fordy's photo blog

Not a photo!

OK, this isn't a phot I admit ... I have been playing with fractal flames and decided to attempt some fractal art. As well as a picture for the wall, I had this one printed on some ceramic tiles.

Tree Fella

Nikon D80, ISO 400, f11, 1/1000 sec, 450mm efl, Photoshop Elements 8.

Seen today in the Botanic Gardens where they are felling trees who's roots have been weakened by the earthquake on Feb 22nd.

Provincial Council Chamber

Nikon D80, ISO 100, f11, 2.2 sec, 20 mm efl, PSE8+Topaz

The beautiful Provincial Council Chamber now, alas, little more than a memory.

Christchurch Cathedral

Sony HSC-H2, 76 frame panorama, ISO 80, f5.6, 1/200 sec (bracketed), AutoPano Pro and Photomatix

Christchurch Cathedral prior to Tuesday's earthquake. The spire has now fallen from below roof level as well as extensive damage to the facade.

Shag Rock

Nikon D80, ISO 100, f8, 1/250 sec, 15mm efl, PSE8+Topaz

This was Shag Rock a month ago; now reduced to a pile of rubble after the Feb 22 quake.

Pea pods

Nikon D80, ISO 100, f38, 30 sec, 277mm efl. - 'light painted' with LED torch and processed with Topaz.

Memories of shelling peas in my mother's kitchen (or was that my Grandmother's kitchen?) - long before plastic bags and freezers.

Fractal images

I'm not sure what these have to do with photography yet, but this week I have been playing with "Apophysis" a fractal image generation program. These are some of the early results:

Fern

Light spiral

Fronds

Alien landscape

All produced with Apophysis 7x v15. It's not an easy program to get to grips with (massive complexity with little or no documentation) but slowly it is giving away some of its secrets.

Surfer

Nikon D80, ISO 100, f8, 1/750 sec, 630mm efl, Capture NX2 & PSE 8.

Star Trails

It was a clear night last night and time I tried out some 'star trails'. Nothing artistic here, just an experiment and the realisation that stars come in a multitude of colours!

Nikon D80, ISO 800, 30 sec (80 exposures), f5.6, 22mm efl, exposures combined in "Startrails" v1.1 and processed in PSE 8.

Ron Mueck

The Ron Mueck exhibition is currently showing at the Christchurch Art Gallery. They permit photographs, but bellow I have tried to show only part of a work or my stylized interpretation of the work; if you wish to see the works in all their Mueck glory, get yourself along to the Christchurch Art Gallery pronto :-)

Nikon D80, ISO 800, f5.6, 1/3 sec (hand held), 70mm efl, PSE 8

Nikon D80, ISO 800, f5.6, 1/20 sec (hand held), 135mm efl, PSE 8

Nikon D80, ISO 800, f5.6, 1/15 sec (hand held), 52mm efl, PSE 8

Nikon D80, ISO 800, f5.6, 1/10 sec (hand held), 78mm efl, PSE 8

Eclipse of the moon

Nikon D80, ISO 400, f8, 2 sec-1/60 sec, 300 mm efl, PhotoshopElements

Horizon cloud obscured the covering of the moon which only apeared for its uncovering. This sequence of shots covered just over an hour and was taken in a howling NW gale - not the best conditions for long exposures!

Clematis + neglect

Nikon D80, ISO 100, f5.6, 1/250 sec, 277mm efl, Capture NX2

The early morning sun catches this clematis flower and buds. Taken back in October but just now catching up with blog posts. These last months have been busy setting up www.phoxford.com - home of the Phoxford Galleries, which is why there have been few posts here on the photo blog. If you have time, give the Phoxford Galleries a visit and let me know what you think.

Car Art

Nikon D80, ISO 200, f11, 1/2000 sec, 10mm efl, Capture NX2, Corel Painter Essentials 4

Taken today at the Oxford Spring Cruise; One mean AC Cobra.

Warm Atmosphere

Briefly, this morning, the sun came out and created a 'warm atmoshere' which immediately went on sale at Cafe 51.

Nikon D80, ISO 200, f8, 1/750 sec, 300mm efl, Capture NX2

Epicentre

These two pictures were taken today near the epicentre of Saturday's 7.1 earthquake. The first shows the latteral offset on what was previously the 'straight as an arrow' "Telegraph Road" not far from the "Charring Cross" near Darfield. As you can see the shift is about half the carriageway width. The second picture was taken on "Highfield Road" about 2km East from the first picture and not only shows the latteral displacement but also a drop of about 1.5m in what was previously a flat road.

Nikon D80, ISO 100, f8, 1/180-1/90 sec, 125mm and 50mm, Capture NX2

Encroachment

Nikon D80, ISO 200, 1.3 sec, f5.6, 42 mm efl, Capture NX2

After a spell of ill health, I went for a photoshoot at an old cottage. The fireplace contained this old Shacklock, Orion, coal range - fire in the centre, hot water heater on the left and oven on the right. The main photo is black and white with sepia tone, but the encroaching ivy and dead leaves were selectively coloured to emphasise the 'past and present' nature of the subject.

"Indie"

Canon PowerShot A590 IS, ISO 200, f4, 1/30 sec, 75mm efl, RAW Therapee + Capture NX2

Fire-wood

Nikon D80, ISO 100, 30 secs, f38, 277mm efl, Capture NX2, lit by LED torch.

I picked up this piece of wood to throw on the fire and then thought better of it. The shapes, colours and texture all seemed so 'alive'.

Nor'west Eyre

Nikon D80, ISO 100, f11, 1/125 sec, 87mm efl, Capture NX2

The Eyre river flows underground for most of the year, except when there is heavy rain in the catchment. Then the river fills its shingle bed, carries debris down stream and wipes out the numerous fords (not me!) that cross the river. Here, a few days after such an occurrence the water has subsided and trickles placidly beneath a Nor'west cloud arch. Tomorrow it will snow.

Karuhiruhi (Pied Shag)

Nikon D80, ISO 800, f8, 1/750 sec, 460 mm efl, Capture NX2