Back-up, back-up & don't forget to back-up

A pleading note from someone who had left a hard-drive in their car.
How many irreplaceable images are lost by people without duplicates?
Sad fact of the digital age.... Let's be careful out there, people!

Missing in Action

Some poor kid is walking around town with one cold hand! Kind of sad
really.

Unseasonal necessity

So we've had some sunny days lately...if it wasn't for the temperature
you'd think it was summertime...but then I guess temperature is a
major factor in guaging the seasons...
After putting my sunglasses down on a bench with some canvas on it I
noticed that the strong windowlight was casting a pretty nice shadow.

Autumn leaves

Now this is a fairly indicative image of the current season - Victoria
on the front lawn, earning her trip to the movies.

Sittin' on the dock of the bay

Well, OK, standing on Seatoun Wharf (but Otis Redding's song did come
to mind). Oldest daughter waiting for the ferry to whisk her over to
Eastbourne...probably for hot chocolate or cold ice creams...

Minimalist ride

This piece of sixties aluminium sleekness was parked between a couple
of favourite shops on Vivian St - WPS & MagnumMac.

Coolest app yet

Here's a screen shot I took while testing a new iPhone app. It allows
you to shoot a Canon digital camera & change settings remotely, with a
zoomable preview screen. This is like crazy science fiction. Gotta get
a job now so I can show it off!!

Cold Outside

The cats had the best spot, right by the heater... Rather a chilly
weekend, to say the least - rain, hail and even some snow in parts of
Wellington! That doesn't happen often.

Looks good....

....and good for you. A great mix of colours and textures in the wok.

Twilight @ speed

So, another lovely evening in the Capital and this time I'm in the
passenger seat (safer that way). This gives a good example of the
effect of the iPhone's 'rolling shutter' - the image at the top of the
frame is recorded before the image at the bottom. As the car was
moving the pole appears to be leaning - more than the 'light tower'
'cos it's closer to us.

Last Stop

With a bit of care & a steady hand the iPhone even manages a night
shot at a bus shelter. It seems that most of these wayward shopping
trollies make their way back home eventually.

The Needle Knows

While driving in to the studio this morning the Zephyrometer (the
pointy orange thing) was swinging wildly in some major gusts of wind.
I didn't manage to catch it at full tilt, but we had quite an exciting
wee storm blow through town. (Yes, multitasking at the wheel again!)

iPhones a go-go

At one stage today in a boardroom we were shooting in, there were 4
iPhone users. During our breaks it was all fingers to the virtual
keyboards to keep up with texts, email, Twitter & Facebook.

Wellytown Icons

These totems have become quite symbolic of artsy-crafty Wellington,
altho' the artist who has created these designs also has them in other
cities. Despite the recession, it's good to see some building going on. 

This shot was softened and vignetted with Photo fx.

A couple of tarts...

...and a couple of coffees (mochachino & a latte) . Given an "8mm film look" via the Photo fx
application. All yummy stuff.

Random act of kindness

Someone who had as much use as they could from their bus day pass, has
kindly left it under this rock on a bus-stop seat. A friend of mine
was glad to uplift the pass for another few hours of bus travel. Nice.

Wrong, wrong, wrong

As I suspected, the previous weather 'prediction' was (fortunately)
well off track. The "killer flu" predictions also seem (fortunately)
to be overly pesimistic. Gotta love a good media beat up.

Rain, rain, rain

....oh, and a bit of lightning. The weather forecast app on the iPhone
isn't renowned for it's accuracy, but it seems to confirm what other
forecasts are saying. Hello damp autumn!

All aboard!

A trip to see a friend off from the railway station is of course a
great photo op. Followed up by a dose of 'cross process' from Photo
fx. Love the typeface used on the clock.

Night Fever

At a 'significant' birthday recently - great location, great people,
great music...but it wouldn't have been the same without the disco
ball! Added a little 'cross star' magic with the Photo fx application.

It's gotta be official

So I guess this photo from our front lawn is all the proof we need
that summer is gone and autumn is here. No more awkward situations
where I thought shorts and jandals where suitable attire.

Don't Jump!

This cast iron sculpture along Wellington's waterfront is hard to walk
past without thinking how much it really looks a naked man leaning
into the wind. As with the shot of the couple sitting on the bench -
the iPhone's wee lens is prone to flare when pointed toward the sun
(not always a bad thing).

By the sea

The best camera to record a scene, as always, is the one you have with
you!

Ain't none fresher

From the hen house to the frypan. Just a hint of selective focus
applied via the TiltShift app.

Easter Egg Hunt

So, I was hoping for chocolate... but I guess these girls aren't
actually the Easter Bunny. A touch of dappled morning light works a
treat - which is why there's an app to add it to an image (this is the
real deal tho'!).

Home town chic

Back in Gisborne for a school centennary reunion & catch up with old
friends (yes, a lot older). If I didn't know the roads so well, I
could have had more use out of the downloaded GPS travel app that I
have on the iPhone.

A new me

One of the geeky forums I inhabit had 2 people who's avatars were
photos of themselves behind cameras....so I changed my one to this.
Another fine iPhone app came to the rescue for this - OldBooth

Still green

I guess it won't be long before leaves will be changing colour and
falling. The clocks are turned back, I've packed away the BBQ, and the
sun has lost it's heat. The talk of Apple's next generation iPhone is
hotting up, tho', so that's something to look forward to.

Weekend pleasure

A bit naughty, but a great way to waste away a hour or three, is to
settle in to the cafe in Borders to browse the latest magazines.
People have usually taken up a good selection of reading material to
read so I don't bother to grab anything off the shelves myself...maybe
next time.

3 wheels, or 2?

This futuristic trike was on display at a 'Ride to Work' event I
visited on the scooter early this week. The two wheels up front give
it a mean look & it sounded like it had a lot of grunt.

Overhead Cables

A couple of new trolly busses taking workers home to the eastern
suburbs in the late (almost autumn) twilight. All very poetic.

Old school vege

Nice to buy from a local greengrocer and come away with some vege
wrapped up in old fashioned newsaper - Asian at that!

Trans-seasonal Treat

Almost autumn, but much more like summer - a day that deserves to be
enjoyed with ice creams @ Scorching Bay (and Phoenix Cola!). That'd be
a goody gumdrops & orange choc chip for her and a hokey pokey with
boysenberry for me, thanks.

Buckets o' fun

Great to see the Cuba St icon still splashing pedestrians every few
minutes. It's recently had a full refurbishment, so is looking as
spiffy as ever.

Variation on a theme

Hmmmm, originally this montage of the scooter didn't seem as pleasing as the previous 
one...but now it seems better - kind of more spontaneous and
interesting...oh well, I guess I'll just leave both here... 

Black beauty

Walked past this classic-looking Vespa in designer black...altho' it's
not really a thoroughbred Italian. This is a Vespa design made in
India - still pretty cool tho'. The pics don't do it justice, they are blatantly shot to show off the MoloPix application.

Never fast enough, never big enough

At the risk of sounding like an old nerd, I can't imagine how I
managed to work with the first laptop I had. It was a 400 Mhz
PowerBook with a 6 GB hard drive! Now I'm getting this message after a
session shooting images onto a 160 GB hard drive....yeah, I know, time
to upgrade....again.

Dodgy T

Found this guy hanging out at the local supermarket....not far from
Wellington International Airport as it happens.

Old world charm

Sounds like a real estate ad....looks a bit like a real estate ad!
It's not. This old apartment building has such a great entrance
through the courtyard. Kind of suits the black & white treatment, but
also looked good in muted colour...

Photo Tools

This is a screenshot of the different applications I've got on the
phone to alter or capture images with. Some were free, some I paid
less than $2 for, and I think Photo fx was about $4 - a really good
price considering how much it does.

Watery view

I've found that I really like the simplicity of using the iPhone to
capture an image and then use an application on it to apply some sort
of digital effect. For 'proper' images tho', it's still - take memory card out of camera, plug in card reader & transfer data to computer. On this shot I added a small amount of warm-
coloured grad filter to the top section of the image.

Open Road

Cruising around the bays of the Miramar Peninsula on a sunny afternoon
is hard to beat (well maybe if the scooter had a bit more horsepower).
One hand on the camera & one hand on the throttle adds another element
of excitement.

Back in my day...

....I rode my bike to school, uphill both ways in a blizzard, ate
peanutbutter sandwiches for lunch every day, had no idea what pesto
was...and soccer boots were black (unless you were really flash and
sent a postal order to England and bought some fancy white boots).

T-shirt of the Day

Damn, there are some clever designers out there. When Chris visited
the studio today it took me a while to notice that there was more to
his shirt than just the tank.

Keeping Vigil

A faithful friend looks out for it's owner, hopefully laden down with
salami & salmon, at Moore Wilsons. Not only do they sell a great range of
fresh produce, but they have a 'canine parking' spot - very cool.

Not just a plant

Woah, I've been a bit carried away with shots of plant life recently,
so today I had a play in the city with a different format option using the MoloPix
camera app.

Four Suns

So, yeah, I've just downloaded yet another photography application
onto the iPhone. This one gives some options to create a composite
image of 2, 4, or 6 images in different formats....so back up to the
sunflowers.

Sharp Symmetry

More shots of flora & more effects used. I end up grabbing shots of
these types of plants all the time. I like the raw harshness and yet
perfect design of them.

Strange Fruit

No, not the Nina Simone song, the pears growing in our back yard. It's
an old tree with some gnarly mishapen fruit - this shot was taken as
the sun was setting and then given the Camerabag treatment.

Friday night action

A wet night in town is always a good time to try a few movement
effects with the iPhone. The colour balance was kind of neutralised
back to a fairly flat image so I pumped it up a bit in Photo FX.