Ellerslie Racecourse

Feeling pretty rough yesterday ... well today too for that matter, so please forgive the quality of the images and text!  I've developed a really bad sore throat and now I'm having problems with my sinuses so I'm definitely feeling the worse for wear.  Nevertheless, yesterday required a trip to Ellerslie to drop my wife off at the hospital.  She was in for a few hours so I thought I'd take my camera and have a gentle little walk around the Ellerslie Racecourse.  I've been here a few times before, but never with camera in hand.  This is a great place for a photo walk.  So many interesting things to see.

We started walking from the hospital through a lovely avenue of palm trees.  I was using a wide 12-24mm zoom lens which may explain the curvature of the palm trees!  They're not as bent as this in real life.  My son took a Samsung U10 FlashCAM that we're evaluating for work and I have to say the differences between the cameras was significant.  Granted, my Nikon probably has a higher price tag than the Samsung, but my son came to the conclusion my cellphone camera was better; and my phone was the cheapest Sharp 'phone I could find.  My sky came out blue (see the image left) whereas the Samsung just couldn't sort out white balance and exposure and it's sky came out almost white.  Video seemed as bad with serious delays with exposure, focus and white balance.  Disappointing.  I'll have a play with the device later today and perhaps let you know how I get on.

The Nikon, however, was fine.  I was in no way disappointed there :-)

One thing that's always surprised me has been the pigeons.  I'm used to them living in towns, congregating in town hall squares and perhaps more famously, in Trafalgar square.  I think of them as town birds, making their nests in and on buildings.  Congregating on the window sills and ledges of high rise town buildings.  I don't really associate them with trees, let alone palm trees, yet the one you see in the second image in this post seems quite happy in amongst the fronds of the palm.  This pigeon isn't out native wood pigeon or Kereru but a common rock pigeon.  The bird isn't as sharp as I'd have liked; I should really have used a tripod, but I wasn't feeling the best remember :-(

Just down from this lovely avenue of trees is the car-park and then the racecourse and associated buildings.  The sky changed from cloudless to something quite spectacular as you might see in the remaining photos in this post.

Time for some more painkillers and a drink methinks.

Let me know what you think of the photos ;-)