Friday! – time to explore the weekend

One from the archives today as I have a dinner to attend straight after work.

Friday. For many of us (and equally not for many) it marks the end of the working week. Time to kick off the shoes, relax, or perhaps explore new pleases and meet new people. Today’s shot gives me a sense of both. I don’t recall exactly where it was shot , but was shot again on the Nex with the 30mm Sigma lens. In post, I added a cross processed filter with aqua hue, some faint ‘digital grain’ and the old instant snap type boarder.

Not quite sure where the weekend is taking us this week, but I will just assume this image is a precursor and enjoy the end of the working week!

February 15, 2013 0

Shades of Blue

Feb 14th – Valentines Day! (some interesting facts there)

Today’s image, shot alongside yesterdays during the rain passing through. I loved how the environment had a mix of contrasts with the sun shining in areas, and the dark clouds in others. Not a lot more to say about it really. Shot on the Nex with 16-50mm lens. Small adjustments, but essentially out of camera.

February 14, 2013 6

Rain Away

After what feels like a few more weeks of amazing weather, works end welcomed the rain. I parked the car and strolled down to the beach, just missing the main rain cloud as it passed Rangitoto. The beach, flooded with rain, showed no sign of footsteps or human contact that no doubt crazed it earlier in the day. No sooner had I rolled off a few shots, and the next cloud of rain arrived, hastening me back to the car.

Shot on the Sony Nex, it was my first outing using the new 16-50mm power zoom lens Sony has released. Initially faulted on the 5N (due to firmware not being up to date enough for it), the latest firmware should fix most of its issues. I must say, it makes the Sony a nice small unit with a 35mm equivalent of 24-75mm zoom.

Image wise, in Gimp as usual, I resized, cropped adjusted contrast and sharpness a little.

Catch you tomorrow!

February 13, 2013 0

Off to Another Land

Another short and sweet post text wise today. Image shot on the Sony Nex from Mt Victoria, Devonport, North Shore.

February 12, 2013 0

Forgotten Jetty

I am a bit sick today, so excuse the limited text. Forgotten Jetty, shot last week on the Olympus E-500. Converted to B&W in Gimp with vignette added as well as pushing the contrast a bit.

February 11, 2013 2

The Dry Hilltop

I mentioned it not long ago, but looking around my local area, we sure have a lot of dry areas. Fire services around the country have been busy putting out bush fires, and rain, aside from one day earlier in the week, seem elusive in Auckland.

Today’s shot is of the weather station up Mt Victoria in Devonport, with the ‘toadstools’ (I think I have featured them in the past) in the foreground.

Shot on the Sony Nex with 16mm pancake lens. In Gimp I added a adjusted ‘National Geographic’ filter, rounded boarder and resized.

February 7, 2013 0

The 20km Stroll

What started as a ~1 hour walk out and about, turned into a 20km 5 1/2 hour walk today! Quite enjoyable, but it would have been better if I didn’t only have my jandals (thongs/flip-flops) on.

Starting off (entirely on Auckland’s North Shore) in Eskdale Bush, I worked my way to Kaipatiki Bush, and then followed the Glenfield costal trail, before hitting the suburbs, over to Milford, Takapuna and Devonport.

As well as only planning a short walk today, I took along the Olympus E-500 DSLR – the heaviest of the bunch I have at hand.

The above image was captured in the first section of today’s walk. In post-processing I added vignette, converted to B&W and adjusted the curves a little to assist in giving the image a dark look.

Feet worn and sore, its time for a rest. Until tomorrow.

February 3, 2013 2

Dark by the Sea

Some heavy digital pushing of today’s image ‘Dark by the Sea’. Mucking around in Gimp, I was pushing the sky to get some dynamics, and then the foreground to get the cliff sides. I think the result, although requiring more editing effort on my part where the foreground and background collide, gives quite a dynamic surreal feeling to it.

With the weekend here (at last!) I am hoping I will get some time to develop my film – and start a new one. I also took delivery of a budget 2.2x telephoto lens to try on the Nex. I wanted to see how acceptable a result it would give me on my 210mm leans, as well as the possibilities it may offer when I am travelling light with the standard kit lens.

February 1, 2013 9

Construct Zone

I am generally one of those people who get a sense of relaxation and re-energizing from nature. Walking through the forest or bush, or along the beach the air feels cleaner, we have less (not none) forms of modern technology buzzing around us. Its a unloaded simpler feeling.

However, I also enjoy exploring ‘things in change’ – areas under construction (as well as areas returning to nature). Sundays walk took me to a new development area in Long Bay – the northern point of the North Shore. Here open fields and scrub has made way for carefully planned and measured sections for residential use. There is one road in/out with a monolith of a structure announcing you have entered this likely prestigious area. Today’s image was taken at the edge of this boundary, just before entering the area. For me, the title Construct Zone both signifies an area in change, literally being constructed, but also the mental symbolics of construct being the putting together of planning and theory to create a new suburb and the people within it.

Shot on the Sony Nex with the Sigma 30mm lens, I only slightly adjusted the levels before resizing to publish.

I’m also working my way through the 35mm film I took to the music festival yesterday. I initially thought I had a 24/27 shot film, but it must be a 36, so not too much longer until I can develop!

January 29, 2013 4

Rolled Hay

With another great day for the long weekend, I went for a stroll both in a small bush park I had not been to before, and to explore a recently developed area behind Long Bay Reserve. I am assuming, in some form of preparation for the land, Hay had been rolled out in the soon to be housing developments.

Not having much real life experience on farms and the like, I love the look of giant hay rolls, or stacks of bails as tall as a barn. There is something appealing about the simple raw product that has been gathered straight from the ground.

The rolls in today’s image were quite some way past a tall fenced off area, so I had to zoom right in with my 55-210mm lens to capture them as viewed above.

In post processing, using Gimp, I added a ‘lomo’ filter and adjusted the contrast a little.

Off to the music event Laneway tomorrow. All going to plan, I will be taking my Pentax MG to get some B&W 35mm shots, and likely my mobile, so we will see if I have some shots from there tomorrow, or later in the week. I did get some more shots today from my bush walk, so will look to share them on a day I don’t have much.

January 27, 2013 4