Winter Blossom Tree

Pink flowered winter treeToday I caught a tree vaguely resembling the challenge request I was given a few days ago. Missing the Tui, and arms at full extension (due to the tree being over a fence and my camera 28mm), the blossoming tree tied in with a lady informing me we were 2/3rd’s through winter gave a sense of spring almost on its way.

With spring a month off, I’m reminded I have not made it down to see the snow at all this year. With work commitments, it does not look like I will either, but it would be nice to take the drive down one weekend perhaps.

Early start and long day. Minds fuzzy. end here.

 

The Polarizer

Filter no filterWith the poor weather of late, and a bit on my plate work wise, its been hard getting out to take many images. What I did work on however was a bit of a filter project for my Ricoh GRD. Ive written about the full control one can get using the great little Ricoh, but one limiter it, and 99% of all compact cameras has is the lack of a filter mount. One can buy an attachment tube where you can put filters on, but ultimately you end up with something the size of a small DSLR. Once that size, I’d just as soon use my Nex with a larger sensor.

So, after hunting around and finding no retail option, I went about making my own converting ring. Buying a 25mm-46mm step up ring, I removed the 46mm thread and attached via foam tape the new adaptor to my GRD. Most of my filters are 49mm, so I got a 46-49mm adaptor and viola, a sub $10 filter adaptor on my compact camera – yet still compact ‘enough’

As above, the weather has been poor when I have been free, but after a week of waiting, I set out determined to test the filter adaptor on the Ricoh. To see the obvious difference, and  something you simply cannot replicate in post editing, I attached my polarising filter – a great addition to ones camera filter kit (and one I should use more).

As in todays image, you can see the difference a polarising filter makes on a camera – identical aperture and  exposure time – filter just rotated to reduce reflection and darken the sky.

Images straight from camera (obviously two edited into one)

 

Fiji Sunrise

Fiji SunriseWith cold wind and bouts of heavy rain, it felt like a good day to dig into the photo archives, taking me back to a warmer climate. Shot early one morning during our stay in Fiji, I recall waking up just on sunrise. The resort area was dead quiet, with only a few staff busily walking around getting ready for when holiday stayers woke up for breakfast. One man, silhouetted in the foreground, was busy raking up the piles of weed that wash up daily into tidy little piles waiting for the crew on  the tractor to pick up again later in the day. In the background we see the mountains, if memory serves, of the sleeping giant (I think his belly is just to the left of the closer pine trees). Temperature already warm compared to New Zealand…

back to my cosy winter fire.

 

View from Herald Island

View from Herald IslandDuring a work stop in Auckland West, I made a quick stop in at one of the unique little communities, Herald Island. A small little community, Herald Island was joined to Auckland’s West with a causeway built in 1958.

With a small number of streets you could likely count with your fingers, it has a real sense of a small community. At the opposite end of the island from the causeway, we see the main wharf/boat jetty area. Greeted by a friendly ‘sea cat’ (just a normal cat that wandered the wharf), I took todays shot of the boats and across to Greenhithe on the North Shore.

In post using Gimp, I switched to B&W and adjusted levels a little as well as cropping the aspect.

 

Remembrance Walkway

Graveyard WanderA quick stroll after work around one of the local graveyards. The weather has been pretty bad around the whole country these last few days, so it was nice to be out in the clear blue (and fairly chilly) sky.

Graveyards are interesting places to walk through – something I have featured in the past. Its an interesting walk through history, looking back a hundred years at lives once been. For me, in New Zealand, none of my close family have been buried- cremation being the final step in the bodily life. I know back in UK I have more buried family, from many generations ago.

Its also interesting to look at different funeral practices from culture to culture and religion to religion. For some its a bright and colourful celebration of ones life, for others a mourning and dark passing. Some cultures openly talk about it, and for others its one of those unspoken taboos that we avoid, perhaps in fear of the unknown?

Walking through the graveyard shows a mix of maintained and kept tombstones, as well as overgrown, forgotten and illegible ones. Have the family moved  out of the area, are there any family left? Who knows?

Todays shot was taken on the Ricoh GRD IV and post processed in Gimp. In this I gave the image a mild squish profile wise, converted to B&W and adjusted the contrast.

 

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