Doing business...

....or not. Seems this transport firm isn't operating any longer - I
wonder if it was due to lack of cougars, or lack of young men?

Big Sky

I'm spending a bit of time in the South Island around Lake Tekapo, and
loving the extreme nature of the landscape and vastness of the sky.
Very hard to do any justice to the environment with an iPhone, but
this was a pretty dramatic evening (enhanced a little with the Camera
Bag 'colorcross' filter).

Variation

Shot at the same time as previous post, this shot has been given a bit
of a treatment to enhance the graphic look of the sculpture &
building. Err... I think I used the app Photo fx to crop, add a
graduation to the top & adjust the lightness & contrast.

Photography with flare

Although I've got a couple of apps on the iPhone that will add flare
effects, this one is au naturale. The built in camera doesn't tend to
handle situations of extreme contrast very well but I like the fairly
brutal effect in this shot.

Automotive Challenge

Heading for a meeting in town - not much time to spare - got the
station wagon, not the scooter - accept exhorbitant parking building
rates - last available space is one of those 'small vehicle only'
parks - can I manage to get in and out of the park without adding
another notch of misery to the pillar?
With the wing mirrors folded in I managed to s-l-o-w-l-y squeeze in &
then extricate the car without losing paint.

Techno Mix

Enjoyed a very satisfying blend of old technology & new, last night.
I dug out my old Kodachrome slides from my first foreign travels in
1981 (USA, Europe, Bali & Australia) & gathered the family at my
studio. We had a Skype video call with more family in Texas for the
duration of the slideshow so they could share the evening & add to the
commentary (they were also present in 1981). Worked extremely well -
love that Kodachrome! Love those pixels!

Hot stuff

I'd set these up in the studio for my 'other' camera, but couldn't
resist grabbing a shot on the iPhone. I used fotoFX to crop the image
to a square & add the graduated filter.

What lies beneath?

We seem to have a lot of vehicles kept under cover around our suburb.
I guess that a shortage of off street parking and close proximity to
the sea mean that people try & protect their investment. This one
looks like a nicely restored piece of seventies chrome & gleaming
paintwork.

Tricky corner...

Looks like someone ended up taking this hairpin bend a little too wide
& flattened the road sign. The late afternoon sky had given the image
a strong blue cast so I de-saturated it with the 'Best Camera' app.

Happy Ending

I first noticed the well-laid out & laminated 'lost kitty' flyer some
weeks ago. Great that Jerry has been found, and such a nice touch that
the owners have ammended their notice to let the neighbourhood know
the good news.

Faces of summer

A mixed-bag of sunflowers have popped up in our garden - self seeded
from earlier plants.
These four were captured with the recently-updated Molopix app.

Inner City Pressure

Some of the new townhouse appartments seem to be hardly big enough to
fit a couch in them...! (nod to Flight of the Conchords for today's title - worth a listen if you haven't already)

Morning mayhem

There's something very disturbing about opening a can and being
surprised at it's contents. Suddenly the reliability & safety of
tinned foodstuffs is blown out if the water.
Given a little more 'edge' here with the recently updated Photoshop app.

A bit of a card

A quick grab-shot in Wellington's Manners Mall. During the local
Fringe Festival we get some interesting acts & buskers around the city.

Venture no more

Here's an old shot, reworked with an app called 'Light' to give a
dappled sunlight effect, and posted in honour of the ship recently
known as Venture. It's been a fixture of the Miramar landscape
(seascape?) since before filming started on King Kong - but has now
gone to a watery grave in Cook Straight.

Brewin' up some moonshine

Er, beer, actually. This is the workings behind Wellington's Mac's
Brewery. Altho' it was a monotone image I upped the contrast with the
'Paris' setting (plus a crop, vignette & border) from the Best Camera
app.

Rock & Roll

The sound that could be heard all over Wellington was hard core, old
school ROCK. Yes, indeed, AC~DC are in town!

Outage outrage

So the Telecom XT 3G network decides to throw it's second wobbly in 2
months... just after I finally decide to swap my phone service to it!
(and, no I can't just swap to another network, thanks)

This way up?!

Yes, I had been hanging out at Mac's Brewery for a while, and yes, the
iPhone's accelerometer can be fooled into not knowing which way is up,
but these lamps are actually stuck on the ceiling of the pub (note the
fringes on the shades).

Doctor in the house?

Back in my day they were black, or maybe ox blood....but lately the
colour/pattern variations on Doc Martens seems infinite. Of course
some people also like to wear different colours on each foot. I'm not
sure which of these feet belong to my daughter - she swaps boots with
her friend quite often.

Abandoned Treasure

This poor old iMac has either been dumped or maybe there's a homeless
person with a Twitter account living up our street...

Gone dotty

No, this isn't from a spot-generating-iPhone-app. This random pigeon
chaser is in front of the City Art Gallery that's been decorated in
keeping with the exhibition by dot-happy Yayoi Kusama.

Look Out

Having a great time downloading and trying out a few new photo apps
for the iPhone. Just been testing 'Cool fx' (shame about the name)
from the same people who put out 'Foto fx' - this shot was given some
diffusion, a 'cross-process' look & cropped.

"err, have you seen my handbag?"

Pretty good match of colours, but Stephanie didn't actually lose her
bag...
Maybe this is my first product shot done on the iPhone.

Southern Lights

Time to take down the festive lights we strung up outside the house
this year. I don't think I'd ever have the patience to do a full-on
Xmas light show on the house. Unpacking the lights and draping them
around the place is one thing, but having to carefully pack them away
into boxes again would be too much! Besides, the boxes always shrink...

Apt Warning

This sign is in one of our 'staycation' hangouts (Beach Babylon Café
on Oriental Bay).Another fave sign from a different café
"Unaccompanied children sold for medical research".
[New option this decade - posts from my blog are also going out to
Facebook and Twitter]

Seasonal Aftermath

Heavily blooming Pohutukawa trees & 130 kmh winds lead to drifts of
crimson needles through the streets.
This shot has been modified slightly with a 'glamour' filter in the
Foto FX app.

So it's not just me...

This guy's T-shirt hits a bit of a chord with me. Maybe it's the
season, but I seem to be reaching into my pocket rather often!
It's great that people with message shirts have been more than happy
to stop & pose for the iPhone. I guess it's always nice to be noticed.

Last Supper

Well, the last meal of '09...
A lovely summer's eve and some prawns on the barbie - superb.
Best wishes to you all for many a fine meal, with many a fine friend
throughout 2010.
Don't forget to take plenty of photos, whether it's on film or
digital, camera or phone, straight or retouched - shoot first, ask
questions later!

Kiwi Christmas Tree

What's summer without an image of a pohutukawa in flower? This is one
of many in full bloom locally in Miramar and given the Lomo camera
treatment.

'twas the night before....

The angel had to take second place to the simple star this year.
A pretty basic image so I used the 'Tilt Shift' app & 'Best Camera'
app to try & add a bit of visual interest.
Best wishes to anyone out there stumbling across my blog - how about
leaving a comment...?
Merry Christmas!

Quick, it's lunchtime...

So, for a little more video geekery I made a time-lapse video of a group of local photographers arriving at a Christmas lunch gathering. This was captured at 1 frame every 2 seconds & playback is at 15 fps.

It seems that this blogsite compresses video quite a bit - sorry for low quality. Probably better quality here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wwa-lUfn1o

Scenes from the Red Carpet

For my first video post direct from the iPhone 3GS - here's a fairly
rough piece of overhead filming of local hero & band manager
extraordinaire Murray Hewitt (AKA Rhys Darby) at The Lovely Bones premiere.

(it will be compressed when uploaded).
- I did post some video last summer from my earlier 3G phone, but it
was shot via a non-Apple application.

And on the red carpet tonight...

Well there were a lot of glammed-up people & some genuine celebs, once
you got a view thru' all the keen fans.
This was the Wellington premier of Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones,
and it was another sparkling affair.

Off to market

....or maybe he's been to the shops already...either way, perhaps
there's a market for a shopping trolley/zimmer frame! Hmmmm "hello, is
that the patent office?".

Traffic report

Thankfully, non-exsistant. While working on a project to photograph
the inside of some tunnels on State Highway One I grabbed a few shots
on the iPhone - very weird feeling to be standing on a piece of road
that doesn't have pedestrian access.

Freeloader

Maybe this is why our cats are always hungry?

Guy Fawkes?

I grabbed the shot of this guy during the motorbike rally at
Parliament recently. Luckily he wasn't running.

Where'd he go?

Hmmm....can anyone see a cat around here?!

Sticking it to the Man

"Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way"

OK, so I was struggling to keep up with the Harley's & Triumph's, but me and my 50cc's of Italian zippiness made our presence felt in the protest rally against increasing ACC levies.

It was an incredible convoy of over 5,000 bikers descending on Parliament - impossible to get any sense of scale in a single image - the line of bikers stretched for many, many kilometres.

Cuba café

Another of Wellington's eatablishment's where the beans & the decor
come directly from Cuba. Oddly enough this is on Cuba Street!?
A new iPhone app I've been playing with, 'Lomo Style' has been used on
this image....adds a nice retro look.

Traffic Snarl

Delays on the main road heading into Wellington after a holiday
weekend...compounded by poor weather.
New Zealand has just brought in laws banning use of cellphones while
driving...surely I'll still be able to take photographs while
driving...?!

Kitch/cool graffiti crossover

Interesting stencil graffiti on a lovely old but deserted building.

They're landing!

This kinetic sculpture is quite an eye-catcher, right next to such a
historical building in downtown Wellington.
I ended up using the 'Best Camera' app to try and add even a little
more intrigue to the image.

Cool Britannia

OK, so I've been playing with yet another piece of iPhone photo
software! This time from none other than the big guns at Adobe - a
true pocket Photoshop. The scooter is an Aprilia Mojito Custom 125
(apparently once the wheels of choice for Jamie Oliver).

When will I need you again?

Hard to believe, but I did recently need the Ray Bans....and I'm sure
I'll need them again soon.
OK, I 'splashed' out on another photo editing app - a fairly simple,
but quite effective thing called Best Camera (as both Chase Jarvis & I
have said - "the best camera is the one you've got with you".

No fish today

I don't know whether it was the bait we were using (maybe Jewish
fish?), or the inappropriate footwear, but either way, we didn't
manage to catch dinner.

Dog park

This is my second photo of the 'canine parking' spot outside Moore
Wilsons - another interesting dog left parked while it's owner peruses
the artichokes and crayfish on offer.

Surgery

This could have ended in a horrible & expensive mess.... but
fortunately my MacBook Pro laptop has come away from this complicated
procedure with a faster, larger hard drive. I had a 'teardown
instruction' video on the iPhone providing guidance, a few helpful
tips from my friend The Internet, and we managed to get through this
with a happy outcome. Whew.

Put your foot down

Cute brake pedal on a huge trike powered by a huge car engine.

Flying A

This old relic was outside the RSA Club in Blenheim, and probably made
more than a few trips there over the years. One of our gang at high
school had a similar car, in a similar colour, and also painted with
what looked like a rather coarse paint brush.

Highly evolved

Went to an exhibition opening recently and one of the artists showed a
series of photos with people in different situations wearing sheep
masks. During the evening the photographer sat down with one of the
masks on.