Twospined spider

The idea was to visit the gardens to see what they'd planted under their hibiscus.  We've an area that we've just started to plant and thought hibiscus could be good, but what to plant with them?  Where better to get ideas than Auckland's Botanic Gardens?

Armed withe camera and 50mm lens off we set.  Close by the carpark we noticed a rather strange "growth" on a leaf.  The growth turned out to be a Twospined Spider.  Apparently, these spiders arrived in New Zealand from their native Australia about 30 or so years ago.  No one seems to know how they got here, but they seem like they're here to stay.  The female is the most colourful of the two genders and also has the ability to change colour.

Not being sure what was sitting under the leaf we decided to give it a prod with a stick.  The spider slowly lifted its body to reveal its legs and then stood up, turned so we could see its rather strange body shape, then sat down again just where it had been before the prod.  Check here for a triptych of the spider.

Very cute.  Amazing what you see when you carry a camera with you.

Oh, the hibiscus?  Well, it seems that they've planted all manner of plants with them.  Bromeliads, ferns, palms pretty well anything!

Trains are off!

Thought you'd take the train to Auckland?  Think again.  Until the 17th January no trains will enter Auckland via Remuera as the tracks have been removed.  As you can see from the image to the left, some of the rails have been lifted and placed on the platform.  Just like playing with a toy train set!

Quite amazing that you can lose one of the main rail routes into the largest city in the country whilst they lower the tracks in preparation for electrification of the network.  I suspect this disruption is just the start of many over the next year or so as preparations get under way for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Both lines have been lifted as you can see from the image below.

Walking home

Walking home, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

It was a lovely evening. I was sure there was going to be a sunset so headed to a place where I'd get good views. I was there ready, but the sky didn't seem to be doing anything worthwhile so I set off home. Walking down the hill the sky became quite dramatic, and I was now in the wrong place! Instead of atop the hill wit great views I was on the street surrounded by houses! The shot in this post is the best I could do at the time. Nine shot HDR processed in Photomatix Pro.

Next time, I'll wait for it to go dark before I leave my viewpoint :-)

Morning at Omana

Morning at Omana, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

Boxing Day in New Zealand; I still can't get used to having it warm and sunny at Christmas after years of being cold and wet back in the UK. I'm not complaining you understand, it's just that it doesn't really feel like Christmas to me.

A morning walk took us to one of South Auckland's beaches. The sun was quite harsh and very bright. As you can see from the shot above most of the colour seems to have been bleached out of the image. The images in the post are unprocessed ... just a bit of a crop.

It was surprisingly quiet and peaceful; I suspect a lot of people headed to the malls to take advantage of the Boxing Day sales. I have to say, I was delighted they did as the morning walk was quite lovely.  Heading along the coast past Maraetai we came to Duder's Beach from where we could see the Coromandel Penninsular in the distance and some cormorants drying their wings closer to shore.

I was a little concerned about the images so took several at 1 stop intervals to process in Photomatix Pro as HDR images. To have a squiz at a couple of these check here and here.  I quite like the flare in the second of these two images as it seems to point to the boy on the beach; almost a sci-fi type feel to things!  Let me know what you think.

Less is more?

Yellow Flower, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

I can recall in the days of Kodachrome there was no opportunity for the average photographer to make changes to the image after it had been shot. Everything happened in camera, and there wasn't an awful lot you could do there either. Composition, depth of field and shutter speed were pretty well all you had to play with and, of course, a choice of focal lens if you had an SLR.

Now we can make all manner of changes very easily. We can also take hundreds of shots without the hassle of changing films, labeling them appropriately and then processing them ... or in the case of Kodachrome, posting them and then waiting a week or more for the results to come back. I can recall taking shots in Jordan back in 1978 and not seeing my results until 1979! Now I can see them instantly on the camera's rear LCD.

So, what about going back to basics. Forget photo manipulation software and concentrate on getting it right when you press the shutter. I'm not saying never use the software, but just try to take an image or two with the expectation that the software won't be required.

With this in mind I wandered around my back yard. The image at the start of this post is a crop of the image below.

No post processing save for a crop, and I'm not sure the crop has benefitted the image if truth be told.  This second image plays on the use of a diagonal linking the two flowers and perhaps has more interest than the first that merely places the centre of the flower on an intersection of thirds.  The second image was what I saw in the camera (click on the image to see it a little larger).  What do you think? Perhaps leave a comment below.

Bottom Lake (6 am)

Bottom Lake (6 am), originally uploaded by nzcjs.

Take a shot at 6am. This is the challenge. Not sure for how long I'll be able to do this, or how frequently. The idea came from Paul Smart of Maxam Photography. As I'm usually up and about close to 6am I thought this'd be a breeze. Yeah, right!

Yesterday's attempt failed miserably as I was so tired and just couldn't leave the cosiness of my bed. Today, however, I faired a bit better.

I rose at 5.30am and set some bread cooking. I'd had an idea of capturing some joggers running through Totara Park, but after getting the bread going I was a tad late. The sun was already up, but not too bright and some street lights were still lit. Realising that I wasn't going to get the joggers at 6am I started to shoot anything on the way that looked vaguely interesting.  I was taken by the reflection of the street light on the wet road ... better get something before it get's too late and I miss 6am again!

Crossing the motorway it struck me that you may like to see Auckland's traffic at 6am on one of the country's main state highways leading into the country's largest conurbation. State highway one just south of Manukau City.  Trust me, it's not normally like this!  Perhaps the annual exodus from Auckland has started early this year as people depart for their holidays.

At last I reached the bottom lake at the Botanical Gardens and thought this could be the place for the first shot. The water was very still and the clouds looked like an HDR shot could work.   This is the image at the start of this post.  A five shot HDR processed with default settings in Photomatix Pro.  (I didn't have time to do anything else and it looked pretty good.  Problems at work meant I had to head off to the office).

After taking my five shots for the HDR image I was looking at the water and noticed a few insects causing the odd ripple. Then I started to get wet! Typical Paul D Smart! Jinxed by the British project with British weather!

I may try another 6am shot next week. Let me know what you think of the images in this post.

Oh, on the way home I noticed Santa, rather worse for wear.  Somewhat deflated you might say :-)

 Comments, if you have any, below ...

University Clock Tower

University Clock Tower, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

We made a trip in to Auckland City today and enjoyed some glorious sunny weather. Albert Park was a blaze of colour and quite a few folks seemed to be enjoying the summer weather. It's starting to warm up a bit now!

The image above is of the University Clock Tower taken from the top floor of the Library. Quite a lovely building and inside it's just as nice. You may remember this shot of the spiral staircases I took last year?

On the way home we managed to get to the top of Mount Wellington where we enjoyed some quite spectacular 360 degree views of Auckland and its surroundings.  Below is the view towards Panmure.

Otahuhu Sunset

Otahuhu, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

Regular trips along the Southern Motorway heading north have presented lovely views over the estuary to the west. The clouds have been wonderful, but never have I had a chance to stop and take a photo. Monday night I had a chance. Not much time, and truth be told I made a complete hash of taking the shot! 50mm lens, and everything set manual. I was really looking for a multi-shot HDR image, but failed dismally on that score. The image you see is a single shot image (the best of the five). I noticed flare more prominent on some of the brighter images, so settled for a single shot picture. The colours aren't fake ... this is just as it was.

The dark area is probably best left as it is as it disguises the houses, roads and traffic signs! The water, I think, looks lovely. What do you think?

Friendly Trees

I'd seen these trees on numerous occasions as I'd walked through the bush in Totara Park, but never quite worked out how to take a picture so you'd see just how friendly the trees really are.  This image is a 5 shot Hugin stitch that has then been processed in PhotoMatix Pro as an HDR in an attempt to lighten the foliage and give more definition to the tree trunks.

The tree to the left has some odd shapes in the lower part of its trunk ... make you wonder what was going on when it was a sapling.  Now look up the tree and you'll note that its wrapped a branch or two around its neighbour.

As far as I can tell, both trees are alive and well and probably benefit from the added stability two sets of roots provide!

Hundreds of illumated balls

Hundreds of illumated balls, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand is home to one of the Telecom Trees. It's a cone of light that is constantly changing colours. The cone at the top opens and closes to show a star shape or complete the conic shape of the tree. It's quite wonderful.


Bean bags are provided for you to sit or lie underneath the tree and gaze up to better enjoy the light show.

The balls of light are constantly changing both colour and intensity to provide a variety of effects so those bean bags are really quite handy.  The image to the left shows the balls.  All the colours of the rainbow appear and it's quite impressive.

I didn't take a tripod as I thought it'd just get in the way; there's quite a few people milling around and admiring the tree.  I used my 18-200mm zoom and set the camera to ISO 800.  I had no idea what to expect and this zoom lens is a great "jack of all trades" and avoids the need to carry lots of lenses.

There's a few more pictures of the tree here, here and here.

So, if you're anywhere near Ponsonby ... and it's dark, I'd recommend you check it out.

Bizzy Bokeh

BizzyBokeh, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

It's Christmas and I was quite pleased with my previous Christmas bokeh attempt. I wanted to try some different cutouts, so sent wifey off to the shops to get some nice black card and then raided my daughter's scrapbooking tools. I found a rather nice snowflake punch.

I used the Canon Photo5 bokeh hood as a template, then created a new cutout from my daughter's punch. The light is all wrong for doing the Christmas tree, but there was some nice light coming through the trees in the back yard. Desperate to try out my new hood I set off without tripod in an attempt to get a shot.

Auto-focus gets very confused with the hood over the lens and with the lens wide open focussing became a challenge ... especially as I was in an awkward position to get some nice highlights. Focus is on the rightmost flower, and as the depth of field is so shallow that's about the only thing that is vaguely focussed. The highlights haven't come out too bad though. Just waiting for it to go dark now then I can play with the lights on the tree.

I didn't post this for any other reason than to encourage whoever reads this to have a go with different shaped cutouts in a bokeh good.  Great fun and you can get some quite lovely effects.

Just for fun I took another bokeh image from the backyard and then had a bit of a play with hdr.  What do you think?

Lots of little shells

Lots of little shells, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

I usually walk all over these little shells on the way to something "more important". Bearing in mind my previous post, time to look at what you're racing past, there's often something of beauty or interest right underneath your feet. What do you think. Should I have kept on walking, or was it worthwhile stopping and taking a shot?

Your own backyard

I was talking with a friend recently about photographs.  We both enjoy using our camera to capture images, but we thought that a lot of the pleasure was in finding the picture in the first place.  This didn't involve driving for miles or international travel, it just required time to look.  Take the time to look; don't glance at things, but examine and carefully observe the scene and objects.  You have the opportunity to re-visit local places quite regularly and take advantage of a variety of lighting conditions that a casual visitor will miss.  The image above, for example, was taken whilst on a walk from my home.  I'm not claiming it's an award winning shot, but it's pleasant and one that'd be easily overlooked as it's so close to home.  It's also one you'd consider taking if the scene was close to your hotel as you'd have your camera in your hand.  Here's a few more images from places I'd call local.
So, with this in mind I thought I'd venture into Auckland City with camera in hand and try to view (and photograph of course) things differently.  I'll keep posting my efforts and, as always, you can comment on my efforts and ideas.  Perhaps even make suggestions of places I should visit?

Biker at the beach

Biker at the beach, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

I heard it first and what a glorious noise it made as it arrived at the beach. It gleamed; so highly polished and its colours were all shades of silver and grey. A wonderful machine.

The image was taken some time ago, but I wasn't impressed. I decided a desaturated look might give a nice effect, but first I processed the image in Photomatix Pro from -4, -2, 0 and +2 EV images taken from the original. Back in Lightroom I then desaturated the image and cropped it slightly to arrive at what you see here.
To see the image a little larger, and on white click here.
Comments, as always, are most welcome. That's the only way I'll learn, right?

A spot of fishing

A spot of fishing, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

This images was taken the best part of a year ago and I have to say I was quite pleased with my efforts at the time. The unfortunate thing was that there didn't seem to be much "kick" in the image and it was a truely gorgeous day. Here's the original shot.

I alway try to shoot raw (interesting article here btw) and so I thought I'd try a bit of HDR on the image. The colours may seem a bit vivid, but the sea was quite stunning on the day and the hillside opposite seems more as my memory remembers it.

Three shots created from the original in Lightroom with EV values -2. 0 and +2. These were then processed in Photomatix Pro and the result is as you see.

An improvement? Perhaps. You be the judge :-)

One Tree Hill HDR Sunset

One Tree Hill HDR Sunset, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

I'd wanted to get to the top of Mount Wellington, but time wasn't on my side. All the way to Panmure the sky looked glorious, but there was nowhere to stop. I was convinced that atop Mount Wellington I'd get spectacular views of the sun setting and the clouds. It wasn't to be.

Close to Sacred Heart College though I could stop and get a shot or two. The sun's rays were quite special and this 9 shot HDR image processed in Photomatix Pro highlights them reasonably well. Again, typically, I forgot the tripod ... desperate to travel light, but also plain late leaving home! Thankfully I could rest the camera on the trig point so the images line up pretty well.

More of my HDR shots are here, and if you want to know more about HDR I'd suggest you have a squiz here.

A bit of fun

I've been trying to get to grips with my 50mm prime lens to see how it performs at different apertures and how capable I am at holding it steady at different shutter speeds. I'm not convinced my hands are as steady as they once were, or perhaps I've just become accustomed to VR? Using the 50mm lens made me think of doing the 50 shots in 50 days with a 50mm lens challenge. I'm still thinking. Do I modify the images, or do 50 uncropped, unprocessed images for 50 days? This seems like a good challenge!

Anyway, with this in my mind I've been using the 50mm lens exclusively. It's surprising how much more you move to get a shot instead of zooming in or out. It takes me back to the late '70s when I bought my Pentax MX and a 50mm f1.7 lens. I thought it was wonderful ... truth be known I still do and still have it in perfect working order. I'm finding my eyes aren't as good as they used to be, but still relish using manual focus. The lens is sharp and a delight to use, but there are limitations and presently I think they're all to do with me! I suspect a bit more familiarity of the lens is required before I'm ready to do the challenge.

Whilst I ponder the challenge and perhaps a new blog to track my endeavours I'll post a few sample shots from the 50mm lens (these are all on flickr btw). Top to bottom we have a single shot HDR at Panmure Station, Bougainvillea in our back yard and a sunset at Auckland's Botanic Gardens. The horizontal lines just under the sunset are the power lines. Interesting how Photomatix seems to have shaded the gaps.

Any tips, tricks or hints regarding the 50mm challenge would be most welcome :-)

Christmas nutcracker

Christmas nutcracker, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

A 50mm lens that opens quite wide and lots of lights on the Christmas tree was inspiration to play with Bokeh hoods again. One of the decorations, a soldier nutcracker, was selected as a foreground subject and the camera mounted on the tripod (which really needs updating! It's a cheap Bilora model but it cost me a fortune back in 1979 when I bought it in Amman, Jordan).

I needed the lights to be out of focus, so a shallow depth of field was selected (lens wide open) and then focussed on the soldier with him as close as possible to the lens (this made the depth of field even shallower). A couple of shots were then tried to see if the lights came out as stars, which they did, but the soldier was not illuminated very well.

As I'd just got the tree out of the loft I had my flashlight handy, so a gentle indirect light was placed on the soldier. Spot exposure on the soldier's face then gave the result you see above.

The bokeh hood is the one supplied by Canon in their Photo5 competition earlier this year. You may recall I had a go with hoods last month? Great fun, and well worth trying especially at this time of year when you may have time to spare and there's lots of lights about!

If you like the image, have any comments or suggestions please let me know.

Wenderholm

Wenderholm, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

North of Auckland is a lovely place called Wenderholm. Earlier this year we were fortunate to enjoy some lovely weather as we visited the park. There's bush walks, beach walks and estuary walks. Depending on the time of year it can be pleasantly peaceful or boisterously busy. When we went it was peaceful.


The camera was new, and I took many shots , a few of which I've saved here. Looking back at the images I couldn't help feeling with a bit of a tweak some of my less favourite shots could be improved with a bit of hdr. This particular shot started off like this.
I think you'll agree has detail lacking in the clouds. Surprising to me was that detail had not been lost in what appear to be blown out highlights. Perhaps that's the advantage of shooting RAW? You may also notice extra detail and texture in the sand (or mud).
So, this shot lives another day. Perhaps it will end up in the bin shortly, but for now I'm intrigued by the detail hidden in those clouds in the original image.

Comments anyone?

HDR ponga

HDR ponga, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

Pretty heavy crop of some ponga leaves illuminated by the setting sun in an otherwise shady part of Auckland's Botanical Gardens. Using Lightroom I made a few other images at -3, -2, -1 and 0 EV and then combined these in Photomatix Pro to get the image you see. Not really sure what I think of this one.
Do you like it, or have any suggestions for improvement?

Sunlit grass seedhead

Sunlit grass seedhead, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

I've seen this hill/hillock near some sports fields that has a trig point atop. Each time I've visited the sports fields I've wondered what type of view you'd get from the top. Never having had sufficient time to climb the hill before it was time to leave the sports fields the mystery has remained ... until last night.

With spare time I managed to climb the hill and enjoy quite lovely views out to Rangitoto Island and One Tree Hill. Also, on this particular night the sun was setting and giving a lovely orange glow. There were clumps of grasses atop the hill, so by lying down amongst the grasses I could see some grass heads beautifully backlit by the setting sun. That's what I tried to capture in the image you see here. 200mm lens, ISO 200, 1/400s and f8.

Check out the flickr links above and let me know if you prefer on white ... or black.

Remember I mentioned views of One Tree Hill. There's also a shot of that here.

Early morning at Pohara

Early morning at Pohara, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

Quite interesting that what appear to be rather bland shots can, with a bit of HDR, become quite engaging. This particular image had no drama in it at all until a -2, 0 +2 EV set was processed via Photomatix Pro. The clouds have come out quite nicely I think. Perhaps a bit dark, perhaps not? Maybe you have an opinion?

Pole unstitched

Pole unstitched, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

I took a few other shots whilst at the Telstra Clear Pacifica Centre. I've tried an HDR from a single shot on a few of them. The "totem pole" is an ideal candidate especially as the clouds are so dramatic. I;m not sure what I think of this image. Over the top perhaps? I've tried to modify things again in Photomatix Pro, but can't say I like any of the results more that the first attempt above. What do you think? A friend, who's judgment I respect, suggest the clouds are too grainy. All comments welcome :-)

Telstra Clear Pacifica Centre

TelstraClear, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

There's a few interesting objects close to Manukau City's Telstra Clear Pacifica Centre. One of these objects is the large Maori carving. This is the tallest in the world and is quite impressive. The problem is that to get it all in without seeing the traffic on the motorway, electricity pylons or other modern day artifacts means you need a wide angle lens, but then the carving curves due to the lens's focal length. Furthermore, the stone carvings either side of the main carving are often missed.

The answer was a stitch! Five images were taken with an 18mm lens on a 1.5 crop factor DX format digital camera then stitched with Hugin software. This software is VERY impressive and worth investigating.

After playing around in Hugin I imported the resultant composite image (weighing in, believe it or not, at just over 800MB) to Adobe Lightroom. I cropped the image, then saved three TIFF images at -2, 0 and +2 EV to import into Photomatix Pro. Even before I arrived at Telstra Clear I was taken with the clouds and I thought I'd get a bit more drama into the image with a bit of HDR. the end result is as you see. Do you like it? Comments are welcome :-)

Waterfall at Wainui

Waterfall, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

A short walk uphill and over a "wobbly" swing bridge leads you to this wonderful waterfall. The vegetation is quite dark, but the waterfall brilliant white. The problem is that you either overexpose the waterfall, or underexpose the foliage. What's the trick to getting a good image in a a situation like this?

Workman's hut

Workman's hut, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

I was really quite taken with this little "bothy" or workman's hut up near the entrance to Pupu Springs near Takaka, New Zealand. I've been quite intrigued with single image HDRs and thought this image may be an ideal candidate for a trial. Perhaps let me know what you think?

The original image was taken RAW and then two other images created from it using Nikon's NX2 at -2 and +2 stops exposure differences to give me three shots. These three shots were then aggregated in Photomatix Pro and twiddled a little in an attempt to increase the contrasts in the weatherboards on the hut.

All that seemed to happen was the skies became more dramatic and the colours in the foliage rather more intense. Overall I don't think it's that bad, but you may think otherwise? It's certainly a more interesting image than the original!

Why try a single image HDR? I suppose one of the issues I'd had was my inability to select scenes that remained static whilst I made my 5, 7 or 9 shots. The wind invariably moved the trees and bushes, people, vehicles or birds moved which all contributed to a muddy, out of focus imprecise image. Not the best really. So far I've been quite pleased - I wonder whether I'm better using RAW instead of JPEG, but I'll play with that and see what happens. You may have a comment on the relative benefits of RAM over JPEG in HDR images.

The image below was taken on Mount Roberts near St. Arnaud on a breezy day. There's considerable movement in the grass and leaves which leads to a poorly focussed image. Then again, you may like the effect?