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Mt Vic View
As the year winds to a close, we often experience fairly changeable weather around the Christmas/New Year time.
Aside from a few drops of rain, we have been pretty lucky so far.
Taking a trip to Devonport,we ventured up Mt Victoria to see the view.
Down the Hill to the Village
Its been one of those weeks where things fly by, but on auto pilot. I have not had much time to just take a step back and relax.
Heading home today I took a stroll up Mt Victoria in Devonport (actually this id where I am writing todays post). The hot summer weather has taken its toll on the mountain and all the grass has gone a dry yellow. Only the lush trees remain green.
Casting ones vision down the hill we can see the Devonport village. Around 5pm, traffic is building as people head in and out. After the break in the harbour is the eastern side of the CBD- where the ports shipping things in are found.
Image wise, todays shot is taken on the Galaxy using Vignette.
On the Hill
A lazy view relaxing in the long grass and sun from Mt Victoria on Aucklands North Shore. From here (if you look the right way) you can see the CBD, the Harbour Bridge and out towards West Auckland. A quick scamper over the crest and the rest of the North Shore, and local islands off it can be viewed into the distance.
Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV, using the bleach bipass mode. In Gimp I resized and added the rounded corners, otherwise as is from the camera.
Its been a wildly various week of weather for us here in Auckland – a beautiful hot sun today, heavy rain and tornadoes only two days ago. Here is hoping we are coming into some stable summer months.
Christmas is well and truly near. Shopping wise I adopt the ‘not time yet’ attitude, but heading into the shops today, I can see many are already stocking up.
The sun is still shining, so I will log off here and get back out into it!
Friday Sun
We have had a lot of dull cloudy and wet days these last few weeks, so it was a refreshing change to get a clear sunny day today. Fingers crossed it holds for the weekend! Although I am now carrying one of my Rollei 35T film cameras with my in my bag, its been nice to leave it sit and get back to some digital shooting. Between the weather, long work days and wanting to shoot film, I’ve been ending up diving into archives more and getting out less (Which is not as enjoyable as getting out there to get shots).
Friday Sun was the result of a stroll with the Sony Nex 5N and its pancake lens. Using its built in HDR setting, something I need to experiment more with, I caught this lazy shot sitting on Mt Victoria in Devonport on Auckland North Shore.
Mt. Victoria Mushrooms
On the summit of Mt Victoria sit a patch of giant mushrooms. Big red mushrooms with white dots. Actually ventilation ducts, the ‘mushrooms’ have been painted multiple times over the decades, and make an intersting site for people visiting the Mt Victoria to get a view of the North Shore, town, and Rangitoto (in the background of my image). I believe originally they were painted by a local Devonport artist, her boyfriend and his mate – it featured in a local paper article many years ago.
Being the oddity they are, I wanted to highlight them in todays image. After taking the image on the GRD, I desaturated all but the mushrooms in Gimp. I then slightly tweaked the sharpness and contrast to get the most out of the mixed color/B&W image.
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