photos and other things…
So we have reached the end of another year. New Years Eve is a time of great celebration. A time of reflection. A time to make new resolutions and commitments. And for others, just another day.
Thanks to all of you who drop in every now and then to look and read mikehawkey.com. The year, in reflection, has just flown by.
“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”
― Brad Paisley
Labour Day here in New Zealand today – a national public holiday!
After mixed weather forecasts, we had an overall fine, sunny and hot weekend. A signal summer is on the way!
I mentioned the other day having issues with Gimp since updating to OSX 10.9. I since confirmed an identical issue on my laptop, suggesting something goes not quite to plan whilst updating. I uninstalled and downloaded another version of Gimp 2.8 on the laptop and it seems to have fixed the issue, so I’ll do the same on my desk unit.
Until then, todays image shot on the Sony Nex 5N and minor adjustments made in CS5.
Sony Nex 5N
In a meeting at work today we discussed the growing lack of vitamin D that is spreading around various cultures of the world. With things like skin cancer etc being well published and awareness’ raised, there is a growing population who are now not getting enough sun. In NZ/Australia, around 1/3 of the population are now lacking in ‘D’.
With that in mind, looking around the garden, todays talk reminded me of the whole photosynthesis process that occurs in plants, and the resulting consequence of lack of sun for many of these green leafed growths.
Shooting with the Ricoh GRD IV, with the sun approaching the ‘golden hour’, I switched to macro and got behing a little plant soaking up the last of the days sun. Resized in post processing, otherwise as is from camera.
Finally a stroll after work! – its been a very busy few weeks, with a lot on both in and out of work. However, today I managed to head out for a little walk by the motorway. Its been another hot day, with a large percentage of the country now in, or close to drought. Todays particular area had a lot more green than many places I have seen lately. It is near a water collection area, so may have some springs around perhaps. Armed with the GRD IV, I got down to knee height, aimed out and up, adjusted compensation and shot into the sun. I think it highlights the sun beating down on an area with light shelter.
Shot in cross-processed mode on the Ricoh, I resized and added rounded corners in Gimp.
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!
Just getting my post in for today!
Shot on the galaxy s2 and edited in afterfocus.
As always, Mondays a busy day, so here is another shot from yesterdays outing. It really highlights the distance of the raft from the beach at high tide. I have memories visiting the beach as a young one and the journey it took to swim out to the raft, well above ones head height deep. That was with the old raft also, made of wood, which became very slippery after the first wet kid clambered on top of it.
Out to the ocean we can see some of the smaller boats that were racing off Narrow Neck Beach around the corner.
Post photo wise, I cropped and used a modified ‘national geographic’ plugin in Gimp. The image itself was overexposed a little (and this emphasised by the plugin), – its given the image a feeling that somewhat reflected my own eyesight as I squinted wishing I had brought along some sunglasses or a hat…
Another beautiful day weather wise in Auckland – bordering on hot. Todays shot is taken from North Head on the North Shore, looking north up Cheltnham beach towards Takapuna. A good number of people were out in the water, possibly experiencing the first swim of summer. We passed groups and couples relaxing on the hill in the sun and watched the various boat races out in the harbour.
Today’s image was shot on the Sony with my Juipter-8 Lens. It had been a while since I had dug out the manual lens on the Sony, and today’s walk proved a good outing to do so on. Although a little softer as it gets to the corner, it gives a nice feeling to the images.
Editing in Gimp, I did bump up the contrast a notch before resizing and adding rounded corners.
That’s the end of Sunday, on rolls another week!
MikeHawkey.com 