I didn’t take many photos in July, mainly due to the weather making it much more difficult to get outside.

Grass

You know, I just realized I don’t actually know what these things are called. That’s pretty embarassing. Anyway, this was just playing round with aperture some more and practicing getting the focus right. You can see that in the nice separation of subject from the grass in front of that at the back, with a light blur.

If I had to retake this, I would probably try to find a shot where there was a little less distracting fronds, as I think it makes the shot quite busy having all those in there.

Tree

Yup, its another cliche shot, this time of the tree trunk looking up. I kinda like how this turned out though, its a classic for a reason. I really pushed the colour on this to try and emphasize the greens, but looking at it now, I think it could probably do with some more tweaking. The greens on the front look a little unreal, and the brown of the trunk could be better contrasted.

I think I would also have tried to use a slightly wider lens, as this was 50mm, which is probably a tiny bit closer than would have been ideal.

Still life

This one is interesting to me because its such an ordinary scene. Theres nothing special about the framing or composition, and the subject isn’t really that interesting. But to me it feels like a frozen moment, like someone just stepped out for a second, but they’ll be right back in the photo.

Beach

I really tried to emphasize the gorgeous whiteness of the sand in the Coromandel with this. I really like how it contrasts with the blueness of the ocean. I think if I was gonna redo this, I would maybe use a higher fstop and get less of the background blurred, just to see what it looks like with the whole thing in focus.

Archway

This was taken at Driving Creek Railway, and the framing of the doorway with the light in the background looked super cool to me. It makes you wonder whats through the door up the steps. I wish there was less junk on the left hand side, as I think it looks a little messy and distracting compared to the right side with the bricks. But the like the shot overall. The bright spots where the sun strikes was a little hard to balance out and might have benefited from blending a darker exposure, but i think it turned out pretty well without needing to go too hard on the edits.

The ‘Eyefull’ Tower

This was from the ‘Eyefull’ Tower (you know, like the French one), a lookout at Driving Creek. The top of the tower has an almost 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside and native bush, and really is amazing in person. I really liked the look of the hills fading into the background out of the window that you can see here, it reminded me of the firewatches in the US.

I had to do an HDR shot to get the exposure right for the inside and the outside, but sadly there were some pretty bad ghosting artifacts. You can see it most obviously on the window latch. I guess I moved too much between each frame. I don’t think it really came out like I imagined in my head either, theres just something lacking. I’m not sure if its the framing or what, but something doesn’t quite work in this, in my opinion. Maybe I should have taken a step back.

The top of the Coromandel

And best for last. This was my favourite from the month. We managed to get to the lookout above Coromandel Town right before the sun started going down, and this was the result. This was taken by stitching together seven or so vertical frames, and the full size image is huge. I really like panoramas for how much detail you can capture and make a gigantic image.

The only thing I would change with this is maybe waiting a little longer for the sun to go down further, but its hard when you’re with other people who don’t want to wait in the cold :D

Closing thoughts

As you can see, I actually remembered you can rotate your camera to get a vertical image. This can help get more of the surroundings in the shot, and change the perspective. Something I need to remember for the future.