Down the bottom of my garden I’ve planted some swan plants and buddleia. It’s been wonderful to see so many butterflies in the garden, but also somewhat upsetting. Upsetting because it appears that wasps attack the caterpillar during it’s final metamorphosis. We noticed a few caterpillars go into their fish hook shape but never saw them the next day. Needless to say we then started to rescue them off the bush and have successfully released a few butterflies. Never ceases to amaze me how such a tiny spec of an egg can develop into such a magnificent butterfly. Below are a couple of photos of caterpillars on a swan plant.
Well, Happy New Year! I usually get up early and head out to see the sunrise, but this year the weather was pretty bad so I stayed in bed. Whilst doing odd jobs around the house I noticed these wee beasties in the basement. Before capturing them and setting them free in the back yard I had to get a few photos of course.
I’m guessing that the young spiders have a taste for their siblings as there appears to be a few “corpses” in amongst the living youngsters. Made me wonder what percentage of the baby spiders survive into adulthood.
Spiders in the basement #1Spiders in the basement #2
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 backgroundPlaying with a few filters. Here’s another few from the path between Omana and Maraetai with Waiheke Island in the distance.
It was a glorious morning and I was there to not only see it, but able to take photographs of it too. It’s not that many years ago that I’d see a glorious sunrise through my car windscreen on my way to work. No time to stop and enjoy, had to get into the office and start work. Thankfully those days are long gone! Now I have the opportunity to not only enjoy watching the sun rise, but photograph it too.
There’s an app I have for my Android Phone called Sun Surveyor. This is very helpful to decide times and locations for sunrises (and sunsets for that matter). Using this app I could see where the sun would rise in relation to the trees at this particular Beachlands location. There’s a number of trees, with a gap through which you can see the water, and … according to Sun Surveyor, the sun would rise through this gap. The next shot taken with a wide angle lens, gives a better idea of the trees that frame the view.
Sunkist Bay Sunrise
Somewhat tricky to determine exposure with scenes like this as some areas are very dark whereas other are extremely bright. In situations like this I always use LiveView and the histogram. Sometimes I’ll take several images at different shutter speeds and then blend the images together to ensure I don’t lose detail, but for this shot I was happy to have the darks as dark as they are.
Oh, want to see more of the house that has these gorgeous views? Take a look here.
It was great. A really great show with a wonderful atmosphere. A thoroughly enjoyable evening with some very talented musicians being recognised for their achievements.
Earlier in the day I popped down to see how the stage was set and bumped into Malcolm Lakatani. Always a pleasure to meet Malcolm. He was to back Maryanne Ito later that evening, but as we waited for everyone to arrive and take their places for the soundcheck Malcolm relaxed a little and treated us to a little improvisation. The lighting was just right for the music he was playing. Thankfully I’d brought a couple of cameras! I knew I’d be using a telephoto on the night, but wasn’t sure just how wide I’d need to go so I brought a 14-24mm and 24-70mm on a couple of D800s just to check out the angles. The 24-70mm was perfect for shots close to the stage as well as distance shots.
The light was so lovely and moody. Quite contrasty with just a couple of high spots to the rear and some gentle frontal lighting, but the effect on Malcolm was wonderful. I quite like the contrasty deep shadowy type of image and this was a perfect opportunity to try and capture some shots.
Malcolm was relaxed, having fun just jamming away, sitting on a stool in his stocking feet. The light was good and I was having a wonderful time too. ISO was up pretty high at 2500 and the lens was wide open at f2.8 as I wanted to obscure and blur as much of the background as I could. All shots below were taken with the Nikkor 24-70mm. I hope you enjoy looking as much I did listening to Malcolm and taking the shots!
Oh, and just in case you were wondering about Maryanne, here’s a couple of shots of the lovely lady during her performance at last night’s Pacific Music Awards.
I had the opportunity to shoot yet another GORGEOUS home out at Beachlands last night and thought I’d see how the camera on my drone compared with my usual dSLR when the light levels decreased. My usual dSLR is the Nikon D800 with which I must admit to being delighted. The D800 has a similar layout to the D300 I used previously, but the dynamic range is so much higher. The images with the D800 are significantly better than those I used to get with the D300 especially when the light levels decrease.
The Inspire 1 has a 12MP camera, the same number of pixels as my D300. However, the Inspire 1 has a much smaller sensor than the D300, but it’s more modern. I’d certainly not use my D300 instead of my D800 at dusk, but how does this Inspire 1 camera compare with the D800? Below are a couple of shots. One taken with a D800 on a tall tripod, the other from the air with the Inspire 1.
Photo with D800 and Nikkor 12-24mm f2.8Photo from DJI Inspire 1
For small images the Inspire shot seems fine, but as soon as you start to enlarge the image you notice how grainy and noisy the image really is. Fixing noise just softens the entire image and it then loses the crispness that the D800 provides. Nevertheless, the images from the Inspire seem fine during the day. I’ll be intrigued to see how video looks … but you’ll have to wait a few days until I post one of those.
Oh, the house? Believe me it’s stunning. If you’re looking to buy this gorgeous home, or one like it, then give Brianne at Ray White Lighthouse in Beachlands a call on 09 536 7011 and she can arrange a private inspection for you.
Many years ago, when I was about 8 years old, and I started to use a camera, I was given many hints and tips by my uncle. Uncle Herbert was an enthusiastic and very capable photographer and was keen to pass on tips and tricks he’d learnt over the years. It’s strange, but even now, many years after he spoke to me about composition, I can still hear his voice and often imagine him standing next to me, helping me adjust the camera to get the “perfect” shot. One thing that he stressed was to avoid those stripy pictures. You’ve probably seem them, the land, sea, sky shots where each band is horizontal? Well, Uncle Herbert was no fan of those images I can tell you. So, early this morning, looking out towards Panmure from Mount Hobson Uncle Herbert was there again. Even though he passed away some time ago, we still had a bit of a chat about the shot you see in this post. Think he’d approve? I’d like to think he would.
I’d had this notion of a long exposure shot looking over the Newmarket Viaduct in the early morning. I wasn’t sure what the clouds and light would be like, but I thought I’d have a better chance of avoiding traffic early in the morning rather than at rush hour in the evening. Well, that may have been a bit of wishful thinking! I left home close to 6.15am and the traffic was stop start on my way to Mount Hobson. Sitting in traffic I became increasingly concerned I’d left it too late to leave home and that it was going to be too bright to get the shots I’d imagined. Folks rushing over Auckland’s Newmarket Viaduct to work this morning
I think an evening shot will be better, so will try to get back in the next few days. In the morning as time passes it gets brighter quite quickly requiring ND filters to slow down the shutter. Shooting in the evening has the advantage that it gets darker as tine passes!
Somewhat disappointed with the light over the viaduct I switched my attention to watching the sunrise. Here’s a couple of shots looking out towards Waiheke Island from the top of Mount Hobson. Sunrise from Mount Hobson, Auckland
Looking towards Waiheke Island in the far distance this morning from Mount Hobson, Auckland
Last, but not least, here’s a photo looking across Orakei towards Rangitoto Island. If you’ve never visited Mount Hobson the views from the summit are most definitely worth the steep climb. Who knows, I may meet you there one evening as I try to get a nice shot looking over the Newmarket Viaduct. View over Orakei towards Rangitoto Island from Mount Hobson
I’ve already mentioned how much I enjoyed visiting Singapore, but one thing I forgot to mention is how friendly I found the people. I visited a number of places, both tourist destinations and places off the usual tourist trails. No matter where I went I met charming people happy to help with directions and more than happy to chat and make you feel welcome in their country. There’s lots to see with respect to the scenery and sights, but there’s also a lot to see if you take time out to look and chat to the residents of Singapore.
I’ve three photos in this post. A lady in a happy mood at the Botanic Gardens, a gent at work and another gentleman deep in thought at one of the temples. The lady was more than happy to pose for me in the shot you see here. I’m not sure if she though I was a famous photographer or something, but she seemed desperate to be in my photo. The working man just wanted to get on with the task at hand but didn’t object to the camera pointing his way. The man at the temple seemed deep in thought. This must be my favourite shot of the three. There’s something that appeals to me in this photograph of the elderly man.
Friendly lady at the Orchid GardensHard at work in the midday heat.In a contemplative mood
Becoming a bit of a distant memory now is the time I spent in Singapore a few weeks ago. I still have very fond memories of the time there and am very keen to visit again. I may have mentioned before how safe you feel in Singapore no matter what time of day or night you’re out and about. And, it’s at night time when the city really seems to come to life. There’s this intoxicating mix of sparkling lights and water around the Marina Bay area where you can enjoy views from the bumboats on the water, at the quayside, on the bridges over the water or even on the Singapore Flyer – the large ferris type wheel that offers spectacular views across the city.
Below are a few snapshots taken during one of my evening walkabouts and visit to the Singapore Flyer. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the views just as much as I did whilst visiting.
Marina Bay view from Singapore FlyerMarina Bay View from the quaysideMarina Bay’s famous Merlion shot from a bumboat.A closer view of the Merlion taken from one of the local bumboats
