Orca Spotting In The Harbor
Last Friday Sam and I went out shooting as usual, making the most of the fine weather that has since departed. As we parked the car on Oriental Parade we noticed people staring out into the harbor. We got out of the car and put Sam into the backpack and went and had a look.
It turned out to be a pod of Orca cruising round the harbor.
Now a Rolleiflex isn’t the best camera to take images of things far away so I settled on taking images of the people watching… However when I developed and scanned the film I did get one shot with an Orca in it (see image below between the two people on the left… If you cant see it I have enlarged it and it is the next image down).
After they had passed we continued on our walk and in the next marina we spotted a seal that the Orca must have chased in, it came within a few metres of us and just as I was about to take its photo someone stomped up behind us to have a look and scared it away (sigh). I hope he got away… Sam was saying “cat” and waving to it and the seal was waving back…Very cute.
Later in the day when we were driving out to Lower Hutt there was chaos on the motorway as people were pulling over and getting out of their cars to look at the Orcas as they continued on their way around the harbor basin.
Sometimes you gotta love Wellington 🙂
Above: Orca fin… This is why I didn’t get more images of them 🙂
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Kodak TMAX 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Rollei Night Shooting
I went out last Friday night shooting with a couple of friends. We headed to the waterfront since they both wanted to get some panos of the city. I started taking a pano when my trusty D70s became less than trusty and died on me again, it seems to die a lot lately, I must think of some diabolical way to make money to finally upgrade it… Not that I can really complain since I’ve had it for about 8 years and really thrashed it (the 18-70mm lens now only works from 18-57 and no longer has a focus ring). I did take a couple of Half Frame panos but my Demi is flaky at best and I wasn’t sure how they would turn out.
Anyway, so I got bored waiting for the other two and noticed that there seemed to be some portrait thing on with about three groups of people taking portraits with speedlights… Well time for some Rolleiflex action 🙂
I haven’t done too much of this due to the fact that in low light it is really hard to focus since the original ground glass screen is kind of dark at the best of times (still need to upgrade it to a much brighter Hasselblad on which is 2 to 3 stops brighter) so with these I just guesstimated the distances which is a little bit hit and miss.
The second shot was a total focus miss but I really liked how creepy it feels…
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Foam Fountain
Walking around last weekend I noticed the fountain on the waterfront had been foamed… Strangely this coincided with a pro cannabis gathering at Frank Kits park next to the fountain… All I needed to do was wait 🙂
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Boat
Man cleaning the Hull of his boat… I have to say that it is a pretty cool boat and was a good counterpoint to the brand new Volvo Ocean Race boat that was being shown off in the water next to it… This one was cooler by far 🙂
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Grandstand Sleeper
Some people can all asleep anywhere… This is on the temporary grandstand for the Dragon Boat Races
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Boat Repairs
Saw this walking along Oriental Parade… I have looked many times since but nothing seems to be happening with it…
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Chilln
Making the most of the last warm weather before the swift descent into winter…
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Urban Jungle
The council has put in free WiFi internet on the waterfront of Wellington, probably for the Rugby World Cup later in the year, so there has been an increase in computer users in this area.
I kind of like the comparison of the real trees and the large pole structures as well as the fact that there is no one else in the image apart from the computer user.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Dragon Boat Festival
This is the second post from the Dragon Boat Festival from the 19th of March (oppps is it really a month since this was on?). This is the day after I was taking photos with the Rolleiflex, I decided to take my Nikon F5 with my 80-200 f2.8 and get a bit closer to the action.
I had scoped out the best position to be the day before and just before the first race I went down under the bridge onto a floating pier and lined myself up with the middle of the only lane close enough to shoot down. Amusingly about a minute after I was in place one of the Dominion Post photographers came along… He stood on one side of me… Then the other side…Then back to the first side… At this point I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat (yes I have just finished reading Alice in Wonderland to Emily) as he stood beside me with his 500mm telephoto cause Id snaked his spot (small things amuse me).
I just noticed as I was putting this post together that the girls on the bridge in image Dragon Boat 4 are the same girls in their bot in image Dragon Boat 7 and 8… Weird.
Nikon F5, 80-200mm f2.8 Lens, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Shooting Some Shooters
When you go to an Event that is like the Dragon Boat Festival a couple of weeks ago with a Rolleiflex a lot of the time it isn’t worth photographing the actual event due to the Rollei not having much in the way of a telephoto ability… But that doesn’t mean you don’t get to take images or have fun 🙂
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner
Collectors With Guns
The Armageddon/Comicon event was on in the weekend, I spotted this at the queue to get in. Is it ethical for collectors for (I am assuming) the Christchurch earthquake to have guns? Kinda takes it to the next level really. I did also miss a shot of Darth Vader also collecting…
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000 Scanner.
Darkhalide Photography 
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