Tui at Zealandia

Joel and I took his four year old cousin to one of our favourite Wellington Saturday activities today. Zealandia is a wonderful conservation story.

Conditions were great today for photography of the birdlife that is thriving in the sanctuary. Joel took this photo as I was focussed on hosting my nephew. He has a good eye for a good photo.

Today it seemed much greener for this time of year. Usually it is starting to brown off by now with the drier conditions heading into summer. The birdlife seems to be enjoying the abundance of food on offer. Lots of skinks too.

This is the iconic Tui, a bird native to New Zealand, and increasingly prolific around Wellington since the sanctuary was formed. Tui love flitting around on these flax flowers slurping up the nectar and are so fast moving it can be very difficult to get them all in focus - hence the slightly blurred beak which is on the move hunting out even more nectar!

A high quality version of this image can be found in on 500px.

Yes, the Flower was that Yellow

Since I moved from Windows to the Mac a couple months ago I've been trying out various Mac applications. I'm particularly enjoying the range of photography apps I now have access to.

One app I like is iSplash (US$0.99 in the Mac App store) which makes a photo black & white except where you choose for the original colours to remain. It only takes a minute or two to process a photo.

It creates simple yet astonishing effects like this. Yes, the flower was that yellow. But how much more yellow it looks with the surrounding colour removed.

Solar Eclipse from Titahi Bay

So the Solar Eclipse on Friday evening was a bit of a fizzer.

We abandoned going up Mt Kau Kau as it was simply too windy and headed to Titahi Bay instead where it was still quite windy but at least we could stand up!

The eclipse itself was only a very partial eclipse, and occurred right on dusk when there was a cloud layer on the horizon over the South Island so some of the eclipse happened behind that cloud from our vantage point.

Here is the best of my photos of the eclipse. The eclipse is the small slice missing from the sun on the upper left hand side.

A high quality version of this image can be found in on 500px.

Sunset Makara

At around sunset today we will be able to see a Solar Eclipse from Wellington, and I will be heading out with my camera to try and get a decent photo of it.

Makara is a candidate for my shooting location. It is where this photo was taken 6 months ago, so the sunset tonight should be roughly similar - with the added effect of a solar eclipse.

A high quality version of this image can be found in on 500px.

South Wairarapa Coast

Another photo from my recent photography excursion to the South Wairarapa.

This time of the coastal scenery which clings to the small gap between rolling green (at this time of year) farmland (of which there are hints in this photo) and a very rugged coast (off to the right).

You can see the dramatic effect of numerous earthquakes over many centuries which have progressively lifted this coastline out of the sea.

A high quality version of this image can be found in on 500px.

Porpoises at Paremata Bridge

Driving over Paremata Bridge we saw what we thought were Dolphins but TV3 News says they are Porpoises.

Friends who live nearby say they've been there since yesterday.

A high quality version of this image can be found in on 500px.

The Seagull is such a common bird

The Seagull is such a common bird, a bit of a nuisance actually.

But also quite photogenic.

A high quality version of this image can be found in on 500px.

Derelict House in South Wairarapa

I took the day off work yesterday as it was my birthday.

During the day I went with some friends to the South Wairarapa to enjoy each other's company and some photography.

This is one of my favourite shots.

A high quality version of this image can be found in on 500px.

Fishing Waitarere Sunrise

We're heading into summer.

This is where I plan to be spending a lot of weekends with my son.

A high quality version of this image can be found in on 500px.

Sunset over Wellington

The weather hasn't been so good over the last week or so, but November we had an unusually long spell of fine weather which produced some great sunsets like this one - a panorama photo of Wellington taken from Mt Kau Kau.

During 2010 I haven't felt compelled to blog so much but am aiming to reflect on this over our summer break and decide where to take GavinKnight.com/Blog in 2011.

I also plan to get the camera out more and expand my photography skills.

Gridiron WLG v AKL ThunderBowl

Our house looks down on Raroa Park from Broadmeadows, and when I saw this game going on last Saturday I decided watching it with Joel and taking a few photos would be relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

This is probably the best photo I took with the hills & harbour in the background but unfortunately I only 'saw' this perspective when reviewing my photos at home so didn't line up any others.

The game was the Thunder Bowl being a playoff of the best players from the Auckland & Wellington club competitions. It wasn’t clear whether it was selected/representative sides, or whether it was the year’s best club from each city. We left at about the ¾ mark when Auckland were up 18-0.

We really enjoyed it. The game wasn’t the highest quality in terms of playing standards, but we are quite intrigued by gridiron after the NOLA Saints winning the Super Bowl, and because we often see these games from our house. Seems they’re played in summer for both the fun of it and also as summer fitness training for the rugby league boys.

Click on the photo to see the full size original.

Wellington by Night from Broadmeadows

This is my first attempt at night photography. The view of Wellington by night from our home in Broadmeadows.

Canon 400D on a tripod at 1600 ISO on 50mm prime lens at 1.8 aperture priority for which the camera chose a 1/5s shutter speed, then a little touching in Picassa.

Click on the photo to see the full size original.

welcoming another nephew into the world

Kids Expressions

This afternoon we went ten pin bowling with our nephew and his friends to celebrate his 6th birthday party. Apart from enjoying a family event, I also had fun experimenting taking photos in a different setting.

This photo is my favourite from the shoot. I love the contrasting expressions on the kids faces. It captures the seriousness and fun of this activity for them.

The photo has been added to my best photos gallery, under 'family events'.

World Press Photo Exhibition

Yesterday I went with some friends to the World Press Photo exhibition that is currently showing in Wellington.

There are some very moving photos from current events of the last year. Some are sombre, as human tragedy is the pulse of current affairs. However, some are simply of the notable, like some brilliant sport photos.

The photo which struck us most is #115. We were struck by the incongruence of the girl laughing with a corpse at her feet. There is obviously a story there. Is it simply that life is so cheap in the slums? Or is there something going on that is more specific to that time & place?

The exhibition is well worth the $2 entry. I encourage you to go if you are in Wellington soon.

Also attached to this post is a link to Radio NZ's review of the show, from their podcast feed.

Enclosure

Photography

Last week I moved into the world of Digital SLR photography. I was getting increasingly frustrated at the inability of my low end point and shoot camera to handle action, or detail. I'm having a great time trying out my Canon 400D camera.

I have added a photography section within GavinKnight.com to share my best photos. At the moment there is only one image there, although I have a few others already that I'll load later.

I have already enjoyed photographing a lunchtime walk around the Wellington waterfront, the view from my home, my son Joel's rugby game, a visit to the pool and the Wellington v Canterbury Ranfurly Shield game (even though we lost!).

Fishing Wellington Harbour at Dusk

fishing near Kaiwharawhara at dusk on New Years Day

Kingfish in Wellington Harbour

proof there are Kingfish in Wellington Harbour ~ near Ngauranga anyway!

a year in 40 seconds

a year in 40 seconds via Leo Laporte