A bit more fun ;-)

Hard not to have fun with this stunning piece of glass!

I headed off to Auckland's Botanic Gardens on Saturday morning, set the aperture to f1.4, ISO 200 and aperture priority mode on my D300.  First shot in this post is of a kowhai bloom.  Just look at the way the 85mm lens blurs the background.  Gorgeous!  Well, I think so anyway.  I thought the image was quite sharp considering the lens was wide open.

Second shot in this post was again an attempt to see how the lens blurs the background.  This shot has a couple of kowhai trees in the background in full bloom providing the yellow haze to the pink cherry blossom.  Again, main subject nice and sharp and a lovely smooth blurry background.  This lens really is a gem.

The third shot was taken at f5.6.  It was such a bright day that at ISO 200 and f1.4 1/8000sec wasn't fast enough!  This shot is lovely and crisp and only convinces me more that this is a quality piece of equipment.

Last shot was taken at f16, which is the smallest aperture the lens affords.  Nine aperture blades help with the lovely boken effects I've noticed in previous shots, but now, just look at those highlights and the star burst effects.  Dream lens?  I suspect you know what I think.

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!

A walk to The Gardens

I've been on leave from work for a few days and have been decorating parts of the house that have been looking somewhat depressed for a while.  I've also been looking at photographic opportunities.  I'll keep you posted with "developments".

With photography in mind rather than paint and masking tape, I set off to Auckland's Botanic Gardens.  There's always something good to see at The Gardens, and this evening was no exception.

Many of the plants have finished flowering and are now going to seed as we progress through autumn.  There are exceptions though and the evening light helps accentuate the warm colours of the blooms.  Particularly pretty are the hibiscus.  We've had a bit of rain recently which has damaged a few of the blooms.  The second bloom in this post, however, seems to have escaped damage.

Besides flowers there were fungi and ferns ... as well as weeds!  Haha!  Even in the botanic gardens there's the odd weed.