Photos are sometimes turn out beautiful if you have the necessary skills and/or the luck. Sometimes they turn out rather ordinary, yet you still keep them because they tell a story about the life or habitat of the subject. Sometimes they raise more questions than they answer. Here are two images that raise questions about why people put things where they do. I'll let them speak for themselves.
Continue reading 'Aussie location humour'
Archive for the 'Photography' category
We end this month in New Zealand with a sense of achievement: we walked the Tongariro Crossing without significant pain nor injury. We had good weather and got some great photos of the beautiful volcanic landscape. Our 18.6 km walk began early morning in the shadow of Mt. Doom, as Ngauruhoe is now popularly known following its role in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. In the bright sunlight at altitude, capturing well-exposed images of the dark landscape required extra care to avoid blown highlights.
Continue reading 'In the shadow of Mt. Doom'
Every time you swap a lens you risk dust getting inside the body of your SLR. It can settle in front of the sensor and appear in every image that you take thereafter as an indistinct spot (dust on the lens apparently makes for a more defined dirty spec, although it depends on aperture). While many of these artifacts can be effectively dealt with using Photoshop's invaluable healing brush (working at 100% image size), sometimes they fall on an image zone that makes correction difficult. At some point they become to numerous to ignore; that's when I decided to get some CCD housekeeping organized.
Continue reading 'Clean up your image'
It's the end of the last week of 2006, so Image of the Week is a day early (I usually post on a Monday). In fact this photo is my pick for IOTY (Image of the Year), because it reflects that fact the we spent a good part of 2006 working towards obtaining this view! Project Koru brought us to the Windy City—as Wellington is affectionately known—and will see us residing here until September 2007. We love waterfront strolls and the great food on offer, and look forward to furthering our acquaintance with the City in 2007. In this picture the beach at Oriental Bay is in the foreground, and the national museum Te Papa sits in the corner between The Lagoon/ Civic Centre and Chaffers Marina. We live just out-of-frame to the left.
Continue reading 'IOTW: Wellington City'
These colourful boat sheds separate Wellington's Oriental Parade from the Clyde Quay Marina, and look out upon Lambton Harbour. Enjoy the reflection and, while you're at it, do some reflecting of your own regardless of whether you celebrate Christmas or not.
Continue reading 'IOTW: Boat sheds'
The huaso, or Chilean cowboy, can be seen riding in and around Chile's Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. To cope with the cold of Patagonia some are so wrapped up in sheep's wool they almost look like Eskimos. This one rides with his dog towards the impressive formation that is Torres del Paine. Taken in 2003 from the guard post at the main entrance to the park, it was shot handheld on maximum zoom with a tele-converter attached to my old Sony DSC-F717. Although the scene is compressed, the hugeness of the landscape is not lost. Chile is a beautiful and photogenic country. There are a few more shots from our travels in Chile here, which has previously featured in Image of the Week and as the inspiration for a musing on religion vs. science.
Continue reading 'IOTW: Chilean cowboy'
