Night Cycling

Obfuscation

In honour of the longest ever tennis match being currently played at Wimbledon by John Isner and Nicolas Mahut (at this point the winner is still undecided), I have decided that today’s photo should be of tennis. Unfortunately, I have not taken a photo of John Isner, however one week after I took this photo, Isner won the Auckland Heineken Open on the same court.

This photo is of Slovenian Polona Hercog and her Kiwi doubles partner Marina Erakovic at the ASB Classic (the women’s equivalent of the Heineken Open) in their 6-3 7-6 loss to the world’s top doubles pairing of Cara Black, of Zimbabwe, and American Liezel Huber on January 4 2010.

I like it because it shows the subterfuge that doubles players engage in. Hercog has her back to her opponents, while Erakovic is covering her mouth while talking to her partner. The players tend to be very paranoid about their conversations being heard or lip-read by their opponents.

Cornwall Park at Dusk

Arrowtown

During the gold rush in the 1870s, more than 3,500 Chinese lived in Arrowtown, mining for gold in some very harsh conditions. This is one of the few remaining huts from that time.

Gold can still be found in the Arrow River nearby. We tried panning for gold about six years ago. After about 30 minutes we discovered a flake of gold in our pan, but in our excitement it got washed away. Back to the day job…

Entwination

As a kid, I used to have puzzle books where I had to trace the lines and work out which line started and ended where through the tangle of other lines.

The Importance of Good Grooming

I was hoping to get some nice photographs of roses and bees, but the rose garden was under maintenance and the bees nowhere to be seen.

I did spot this little fella though and was amazed to see through the magnification of the lens that it was grooming itself – its back legs sliding down its back from behind the wings to its end. This photograph captured it best although it doesn’t show it as well as I would have liked.

Jiggedy Zaggedy

It stopped raining 🙂

No Sunrise in Sight

I saw this photo of Anna’s a few weeks ago and thought that I would try something similar when I had the chance. I think that Anna did it better though. The wind was quite strong so I had to take photos quickly before the water dried out.

The background is from top to bottom, blue sky, neighbour’s red tile roof, white brick fence, dark wooden fence. Cleaning the windows is on my to-do list.

Up the Spout

It has been raining a lot recently and I have a cold. Photography is therefore limited to around home at the moment.

Over the Fence

After a couple of glasses of wine, our neighbour likes to put her records on and sing. Loudly. On her patio. Until 5 a.m. It’s hard to get annoyed with someone who sounds so happy.

She doesn’t do it at the moment due to the cold. I miss it.

Joy Amid Wetness

If I can help it, I won’t cycle in the rain. I don’t mind getting wet, but I don’t feel as safe on wet roads – wet brakes and reduced friction between tyre and road – as I do on dry. Also, when I bought my bike, the mechanic offered to give me a lesson on how to clean it. I made the mistake of accepting his offer, and can now take most of the bike apart and put it back together again completely spotless.

Before I accepted his offer, it would take me 5 minutes to clean my bike. Now, it takes between 90 minutes to 2 hours to do, so I try and reduce the number of times I do it. If I cycle in the wet, I need to clean the bike same day. If I cycle only on dry days, I only need to do a clean once every couple of months.

Last time I took my bike in for a service, it was so clean and in such mint condition that the mechanic asked me if I had ever ridden it. I found that amusing as it had done over 2500 kms since the last service.

I do admire these two cyclists, and the numerous others who were out training on Tamaki Drive on Saturday morning in the heavy showers (and occasional sunshine). There aren’t many events in New Zealand to train for right now, with the biggie being the Round Lake Taupo Challenge in November and the competitive triathlon season beginning about the same time, but it is great to see so many people out cycling anyway, rain or shine.

A Slice of History

I first saw this scene at the Auckland Tank Farm about a month ago. At the time, I only had my 6-year-old digital compact on me while my SLR was getting repaired and the resulting pictures were not what I wanted.

As soon as my SLR returned, I retook the photos, only to discover when I got home that the camera settings were all at their defaults. While I could have probably got the image I wanted with a RAW image, I couldn’t get what I wanted with the JPEG that had been produced.

Take 3 had completely washed out skies.

Take 4, I didn’t even bother getting out my camera as it started pouring as soon as I arrived on site.

This is the fifth attempt, and most likely the last as this area will be completely levelled in the next few weeks. Some of my photos such as this one used a graduated ND filter and I was amazed at how the sky was completely white in the photographs where the filter was omitted, and how well the sky came out when it was fitted.

Things Can Always Be Made More Interesting

I try and catch up with some friends from school every few months. Occasionally we play mini golf. Last year, we discovered Black Light (Glow in the dark) mini golf and I don’t think that we will ever go back to ordinary mini golf again. Funny thing though – our scores are nearly identical to when we could see what we were doing in regular mini golf.