By back home, I mean I traded the Olympus Mirrorless camera back in for a Canon. I missed having what I feel is a proper camera. A big Digital Single Reflex Camera. I like Canons so I bought the Canon 6D MkII. Actually it’s not quite as simple as that. The 6D MkII is the camera almost made for me. It’s more clever as one of Canons best ever camera’s, the 5D mkIII. I’ve also had one of those, a second hand one which I traded in for the Olympus Camera as I thought I would enjoy the drop in camera weight. It wasn’t worth the change sadly, still, you live and learn.
I wanted my own new Canon DSLR camera though and the 6D MkII came along at the perfect time. It’s got great image quality, plenty of pixels, it does a bunch of stuff I don’t care about or understand and it has built in wifi which is awesome in so many ways. It does what it says on the tin and has delivered a number of quite fetching images already. My only issue with it is that the shutter isn’t as quiet as I’d like. I know right? That’s literally the only issue. I love this camera and I’m looking forward to getting to know it better. Herewith some imagery from my 6D MkII. It’s not all about the camera though. For those who are interested, I mostly, currently only, have a Canon 24-105 L series walking round lens on the front of my camera.
People standing in my shot, I may have asked them to.Door, needs workShepherds Delight, Himatangi Beach. This is home.St Andrews Church, Turakina.I like this building.KIte surfer, practicing at the new place in Foxton. It’s called ‘Off The Loop’ Cable wake boarding among other awesome adventure activities.Home, of an evening.Auckland at nightCity Lights, AucklandIt’s still there.Been a bit dry off late.Portrait of Miss J, Wearing my hat.Mt ‘NakiThat’s my street at night. Awesome sunset.
Cuba Street in Wellington is pretty Iconic. Cuba Street is where the cool people go, the bearded hipsters, the fashionable in mind and spirit. The wannabe’s and the once were. The right on, right now and the faded jadeds. The tattooed ladies and the skater boys. Cuba Street is a place of street food, expensive food and retro shopping. Vinyl records and vinyl furniture, probably. Quirky things on the street and in the shops. Cuba Street is colourful. I decided to spend a morning taking photos in Cuba Street. This is the work of one hour, one morning. This Sunday Morning in March.
There are many photos and (almost) no captions. Sometimes images speak for themselves.
That’s Callum, this isn’t Cuba Street, but is in Glover Park. Glover Park is just round the corner from Cuba Street. So almost Cuba StreetAlso not actually in Cuba Street, but nearby in Glover Park
OK, this isn’t in Cuba Street. This is Berhampore. But it’s very colourful.
We had a big earthquake recently. Bigger in the South than it was in the North, but big none the less. There are many buildings in Wellington still closed, cordoned off and some to be demolished. Big buildings. We also had a Tsunami warning. So I thought I’d go and take some photos of the capital city before it gets destroyed in the next big earthquake and washed away in the following Tsunami. You know, for the archives. I took an eclectic mix of photos, not the stuff people usually photograph in Wellington. It is quite a diverse, colourful and interesting place. See? Due to the number of photos, I’ve gone for the ’tiled mosaic look. Welcome to Wellington.
In New Zealand, as I believe they do in some other places, we refer to the big city as ‘The Big Smoke’. Auckland is the nearest thing we have to a big city, however it’s not very big and is more like a collection of villages. The population of Auckland is about 1.4 Million which is a big chunk of our total population of around 4.4 Million. New Zealand is quite empty of people. I have attempted to convey that by photographing some parts the inner city of our largest city. The Auckland CBD between 8.30 and 9.30am on a Saturday morning. Plus some other bits during the day.
No SmokingWalk on byNo ParkingClosedBelgian beer at the Occidental, the pub was built by an American sailor.No horsesTiledArcadeArt houseOpen soonNo books here todayFeeding winged rats at Wynard Quarter.Smoko break, probably.The Wharf bit of North Wharf.Queen Street, Auckland City.Apartments and Sky towerPonsonby Road.The Esplanade, I once won a surfing competition in there.Mt Eden Road, Mt Eden Village, 8:30am, Sunday Morning.Looking the other way, towards the cityMt Eden art stuffParis, Mt Eden.Busy Saturday at the beachBoat sheds beside Tamaki Drive.City Skyline, from Stanley Bay.The view rich people on Paraitai Drive have.
I’m going to try to create at least one blog post a month. I’ve been slack, well only in writing blog posts. I’ve been out and about an awful lot and taking a lot of photos. But have been neglecting this bit.
The big news is that I finally have my dream gear. Anyone who takes photography reasonably seriously will know that the right gear is important, they also like to have a lot of gear. The ability to ‘see’ a photograph is actually more important, all important. But you need the good gear to be as awesome as possible.
So camera gear is really important to keen Photographers. I actually don’t have much though. My thing as you should know by now is ‘minimum gear, maximum impact’. I still need a tripod. As an observation, the WordPress Blog Website sucks a bit of the awesomeness out of the shots, you really do need to click on each photo to see the best quality.
Back to the gear. My needs/wants were quite specific. I needed the ultimate multi-purpose but best quality lens for the landscape and shooting on the move stuff. I also wanted a good quality telephoto lens for wildlife and sports. Finally I really wanted a Full Frame camera. I now have all three. I should still get a tripod though, I have my eye on one. The details on the Camera and lenses if you are interested are:
Camera – Canon 6D
Telephoto Lens – Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM
General Purpose lens – Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS
So…What can one do with the good gear? Let’s have a look.
That’s a Kaka. A New Zealand Parrot. It’s a cool characterful bird less well known than our most famous Parrot, the Kea. But look at the clarity and colour.Saint Gerards Monastery above Oriental Bay in Wellington. I don’t think there are any monks there anymore.The Blue bow of a boat. The boat is a cafe, Wellington has a lot of cafe’s.Looking across the sea to the Kaikoura Ranges in the South Island from Island Bay in Wellington. About 230 kilometres away. You’re supposed to also notice the calm reflective rock pools in the foreground.Derelict Piers at Miramar in Wellington. Mostly used by Seagulls.State Highway One approaching Waiouru at 8:00am on a Sunday Morning. I was just passing through. That’s frost on the ground, not snow.Barn, Wairarapa. Needs work.I don’t think the Railway Escarpment Nature Reserve is out there. I could be wrong. I might have been standing on it.Mt Ruapehu, reflected in a puddle to add a little something to a hard mountain to photograph.That’s a Saddleback foraging, shot in quite dark woodland. fast moving bird, in the dark forest. Looks like daytime.I didn’t really want the pink polar fleece clad local in the shot, but it’s her shed. Boat Sheds at Titahi Bay.That’s what the classic Nor’Wester looks like. Just like that.Handheld shot of Wellington from the Interislander Ferry. Taken in the dark, without a tripod. Tripods are useless on the ferry.You should have seen what happened about 5 minutes before I took this photo. Put it this way, this was almost a news story rather than a photograph.Bridge. That’s all you need.That building on the left is a Cafe, in Nelson. This is Tahunanui.Early in Marlborough. There are 5 Alpaca’s just out of shot to the right. They are cute, they are not locals as a general rule so I excluded them as they made the simple photo require too much description. Alpaca’s would not have enhanced this photo.Wellington waterfront. from the ferry. I like lights on the water.This is a boat called Click in Nelson. With snowy mountains over there.The Royal Spoonbill. You don’t see a lot of those about.This is from the top of my street at night. Well early evening to be precise. Had I mentioned I have moved to Wellington?Finally, I did mention sport, this is my nephew, scoring a goal for his soccer team.
I’m in love with my new camera gear. I still need a tripod though
I’m going to try to create at least one blog post a month. I’ve been slack, well only in writing blog posts. I’ve been out and about an awful lot and taking a lot of photos. But have been neglecting this bit.
