Stoked!

Gorgeous colours at Auckland's Botanic Gardens

Or perhaps delighted is a better description.  I took a gentle stroll around Auckland's Botanic Gardens a little earlier and they really are quite lovely presently.  We're heading into summer here in New Zealand and there's some quite wonderful colours on display.  I'm still coming to terms with a new lens and wanted to see how it performed at different apertures.  I'm curious about it's background blur and also how sharp it is when wide open.  I really like to open up the lens to reduce depth of field to emphasise the subject in the image where ever possible, and thankfully this lens seems to behave rather well.  As is happens, the first shot in this post of some mesembryanthemums was taken at f5.6 in an attempt to get more than the odd bloom in focus!

Kniphofia at f2.8

The second shot was taken with the lens wide open at f2.8.  the colours were so rich and vibrant; makes me think of Kodachrome!  At the end of this post there's a couple more images taken from a less pleasing vantage point using f2.8 and f22, just to see how much I can get in focus at the extremes of the lens's aperture range.

Still on the theme of Kniphofia led to shot three.  Here the lens was wide open again and the rather curiously shaped tree used as a backdrop to the blooms.  You can see from this shot a little vignetting and also just how blue the sky was today for us here in Auckland!

Oh well, time to get out in the sunshine again methinks, don't forget to click on the images to look at a larger version of the shot ;-)

Kniphofia again ... still at f2.8

Lens closed down ... f22, just to see how much I could keep in focus.

Lens wide open ... f2.8, just to see how little I could keep in focus :-)

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?

Shooting birds!

Off to the Botanic Gardens here in Auckland armed with a tripod and a 70-200mm zoom lens hoping that I might see some tuis in the cherry blossom and be able to capture them with my camera. I can't say that I find these birds the easiest to capture.  They tend to flit about the tree quite quickly and usually end up with a branch or a flower in the way.

Anyway, I tried a few shots that I've posted for your amusement.  I think I'll go back again later this week and try and do a better job.

The yellow flower, by the way, is a kowhai tree.  One of NZ's native trees.  Kowhai is also the Maori word for yellow.

I hope you enjoy the photos ... perhaps let me know what you think?

Ah, this isn't a tui!  This is a Silver-eye :-)

Some new glass :-)

Ligularia in flower at Auckland's Botanic Gardens

I'd been taking some shots for a friend where a wide angle lens was required.  I was using a 12mm focal length lens on my cropped sensor D300 and whilst looking OK, the shots didn't have the impact I was looking for that a seriously wide angle lens could provide.  I'd also noticed some quite stunning shots by Pawel Tomaszewicz and thought I should get something wider than 12mm.  After pondering for some time I bought the Samyang 8mm f3.5.  The lens requires manual focussing and use of the aperture ring rather than the wheel on the camera body.

My desk with 12mm lens

But just how much of a difference is there between the 12mm lens and the 8mm lens?  I suppose I was expecting a much larger field of view, and as the lens is sold as a fisheye, quite a bit of distortion.  The first shot in this post was taken with the 8mm Samyang and doesn't look too bad.  The main problem I was having in this shot was the light.  The sky was quite bright, even though overcast, and the foreground somewhat in shadow.  as such, this image is a blend of five shots taken at 1EV intervals.  Distortion is definitely there, but the shot isn't overwhelmed by its presence.  The bamboo to the right of the image should be vertical, but its leaning into the shot adds to the shot rather than detract from it.

OK, but just how much more can you get in the shot with 8mm instead of 12mm?  I set up my tripod next to my desk and took two shots from the same position, one with a 12mm lens, the other with 8mm.  Quite a difference don't you think?  What's more, in this shot the distortion is rather more apparent than in the first image in the post.

My desk with 8mm lens

The computer screen and window frame are seriously bent in the 8mm image, whereas are surprisingly straight in the 12mm shot.  But just look hoe much more "stuff" you can get into the frame, and it's reasonably sharp as you look to the edges of the image.

Quite a fun lens with heaps of potential for creating quite striking shots.  Maybe take a look at Pawel's images and you may find yourself becoming inspired to get a fisheye lens yourself ;-)

Off to the Gardens with the 85mm

Auckland's Botanic Gardens have some lovely blooms on display right now and really are worth a visit if you're in the area.  I headed off there earlier today to get a shot for my 85@85 project.  I can't say as I'm finding it easy to think of shots I can get for the project and I have 83 days to go still!!

I started walking up from the Everglade end of the gardens and was really taken by the wonderful Hibiscus blooms on show.  There's quite a variety of colours and shapes to see.  I've just posted one shot of a very vivid bloom.  Gorgeous flower, but not one I wanted to use for my 85@85 project.

I suppose I was looking for something a little different.  Something more abstract and "arty".  I'm sorry to say this doesn't come naturally to me, but I was quite taken with the light on the Ligularia leaves you can see in the second shot.  Then the brick footpath into the herb garden caught my eye.  Lovely textures and patterns and the way the sunlight bit the brick was quite lovely.  Almost a monochrome effect as you can see in shot number 3.

I still needed a shot for my 85@85 project, but these weren't the ones.  Neither was the image of the autumn leaves, although I must admit I rather like this shot.  The leaves are pretty damaged, but the colours are quite special.  Curious which image I used and why?  Take a squiz here ;-)

Gorgeous Hibiscus Blooms.  Unbelievably vivid in colour.

Wonderful light on these Ligularia leaves.

The footpath.  For some obscure reason I quite liked the shapes!

Liquid Amber leaves again.  Autumn is upon us!

Monochrome ... for a change :-)

Lupins

Thankfully I'm starting to feel more normal again after this dreadful chest infection.  Still not 100%, but certainly on the mend now.  In an attempt to feel less nauseous I headed off to the Botanic Gardens for a breath of fresh air.  Oh, and I took my camera ... just in case there was something nice to see.

The first thing to catch my eye were the lupins.  I've always liked their leaves.  Great textures and patterns that I think are perhaps best captured with a monochrome treatment.

After the lupins I headed down towards the lake where there was this gorgeous tree with some quite stunning cones.  I;m afraid I don't know the name of the tree, but if you do, please let me know.  Again, a monochrome treatment with a light vignette ... sounds like a salad!  The shots have a bit of an old style look to them which I must admit to quite liking.  Perhaps let me know what you think?

Improving?

Metrosideros at the Botanic Gardens

Well, my cough and chest infection seem to be improving and breathing is getting easier, but  the drugs make me nauseous.  Just can't win!  Anyway, I thought a bit of fresh air might help me feel better so I went for a gentle stroll to the Botanic Gardens.

Quite a pleasant day here today in Auckland with lovely blue skies.  I took my camera, but wasn't really in the mood for taking pictures, though I did manage a couple that I'll share with you in this post.

First shot was taken close by the visitor's centre and shows the very pretty metrosideros tree in bloom. The metrosideros is often referred to as the New Zealand Christmas tree, so either this particular tree is very early or it's not the NZ Christmas tree!

The next two shots are of a Rosa and something about which I know nothing!  If you do perhaps let me know?

Rosa at the Botanic Gardens

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

Garden shots

Early morning light walking through the bush on the way to the Botanical Gardens.  It was really quite dark and I suspect you only really get the best effect when you see the image REALLY big.  It was the rays of sunlight passing through the upper canopy and the way it illuminated the ferns and palms that really caught my eye.  If you click on the image you'll see it a little larger.

Exposure was 1/5 sec, f11 and ISO 200.  Didn't take a tripod so this is a handheld shot (well I did support myself on a tree trunk) Nevertheless I think you'll agree Nikon's VR is pretty good!

I took seven shots with the intention of either merging them into an HDR image or picking what I thought was the best in the bracketed set.  As it happens I wasn't impressed with the 7 shots merged so selected the single shot closest to what I could remember and pushed this image through Photomatix Pro.  Perhaps let me know what you think.

I suppose I was quite taken with "light" today and how it changed the appearance of objects when the sun was behind, or in front of the camera.  The next two shots illustrate the different effects of shooting into the sun, or with the sun behind you.  I can recall being told to always keep the sun behind me when shooting, but I really quite like the effect of shooting into the sun.  Perhaps let me know which you prefer?

The last shots in this post are of some fern koru.  Today was glorious ... a wonderful sunny clear blue sky day and the unfolding koru on the ferns against the blue sky was just stunning ... well I thought so anyway!

Caught in the rain

Walking off to the Botanic Gardens was seen as a way to clear my head.  I keep suffering from headaches, so a gentle stroll off to the Gardens was considered a possible remedy.  A bit of fresh air, some gentle exercise ... Sadly it hasn't worked, but I managed a few photos I thought you might like.

The first shot was taken outside the Visitor Centre at Auckland's Botanic Gardens.  As you approach the visitor centre there's three "manufactured" palm to the left of the entrance that you can see in the image above.  On the right of the entrance there's some natural palms.  Quite a nice contrast, but today I was quite taken with the man made palms.  Steely blue came to mind, hence the tones and colours you seen in the image.  I left the more curvy twiggy bits top right to support the curvy contrast of the wall.  Perhaps let me now what you think of the image.

Second shot in this post was taken in the herb garden.  I was playing with my 50mm lens and enjoying the shallow depth of field achievable when the lens is opened up a bit.  I'm not sure what the flower is, bit it seemed quite pretty.  I wanted to get the small blooms in focus on a diagonal but get a buttery bokeh effect of some greens behind the flowers.  Lightroom was used to pull back the white flowers.  Quite a bit of contrast in this shot and I wanted detail in each of the flowers without making the background too dark.  A pleasing image?  Perhaps let me know what you think.

Something you may have noticed that intrigues me is the way rain drops sit on foliage.  During today;s walk I was really spoilt for choice as I got caught in a rain shower.  There was rain drops everywhere!  Anyway, a couple of my favourite shots from today are images three and four in this post.

Curious ...

Mushroom sprouting at Totara Park, Manukau City.

Not so long ago I went to a seminar given by a well known photographer.  He presented a range of his images taken over many years and then started to ask a few questions of the audience.  One question that intrigued me was, "how many of your photographs do you print?"  This was quickly followed by, "when you do print your photographs, how large are the prints?".  It's not that long ago that pretty well all the photographs you took were printed ... and you got a new film thrown in when you collected your prints so you could create yet more prints!

Cactus at Auckland's Botanic Gardens.

At the time, I didn't pay much attention to these questions as the audience's response led the presenter to suggest shooting RAW at a high resolution was unnecessary.  I've always shot at the highest quality possible as  once the moment had passed there was no way I could repeat the shot so I did the best I could with the equipment and resources at hand.

Anyway, back to the first two questions.  I hardly print any of my images ...  and I take considerably more photographs now than I ever did when using film.  Some of my photographs come here on the blog for folks to see, others are saved to DVDs and then sent to family and friends so they can see them on their TVs, whereas others go to Flickr or other websites where they may be critiqued by fellow enthusiasts.

So, a question for you.  Do you print your photographs, and if you do, at what size?  I'd also be intrigued to know whether you'd buy somebody else's photograph and, if you would, why?  Haha!  Perhaps you'd buy some of mine :)

Succulent at Auckland's Botanic Gardens. 

Anyway, whilst pondering these thoughts I headed off for a walk to Totara Park ... a friend mentioned there was a lot of toadstools that may be worth a look.  It started off well, bu then the rains came.  I got a few shots ... but nothing with which I was pleased really.  The first shot in this post intrigued me.  Many of the toadstools were already sprouted and looking like toadstools, or they'd been partially devoured by slugs or other hungry creatures.  This wee white toadstool, however, was just emerging from the ground.  f2.8 allowed me to get a shallow depth of field and separate the emerging toadstool from the cluttered background.  The second shot is of a cactus at the Botanic Gardens.  I quite liked the spines ... hence the shot.  Final shot is a tight crop of a succulent, again at the gardens.  I really liked the spiral effect, water droplets from the earlier rain and the colours in the "leaves".

So, let me ask you something else.  Do you like the shots?  If you had a camera with you, would you take similar images?  If you did ... would you print them?

A bit late :-(

Another walk around the Botanic Gardens this evening, but late setting off again.  There always seems to be something getting in the way and causing delays.  Anyway, another fine evening, although I was expecting rain.  As it happens there were some lovely clouds adding a lot of interest to the sky.  The shot in this post is taken from close to the visitor centre with a wide angle lens.  The shot is a 7 shot HDR image processed in Photomatix Pro.  Weather permitting I'll try to get to the gardens a little earlier tomorrow and try to get some shots before the sun sets!  In the meantime perhaps let me know what you think of today's effort.

At the gardens ...

Pretty tired after work today and, after the gloomy day we had yesterday, I was quite surprised with the clear blue sky when I arrived home.  Time for a stroll around Auckland's Botanic Gardens; get a bit of fresh air and enjoy the onset of spring.

The first shot in this post was taken this evening from one of my favourite vantage points at the Botanic Gardens.  The second shot in the post is a shot you may remember I took early one morning back in July 2004 with a little Canon A70.  If memory serves me it was a little frosty that morning!  Not at all frosty this evening; lovely and warm with well saturated colours from the setting sun.

Ah well, enough reminiscing for one post!  After visiting the lower lake we headed up towards the cherry tree avenue.  It was lovely!  Unfortunately, by the time I got there the sun was pretty low in the sky making the shot I wanted very awkward to achieve.  My best effort is the third image in the post.  What do you think?