photos and other things…
Another busy day cleaning up the garden of our new place, so another from the archives. Like yesterday, todays shot is from a gorge – Karangahake Gorge to be precise. I passed through it a few years ago heading to Gisborne. A beautiful stop, it also has a number of walks one can go on to explore. Once a large mining area with a number of signs left behind, it still has a limited amount of prospecting occurring in the area.
Shot on the Fuji S5700 Superzoom camera. Resized in Gimp.
A drive further along from yesterdays post took us to Opunake. Without meaning offence, as with many townships around NZ (well…the world), its one of those ‘blink and you miss it’ places. A small, and nice township, first surveyed (by westerners) in 1868.
Stopping in for a packed lunch, the waves were strong. Typical of these west coast areas. A number of people were fishing off the beach, although with no success in the time we sat and watched as we ate our sandwiches.
I didn’t really spend much time in the township, but for anyone passing through, have a look ‘here’.
As with others – shot on the GRD IV and resized in Gimp.
Just 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.
During my stay in New Plymouth, one afternoon (~3 hours of it) was spent walking and exploring the Te Henui Walkway. Starting from the coast, it follows the river and weaves up through suburbia, a small bush covered belt.
Half way along we hit the cemetery. I was surprised to see so many war veteran graves, mounted in beautiful symmetry over the wavy ground. As far as cemeteries go, it was a beautiful restful spot.
At the edge, the track again dove into the bush and remet the river. I followed it up until suburbia took over, and I was back on the road.
Shot on the GRD, resized in Gimp.
Returning from our holiday in New Plymouth yesterday afternoon, it was a beautiful, mostly clear day right up the North Island (soon to be given the dual title Te Ika a Maui).
As with all of my recent holidays, I went along with my Ricoh GRD IV. I almost took the Sony Nex this time, but keeping with tradition, at last moment, switched out for the Ricoh. Battery wise, the Ricoh is superior – plus I have two spares – enough to keep me going over a week at my usual holiday snap pace. As well as better battery life, its more compact, fitting into jeans pockets, or relatively light with an over the shoulder strap. Downside wise (depending on ones perspective), the Ricoh is a fixed lens, small sensor camera.
In many ways (I’m sure I have written this before), one of the things I like about the Ricoh and its fixed lens is that is makes you think for the shot – you have to move and change position to attain the composition in your mind. This of course applies to all prime lenses. The other strength, is even though its a smaller sensor, the lens is designed specifically for it – getting the most from the package, and not having to sacrifice like all zooms do to one level or another. I think the final piece which has made this my return to for holidays shooter is the menu system. I’ve owned a good number of cameras in the past, and Ricoh are easily up there at the top level with their menu – both in ease of use and options.
All that being said, todays image is not right up there in my favorites from the camera… but its not often I get to shoot NZ from a plane, so I wanted to share. Location wise, its somewhere on the west coast, around half way up (I think).
Some more from the trip tomorrow.
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.
One from the archives today, we have ‘The Shortest River’. Located in Gisborne, on the East Coast of the North Island in New Zealand, the Turanganui river is said to be the shortest river in the Southern Hemisphere. At a puny 900m (.56 miles) long, it cant be far off. My photo must account for almost 1/3 of the river! Length aside, this area of New Zealand is also famous for being the first landing spot of Captain Cook – the first European/British explorer to circumnavigate New Zealand.
Captured on the little Fuji j15, I cropped, pushed saturation and added a cross processed filter all in Gimp. The saturated colors reflect my memory of Gisborne when I visited during the summer time about a year and a half ago.
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