Storm – MikeHawkey.com

An archive shot today of a previous rainy day. Its been raining most all the week, but last night the winds came also. The weather forecast didnt make much of it, but for the second storm in a row, this non-cyclone storm caused more general damage to the city than thy cyclone several months back. All night the roof rattled and rolled (causing me to venture upon it after work to ensure it was all still there), trees broke, gates broke, fences fell. We lost a few tree branches and broke a gate latch, but were otherwise lucky.

As we enter the evening, all seems to be clearing.

The old phrase ‘red sky in the morning, shepherds warning’ (or sailors depending on your upbringing and geographical location) appears to be ringing true today as I await the cyclone that is Lusi on its way to New Zealand.

We have been told to cancel upcoming weekend activities outdoors, prepare for a king tide, massive coastal weather, possible flooding, high winds and power cuts. Its always so surreal when a large storm approaches. The air changes. Things go still. Most animals seem to know something is coming.

I enjoy weather extremes. Within limits. All going well, I will try to get out in some of it and take in the amazing power that is mother nature. Going not so well, I’ll stay inside.

As I write the breeze is mellow. News reports its already picking up at the top of the country, so its just a small wait now…

New Zealand has been hit with a mild weather bomb (depending which part of the country you are in) these last few days. Overall in Auckland we have only had a bit of high wind and low cloud. Yesterday this combined with a little light rain – nothing to get excited about.

In between appointments I snapped this image down at Narrow Neck beach in Devonport using my Ricoh with a tweaked bleach bypass setting.

Using Gimp, I cropped the aspect a little, removing some of the tree and more grey sky. I applied a light softening blur, slightly desaturated and lightly adjusting the hue. Lastly I added the rounded corners.

As I often state on weekdays, I just managed to get a bit of light after work on the way home. I had packed my Nex and its new lens into my bag, hoping to give it a test out. Whilst I did manage that, and got some nice shots (and some flat sundown ones) I wanted to post up something different to my usual nature/landscape. With the lens at 210mm I set about looking for some wildlife. It proved quite still and dull overall tonight.

Just as I was heading back to the car a few seagulls approached and I managed to get off a few shots. With low light and a long lens the autofocus just missed a number of shots, but I did like this one of the bird heading ‘into the storm’.

In post processing using Gimp all I did was push the contrast to make it look more menacing than it actually was. Shot at 210mm, 1/400sec at 1250iso the push also revealed the digital grain of the image. I’m a grain fan in photos (that old film appeal) so am happy letting it sit.

In about 3 weeks I’m off to Fiji for a week, which is pretty exciting as I have never been there. My current dilemma is do I take a bag full of cameras and lenses, or travel more lightweight (with the added benefit of not carrying so much money investment!). I’m leaning towards taking my Ricoh GRD and my Rollei 35. I’ll also have my smart phone to hopefully post a snap each day also. When I went to the South Island last year I only had my Ricoh and Mju 35mm – I think the compact allows you to travel with ease and think more about how to capture the image. What do you all do?

Last night we had a massive storm with thunder and lightening that seemed never ending. I woke this morning to a clear blue sky, and what turned out to be a reasonably warm day. One can definitely tell spring is on its way.

I had hoped to shoot a roll of film on my little Olympus Mju 1 today, and did get 5 shots off before it was dropped and run over by a dodgem. Alas it did not survive the incident and I’m left mourning this fantastic compact cameras passing. I have transferred the film into my Ricoh R10, so hopefully those last 5 images can be saved at least.

Today’s image was snapped several days ago on my GRD IV in bleach mode. Resized in Gimp, otherwise untouched, it was the perfect mourning and spring is on its way image for the day!

Continuing on from my last entry where I discussed B&W being one of my more preferred mediums, I though I would post up a photo from my archives. I took this image on a Sony A230 on the windy west coast beach, Muriwai. The west coast gets battered by waves and wind, both forming and at other times destroying the sand dunes along the coastline. Muriwai is also home to a fairly large gannet colony, well worth a visit if you are in the area! In B&W I love how the wild nature of the area is highlighted with the contrasty sky and exposed roots of the tree.I ended up having this printed on A2 canvas, so its in my personal top pics for the last few years.

Tag: Storm

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Into the Storm

Spring is Near

Wild West Coast