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2013-06-15 08:41:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

10

This is the last image from my boots-n-shoes perspective.  Taken during my son's game this morning.  Posted now during half time of test between Les Blacks and Les Bleus.
#rugby  

2013-06-15 06:05:56 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 13 +1s)

Red bands

Possibly the most famous gum boot brand in New Zealand.  Modeled here at the world-famous-in-Hamilton agricultural Field Days

2013-06-15 05:35:24 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

Nice Air

OK.  So apparently I'm in the middle of a 'shoe perspective' Saturday.  This one from a skate park in Hanoi.

2013-06-15 03:02:43 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Laces

2013-06-03 07:21:48 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 18 +1s)

The beach

The sun is setting.  Dogs are walking.  Baited lines wait for snapper.

2013-06-04 00:47:29 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 16 +1s)

Tonight

I took my ED80T-CF telescope out to the dunes tonight.  Practicing my rack and pinion manual focusing.  I took this telephoto landscape as the sun was setting.

2013-06-02 06:15:45 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 23 +1s)

Tuis

Playing around with my ED80T-CF telescope.  Turns out it makes a pretty decent telephoto lens.  I captured these Tui playing a game of tag.  No auto focus.  Just a crayford pinion focusser.

2013-06-02 06:17:30 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 15 +1s)

Waihi Polar Plunge

A few dozen of us started the day with a mid-winter swim in the Pacific ocean.  Sadly: we had warm, clear-blue skies.  And the water was barely cool.  Too easy.  These gals added a bit of fun by going in in costume.

2013-05-25 07:44:21 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 13 +1s)

On the sidelines while two local high schools go head-to-head at the start of the football season.  8-0 to my son's team :)

2013-05-15 06:57:32 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 29 +1s)

The corridor

The last night in a hotel before heading home.  I'm a big fan of their hard beds.  The temptation of Pringles from the mini-bar, not so much.

2013-05-09 07:45:11 (8 comments, 2 reshares, 42 +1s)

More super trees (see yesterday's post for the other!).  I couldn't get enough of these guys.

Gear talk

This pic is an HDR using 7 bracketed exposures over a 2 stop range merged using HDR Efex Pro 2.

I carted a tripod around Asia for nearly 3 weeks.  And this is about the only photo I took using it!

Speaking of gear.  I took 3 lens: a 16-35; my nifty 50; and a 100mm macro.  90/100 'keeper' photos were with the 16-35.  32 photos at 16mm; 32 photos at 35mm (all those wasted mm in between!)  The wide angle is perfect for landscapes and getting in close for those people shots (and giving a bit of crop room).

Most times I went out I only took one lens.  So that'll affect the numbers.  The 50 got used occasionally when I was out and about at night (f1.4 @ iso 6400 = night vision).  The 100mm got used on halong bay becauseour hote... more »

2013-05-08 09:13:05 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 33 +1s)

Taken from the shade of the supertrees: 50m tall steel trees built on reclaimed land next to stadium sized green houses.  Singaporeans know how to create some pretty surreal urban architecture!

2013-05-03 07:25:33 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 35 +1s)

We hike along muddy paths between villages.

Hens scratch at the dirt.  Pigs roam back yards like pets.  Ducks own the paddies.

Boys too young for school pass time while they shepherd their family's precious water buffalo.

Sun-weathered women, bent at the waist, plant rice seedlings.  Filling a paddy, a terrace, a mountainside.

This is a place of stunning natural beauty.

Trapped in a bygone time.

2013-05-02 10:13:01 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 21 +1s)

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

- Buddha

2013-05-02 03:40:48 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 36 +1s)

This lady was working in the rice fields outside a village near Hoi An.  Most of the farms are still planting and harvesting the rice by hand. 

The grain is then dried on tarpaulin.  Often in the middle of the roads.  The regular road users have enough respect to go out of their way, navigating around the grain rather than spoiling the harvest by driving through it.

2013-05-01 10:49:53 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 25 +1s)

Rice harvest

2013-04-30 14:30:33 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 42 +1s)

A quiet and peaceful night in the bay.

2013-04-29 14:00:55 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 28 +1s)

This young girl sold candles.  Placed on the river they carried away their light and their sender's wish.

2013-04-29 00:03:46 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 34 +1s)

It was still early morning when I awoke in the cabin to the sounds of the creaking wooden junk.  I climbed up on deck, the sails dead in the still air.  The water was milky smooth.   The clouds only threatened shade from a hot sun.

2013-04-28 02:13:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 44 +1s)

What doesn't dissolve remains

2013-04-25 14:11:58 (3 comments, 6 reshares, 44 +1s)

This rich mountain land has been shaped by man and water buffalo for hundreds of years.

#sapa  

2013-04-24 00:46:11 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 29 +1s)

#wordlesswednesday  

2013-04-23 01:39:38 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 31 +1s)

Street portrait

2013-04-22 14:32:57 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 33 +1s)

Bare feet.  In the rain and mud.  On the farm.  Little brother in tow.

2013-04-20 08:30:14 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 42 +1s)

You ask, I take

I'm really uncomfortable taking portraits.  But its something I'd love to do more of.  Today I set myself a rule that if someone asks me to buy something on the street, I'll ask to take their photo.

2013-04-20 01:49:12 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 27 +1s)

Coaching

This passer-by can't resist getting involved in a game of Chinese checkers.

#streetphotography  

2013-04-14 02:58:06 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 44 +1s)

Pegasus

2013-04-06 21:36:38 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 37 +1s)

Sunday morning

Time for a long black with cream at a local cafe.  And catch up with the Sunday paper.

2013-04-02 21:10:22 (11 comments, 1 reshares, 78 +1s)

Rock Giant

I found this rock giant taking a nap in the harbor last night.  His head dipped into the cool harbor waters while he kept his heels dry on the shore.

#LandscapePhotoOfTheDay #landscapephotography #seascapesunday

2013-03-30 09:17:03 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 48 +1s)

Been down on the rocks with the surfcaster tonight.  No fish.  But what a great way to pass time.

2013-03-30 08:58:05 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 40 +1s)

'This is how you pupate, little man"

2013-03-27 10:17:03 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 20 +1s)

Family passport photo

This young fellow doesn't actually exist.  I've taken family passport photos for a trip we are planning.  And I blended us all (2 parents and three kids) into an 'average' Bryant.  Definitely a family resemblance, I think.

2013-03-21 21:09:13 (25 comments, 3 reshares, 24 +1s)

Marmageddon continues...

Since the earthquake a year ago NZ's favorite toast spread has been absent from our supermarket shelves.

The factory is now back up and running (they make 650 tonnes of it a year).  And shelves are being stocked.  But not enough to keep up with our demand for NZ's own black gold. 

There's always Vegemite, but it's just not the same...

2013-03-19 09:31:06 (5 comments, 4 reshares, 35 +1s)

Tarantula nebula

This nebula is in the Large Magellanic Cloud (that fuzzy blob us southerners catch out of the corner of our eye).

It is 160,000 light years away and so big and bright that if it was the same distance from us as the Orion Nebula it would cast shadows on the ground.

I took these exposures a week or two back and they includes a few Ha frames which I've blended into the result.

2013-03-18 09:06:45 (6 comments, 7 reshares, 43 +1s)

Diamond cluster

NGC2516 is a naked eye star cluster deep in the southern skies in the constellation of Carina.

For this image I took relatively short (60s) exposures.  And I think that's help keep the stars' color saturated (rather than being blown out/clipped white in the middle).

2013-03-18 08:26:06 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 16 +1s)

Fun day

Cambridge put on a morning of 'fun' runs.  These school kids are warming up with some aerobics before doing a 2km sprint.  The schools with the most entries and best placings won cash prizes and school equipment like cameras and art supplies. 

I managed to get around the 10k track, despite having hang up my running shoes a couple of years back.

2013-03-11 10:14:19 (5 comments, 7 reshares, 41 +1s)

Southern Pleiades

Last night I snagged this cluster of blue stars in the constellation of Carina.  Nestled against a backdrop of our milkyway.

IC2602
20x300s exposures via a QHY9M camera
120mm f7.5 refractor

2013-03-05 08:07:51 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 42 +1s)

Oarsome life guards

2013-03-02 02:04:02 (18 comments, 12 reshares, 92 +1s)

Orion Nebula

Full moon is out.  So nothing but image processing to keep me occupied at nights.  Orion is slipping into the east in my evening sky.  So this'll be my last M42 this year...

2013-02-26 00:32:44 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 59 +1s)

The heads

2013-02-24 02:40:56 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 55 +1s)

M78 reflection nebula and a chord of Barnards Loop

I was waiting for M42 to get across the meridian.  So grabbed a few 'quick' frames of M78.  And framed it to get a touch of Barnards Loop in there as well.

ED80T, QHY9M, 120s LRGB frames.

2013-02-24 02:38:57 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 41 +1s)

Harbour sunset

We've had such a great summer here.  Great for spending weekends by the sea.

#landscapephotography #seascape

2013-02-13 08:07:10 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 47 +1s)

#wordlesswednesday

2013-02-12 11:52:37 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 21 +1s)

Orion: Best viewed large and in the dark

This is a widefield of Orion.  The four bright stars boxing the constellation include yellow supergiant Betelgeuse (top right).  The 3 stars in the middle make Orion's belt.  And of course our smudgy friend the Orion Nebula.

If you turn the lights out and view it full size you should just be able to make out a faint red swirl, Barnards Loop, going from the belt, around Saiph and Rigel (bottom left).

If you squint you may also see the horsehead and flame nebula.  And even a blueish witches head nebula (I'd forgotten about here and was chuffed when I noticed I'd captured her).

I took this photo using a regular camera.  Like most cameras it has an infrared filters which is great for regular photos, but in astro photos it blocks most of the light in good red nebulae.  The camera was mounted on ateles... more »

2013-02-12 08:09:51 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 53 +1s)

Lighthouse, stars and GPS

A lighthouse used to tell sailors where not to go.  And they used the stars to tell them which direction to head.

Nowadays they use a GPS which tells them where they are.  Something the early voyagers never knew.

Do you know where you are in life?  If not are you at least heading in the right direction?  Or do you keep missing the warning signs and end up on the rocks?

2013-02-10 01:35:49 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 41 +1s)

New Zealand by Air New Zealand

Flying over Taranaki and Canterbury I made the most of my window seat.

2013-02-07 09:45:32 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 58 +1s)

McLean Falls

From a recent trip into the South Island's Catlins.

#nzlandscape #landscapephotography #waterfall #moss  

2013-02-06 20:15:51 (2 comments, 4 reshares, 48 +1s)

Bush Stream

Taken just below McLean falls in the Catlins.

#newzealandphotography
#plusphotoextract with +Jarek Klimek
#landscapephotography +Landscape Photography with +Margaret Tompkins

2013-02-04 02:49:10 (10 comments, 2 reshares, 18 +1s)

Stump the Hump

The toughest thing I've ever done.  20 hours hiking.  60 kms.  Starting midnight.  Up the 900m Hump Ridge by torchlight.  Along the ridge at sunrise.  Along the coastal rail trail.  Over single person swing bridges and viaducts.  Along sandy Fiordland beaches, nevermind the sandflies.  And through the bush.

Great scenery.  Friendly walking companions.  And a super challenge.  The hike taught me how far my real limits are from my comfort zone.

http://www.humpridgetrack.co.nz/index.php?pageLoad=157

#stumpthehump

2013-01-25 07:20:40 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 26 +1s)

Kersplash!

Too much bloody fun on the river yesterday.  Literally.