Teddy Bear Sailor

Today’s photo is of a cute little bear statue at Westhaven opposite the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron building.

Click here for more information on the statue and its representation.

Teddy Bear Sailor (f/5, 96mm, ISO100, 1/125s)

Bridal Veil Falls

During the long Labour weekend we went on a day trip to Raglan with one of the highlights being the spectacular Bridal Veil Falls near Raglan. The first two photos were taken next to the Waikato River in Mercer (where we stopped to buy some yummy cheese for the day).

Bee's Business (f/5, 1/500s, 50mm)

Waikato River at Mercer (f/14, 1/125s, 10mm, HDR)

Bridal Veil Falls from the top (f/22, 1/20s, 10mm)

Bridal Veil Falls from half way down (f/22, 0.4s, 18mm, ND8 filter)

Bridal Veil Falls from the bottom (f/16, 1/25s, 10mm, HDR)

Water Drops

The first category for this year’s Canon EOS Photo5 photo competition had to do with drops of water. Below you’ll find my selection of possible submissions. Only one photo can be submitted for each category so I had to chose carefully. I narrowed it down to the first two photos below quite quickly but the decision between the oak leaf and single drop on the cactus type plant took a bit longer. I eventually decided to go with the oak leaf…

Submitted photo:

Oak Leaf (f/5.6, 50mm, 1/50s, ISO160)

Second choice:

Opposing sides (f/5.6, 50mm, 1/50s, ISO200)

I really like the smoothness of the water drop playing against the jagged cactus plant. Being able to see the reflection in the water drop is very cool too!

Lots of drops! (f/5.6, 50mm, 1/60s, ISO250)

Ripple (f/8, 50mm, 1/60s, ISO400)

Auckland Skyline Panorama

Today’s photo is a panorama of Auckland’s skyline as seen from Mt. Eden. I’ve created it from 5 individual photos using my Canon 50mm f/1.8 II lens. The sky didn’t play very nice that evening so most of the photos I took during the “Golden Hour” came out rather flat and aren’t very interesting to look at. Once the sun disappeared and the city lights came on things improved a bit.

Oh, and I’ve learned another valuable lesson: When heading out to take photos during the golden hour and past sunset, do carry a torch with you! It didn’t even occur to me because it was still bright when I arrived at the location. And no, an iPhone screen is not sufficient!

Auckland Skyline Panorama

Spaghetti Junction

Here are a couple of photos I took last week of light trails near Spaghetti Junction in Auckland. For those unfamiliar with Auckland, you can clearly see the Sky Tower and also the Harbour Bridge on the left. Unfortunately (for me anyway), the traffic wasn’t as bad as it can be which resulted in slightly thin and weak light trails of the cars heading north (the red tail light lines). The traffic heading south was a bit more busy and when timed in sync with the onramp traffic lights, made for a fairly busy road (see second photo).

Spaghetti Junction Light Trails I (f/10, 10mm, 13s)

Spaghetti Junction Light Trails II (f/10, 13mm, 13s)

Traces of the Roman Empire

I have finally gotten around to sorting out the first 1/3 of photos from our 5 week long holiday in Europe. I have taken over 2000 photos in total and almost all of them were shot exclusively in RAW which means it’s taking me a while to go through them. Lesson learnt – what I’ll do from now on is take photos in RAW+JPG (especially for holiday snaps) because for a significant portion, the jpg is ‘good enough’. And you always have the option to process the best ones (or the ones where the jpg doesn’t meet the mark) using the RAW file.

Anyway, our holiday began in Italy so that’s where my Europe photo series shall begin too. In Rome to be precise. Due to the overcast sky at the time of taking the photos, the photos shown below came out rather ‘flat’ and dull so I applied a bit of HDR to bring them back to life. All three were taken with my Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC HSM lens.

Forum Romanum I (f/10, ISO100, 1/125s, 20mm)

Forum Romanum II (f/10, ISO100, 1/100s, 10mm)

Inside the Colosseum (f/9, ISO100, 1/200s, 10mm)

Mission Bay Sunrise

I am now a happy owner of a Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC HSM lens! The following photo taken early this morning in Mission Bay, I used a small aperture to blur the water as much as possible. The good thing about winters shorter days is that one doesn’t have to get up at some ridiculuous hour to catch the early morning light. Of course some will argue that even 7am is too early – there’s always the sunset for you.

Sunrise (f/22, ISO100, 1/13s)

Hole In The Rock

Today’s photos were taken in the Bay of Islands back in March. Corinne and I went on an island explorer cruise with the highlights being dolphin watching and the hole in the rock. On calm days boats actually take you through the hole in the rock but the sea was rather rough once we left the protection of the bay of islands.

A calm moment (f/10, 1/160s)

A wave crashing through the hole!

Wave! (f/8, 1/200s)

The aftermath of the wave attack.

Aftermath (f/9, 1/160s)

Muriwai

Here’s a shot of Muriwai’s gannet colony and coastline taken back in January.

Muriwai (F10, ISO100, 1/330s, HDR)

Singapore Airport

Here’s a quick photo of the departure hall of Singapore aiport’s termainal 3. Not the most inspiring shot but I quite like the shiny floor and the reflection of the lights.

Singapore Airport Departure Hall