Approaching the Match – with different processing

Before the MatchIm lucky enough to live next to a nice sized park and bush walk. The above image being one I have shown at some angle or another int he past. As with all parks, often various social and club games are played. Here its generally Football/Soccer in one season and Cricket in the other. At the moment, cricket.

The Match 2Armed with my Sony Nex and Jupiter 8, I grabbed several shots whilst out for a small walk. After arriving home, I processed the three all a little differently. For the head image in B&W I pushed it quite hard to get some heavy light contrasts. The second image, just above had a minor yellow tone applied to give a slightly dryer look than the rain all night may suggest. For the final image below, I didnt really do anything other than a slight straightening before framing and resizing.

The MatchCatch you tomorrow!

 

 

 

Old Man by the Sea

waiting by the Sea

“Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

‘digital paintbrush’ converted in Photoshop CS5.

 

 

Fast 4s…and Economy

Car MagOnce, when I was training to be a mechanic, a lot of my youth was spent in, under and around cars. Numerous project cars (and bikes), its no surprise I brought the monthly car mags. Reading over tips, projects and general car stuff, I never really used them as inspiration for my own projects, but enjoyed them none the less.

One thing I always liked in the photos they featured in magazines like Fast Fours and Rotaries, or Performance Car was the shot of a car with the ‘see through bonnet ‘ (or hood for you alternate naming lot). Seeing the lines of the car, but also that beautifully detailed engine always made for a interesting and technical looking photo.

Years later after my transition from film to digital I had a play around in Photoshop and learnt how easy (and quick) it is to make a basic copy of this.

I’ve been trying to finish off a film these last few days, so short on recent images, I quickly caught the last of todays light to shoot my ‘performance car’.

Sony Nex and 16mm lens on a tripod I positioned the camera to where I wanted the shot. First I took a frame of the car with the bonnet closed. I then opened the hood and took a shot, still in the same fixed place on the tripod. Being a little dark I adjusted exposure and essentially took an over exposed image to get a little more engine bay detail.

Back inside I opened Gimp (Photoshop will do the same, but as discussed in the past, I generally favour Gimp to use). Discarding that first shot with the hood opened, I pasted the shot of the car with hood closed over the shot with over exposed hood open. I then selected the bonnet and reduced opacity to a level that we can still see the bonnet lines, but can also start to see ‘whats under the hood’ (nothing powerful I’m afraid).

So there we go. How to make a quick and simple version of the performance car shoot…with a economy focused car 🙂

Tasty Snacks

SONY DSC

 

An image from the archives today. It must be several years ago now that I was invited by friends to come and photograph (and eat a little) some finely produced foods. Placed on a table by a wide open window, I worked with the natural available light, and took a series of images. I think it was my first attempt at food photography at the time and although I might do one or two things different now, I was happy with the overall result, and looked back on the series again today with similar feelings.

Todays image was shot on the Sony A230 DSLR. Originally edited in CS4 from RAW and slightly cropped and scaled in Gimp today.

Welcome New Home

HelloContinuing on from yesterdays image, our new home. Between unpacking boxes, trying to sort internet, tv, and finding things, also comes the ideas of what one can do in ones new home.

The weather has just started to pack in a little as Winter slowly approaches, so garden work might be on the back burner for a while. I’m excited to now have a garage come workshop! – something I had growing up, but lost when I went flatting.

As with yesterday, shot on the Galaxy S2 using Vignette and text added in CS5.

 

Warkworth Prison

Warkworth PrisonWhilst I did manage to get some picture taking in today, it was of someone at work for an article, so I wont feature it here. So- another archive image. A scene from the old Warkworth Prison… well holding rooms from the old village police officer days. Moved and displayed at the Warkworth Museum, it paints a fairly basic, yet not surprising look at the local shack you may have once found yourself locked up in back in the day if you committed a nuisance. Constructed almost entirely of wood (pretty heavy wood), it did have a small iron bar window on the front door.

Shot on the Ricoh, I added heavy vignette in CS5 and desaturated the image a little.

 

The Hidden Cove

Hidden Cove

Waking up at 5am, I jumped in the car and headed to Auckland’s West Coast to catch some early morning images. With a host of beaches to choose from, I settled on my favorite – Piha Beach.

39km west of Auckland’s CBD, its a long windy road to get to Piha. From the direction I came, I took a road called Scenic Drive. Scenic drive itself was built in the 1930’s depression by those on unemployment at the time. Often crossing ridge lines, when an opening in the trees becomes available, it offers a magnificent view of various parts of Auckland.

Unfortunately for me, the sky was very overcast at Piha the whole morning I was there, only clearing in the afternoon, on my home journey. I did take a number of shots however, and will look to edit through them and share a little later in the week, along with some more information on the local area.

Today’s shot was taken just around the corner from the southern end of Piha. The image does not show it, but it was blowing fairly strong winds! (I had to retrieve my hat which blew off the cliff!).

Image/Editing wise, the same as the last few days. Shot on the Samsung Galaxy S2 using Vignette with a digital Polaroid setting. Writing added in Photoshop CS5.

Balmain Reserve and the Beach

Balmain Reserve

As the days rapidly count down to the end of Holiday time, I have decided to continue on with my ‘digital Polaroid’ theme for the last few days. Hitting 25 degrees in Auckland today, we headed down to Cheltnham beach for a swim (I have written about the beach numerous times in the past so wont spend time on it today)

As with the last few days, image was shot on the Samsung Galaxy S2 using the vignette app. I made some minor tweaks to the film type and exposure today, giving it mostly an overexposed quality – as a comment pointed out in the past, this almost gives more of a feeling of bright, hot summer. Photoshop CS5 provided the written content and resizing.

I have used CS5 these last few days simply out of convenience in that its on the laptop in front of me, rather than my usual desktop unit with Gimp 2.8. Its been, lets say refreshing to use CS5 these last few days – more just so I don’t totally forget how to use it (just almost).

With two days left on my break I am hoping to get to the West Coast – Piha. Fingers crossed for tomorrow or the day after. I will take a combination of mobile, digital and film shots all going well.

Until tomorrow!

Upon the Tree

Christmas

A big long day – Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!

Today’s image is of one of the tree-top Angels from the family home tree. Still the same old tree I had when young!

In keeping it short for the day, image was shot on the Ricoh GRD IV and edited in Photoshop CS5. Its been quite some time since I used Photoshop – I have been using Gimp as my main PC editor for some time now…the Photoshop layout and menu was all backwards (If you use Photoshop, just swap the editor names around and it will make more sense to you). I am by no means criticizing it – at the end of the day its the better of the two…just not my usual or chosen editor.

The bad weather is starting to arrive, albeit not as bad as forecast. We will see what tomorrow brings!

Hope your Christmas has gone well!

Forgotten Flower

My last pre-scheduled post as I should be back in the country and in front of technology tomorrow! Another archive image of a left behind flower my partner had forgotten to take with her.

I edited it at the time in CS4 so cannot recall now what I actually did. I do remember setting it up on a wet glass table, and shooting it with my Sony A230.

Much like the flower, the rest of the details were forgotten!
Back tomorrow!

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