Mellons Bay

Mellons Bay Reserve, Howick, New Zealand

I couldn't decide whether to take my camera or not.  When going to the shops I never like to leave things in the car, and I often feel a bit self conscious when I'm doing some shopping with bags of camera gear in tow.  Problem was, if the shopping finished early I might miss a photo' op'.  In the end I took the D300 and a 12-24mm lens.  The shopping was quick - just the way I like it and I did have about 10 minutes spare time before I had to collect my son from school.  Great excuse to head down to Mellons Bay and see if there was anything worth shooting.

In some ways I was disappointed that I hadn't brought a longer lens as the light on Rangitoto was really quite lovely.  Rangitito is the green volcano you'll see in the distance.  The clouds were lovely and, to be honest, I could have stayed a lot longer if I wasn't required to collect my son.  Maybe next time I have to collect him I'll take a picnic and stay a little longer ;-)

I'll close this post with a few more images from my brief pause at Mellons Bay.

Clevedon Jazz and Wine Festival

The Alan Brown Project on a somewhat "rural" stage.

After being somewhat challenged shooting Alan and the band at the Grand Central with very low light levels, a chance to take photographs during the day seemed like an opportunity not to be missed.  New challenges now though!  As you can see from the first image in this post, the stage setup was a little different to say the least.  Tractors, Ambulances as well as a very large rescue boat were background objects not normally found at a jazz performance.

Nathan Haines

A special treat for the listeners was the appearance of Mr. Nathan Haines performing along with the Alan Brown Project.  On vocals we were treated to the very lovely Cherie Mathieson.  So there you have it, a wonderful line-up, but something you can enjoy every other Thursday at the Grand Central in Ponsonby.  Maybe I'll see you there one day ;-)

Thankfully, unlike today, the weather was warm and sunny, with stalls providing plenty of food and drink to help make it a lovely afternoon.

I'll just leave you with a few more images of the band on stage and encourage you to take a look on my Facebook page where you can see some more photographs.  Perhaps you might "Like" what you see ;-)

Karika Turua

Andy Smith

Alan Brown

Cherie Mathieson

Cherie Mathieson

Jono Sawyer

Jono Sawyer

Downtown

Old Government House, Auckland, New Zealand

I've been meaning to do this for some time now, and for some reason it's just never happened.  Well, that all changed this morning and I managed to get into Auckland City just to relax and take some photos.  I've been quite busy over the past couple of weeks and must admit to feeling more than a little frustrated with the photographs I've been taking of late.  I don't know if it's tiredness, lack of inspiration or just being bogged down with other things, but many of my photographic efforts have been pretty "ho-hum" and I felt I needed something to give myself a bit of a kick.  I can't say I was impressed with today's efforts, but I could sense a change in mood and attitude and could feel myself starting to look at things a little differently.  Perhaps another trip later this week will help a little more?

I took just two lenses.  Nikkor 12-24mm f4 and the Samyang 8mm f3.5 fisheye.  I also took a tripod - always a good idea :-)  The car was parked in Parnell and then I walked up to the University.  There's some lovely old buildings near the University, so I thought that may be a good place to start.  I've been meaning to take photographs of Auckland's old buildings for some time now, and hopefully this year may see the start of that project.  I'll keep you posted!  After a delicious coffee on campus I took refuge from the rain in the library, then headed towards the Old Government House.  I've seen this place before, but never really paid much attention to it.  More fool me!  This building is quite a treasure.  Taking your time provides opportunities to chat to people and observe your surroundings.  According to the gardeners the Queen stayed here with her family and a young Prince Charles played on the lawn you can see in the first image in this post.  It was a no go area for the locals, but that has all changed now and you can go into the building, soak up the atmosphere and get a coffee and muffin should you feel so inclined.  I must admit it brought back memories of Manchester's town hall!

Auckland's Old Government House

The grounds are quite lovely and well worth taking time out and enjoying a wander through.  If you pop over in the next month or two the roses will be in full flower and I can only image what that will look like.  Maybe I'll see you there!!

One of the issues with which I've been frustrated is getting a wide angle shot without distortion.  Part of today's exercise was to use wide angle lenses and then see if, by choice of angle when taking the shot or in post processing I could perhaps remove the distortion in the image.  Besides getting curved verticals, I was also keen to see if I could correct the effect you often see when a building looks like it's falling backwards.  I really wanted verticals to be vertical and parallel, but how much would Capture NX2 or Photoshop let me "correct"? Also, how great an effect did my selected viewpoint have on the image.

Liveview was great for these experiments as I could raise and lower my tripod and change angles of view.  Sometimes there's just nowhere to go and the building looks like it's falling over, but Photoshop does provide a pretty good range of "correction" options.  Shots three and four may give you an idea of my feeble attempts at straightening the shot.  My Camera was on a tripod and I tried to line up my verticals with the left edge of the clock tower.  The effect of this was that other verticals have become less than vertical!  Check out the leaning lamp post for example.  After a quick tweak in Photoshop my verticals look a little better.

University Clock Tower ... original

University Clock Tower ... straightened

I also made a few changes to the first two images (also taken with the Nikkor 12-24mm)  in this post in an attempt to make the verticals vertical.  The next question was how much correction could I achieve with the 8mm Samyang?  I must admit to not holding out much hope, but perhaps let me know what you think?  Shot 5 was taken with the Samyang and isn't too bad from a distortion point of view.  Things look a little odd on the building to the left of the image and I suspect this would be corrected if the camera was raised a little more.  Using the Samyang I find I get easier to correct distortion if I have the horizon smack in the middle of the image ... that is not looking up or looking down onto the subject.  In the fifth shot I'm looking up slightly, hence the greater degree of distortion.

Auckland's Old Government House, 8mm Samyang Fisheye.

I'll leave you with another shot taken with the Nikkor 12-24mm looking towards the clock tower.

Auckland University Clock Tower.

Wenderholm ... again!

Wenderholm.

Looking out of the window at a gloriously blue and cloudless sky I decided to take wifey north of Auckland to see the sea at Wenderholm.  We've been before and you may recall this post from 2009 created after a previous visit?  So, the car was packed and off we set.  Travelling north the feeling that we were leaving the better weather behind was soon made quite apparent with a significant increase in cloud cover.  Never mind, just so long as the clouds don't leak all is fine I thought.  Thankfully we stayed dry throughout the visit to the regional park.

View from atop the cliffs looking down on Wenderholm beach

Light was quite good, but there were some very deep shadows and bright highlights that I decided to bracket all my shots.  I must admit that I didn't take very many as wifey was more interested in a walk than taking photos!  Anyway, on return home I decided the best way to treat the images was with a bit of HDR.  This allows me to get a bit more detail into the clouds and shadowy areas as well as pull back the bright highlights.

The first shot in this post is looking north over the Puhoi River as it heads out to sea camera right.  The car park, incidentally, is just visible at the right of the shot.

As it happens, the second shot in the post is of the Puhoi River as it meets the sea and is just to the right of the previous shot.

It's a lovely place to visit with some very pleasant walks thought the bush for the more active members of the family and very pleasant views from the carpark for the more sedentary among us!  The final shot in this post was taken from the car park just a few steps away from the drivers seat in my car.

Wenderholm car park view!

Diffuser ball

I have this indoor job to do that requires some nice even light in quite a small room.  I've been wondering how to light the scene to avoid harsh shadow and came across this diffuser ball so thought I'd give it a try.  Really it's a largish acrylic ball with an attachment that allows me to mount it on a studio light.

Room lit with a single flash gun and reflector.

After getting it out of the box I attached it to one of my studio lights on a light stand.  I then mounted a flashgun with a reflector to bounce the light around the room on a separate tripod.  I was curious to see the difference in room lighting between the two setups.  You can see a part of my globe in the top right of each shot below.

The first shot in this post is the result of using the flash gun.  Shadows under the table from the stool and chair are quite obvious, and there's a laminated document on the wall to the left of the far window that has unpleasant reflections.  You'll also notice the shadows under the bookcase to the left and, due to the proximity of the flash, a small white box atop the bookcase camera left is blown out.

Room lit with ball diffuser.

The second shot is with my globe (ball diffuser if you'd prefer).  True there are shadows, but they're nowhere near as harsh.  Take a look at that box atop the bookcase.  Look under the bookcase and at the laminated document by the window.  Look also around the ceiling light and compare the differences.  To me it looks more natural and significantly less stark that the first shot.  OK, so I got an unpleasant reflection in the window and there are shadows in the far right corner of the room, but I must admit to being quite delighted with the effect.  Time to take it to a few places now and experiment with my options!!

Gorgeous morning ...

Toitoi.

Mono treatment of today's 85mm lens project shot.

I mentioned in today's 85mm project shot that I'm finding it rather awkward to use the 85mm lens for anything other than portraits.  This morning's shot of the toitoi seems better with the 24mm lens than it does with the 85mm, and my "rule" not to crop or modify the image is proving to be a real constraint.  I suppose if I had less to do during the day it'd be easier, but I don't seem to have the time to be creative with this gorgeous 85mm lens.

So, what a morning!  Very cold last night and a wonderfully clear morning today.  Bright, fresh and crisp.  The toitoi had a wonderful "glow" to them which I've hopefully captured in the first two shots.

Shot 3 is a tight crop of a bee making for the nectar on some lavender at Auckland's Botanic Gardens.  1/2000 second seems to have just about frozen the action.  Not that easy to shoot bees in flight and, to be honest, this shot is more of a fluke than planned!!

Homing in on breakfast.

A gentle stroll

Californian Poppies at Auckland's Botanic Gardens.

Some friends came over earlier today and we ended up at the Botanic Gardens here in Auckland.  I was keen to continue working with as shallow depth of field as possible.  Not easy with a wide angle lens!  The first shot in this post was take with the Nikkor 12-24mm wide open at f4.  The lens was at the long end of the range really to avoid the pathways and other general clutter beyond the flower bed.  Focus and exposure was taken in the centre of the white flower and I must admit to being quite pleased with the sharpness of the image.  The background blur is quite nice I think and I managed to increase this blur effect by getting as close as possible (minimum focus distance) to the white bloom.  Perhaps let me know what you think of the shot.

Strelitzia reginae (bird of paradise)

Shot #2 of a "Bird of Paradise" flower was taken with my 18-200mm zoom lens.  I wanted to get as much of the bloom as possible in the frame and try to accentuate the spiky nature of the plant.  I'm not sure what I think of this shot ... a bit cluttered?  You may recall a shot I took earlier this year of a Strelitzia?  This was much more isolated from the background, but I think I prefer this for being just that bit tighter and closer.

Shot #3, again taken with the 18-200mm lens, and closed down to f11, shows a Telopea flower.  I find these very attractive and fascinating blooms.  The flower seems to lush and colourful, whereas the leaves seems to dry and bland.  Contrasts again!  Perhaps one day I'll do a series on contrasts taking inspiration from Johannes Itten.

Waratah Telopea

I'm impressed

This 12-24mm lens by Nikon is a gem.  I'm very impressed.  Sure, it's not super fast, nor is it razor sharp when it's wide open, but stop it down at bit and it's sweet.  I wasn't sure at first that there was a huge difference when compared to my 18mm lens.  Well, perhaps I should say I wasn't sure the $2000 price tag of the lens was warranted for the difference it presented when compared with my 18mm lens.   Now, after playing with it a bit more, I'm becoming very tempted to get one of my own.  First shot in this post is at 12mm and f11.  It's a single shot HDR image of the lakes at the back of Druces Road in Manukau City.  We've had a fair bit of rain recently so the lakes are full to overflowing and quite still which has allowed me to get some nice reflections.  The wide angle lens also lets me get more sky and clouds which were quite pretty today.

Switching to portrait allowed me to concentrate more on the rather nice Gum Tree and see some more of the reflections in the water.  I mentioned earlier that we've had a lot of rain, hence the rather murky brown water ... but look at the sky!  Believe it or not we had fog earlier this morning so I really wasn't expecting to see what you see in these images.  This second shot is again a single shot HDR image processed in Photomatix Pro.  Perhaps leave a comment and let me know what you think of the shots?

A little to the left is the view you see in the third shot in this post.  Quite a pleasant park area with some lovely trees.

On the way home down Great South Road we tried some shots of St. David's Anglican Church.  This building is a very old timber structure (from 1880?) and I've never managed to get a shot that pleased me.  I'm not sure I've managed yet, but think I'm getting nearer!

 Again an HDR shot for the church and hopefully the warm autumnal colours come through in the image.

So there you go.  Fun with a 12-24mm Nikkor and hopefully you like my efforts.  Perhaps leave a comment and let me know what you think.