Houses for sale?

It’s been a pretty busy week this week taking photographs and videos of properties in and around South Auckland.  Usually on my blog I don’t post much about houses I shoot for real estate companies, but today I thought I’d do something a little different.  Not wishing to bore you witless, I’ll just post a couple of images from two homes that really caught my eye this week.  I suppose this could develop into a regular Friday feature … then again, perhaps not.  Let me know if you’d like to see more highlights of the houses shot during the week.

To the houses then!  One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the range of quality homes here in South Auckland and their affordability when compared to other parts of the city. I’ve added a couple of images below; one image of a more modern family home, the other of a classic home built from native timbers. Both homes are within easy walking distance to the railway station and offer an ideal car free commute into the city.

The first home is in the Hillpark area of Manurewa and close to Nathan Homestead, David Park, Orford Park and, of course, the shops in Manurewa.  The shot below was taken last night on not the best of days for a dusk shot, but what a lovely outdoor area to entertain family and friends … complete with pool and spa!

The second home was a treat to photograph.  So much native timber and character, lovely high ceilings and a real homely feel to it.  I must admit it was definitely not what I expected to see when I arrived to take photos!  This home is also close to parks as well as the shops in Manurewa.

Just trying something a little different in this post, if you click on the images below you should be directed to the agent’s webpage from where you’ll be able to see a few more images as well as get more details on the properties.  I was seriously impressed with these homes … both of which well exceeded my expectations after looking for them on Google Maps!

Wonderful private family home in Manurewa
Wonderful private family home in Hillpark, Manurewa. Click on the image to get more details.
Gorgeous central manurewa home. Click on image to see more of this lovely home.
Gorgeous central manurewa home. Click on image to see more of this lovely home.

To the sea!

Fancying a walk with daughter and wife it was decided to head out to the sea. Shame we didn’t check the tide times as the tide was out when we arrived. Never mind.

I’d been looking at some books by Bruce Barnbaum and was keen to try some black and white images again for a change. As many of you may already know, I spend a significant amount of my time behind the camera shooting properties for real estate agents in and around Auckland. These images are alwatys in colour, so to go back to black and white was a bit of a treat. I’m always congnisant of Ansel Adams and his zones which often takes me longer to consider and plan for than the time I’m allowed on an evening stroll. Nevertheless I tried.  I was particularly taken with the clouds and felt use of black and white might accentuate their structure more.

Conifer Grove in monochrome
Conifer Grove in monochrome looking towards Wattle Downs.

I shot colour also, and there’s a couple more images below taken whilst on the walk. Ansel Adams encourages you to “see” in monochrome which is a lot easier with today’s digital cameras. I’d set my camera to save RAW images to one memory card, JPEGs to the other, and selected to shoot in monochrome. When using the LCD display I then see the image in black and white. Use of the histogram helps even more. By selecting to save in both RAW and JPEG I then get both a colour and black and white image. Remember the sensor in my camera (Nikon D800) is a colour sensor, so the RAW image will be in colour, the JPEG the monochrome version. This isn’t as good a black and white image as it could be as all that’s happening here is that the image is desaturated. How to get a good black and white image from a colour sensor is nicely explained by Vincent Versace in his From Oz To Kansas book.

Sunset over Wattle Downs
Looking out towards Wattle Downs from Conifer Grove. Shame the tide was out.

Vincent Versace has another book – the predecessor to “From Oz To Kansas” actually – entitled “Welcome To Oz” that gives more detail on the way he processes colour images. Versace has worked with the team at Nik Software (now part of Google) in the development of their ColorEfex software plugin for Lightroom and Photoshop. Playing with this product resulted in the last two images you see in today’s post. Shame about the flare in the last shot … or does that add to the mood?

Sunset over Wattle Downs #2
Sunset over Wattle Downs #2
Conifer Grove walkway leading to the sea. Shame the sea was out!
Conifer Grove walkway leading to the sea. Shame the sea was out!