Sony 2.8/16mm prime. I was also playing around with an industar 69, but discovered it is not infinity focusing on the Nex, so I will need to take it apart and modify for it to work with the digital era cameras.

July 4, 2012 2