A walk with my daughter :-)

Out for a walk at Duder's Regional Park a little earlier today.

I can't say I was feeling the best at the start of the day, so the suggestion that I went for a walk with my daughter seemed a much better idea than working in my office.  We headed off to Duder's Regional Park which is between Clevedon and Maraetai here in South Auckland.

My daughter enjoying the view.

The plan was to take the usual route up the hill to get some views from the high points in the reserve.  However, tempted by a route to a beach, we headed for the water.  As it happened, the tide was out, so we managed to walk right the way around the headland.  It was wonderful.  We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the walk.  We'd always been much higher up looking down at the sea, but now we enjoyed quite different views.

View from the coast as we walked around the headland.

Getting back to the car was rather more of a challenge than we expected.  Some challenging hill climbing was necessary to get back on the track and thankfully neither of us was injured nor was anything dropped.  I must admit that the hill was significantly steeper and higher than we originally thought.  Views from the top were quite special, but as you can see from the photos ... we need rain!

Most of the images may be viewed larger than you see in the post if you click on them.  The first image should go quite large.

My daughter enjoying the view from close by the trig point

View from the trig point.  As you can see ... we need rain!

Looking out toward Kawakawa Bay.  Such lovely blues in both sea and sky.

At the Temple ...

Fo Guang Shan Temple, Flat Bush, Auckland, New Zealand

I'd gone to see the Police's Family Day at the Sir Barry Curtis Park, but it was pretty hot with no shade and I soon decided a change of location would be a good idea!  Just across the road is the Fo Guang Shan Temple which, I have to admit, is a bit of a sanctuary of peace and tranquility.  Plenty of shade and quite a lovely place to just unwind.

There's a number of buildings on the site and I really wanted to take some images that gave the viewer the sense of space inside the complex.  The first shot in this post was taken with a fisheye lens and gives a wonderfully wide view of the place.  The next two shots I've added so you can compare the difference between the fisheye and a 24mm lens which, when I was much younger, was a dream wide angle lens to have in your kit bag!

Fo Guang Shan Temple with a 24mm lens

Fo Guang Shan Temple with an 8mm fisheye lens

I haven't attempted to correct the distortion on either image.  The 24mm shot seems surprisingly free of distortion, but the 8mm lens is very bendy!!  Maybe let me know what you think?

One thing I do find difficult with the fisheye lens is exposure.  I'm not sure if it's because, as the field of view is so large, the difference in light levels within the scene is often greater than my camera can capture with a single shot.  As such I usually bracket the shots (5 with the sun behind me, 7 when shooting into the sun) and then blend them together later.  Each of the fisheye shots above are 5 image blends done with Photomatix Pro.  The 24mm shot is a single shot.

Orford Lodge

Orford Lodge, Manurewa

Quite a surprise to see such a lovely old building amongst the more modern buildings in the Hillpark area of Manurewa.  Built in 1910 by the lawyer Mr. Edward Russell this building carries the name of its 1928 purchaser, the Earl of Orford.  Interesting to note that the Earl of Orford was a descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of England.  Not just an ordinary house then, but one with quite a bit of history associated with the people who have lived here as well as the structure itself!

The grounds to Orford Lodge were quite extensive at over 20 acres and a team of up to nine gardeners would maintain the immaculate grounds.  I'm not sure what happened to the gardens during the war as both the lodge and grounds were used by the US Army.  The gardeners cottage and "garage" was used as the officers' mess and apparently many of the officers' signatures remain on the fireplace.

The attached image to this post is a five shot HDR image processed in Photomatix Pro and then antiquated thanks to Silver Efex Pro.

Car park view.

Carpark rooftop view, Auckland, New Zealand

I must admit that when matters medical arise I prefer to leave.  Today I was required to visit the hospital for a checkup which didn't exactly fill me with glee.  Thankfully, all is good, so the visit was short and sweet.  Just the way I like it!  Parking on the top floor of the hospital carpark afford some rather pleasant views however, so I thought I'd take a few images to share with you folks.

Looking towards Skytower from Auckland's Hospital

I took a fisheye lens with which I must admit to finding exposures awkward.  As a result I usually bracket the shots, and then ... well ... they usually end up being processed in Photomatix Pro.  That's what's happened here.  I often find the clouds look VERY ominous and black with a very heavy and dark feel to them.  Hopefully they're not too bad in these images.

Looking across to the city from the carpark I can't help thinking some night time shots with all the tower blocks illuminated may be a good idea one day.

No tripod today, but plenty of things on which to rest the camera ;-)

Tui shooting again ;-)

On the way to the Botanic Garden's Cherry Trees and Tuis.

Off to the Botanic Gardens again to see the tuis and silver eyes.  I had a really good time yesterday and was hoping to get some good shots today as most folks would be at work instead of disturbing the birds.  Sorry to say I didn't do that well with my photos.

The light was a little awkward and it was rare to get the iridescence that I saw yesterday.  Also the birds seemed pretty frisky and it was really quite difficult to frame them, focus on them and then shoot.  I was using a 70-200mm lens which is pretty quick to focus, but I still came away with quite few blurry masterpieces!  I met a lady there shooting with a 300mm lens and a teleconverter to get in excess of 500mm.  How she focussed that thing I can't imagine!  I had a look through the viewfinder and found it very difficult to even find the bird let alone focus on it!

The first image in this post is a 5 shot HDR blend of a scene in the gardens I pass on the way to the cherry trees.  This was taken with the Samyang 8mm fisheye.  I remain fascinated by this lens as I think it gives quite lovely images very rich in colour and quite detailed.

The place where the birds are!!  Look carefully and you may see a few of the tuis.

The second shot in this post shows the trees where the tuis hang out.  Click on the image to get an enlarged view and the look at the kowhai tree in the centre of the shot and you may be able to pick out a few birds.  The eagle eyed amongst you may be able to spot the odd bird in the cherry tree too.  As you can see from this shot is was a bit on the cloudy side today which made it a little awkward to capture the tui's iridescent plumage.  Perhaps I need to visit again tomorrow.

I'll close this post with a few more images of the tuis.  I think I prefer the images when they're in the yellow kowhai tree, perhaps let me know what you think?

Khuja Bar.

That's right video launch at the Khuja Bar ... ready for the guests to arrive

Great fun at the Khuja Bar in Auckland's CBD.  Wonderful atmosphere for the launch of Jason Eli's music video, "That's Right".  I've tried to find a link to the video, but can't find anything ... sorry.  There's a few photos on Facebook of the folks who attended the launch.  Great fun had by one and all.

Whilst waiting for the guests to arrive I had a chance to look around the venue and was quite taken by the VIP Lounge.  The scene just seemed to cry out for a bit of HDR treatment, so that's what you can see below.  I didn't take a tripod, so a door frame acted as a stabiliser for the camera.  I've also attached the five images used to created the HDR shot you see below ... just for fun.  I think the HDR treatment has worked for the better in this instance ... do you?

5 shot HDR image of the VIP Lounge at the Khuja Bar.

What the camera thought was OK (0EV)

+1EV

+2EV

-1EV

-2EV

Night time HDR

Each time I've come home down Great South Road I've been taken with the sight of the Telstra Clear Pacific Centre and the way it's illuminated.  Tonight I decided to take a tripod and a few shots to see if you think it's as impressive a sight as I think it is.  5 shots, in the order of 20 seconds each, combined in Photomatix to give the effect you see here.  The dots in the sky are stars.

I took a few other shots, not all of them HDR.  The next shot is also a 5 shot HDR image, tajen from a slightly different angle and without any cropping.

The third is just a long exposure of the new junction at Manukau.  I've always liked the streaks from the car headlights in photographs.  Problem tonight was there was hardly anyone about!  I had to watch for the cars to come and set the exposure to 30 seconds to be sure I'd get a few vehicles in the shot.  I suppose that's the problem with living in New Zealand ... there's hardly anybody here ;-)

The last shot was just a bit of fun with the multiple exposure setting on the camera.  I wasn't sure what would happen, but it's not too bad for a first attempt.  Perhaps let me know what you think of the shots in this post?

The waterworks ... cropping

I'm still looking through some old photos and came across this set of bracketed images I took whilst back in the UK.  The shot is of the waterworks close to the Lancashire town of Edgeworth.  Behind me is the Wayoh reservoir that feeds the water works you see in the first shot in this post.  I suppose I was quite taken with the mass of concrete and I quite like the effect HDR has with concrete, but somehow this image just seems to be missing something.  Perhaps there's just too much in the shot and the eye gets confused?  With this in mind I tried a tighter crop ... not of the waterworks, but of the three storey buildings in the hillside opposite; I wanted to retain much of the sky and clouds.

So, what do you think?  Better before, or after the crop?

Into the bush

Fresh air.  Apparently this is what I need to clear my head and feel better.  To be honest, I can't say I felt much better when I got home, but it was quite pleasant in the fresh air this morning.

The first shot in this post is a 5 shot HDR image taken in Totara Park, Manukau City.  I've always felt the place seems more green when I'm there and walking about than it seems when I get home and look at the photographs.  This image, however, seems to give a better impression of the colours and light I thought I saw.

I didn't take a tripod ... well the main reason for the walk was to get some air and clear my mind rather than take photographs ... and the light levels were not that high.  ISO was at 800 and the shutter speed down to 1/4sec.  All I can say is that Photomatix does a good job of aligning the images and Nikon's VR isn't bad for reducing camera shake!  Click on the image to see an enlarged view and perhaps let me know what you think.

On the way home I came across a "Bird of Paradise" flower.  They're quite common in the gardens near where I live, but for some reason this one just stood out as something rather special.  It certainly has the look of a bird's head don't you think?  Single shot image, again processed in Photomatix Pro with a bit of a twiddle in Lightroom to produce what you see here.