Tag: Michael Hawkey

Zorki 1

Zorki 1No longer with me – in a moment of weakness I sold it (possibly in a moment of weakness I brought it!) – My old Zorki 1.

The ‘poor mans Leica III’, and competent rangefinder camera in its own right, we dont see too many of them down here in NZ. I’ve imported a few Zorki and Fed’s (Soviet Rangefinders similar to the old Leica) over the years. The above being the best copy of a Zorki 1 I have ever had – complete with box and manual!

With its collapsable M39 screw mount 50mm lens, its really a very small, fully manual camera. Great for those with a light meter in their eyes, or at least to practice the sunny 16 rule.

Being over 50 years old now, its amazing how many are still available to buy – lets see any of the current digitals being sold fully working in 50 years!

For the tinkerers among us, these are great cameras to get to learn about CLA (clean lube adjust). And done right may go on for another half century. The shutter curtains are often the first to go – getting pinholes in them. One can use a little thinned down silicone painted on, or simply replace (simply probably an understatement as thats the biggest job one would do on such a camera).

Might just have to go on the hunt for another copy. My sunny 16 skills are fairly junior. I have a light meter. I just wish it had a built in one. Fantastic vintage 35mm camera for the coin!

 

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Fast 4s…and Economy

Car MagOnce, when I was training to be a mechanic, a lot of my youth was spent in, under and around cars. Numerous project cars (and bikes), its no surprise I brought the monthly car mags. Reading over tips, projects and general car stuff, I never really used them as inspiration for my own projects, but enjoyed them none the less.

One thing I always liked in the photos they featured in magazines like Fast Fours and Rotaries, or Performance Car was the shot of a car with the ‘see through bonnet ‘ (or hood for you alternate naming lot). Seeing the lines of the car, but also that beautifully detailed engine always made for a interesting and technical looking photo.

Years later after my transition from film to digital I had a play around in Photoshop and learnt how easy (and quick) it is to make a basic copy of this.

I’ve been trying to finish off a film these last few days, so short on recent images, I quickly caught the last of todays light to shoot my ‘performance car’.

Sony Nex and 16mm lens on a tripod I positioned the camera to where I wanted the shot. First I took a frame of the car with the bonnet closed. I then opened the hood and took a shot, still in the same fixed place on the tripod. Being a little dark I adjusted exposure and essentially took an over exposed image to get a little more engine bay detail.

Back inside I opened Gimp (Photoshop will do the same, but as discussed in the past, I generally favour Gimp to use). Discarding that first shot with the hood opened, I pasted the shot of the car with hood closed over the shot with over exposed hood open. I then selected the bonnet and reduced opacity to a level that we can still see the bonnet lines, but can also start to see ‘whats under the hood’ (nothing powerful I’m afraid).

So there we go. How to make a quick and simple version of the performance car shoot…with a economy focused car 🙂

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Remembrance Walkway

Graveyard WanderA quick stroll after work around one of the local graveyards. The weather has been pretty bad around the whole country these last few days, so it was nice to be out in the clear blue (and fairly chilly) sky.

Graveyards are interesting places to walk through – something I have featured in the past. Its an interesting walk through history, looking back a hundred years at lives once been. For me, in New Zealand, none of my close family have been buried- cremation being the final step in the bodily life. I know back in UK I have more buried family, from many generations ago.

Its also interesting to look at different funeral practices from culture to culture and religion to religion. For some its a bright and colourful celebration of ones life, for others a mourning and dark passing. Some cultures openly talk about it, and for others its one of those unspoken taboos that we avoid, perhaps in fear of the unknown?

Walking through the graveyard shows a mix of maintained and kept tombstones, as well as overgrown, forgotten and illegible ones. Have the family moved  out of the area, are there any family left? Who knows?

Todays shot was taken on the Ricoh GRD IV and post processed in Gimp. In this I gave the image a mild squish profile wise, converted to B&W and adjusted the contrast.

 

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Down there is Queen Street

Queen Street Above

Perhaps unsurprisingly, New Zealand being a country of the Commonwealth, Aucklands main road in the CBD is Queen Street. During the week, a hustling and bustling street, lined with various retail, food and entertainment shops. Its also the main street for any wider Auckland parades, graduation walks, and protest walks. An early development in Aucklands young town years (1840), a stream ran down it. This was soon directed via a small canal, and then buried underground by the 1870’s. The lower half of Queen Street was also reclaimed from the sea (reclaimed being an always off term to me as it always make me feel like we are taking back something lost rather than never had).

Looking down upon it from up in the Sky Tower, one gets a sense of how small things are from above, We saw a number of gulls flying up near us at 300m, catching the wind currents. You can also see how cold Queen Street can get with the surrounding shadows of the buildings.

Tomorrow, keeping ‘up high’ we will venture our view out a little more, past the goings on of the CBD.

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Come Fly With Me

Take Flight

Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away
If you can use some exotic booze
There’s a bar in far Bombay
Come on and fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away

Come fly with me, let’s float down to Peru
In llama land there’s a one-man band
And he’ll toot his flute for you
Come on fly with me, let’s take off in the blue

Once I get you up there where the air is rarified
We’ll just glide, starry-eyed
Once I get you up there I’ll be holding you so near
You may hear all the angels cheer ’cause we’re together

Weather-wise it’s such a lovely day
Just say the words and we’ll beat the birds
Down to Ac apulco Bay
It’s perfect for a flying honeymoon, they say
Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away

Once I get you up there where the air is rarified
We’ll just glide, starry-eyed
Once I get you up there I’ll be holding you so very near
You may even hear a whole gang cheer ’cause we’re together

Weather-wise it’s such a cool cool day
You just say those words and we’ll beat the birds
Down to Ac apulco Bay
It’s so perfect for a flying honeymoon, oh babe
Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly
Pack up, let’s fly away!!
And don´t tell your mamma!!

Frank Sinatra
(Songwriters: JAMES VAN HEUSEN, SAMMY CAHN)

Shot at Butterfly Creek on the Sony Nex 5N

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Butterfly on Flower

Butteryfly on FlowerSame as yesterday, some more interesting facts:

  • The fastest butterflies fly at 19kph(12mph)
  • Many butterflies can taste with their feet to test suitability for laying eggs.
  • Antarctica is the only continent on which no Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies)  have been found
  • Butterflies like to drink from mushy slices of banana, oranges and watermelon

 

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Life on a Twig

Life on a TwigWork found me at Butterfly Creek today for an all staff meeting. After the meeting, myself and a few other staff took the opportunity to go through their butterfly enclosure (and small farmyard). I’ve been once before, so in preparation brought along my Nex 5N with a few different lens’. Unfortunately, whether due to the time of day, or time of week, it was not as full of butterflies as the other time I went, but I did manage to get a few shots I will share over the next day or so none the less.

Some butterfly facts:

  • The earliest fossils of butterflies date back 40-50million years!
  • Depending on the species, they live from a week to a year (a week sounds pretty sort aye!)
  • Traditional Japanese see the butterfly as the personification of a persons soul. One definition of the Greek work for butterfly means soul.  
  • They cant fly if their body temp is lower than 30c degrees(86f)

Shot on the Sony Nex with 16-50mm lens. Cropped in Gimp.

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The Pathless Bush

Wraparound Tree

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar.
I love not man the less, but Nature more.

Lord Byron

 

 

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