Just a thought ...

I was curious, and somewhat intrigued really, but the way our behaviour changes.  When I was much younger, telephone conversations and letters were the way we would often communicate with people out of earshot.  Telephone calls weren't always the most cost effective way of communicating, however.  I can recall international calls costing significantly more than the old aerogrammes.  I also remember that on every holiday we took there'd be the ritual postcard writing session! I suppose these days it's as quick to post things on Facebook, G+ or your Blog ... and it's rather more personal as you took the shot.  Mind you, I still find we buy a few postcards when we visit places.  Often postcard images are taken at times that show the venue off to its best advantage.  Sometimes, however, it's difficult to obtain postcards of the place you're staying. Unless the town is a regular tourist destination the chances are there won't be a postcard for the place.  This makes me think of Frances Frith.  Frances Frith and his team were pioneering Victorian photographers who embarked on the colossal project to photograph as much of Great Britain as possible during the second half of the 19th century.  Many of these photographs remain and the Frances Frith Company is still selling prints of these images from a era long past.

Nathan Homestead, Manurewa, Auckland, New Zealand

I suppose I'd be curious to know if you buy postcards ... and if you do ... why?  Where I live, in South Auckland, there are some quite lovely scenes and locations, but hardly any postcards of this area.  Is this because nobody wants to buy them, or are the margins so small that the various postcard companies only supply the biggest selling images?

"Family" sculpture, Manukau, New Zealand

Perhaps people pass through South Auckland as fast as they can to get to the "famous" places in New Zealand?  If so, then I could well imagine little demand for postcards for any town not on the main tourist routes.  Maybe it's Flickr or Google Maps that people rely on to see "what's there"?  Somehow though, when I look at Mr. Frith's images I can't help feeling we'll be missing something in a few years time.

Wiri, Auckland, New Zealand

New Motorway!

Highway 20, the South Western Motorway, has just been extended from Puhinui Road to Highway 1 at Manukau City.  Today we were allowed to walk the new route, and then later in the day, ride the route on bicycles.  Tonight at midnight the motorway opens, bt only for traffic heading south down highway 20.  The North bound lanes will take a few more weeks to complete.

Weather forecasts indicated rain, but thankfully they were wrong again.  Everyone enjoyed lovely warm sunshine and the walk past areas not normally seen.

Quite a few new bridges have been built ... there's even one over the railway.  One of the other shots in the post shows the Auckland bound train heading away from Wiri and is taken from the new motorway bridge over the railway.

I can imagine the motorway will ease the congestion in the centre of Manukau City.  However, quite what will happen on Highway 1 when it joins to go south I can't imagine.  It's often busy, slow running or even stationary as people head home and this new feed isn't going to help matters!

Image of the train is a single shot HDR processed in Photomatix Pro.  I used the wide angle (12mm) lens to try and get a reasonable amount of sky ... I really liked the shapes of the clouds and HDR seems to accentuate them.  What do you think?

Gloomy :-(

Another gloomy day today.  Ominous clouds promising yet more rain!  The past few days have been pretty wet and looking at the clouds in the images  in this post I reckon there's still plenty more rain to come!

I was on bus duty again today transporting some of the older church members between home and church and was quite taken with some of the building past which we drove.  The sky seemed to lend drama to some of the less attractive buildings we past on our journey, so a return trip with camera was planned for after lunch.  All shots have been processed in Photomatix Pro; I quite like the HDR process to add grit and texture to shots and especially accentuate the clouds.

Oh, if you click on the images you should be able to get an enlarged view.  Perhaps let me know what you think and which you like the best?

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.