Happy Anniversary....

Auckland City!

Anniversary weekend here in Auckland. Great for another public holiday (bank holiday) :-)

Especially with the scorching weather we have been having here lately.

Popped out over to the Shore to photograph the fireworks display for the weekend.

Caught quite a good sunset as well!

Playing chicken with a Cruise Liner.....

Sunset...

Trying out the in built HDR function in the camera....

Night time!

Return to North Head

It's been a little while since I've been out to try something a little different photography wise.

With an awesome forecast for the weekend, it was an easy choice when Mark G txt to suggest we blow the dust of the camera gear and head out somewhere. Lee also joined us.

So... not quite sure why we chose the dark, dank tunnels at North Head on such a sunny spring day! :-)

North Head is an old fort that was built in the early 19th century in case of invasion. Not quite sure who would want to head all the way down here to invade us though....!

Last time I was there, Rob and I played around a lot with light painting etc. This time, we all tried a few different things....

Finally, we stuck around for the sunset, but with not much cloud... it was a bit of a non event. Still it was good to be out in some sun in this pretty cool city! Long may the good weather continue :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Alien Invasion!

Ok, so a bit of a lame photoshop attempt, but a bit of fun nonetheless :-)

Rangitoto island has been lit up with some powerful lights over the last few nights to celebrate Maori culture.

Made for a pretty interesting effect. Something a lot of people were unaware off, so it created a lot of questions and wonder!

This time without the Shadow ships...

With such a cloudy / overcast night it was pretty tough to shoot, but we got lucky with some cloud cover. I think it creates an interesting look. Not something you see everyday anyway.

Prior to heading down to the coastline to look out over Rangitoto, Mark G and I had popped over to the Northshore to photograph the Auckland CBD at night, but in particular the fireworks. The display was part of Auckland Anniversary celebrations.

We both arrived at a not so secret location just as the sun was setting. Murhpy's law.... the cruise ship in the harbour had impeccable timing with a departure timed nicely with the fireworks!?!

A bit of fun and overall I'm happy with how my first fireworks shoots have turned out.

Until next time :-)

A City At Night

We were lucky enough to have a clear, cold and still night last night.

Perfect conditions for trying out some photography of the CBD at night.

So, Lee and I popped out for mission around Devonport and Westhaven (until Lee got told off by security.... apparently big brother had been watching us).

After trying a few settings, f11 seemed to be giving me the best results. Focusing was a struggle for a while, but once I remembered to use AF to focus on a bright spot and then switch to manual, things got much easier.

Other settings.. ISO 100, exposure times of 20 - 30s. Some are with my 18-55mm lens, others with my 55-250mm.

Unfortunately, our locations for these photos must remain secret :-), but here are the results:

 During the night I also tried out the inbuilt HDR function, again with some nice results...

Trying to catch light trials along the harbour bridge (not HDR)...

Finally one just before Lee got busted...

Overall, I'm happy with these few. Many were out of focus, but not bad for a first time and with a broken tripod (very annoying!).

For the next time we do this... I need to figure out the multiple exposures option on the camera and then spend some time on Photoshop to play around with layers. You'll see the why (and the difference) it makes here..

Thanks for looking.

EDIT: Photos were tweaked a little differently after some advice from Lee