photos and other things…
Quick Saturday Post.
Devonport School Fair on the Hill 2013. As with many school fairs, lots of entertainment, sales of second hand goods, games, competitions and sugar for the kids.
Shot on the Samsung Galaxy with Vignette and finished in CS5 Photoshop.
I was drawn to the patterns made by the sand and water as the tide was out for todays shot. The mangroves must be some of the few smaller plants around the area that have no problem in the drought type weather.
Shot on the Nex with 210mm lens. In post processing using Gimp I cropped aspect, slightly adjusted contrast, saturation and sharpness.
“A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
Shot on the Sony Nex 5n with Jupiter-8 Lens.
After what seemed like (and can’t be far off) all of 2013 to date being sun, and then drought, Auckland finally got its first reasonable drop of rain today. Unfortunately for the Volunteers at the Devonport Fire Station, it occurred on our open day – but all went well all the same.
Some of our other big cities in the country have a total outdoor water ban at the moment, so planning ahead, and doing my bit to conserve water, I laid out buckets in the ‘common drip areas’ around the property to collect the rainfall to use later in the week.
Just after the rain calmed, we were hit by a relatively rare, for Auckland, earthquake! a 4.0 on the scale and 5km deep, it was felt widely around the area, with mixed reactions from those I listened to calling in on the radio. One lady thought the washing machine was on, another thought the building was going to fall over…just image somewhere in the middle, lower it a bit, and you are about right.
Image wise for today – shot on the Nex with 210mm lens. Using Gimp I added contrast and resized.
Silence is a source of great strength.
Lao Tzu
I revisited an old quarry on the way home this evening. I’m sure I have featured an image of it before, but for the life of me (well, for a fairly quick image search) I can’t find it.
Closed a bit over a year ago I think, the quarry has sat unused and fenced off. Gradually the gravel paths have become overgrown with weeds, and areas perhaps once maintained have started to flourish in relative lack of human day to day activity. At the bottom of the quarry is a small lake. It was almost totally calm, and I snapped a few shots of the far bank with the reflection in the water.
Shot on the Sony Nex with a legacy Jupiter-8 lens. Whilst it looked quite nice in colour, I think it also lends itself nice in black and white. Converted in Gimp with a faint colour tint, otherwise as from camera.
‘Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding’.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Shot on Sony Nex 5n. Cropped and desaturated in Gimp.
Another image shot from yesterdays walk. Not much word content to add today – but shot on the Ricoh GRD IV in cross-processed mode. In post I reduced and added rounded corner boarder.
Weekend time!
Another hot day in Auckland. Out and about doing chores and similar, I have not yet had a chance to take any images today, so will post another from yesterdays visit to Long Bay.
Wandering through the park, there are a number of overflow car parks. At its peak in summer this year, Long Bay had about 25000 visitors (!) and a 2 hour car jam waiting to get in. Fridays visit, with schools and work back, was substantially less, and I wandered through the closed off car park with only the sound of the birds and wind through the tree. The ranger must have been chopping up a few trees recently, and I took a few shots of the pile of logs left. With a total fire ban at present due to dry conditions, these logs were unlikely to be used for a BBQ or similar any tie soon.
Shot on the GRD IV. Using Gimp I rounded the corners and resized. Otherwise as is from camera.
Today celebrated my workplaces annual Big Day Out. Held at the beautiful Long Bay beach, the sun was beating down by early afternoon, and those of whom had not brought our togs, wished we had.
Taking a moment for a stroll, armed with my Ricoh GRD IV, I captured a number of images, both showing the beautiful beach, and also the drought like conditions that have been sweeping the country (Luckily for Auckland, no where near as bad as farmers North of Auckland). Walking under a selection of trees, I was amazed to see literally multiple tens (lets estimate 30) of Swallows darting in and out of the trees. All the other animals I had seen were sheltering under trees out of the heat.
Now looking to capture any close up action of a small bird with a 28mm lens is never going to happen, so I framed up the trees and sky and looked to capture a silhouette of several birds as they flew overhead. Todays image being my pick of the bunch for today.
Using Gimp, I slightly cropped the image in post processing.
Weekend time!
MikeHawkey.com 