Bit of a bug spreading through the household, so one from the archives for today.
Orb from the Archives
Pelecanus Conspicillatus
Pelecanus conspicillatus, the Australian pelican. Shot at the Sydney zoo a few years back on my old Sony A230 DSLR. With a wingspan of ~2.5m, these guys are fairly large birds. Interestingly, you can tell if they are a part of a breeding couple or not by the colour of their bill and circles around eyes. Protected in Australia, they are lucky enough not to be on the endangered list, although some of their native waterland’s have been taken over by our recreational sports.
As above, shot on the Sony Alpha A230 and resized/converted to black & white in Gimp.
Sydney Peafowl
Stuck in the house sick today, I hunted through some old images shot at the Sydney Zoo a few years ago. I had a wide variety of head shots of various animals, including todays peacock.
One of the more well known colourful birds, I have always found it funny how many animals have the male being bright and exuberant and the female otherwise plain. Of course the majority of examples of this are to show off and attract a mate.
Shot on the Sony A230, converted from RAW in UFRaw and final edit in Gimp.
Tasty Snacks
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.
The Corolla
Running out of time and looking over old images from a few years ago – mostly of the collection of different cars I have owned, I pulled out an old imaged I used to sell my Corolla Ceres. Shot on my Sony A230 and Minolta 50mm lens, I recall using this image as a bit of a template for my ‘for sale’ images for the cars that followed.
There was certainly nothing special about this car. It did take me on holiday around the North Island, never missed a beat and was good on fuel. Like many cars I have had, I owned it, drove it, grew tired with it and moved on.
I still like the shot of it though.
Something newer tomorrow!
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!
Lion Rock
After taking work home, I only had time for an archive hunt again today, ‘Lion Rock’. Located at Piha, which is a west coast surf beach about 40km from Auckland’s central city area. Although this shot is of the back of the ‘lion’ and erosion has taken its toll, from the side one with imagination can make out a lion sitting and watching over the ocean. As a child I recall being scared to death as dad egged me on to climb to the top. Its since been fenced off halfway up and people can no longer go to the top, so I’m glad he made me back in the day. I recall the cold morning I got up and left to get this shot at about 5am on my day off. Looking to get it at sunrise, I was happy to also have the moody clouds in the background. Shot on my Sony A230 with a 20mm focal length, I later converted to B&W in photoshop and brought the contrast out a bit in the clouds.
Portrait of a BMW
Todays image is one I took a little while ago on my Sony A230 DSLR with a 50mm Minolta lens. I really wanted to see if I could create a car image that may have been used by BMW when releasing the 5 Series . Although this is the smaller web optimized version of that image I’m pretty happy with the end result, and think its a much more appealing image in B&W.
I finally finished off the B&W film in my Ricoh today and sent it off to the developers, si I’m keenly waiting to see what I get back and what I can share here. I’ll load and start shooting a self develop film in my Rollei 35 T over the next few days also – it will be interesting to see how I go stepping back to a full manual setup – including the necessity to guess the focus distance as the 35’s have no focus assistance like most cameras.
Queens Birthday celebrated here in NZ on Monday, so one more day till the long weekend!
The Orb
Friday! I was busy taking and editing work team photos this afternoon, so didn’t get a chance to head out and take any shots after work. So – another from my archives. I have always liked long exposure evening shots – both in film and on digital, waiting to see what the lighting looks like when it is dark to the naked eye. Some time last year I came across a guy called Dennis Smith and his ‘painting with light orbs’ – give him a google, some breathtaking images. Following this I built a basic orb maker and went out to take some shots. It was a lot of fun and i’ll have to go do some more some time to try and perfect it. This one was taken on a Sony A230. It wasn’t my best orb, but I likes the color and how it was floating in between the trees.
Wild Thing
I was sad to hear this morning about the passing of Maurice Sendak, the author of the great children’s book (or adult children) ‘Where The Wild Things Are’. A story spanning generations I grew up with this book ~20 years after it was written, and those a little younger may have seen the 2009 feature film based on the book. I recall when young going to a stage show of it even. If you have never read the book I encourage you to do so. Also, a simple Wikipedia will give some fascinating background info on the story.
Sendak’s passing influenced me to post up this image I took in 2011, in Sydney Australia. I cant recall the name of this beast, but its a now extinct mammal, about the size of a small hippo. Taken on my Sony A230, 50mm 1.7 lens, took advantage of the selective low lighting to isolate ‘the wild thing’.
MikeHawkey.com 