Tag: North Shore

Clothesline Sculpture

Today we attended the NZ Sculpture Onshore art even running over two weeks at Fort Takapuna in Devonport. A very windy day, when the rain and wind were not present, it was beautiful weather. Some really cool art works by various artists, I will display some more over the next week. What I failed to do for all but a few was capture the art work name and artist – if any happen to come across my blog, make a comment and I will duly recognise you!

Today’s image, or piece was a massive clothesline spanning several trees with colourful knitted works on it. Shot on the Sony Nex with the kit zoom, I got nice and close and shot wide open. In post processing using Gimp I resized and applied the ‘lomo’ filter.

More tomorrow!

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Sun Searcher

I think whenever one is struggling to find an interesting shot, its always good to switch to macro and explore the smaller world a little. ‘Cant see the wood for the trees’ is not quite the right expression I am looking for – but sometimes stopping, sitting and looking a little closer opens up a whole new world…’Stop to smell the flowers’?

Today’s shot, ‘Sun Searcher’ came about from a walk I took the other day. It had been a long day, and searching for inspiration felt a little like it was hiding. Taking a short stop I noticed a line of buttercups on the crest of a small grass mound. Almost approaching sunset, the light was getting quite low – the golden hour. I took a few shots and settled on the above for today.

Using Gimp in post processing, I added a cross-processed filter and then adjusted the levels more to my liking. Something about cross-processing always adds a bit more of a ‘memory’ effect to images. Its quite popular with a range of modern smart-phones (and digi cameras) at present – a sort of instant retro I guess.

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The Landing

Its funny how animals have learnt that what they do, and aspects of human behaviour equates to reward. Frequently when visiting the beach or lakes, enjoying some lunch or dinner, the ducks, swans, pukeko and seagulls also know its lunch or dinner time. If they didn’t come flying and running, its unlikely we would end up throwing them 10% of our fish and chips.

They have yet to learn that someone who comes walking and sitting in aforementioned places with a camera does not necessarily come with reward. I took a stroll around part of Lake Pupuke, Sony Nex in hand (not food). At each point ducks, geese and swans would hurriedly come quacking on foot, through the water and air, only to be disappointed with a rewarding click of the camera. Not that their expressions change much, but some made me feel lousy that I didn’t bring them food!

Today’s image, just before sunset was of one such upset duck who flew from the other side of the park hoping to get some supper before bedtime. In Gimp I added a lomo filter which framed the incoming flyer well.

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Welcome to My House

I took a stroll into part of Unsworth Reserve today after work. I have passed it may times throughout the years, but never stopped. A great little bush, albeit easy to walk down a dead end track. On my return leg I dove down another dead end path and came across this seat in the middle of no where.

How it got there I don’t know, but it made me think of the storybook ‘where the wild things are’, and various articles I have read about people who essentially abandon society and go bush (or desert, or island etc).

Depending how one looks at it, its either a slightly creepy image, or a cool one, imagining oneself waking up in the forest and sitting down for a morning cuppa on your couch.

In gimp I played around with levels and added a vignette lomo filter. The focus of the image was not quite right, but I liked the content, so ran with it anyway for today.

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The Tree with Red Flowers

After a fairly packed weekend, I managed to take some time out later this afternoon and take the bike up to Long Bay Regional Park. The weather was nice, and a large number of people were spread throughout the beach and grass sections of the park. I went for a stroll around the nature walk area, which was void of any people!

On the way there I came across this tree, blossoming for the spring weather. Against all the other evergreens, it stood out.

In post processing I selectively desaturated several colour, adjusted the contrast and sharpness and resized.

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The Standoff at High Noon

I had a planned day off today, with the intention to start to unwind from work before jumping on a plane tomorrow. It didnt quite all go to plan, but I did manage a walk along a beach called Waiake in the northern region of the North Shore.

As I passed a bunch of seagulls, not thinking much of it, three of the four suddenly stood up, squarked at me and came marching at me. I took a few steps towards them, neither of us backing down. Most of the time, unless you carry food, they try to keep out of the way, but not these three! Anyway, I got a few photos in and backed down.

At one end of the beach is a small island. At low tide, as it was today, one can walk around it. We had a beautiful sunny day and I sat down to relax on a rock. Every now and then I kept catching something in the corner of my eye, but when I looked there was nothing there. Then, as I was about to get up and leave I looked around, and just to the left of me, not more then 2 metres away was a seal basking in the sun, blending in perfectly with the surrounding sandstone. Once it realised that I realised it was there it stood up on its front flippers (I think that’s the term?) and let out a growl. I decided it was time to retreat, but did get a few shots of it as I left.

Photo wise, I used Gimp to desaturate all but red and cropped the aspect again. Shot was taken on the Sony Nex 5N and Jupiter-8 legacy lens.

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Serenity in the Mud of Eskdale

As I often do, I searched for a short bush walk to explore after work today. One great thing about the North Shore (or many areas of New Zealand really) is that you are never far from some form of nature walk. Heading towards the Birkenhead area I stopped at a place called Eskdale Bush. 10min into the walk and it became obvious that my flat soled leather work boots were not very well equipped for the completely sodden wet terrain. Dodging the muddy patches, I still managed to get ankle deep, remarkably without ending up on my backside.

Mud aside, Eskdale Bush is a wonderful walk with numerous tracks one can turn into. Surrounded by the suburbs, there is no real risk of being badly lost. Just as I hit one of the lower and deeper parts of the bush I came across a small, possibly newly formed, stream. With the Ricoh set to 800iso I positioned as low and stable as the slippery surrounding would allow and followed the stream into the forest.

In post production using Gimp, I felt a little lazy today and applied the ‘national geographic’ filter – one I often like the out of the box result with.

After the loss of my Olympus Mju over the weekend, I took delivery of a cheap as chips Samsung Fino 140 pocked film camera today. Although nothing special it looks to be a very nice late model film shooter with a 38-140mm lens. I’m not expecting much, but am looking forward to seeing how it performs with some B&W film…that’s after I finish the film already inside it!

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Island Bay Wharf

Some more mixed weather again today with warm bright sun, followed by heavy cold showers… Spring is on its way!

A visit for work to Beach Haven took me past Island Bay Wharf. Testing my balance again in flat soled dress shows I worked my way down the muddy sandstone flats to the base of the wharf to capture a few shots.

With a white sky, the image improved greatly when I converted to black and white in Gimp.

I also took delivery of a new lens for my Nex (actually one new and one old), both longer telephoto zooms, one Sony and the other an old Minolta mount. If the weather is right I might try to take them out in the weekend.

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Smiths Bush

As spring slowly approaches the days are starting to lengthen out again. This still does not leave much light when I finish work, but left enough today for me to take a brisk walk around Smiths Bush in Northcote on Auckland’s North Shore.

It must have been about 5 years, possibly more, since I last went through the bush. It has turned into a wonderful local walkway there one could spend three quarters of an hour on a loop trail. The tall trees with mixed canopy, along with rotten fallen trunks really gives one the sense they are out in the bush/jungle.

Armed with my GRD and light fading fast, I captured a number of forest shots. In post processing in Gimp I played around with a few contrast and special layers, with the result being today image. When I get some more time I will definitely visit Smiths Bush again!

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Door to Wonderland

I took the Nex and Jupiter-8 for another stroll today, this time around the Lake House Arts Centre in Takapuna on Auckland North Shore. On the outskirts of the property I came across this awesome wooden carving. With a little imagination, one can dream that this is the entry door to Alice’s Wonderland, or a back door to Narnia.

In post production using Gimp, I did a bit of bluring, sharpening, desaturating and color balancing. I wanted to give the tree a bit of a stand out presence without totally ignoring its otherwise normal surroundings.

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