The Ocean

Scene from Coastal North Shore, Auckland, New Zealand

Lumix GF1

The Ocean

The Ocean has its silent caves,
Deep, quiet, and alone;
Though there be fury on the waves,
Beneath them there is none.

The awful spirits of the deep
Hold their communion there;
And there are those for whom we weep,
The young, the bright, the fair.

Calmly the wearied seamen rest
Beneath their own blue sea.
The ocean solitudes are blest,
For there is purity.

The earth has guilt, the earth has care,
Unquiet are its graves;
But peaceful sleep is ever there,
Beneath the dark blue waves.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE – 1825

January 5, 2026 0

Linked By A Common Ancestor

Fungi. Remarkably, these spores of design are more related to animals (therefore us) than plants!

Rather than photosynthesising, like animals, fungi are heterotrophs – that is to say, they cannot produce their own nourishment and absorb/take it from elsewhere.

To be fair, the genetic relationship began a few years ago (about a billion) – but we share about 50% of our DNA!

We use them as food, medicine and all kind of alternative commercial products like fake leather and packaging. Pretty interesting.

Whilst on a holiday break forest bathing, we stopped and looked around. Lighting was not great, but we quickly found three types right next to the track. Might warrant a macro lens in the future!

January 3, 2026 0

Weekend Fog

Late morning one weekend the fog had not cleared, yet the sun was high in the sky. Made for some interesting well lit but limited view scenery.

July 27, 2021 0

March 28, 2016 0

A Walk After Work

Well into Spring and on our way to Summer, it’s nice to get out and about for a stroll after work. These two shots from Beach Haven on Auckland North Shore.

October 14, 2015 5

Sunny Day at the Beach

Hot day in the sun!

Ricoh GRD IV

January 25, 2015 2

Yesterdays Outtakes

Yesterdays shot wasn’t gained in a single press of the shutter (or screen, since it was take on the iPod). It took a number of attempts to get the seagull close enough, in focus and framed for me to then edit it. Looking at the above image, its almost more like the gull was photobombing me I think!

Tempted with bread, a few of the seagulls were game enough to fly up and grab the bread from the other half’s hands. I just had to take the shot in focus enough, whilst missing the bread (Im sure I could have edited it out) and after a few shots, I decided it also needed to remove the background – too easy to get a wonky horizon, or get an uninteresting background.

I do like the closer up one (its the only that close I got) Almost used it, but didn’t, and settled on the final shot below to further edit by content aware stretching the background to make a landscape rather than portrait shot.

And click here to take us back to yesterdays final edit.

June 1, 2014 2

Sail Away

Archive shots from Easter several years ago.

May 26, 2014 0

Reflections by the Lake

A recent walk down to Lake Pupuke on Auckland’s North Shore welcomed me with cool still waters. After shooting for a little while the morning began to warm and the water lost its mirror, but it was beautiful while it lasted!