Maraetai | Christopher John Photography

February 21, 2016

Just a couple of shots …

Well, not much chance to get out and take photos today. I must have picked up a bug or something ‘cos I’ve been sneezing all day. Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow as I have heaps to do this week. With no new photos to play with I decided to look over a couple of shots taken over the past couple of days. Some of you may have heard that I recently made the move to Photoshop CC. I’ve been quite happy with CS5.1, but felt the time had come to get a little more current, so I “upgraded” earlier this week. I suspect, however, I’ll stick with CS5.1 for any pressing tasks as I’m still finding my way around the newer applications.

Playing with a couple of images in both Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC though has been interesting. I quite like the variety of crop overlays available now, and the Camera Raw options seem a little different to what I had before. Quite a bit to play with before I’m as happy with these new version as I was with the older release!

Below are two images that may amuse you. The first is of an old homestead close to Te Puru Park on the road between Beachlands and Maraetai. Quite a lovely old building and full of character. I’ve been meaning to get some photographs of the property before it falls down and only just managed a shot or two. This image was processed in Photoshop along with Nik’s Color Efex Pro plug-in. Hopefully you’ll like it.

The next image was processed in Lightroom CC and Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2. I used to use Lightroom extensively a few years ago, but have to admit I’m feeling a little lost with the product now! I think with Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop there’ll be a few changes to my workflow. Feeling rough though isn’t conducive to thinking about workflow changes however. The image is of a boat anchored just a little way off the coast close to Maraetai. I liked the horizontal lines and low contrast scene. Very bright sunlight and some pretty sparkling highlights on the water. Not altogether sure I’m that impressed with the image, but I’ll add it to the post and you can perhaps let me know what you think.

February 20, 2016

Just for fun …

Back to Maraetai again today … wifey fancied a stroll along the water’s edge between Omana and Maraetai. There’s a lovely walkway called “Tracey’s Walk” from which there are some really gorgeous views. Needless to say I took my camera along for the stroll.

View #1 from Tracey's Walk — View #1 from Tracey’s Walk

Most of my images of this area are in colour, but after reading a few books and articles by Ansel Adams I decided, just for fun, to try processing today’s images in black and white. I used to do a lot of black and white photography many years ago, before the advent of digital cameras, and still have a fondness for black and white. A few folks would argue that black and white isn’t the best choice for these views due to the significance of the glorious colours in the scenes. The shades of blue in the sea and sky were really quite lovely. Mind you, being as the camera takes colour photos I do have colour versions as well! What I did notice of interest as I processed the images was the significance of the sun’s rays in the photos. These “Jesus Rays” were not at all obvious in the colour images, yet seem to show up quite well in the black and white versions.

The first view is looking north towards Omana and Beachlands. The second view looks more south towards Maraetai. Quite a lovely gentle stroll if you’re in the area with the added bonus of some very pleasant cafes at Maraetai!

View #2 from Tracey's Walk — View #2 from Tracey’s Walk

July 11, 2015

Out for a stroll

View to Rangitoto Island from Te Puru Park

The past few days have been glorious. Clear blue skies and no wind. It’s been really quite cold, but there’s something rather nice about these cold, clear, crisp mornings. The first shot in this post was taken at Te Puru Park looking towards Rangitoto. If you look carefully you may be able to see some frost in the foreground. Not a common occurrence here in Auckland.

We often start our walks at Te Puru Park and head along the clifftop towards Omana and Maraetai. The next few shots are taken as we did this walk a little earlier today.

Looking towards Waiheke Island as I walked toward Omana from Te Puru Park.

I suppose it was as a result of a house shoot yesterday that I was tempted to try shooting into the sun today. To be honest, we’d picked the wrong time to shoot the house and I ended up making a second visit later in the day. It was the wrong time due to the position of the sun and I ended up shooting into the sun. Not always a good idea, but the effects can sometimes be of interest. The lens I was using was the Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 that is quite prone to flare. Indoors it’s wonderful, but outdoors, on a sunny day, it’s quite a challenge to stop lens flare. Anyway, a couple of yesterday’s images were rather nice, even when shooting into the sun. Somewhat inspired by these images I thought I’d have another go today … but with a different view.

Any dust or dirt on the lens will result in extra spots or reflections in the final image so I tried to make the lens as clean as possible before each shot. Unfortunately, if you look carefully you’ll notice there’s still a few extra highlights around the sun. I’m not sure if this is something to do with the lens or my inability to clean my lens! Perhaps a little more experimentation will determine the answer.

Between Omana and Maraetai with Waiheke Island in the background

Playing with a few filters. Here’s another few from the path between Omana and Maraetai with Waiheke Island in the distance.

January 10, 2014

A morning stroll to Maraetai

Yet another glorious day here in Auckland and a chance to take a walk along the coast at Martaetai. After parking the car at Te Puru Park we enjoyed a lovely walk along the headland then along the beach at Omana before arriving at Maraetai. The path has been upgraded and has a surface suitable for people of most walking abilities. Here’s a few photos of the scenes you can enjoy along the walk.

January 1, 2014

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hard to believe, but 2014 is here already. I’d decided to get up early and head out towards Maraetai in the hope of capturing a pleasant first sunrise of the year. The alarm was set at a ridiculously early hour and a somewhat bleary eyed journey in the dark ensued as we headed to the beach. Part way there it suddenly dawned on me that we hadn’t checked the tide times and the tide could be well out! This wouldn’t be good and would spoil the shot across the sea look we were hoping for. Sunrise was scheduled for 6:05 am, but we thought we’d get there in plenty of time. Quite a few other folks arrived too and after a few Happy New Year pleasantries we all settled down to watch and capture the year’s first sunrise. Just in case you missed the sunrise I’ve attached a few images for you below.

All the very best for a safe and happy 2014.