May 25, 2009

Grace and Visitors

Ships from around the world visit our port. This one is entering the harbour past Mauao where I was standing.


Grace...again!


May 24, 2009

Word Balloons

Check out these old world ads using word balloons.
Some of these...make that most...have a cheesy innocent feel to them.

http://www.creativepro.com/blog/scanning-around-gene-holy-word-balloons-batman

May 19, 2009

No Bottled Water Here

Remember the days when water tasted really good right out of the tap?
It still does!



May 8, 2009

Excalibur. Series IV Sedan

Click on image to see bigger version of this special car that was one of 12 made in 1988.

Twang!



Market Day

A doll maker...I see a resemblance!
This lady makes these amazingly different dolls.
We brought one for our granddaughter

I think he would have liked one of these twirly things.

May 6, 2009

HDR...not a tutorial!

A few of my friends have asked how they can get "that look" in their photos. The top shot is a normal exposure of a back lit subject. Kinda looks dull to me. That's what started me looking for better ways.




The second shot is after treatment with a few Photoshop tools and a cool little HDR program called Photomatix.
Briefly this is the sequence of process.
  1. Take 3 shots. One normal, one 2 stops underexposed, one 2 stops overexposed. (We are going to combine the entire exposure range)
  2. Take all exposures into Photoshop as layers and align the images if you have hand held the camera. This step is optional but I recommend it.
  3. Take into Photomatix and process. (Takes some fiddling to get right)
  4. Take the processed image back to Photoshop and correct things like perspective, colour balance, sharpening, cropping etc.
  5. That's it. Save file and close. All done.

May 5, 2009

Nelson #4

Nelson has hills!
Great for all sorts of outdoor adventure.


Mapua wharf. In days gone bye this was a thriving port for the loading barges of minerals mined from the Takaka hills as well as seasonal produce and tobacco. Now its more of a tourist come holiday spot.

May 3, 2009

Those little moments!

It hurts even when its not your head!


Did he stop it?



Ok, so where is it?

Not the face!