Port Taranaki Power Station and Sugar Loaf Island

One of my favorite shots from last weeks holiday in New Plymouth is from Paritutu – a tall headland point to one side of the main township. Looking down, under a falling sun I captured this image of the old power station, and offshore island.

The power station, a natural gas/fuel oil station was opened in 1974, and decommissioned in 2008. Asbestos discovery was noted as one of the reasons for the closure (NZ has widely banned any new use of asbestos for several years now, and its often very costly to deal with in old homes etc).

Off shore was see Sugarloaf island. The remainder volcanic vent piece from an estimated 1.7 Million years ago. Now part of a protected Marine area.

Shot on the GRD, resized in Gimp.

April 6, 2013 7

Brooklands Park

As shot from the camera, I loved the saturated colour I got during my visit to Brooklands Park in New Plymouth. The sun was hot and the grass dry in many places.

Brooklands itself is a suburb in New Plymouth. With a large area covered in the forested park (and a zoo), the area is (like many places in NZ) named from the old Brooklands Farm established in 1842. Its also home to the only Lawn Bowl’s Museum – anywhere apparently (I didn’t visit it 1. due to not knowing this until after, 2. It was easter, so unlikely it would have been open).

Shot on the GRD, resized in Gimp.

More New Plymouth area tomorrow.

April 4, 2013 0

NZ from the Sky

Returning from our holiday in New Plymouth yesterday afternoon, it was a beautiful, mostly clear day right up the North Island (soon to be given the dual title Te Ika a Maui).

As with all of my recent holidays, I went along with my Ricoh GRD IV. I almost took the Sony Nex this time, but keeping with tradition, at last moment, switched out for the Ricoh. Battery wise, the Ricoh is superior – plus I have two spares – enough to keep me going over a week at my usual holiday snap pace. As well as better battery life, its more compact, fitting into jeans pockets, or relatively light with an over the shoulder strap. Downside wise (depending on ones perspective), the Ricoh is a fixed lens, small sensor camera.

In many ways (I’m sure I have written this before), one of the things I like about the Ricoh and its fixed lens is that is makes you think for the shot – you have to move and change position to attain the composition in your mind. This of course applies to all prime lenses. The other strength, is even though its a smaller sensor, the lens is designed specifically for it – getting the most from the package, and not having to sacrifice like all zooms do to one level or another. I think the final piece which has made this my return to for holidays shooter is the menu system. I’ve owned a good number of cameras in the past, and Ricoh are easily up there at the top level with their menu – both in ease of use and options.

All that being said, todays image is not right up there in my favorites from the camera… but its not often I get to shoot NZ from a plane, so I wanted to share. Location wise, its somewhere on the west coast, around half way up (I think).

Some more from the trip tomorrow.

April 3, 2013 3

Warkworth Prison

Whilst 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.

March 6, 2013 2

Logs sitting, waiting

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.

March 2, 2013 0

The Vibrant Driveway

Just a quick note today. Our ISP is again playing up and typing on the mobile is a little testing after a super long Monday!
Shot on the GRD IV, cropped and reduced in Gimp.

February 18, 2013 2

Up and Down

Not much time for written content today sorry. ‘Up and Down’, shot at the Auckland Airport on the Ricoh GRD IV. Using Gimp I converted to B&W, adjusted contrast and sharpness and resized to post.

I have finally finished my film in the Pentax with the music festival on Monday – just need to find the time to develop it now!

January 31, 2013 2

City over the Water

Another busy day, especially for a Monday. I managed to shoot off down to the waterfront after evening training and catch the end of the sun retreating behind the hills. I know I have featured the city several times before – at slightly different focal and view points. There is something about a cityscape that I love looking at. Living just outside the city allows beautiful views of it, and distance wise, if I need to go in, that’s no big issue either.

Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV at 6 seconds ISO80 in its only 28mm focal length. Aside from resizing, no post editing tricks and no in camera filters either today, just a straight shot in its natural colour. It was quite an awesome sky!

January 21, 2013 4

Keep Clear

A quick mid week post.

Keep Clear. Shot on a recent town stroll with my Ricoh GRD IV in hand. Post processing involved adding a heavy vignette, converting to B&W, adding contrast and a slight colour tint.

More words and another image tomorrow!

January 16, 2013 0

The Chain Fence

It must have almost been a week since I picked up my Sony Nex, and many many months since I last used my Industar 61 (generally I would grab the Jupiter-8 for a manual 50).So, I headed out with this combination and my Ricoh GR1 (to finish the film in it) for a several hour stroll around the Devonport and Belmont areas.

As it has been for a few weeks now, the beaches were packed with people, the sun out and the water cool. I had earlier gone for a swim, so ventured off the beach track and more into the local parks and reserves. Walking out of Devonport, Lake Road, I captured today’s image. Shot just behind the memorial plaques and crosses, a wood post, chain fence runs the entire length. Approaching early evening the shadows were getting longer and I was drawn to the light filtering through the trees as I looked through the viewfinder up the fence passageway.

In post editing I did a fair amount of mucking around today in Gimp, adjusting contrasts, shadows, saturation and finishing with the rounded edges just after an aspect crop.

I also managed to finish off the film in the GR1, but don’t know if I will get around to developing it for the next few days or not.

The days are counting down until I return to work now. I enjoy my job, but am never one who enjoys finishing a holiday!…but enough about that. I still have several days up my sleeve!

January 2, 2013 0