Lightly Toasted

Hydrangeas in the garden

2012-03-27T02:50:27Z

Welcome 2012!! Happy New Year! Hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year break. How quickly did 2011 go? And before you know we’re already racing through 2012! Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous and great 2012. May all your dreams take flight and may this year bring you lots of joy, happiness & health.

I did take some photos during the break but nearly not as much as I did in the past few years. As the year picks up am sure to though. Here are some Hydrangea shots in colour and black and white from the front garden around our unit. Click on the photos for a closer look.

Lucky bamboo plant

2012-01-14T10:36:54Z

Can you tell am running out of ideas to post? Well here is the salubrious view from the potty The young lucky bamboo plant was an addition to the family today. Isn’t it a nice view even though its right out our bathroom window? Both in summer and winter this window offer beautiful soft filtered natural light that streams through our place not to mention the lovely birds and the greenery.

Jagos Café at North Sydney

2011-12-07T05:55:33Z

Consider yourself lucky, very lucky, when all you do is point your camera at your friends and they put up with you. But then friends happily pose and love to play model too, right? Tray, Pete, D and I went down to Jagos for brunch a fortnight back. The weather was good. Well HOT. Much different from the 15 degree cold night we’re in at the moment. I took some shots up close and personal, as you do! Isn’t the Nikon D7000 a charm! I’m still learning to use the various features of this new work horse. At every bend there is more to learn. Most of these are pretty much right out the camera with minor image-sharpening and exposure compensation. The colours are right out the camera as is the noise free imagery! Gee its great to be a Nikoian!

Rain droplets on the window

2011-11-18T06:09:29Z

It isn’t exactly summer yet, but when the rain descended on us this afternoon I was really thinking of Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Summer Rain’. Oh how I love that song. Homeward bound this afternoon there was a bit of traffic delays following a 95 year old man who drove his car into the rail tracks accidentally crashing down about ten metres down an embankment on to train tracks at Pymble! Luckily unhurt. As we stood in a little traffic I took the opportunity to shoot lazily and amuse myself with the rain droplets on the window and mirror.

Remember that famous line from “American Beauty“:

[quote]…Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.[/quote]

– Ricky Fitts

No more a Nikon lurker

2011-11-11T14:07:35Z

Remember how I constantly bitched and moaned about Canon’s less than perfect imaging on the DSLRs? Well the moment of truth for me arrived on Wednesday the 9^th of November. I got my first Nikon body a D7000 with a AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G Lens to boot! (Thx Kreeson for organising the lens) I know the D7000 is less than perfect and a crop sensor. Still, by gee, it seems to deliver picture perfect pixels right out-the-box. Quite impressed!

Melissa and I went out to the local hideout Peas in Alexandria. These shots were taken at ISO 6400 on a cloudy(not overcast) but day. In other words Canon would throw in miles of Red, Magenta and green luminance noise and halo if shot at that ISO. See what the D7000 delivers in Auto mode set to ISO 6400! Sorry for the geek talk. It means Nikon you’re starting to rock my world! BTW Melissa that top looks very nice on you.