Difficult to Concentrate.

Sunday Morning.

It's just the wasted years so close behind.

Any Old Hipster Mountain.

In the enduring tradition of self parody, here's a hipster version of the same old mountain.

Cropped by Jun, aka Mr Flatmate. Masterfully, I might add.

Still here.

All the photos are vertical!

By Andrew (#1)

Andrew, while being injured and taking a break from climbing, took this photo.

Somehow this picture captures what happened that day almost perfectly, if you ask me.

From Seoul #2

The home of one of the biggest life insurers in Korea and also one of my (erstwhile) favourite bookshops. 

Also one of a handful of places in Seoul where I could reliably find and get to.

Any Old Mountain.

Although I guess the new season really started with the labour weekend (and the Kawakawa Sunsets), this trip still made me feel like I was in a whole new summer.

That was the main thing, really. Any old mountain would've done.

From Seoul, #1

From Seoul, near Gwangwhamun.

Midnight Campsite

Espresso.

More than a small part of the reason why I like making coffee is that I think it looks pretty neat.

100th.

This is my 100th post on this blog. Woop woop.

Rainy day on Queen St.

Arthur's Pass.

It was the 22nd of December. I had parted with my friend earlier that day, and was driving alone towards the Arthur's Pass village that evening.

The storm, somewhat typical of the West Coast was brewing and the day was getting late. I stopped on the way and snapped this. The camera got quite wet from this shot.

Kawakawa Sunset, #3

The same evening as #1. Adjusted curve to make everything look a bit softer.

And that's it, folks!

Kawakawa Sunset, #2

This is from the previous day, when it rained a bit.

Kawakawa Sunset, #1

There's going to be a set of three sunset shots from Kawakawa Bay.

Here's the first, as I posted on Facebook earlier.

GST time.

I need to do my GST, but I'm procrastinating, playing with photos.

Moving at the speed of cliché.

Motion blurred photo of a blurry idea.

Focus!

Still Waipapa. One of my favourite crags.

Up, towards a rock roof.

Oh, the futility.

4.99

Late night in a Fresh Choice for a want of a smoked salmon.

This is a wrong aisle.

Glorious

'The Glorious Dead', as it says on the stone.

Neighbourhood, #1

Around my neighbourhood (Grafton).

I've lived in this part of the city for about two years, and I don't think I ever walked to the Domain until today. Well, it's done now.

Newton

Somewhere in Newton.

Three Tones.

Taken this morning. 

Beach.

The day that I left Barcelona. I drove back from Madrid the day prior. 

Alone in Barcelona.

El Caminito del Rey

Finally, I've gone through my Caminito photos.

Multiple photos are hosted on Picasa. Here's the link.

And here's a sample. Hint: I didn't take any good photos that day.

Broken Star

Oh, Barcelona. 

Gaudi Double Header

So there's this church in Barcelona. It's famous. EVERYONE takes photos of it. So I tried, too. First is close-up.

And secondly, from a bit further away.

Singapore.

Everyone who has flown through Singapore would know where this is.

Valencia.

This is Valencia. There's a big market just outside the big church.

I wish I took more photos from there.

Birthday moon.

My 30th birthday was unimaginably cool. A multi-pitch climbing adventure, followed by a lunar eclipse... although this photo doesn't really show it (because it was taken a day earlier. Hah!)

This was the view out the balcony of the hostel we stayed at.

A Church in Granada

A church in Granada. Never learnt its name, never really cared too much.

It was a nice morning, though, and we were going for a coffee and ... um.. Tiramisu? I think that's what the next photo is. 

We drove to Sierra Nevada that day. Good bye Granada!

Siurana.

Does this summarise my feelings about Siurana? Why, yes it does.

I still have no idea what the colours should be like, but here's an attempt. There are more from the same evening, that I'll try and post process differently.

Scenes from El Chorro

Here are two very similar photos from El Chorro. It was a good day with a golden sunset and some nice climbing.

Madrid night.

Well, technically, the people who built the building and sculpted the sculpture and lit the whole thing did all the hard work.

The Royal Palace.

A super touristy photo of the royal palace in Madrid.

Getting over the laziness.

I've spent about a month not doing any photos. Well, now I started missing the deathly heat of southern Spain, I guess I really should start uploading some of them.

Back form Spain

And from the sleepless Madrid nights.

Here we go.

Someone really dislikes this photo.

I think it's pretty neat.

Queen St.

Queen St., Auckland.

I'm boiling potatoes.

While that's going, here's a photo.

I'm blinded.

Interestingly, I have picked two better photos to show other people and post processed them, then lost them in an accident. (I deleted them.)

So I found another two, that looks kinda similar and re-cropped them. Same flowers anyway.

This was long time coming.

And now, finally.

Mongolian Woods

An interesting historic blip:

The Beatles' song 'Norwegian Wood' is translated as 'Norwegian Forest' (as in, the woods) in Japanese. Haruki Murakami has written a novel named after the song.

I read the Korean translation of the novel, (which was titled, of course, as the 'Norwegian Forest') long before I started listening to the Beatles. And therefore for a long, long time I was very confused about the lyrics of the song. I always had pictured the story to take place in some Norwegian lumberjack's hut rather than a London flat.

Anyway, this is Mongolia. It's not all desert.

Lines and boredom.

Not false colour any more.

Rainy Town Square.

Not Auckland, obviously. This is Bhaktapur. 

Enough of city shots. I miss nature. 

Afternoon.

Right now, it's rainy Sunday afternoon, 15th of May, 2011. (I just wrote 2009 and realised that it wasn't.) This post is scheduled to go up on Friday afternoon, 20th.

This photo was taken yesterday when I walked to down town via Queen St., then walked up Symonds St. back home. It's a scene of one of the cheap-looking (but pretty damn sure not anywhere near cheap) apartments along Symonds St. 

So, this is the past and the future all at once. Standard warm/cold split toning and a grad filter on the right to lessen the bright/dark contrast.