You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.
A. A. Milne
Shot on the Sony Nex 5N with Jupiter-8 lens.
Sunset Beyond Trees
Today has brought the rain and wind, so one more from last nights walk. Calm before the storm evidently!
Shot on the Sony Nex 5N with Juipter 8 lens.
View from Highbrook Park
In between showers, a quick shot of the view from Highbrook Park, looking North. Just after this was shot, the two rowers near the signal pole somehow hit it. No sinking disaster, but it made a fairly loud bump. The mix of rainy clouds and sunrise lent for some nice lighting. In the background we can see Mt Wellington. Tomorrows image source.
The Still Lakeside
Silence is a source of great strength.
Lao Tzu
Out from the Kitekite
About a 5 minute drive from Piha is a track leading to the Kitekite Falls – a 40m drop waterfall (or 80m if you count the 3 tier of pools above it). A beautiful, well maintained bush walk, well worth visiting whilst in the area. There are several tracks to choose from, the shortest taking one about 20minutes of fair pace walking to reach the falls. Here you can take a cool dip in the chilled fresh water.
The falls were used once in attempt to transport felled trees downstream for processing. A fairly commonly used method in New Zealand, dams were built at the top of falls and rivers, logs floated, dams opened, and logs rushed down to the mouth of the river. This practice always damaged a number of logs, but in the KiteKite case, more logs were ruined than saved and it was not used again in the same manner.
Today’s image was shot downstream on my journey back. Leaning out at a corner, I focused upstream and captured the river straight on, disappearing into the bush. Using Gimp, I cropped the aspect a little, adjusted the levels and used the ‘National Geographic’ plug-in.
The Lion of the West Coast
Taken from the lookout point at the south of Piha, today’s image is a great profile of Lion Rock. If you look carefully (or imaginatively) you can see the lions eye and nose on the left, his Mane and lower back. Climbing up, one come from the right hand side of this image (clearly we don’t start in the ocean) and take the gradual carved staircase up.After the first 1/3rd, you can see where the most recent slip from a number of years ago occurred.As you hit the lions ‘mane’, approx 2/3rds, that’s where the track now finishes. It used to come along the side a little more before going inwards again (back when you could climb to the summit).
Although a very overcast day, looking in the background, one can see the sea spray drifting overland towards the dense bush areas. I think the tide was more out than in at this time of the day when the photo was shot.
Once a place of camping and a few holiday homes, Piha is now a growing in population area. In 1951 it had 73 residents. in the 2006 census that figure had grown to 822. 6 years on, I expect it will have easily cracked the 1000. Many of the houses are fairly flash now days, and a great option for the work from home types who love to be by the sea and surf. There are still multiple camping grounds in the area (although very limited shops), and its well worth a stay if you are in Auckland for a period!
Piha also had its own TV show – Piha Rescue. Essentially a real life lifesaver show filmed around the typical summer periods of Piha.
Shot on the Sony Nex 5N and post-processed in Gimp. I adjusted the levels a fair amount – this helped a lot with the hazy, slightly over exposed original. Cropped the aspect a little and added wording.
That will do for facts for today. I’ll let the image say the rest! Have a good Friday!
Lion Rock, Piha
For visitors to Piha, the most memorable, or at least recognisable part of the area is the famous Lion Rock. a 16 million year old piece of volcanic neck standing ~101 metres high. It got its name from the shape of a sitting lion when viewed from the south of the beach (left in the photo).
Over the years Lion rock has claimed a number of lives – both from people falling, and also from those fishing off the dangerous yet rewarding rocks of the unforgiving surf beach. As a child I recall the terror of climbing to the top up a (at least what felt to be) dodgy eroding track. The reward once at the top was a magnificent view (and sandwich with Piha black sand stuck in it somehow). In the late 1990’s, there was a significant landslide with the double tragic result of dis-forming the lion a little, and preventing all but foolish risk takers from now climbing to the summit (another example of tragedy).
Now days one can climb up about 2/3’rds of the rock where you will reach a Maori stone and blessing of the area and valued rock. You may also be able to make out a small plaque near the middle of the base with the roll of honour for WW1 soldiers from the local area.
There is something special about Lion Rock for me & I love photographing it. One day I will get the perfect shot of it (for me)…one day.
Image wise, it was shot on the Sony Nex, with duo-tone filters and edited in Gimp. I adjusted the levels, added a vignette and converted to B&W.
Some more Piha tomorrow probably!
Flowing out to Sea
As I transition back into the usual flow of work, its time to share some images I captured over the last week.
As stated the other day, I went to the West Coast of Auckland and took some images at Piha Beach. Nice and early in the morning, the water flowing to the beach was still (the surf beach that Piha is still had waves crashing) and the haze and spray of the sea drifting in. Although the sun was yet to come up properly, it was overcast.
I set my tripod up and took a few shots, both with the Sony Nex and the Pentax MG, looking out past Lion Rock and into the island in the distance. I also attached a graduated tone filter to both, trying to give the sky some colour in the Nex, and bring out a little cloud on the MG.
Today’s image, from the Nex, is straight from camera, unedited aside from scaling and adding my sig. If I was to edit it, I think I might crop the aspect a little, but I quite like it as-is.
I will write some more about Piha in the coming days as I have a few images I wish to share. Today’s image brings about childhood memories for me. The stream in the foreground was great for sailing boats (model ones) and building dams on. I also recall as a youngster falling in fully clothed and being less than impressed. Piha is a black sand beach – it always seemed to stick much better than white sand, and ALWAYS got into my sandwiches as a child!
Farewell Holidays
Holidays seem to pass so quickly. As I write I am in the final few hours of my break, and coming to terms with being back at work in the morning. I enjoy my work, but I am yet to be convinced by others who say they would be too bored if they didn’t have work to go to…I think I always have more than enough to do. Perhaps if I win the lottery one day we can put it to the test!
For the morning I decided to catch the ferry to the city, have a stroll around and see what images there were to see and capture. Making an effort to go on the more untrodden streets and tracks, armed with my Ricoh GRD IV, I captured a few images, but didn’tRi feel overly inspired today and just enjoyed the stroll.
Going with the final week flow, ‘Farewell Holidays’ was again captured on the Galaxy S2 in Vignette, Polaroid setting, and edited in Photoshop CS5.
Tomorrow I will take us back several days, and start with sharing a few of my West Coast images shot on the Sony. And if I get around to it, anything good I shot on the Pentax MG also.
Catch you tomorrow…after work.
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!
MikeHawkey.com 