Austin Fixup

This is a display at the Southward Car Museum of an Austin in a mechanic shop. I love the warm tones and feel of the photo that kind of transports you back in time to make you part of the era and setting.

I would encourage you to view the full image. Notice how your eyes keeps jumping around in the scene searching out the various bits of interest.

Something else I need to point out, of all my photos on this blog, this one is possibly THE best example on how good the image stabilizing is on the Tamron 18-270mm PZD. This image is a 3 shot HDR taken hand held. The shots were taken at 0.4s, 1/10s and 1/40s. The manufacturer claims a 4 stop advantage with this lens due to the image stabilization and I can vouch for that from experience. I know I would not have made the shot with any of my other lenses.

Enjoy!

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/10sec at f8, ISO 800, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

And here is a slightly different angle.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 20mm, Exposure 1/13sec at f8, ISO 800, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Cobblestone Museum Shed

Next time you drive through to Masterton, make a point of visiting this amazing little museum in Greytown.

This image is of one of the displays. Due to lighting it gave the perfect setting for a 7 shot HDR. Why 7 shots you ask. Well, I was using a Raspberry Pi to control my camera since the Canon can only take 3 shot bracketed. Good HDR photos require a setting (subject matter) with a lot of contrast and lighting levels. With the sun partially shining in to the shed, I had nice dark and lighted areas. Hope you like the outcome.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/5-1/30sec at f8, ISO 800, Focus manual, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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1909 White Steam Car Lamp

This is most likely a 1909 White Steam Car Roadster. Have a look at the video links here to see one being built up by Jay Leno from a pile of rust. What an amazing car!

The White Motor Company operated from 1900 to 1980. On July 4, 1905, a racing steam car named "Whistling Billy" and driven by Webb Jay set a record of 73.75 mph (118.66 kph) on the Morris Park Racecourse. In 1909, president-elect William Howard Taft selected a 40 hp (30 kW) White Model M 7-seat tourer as the first official automobile of the President of the United States. The last steam cars were built in 1911 after which the company moved over to petrol cars.

Here is my shot taken at the Southward Car Museum. I do hope the photo will do the car justice :-)

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 119mm, Exposure 1/100sec at f8, ISO 800, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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1943 Schwimmwagen

Taken at the Southward Car Museum.

To quote Wikipedia:

"The VW Type 128 and 166 Schwimmwagen (literally Floating / Swimming Car) were amphibious four-wheel drive off-roaders, used extensively by the German Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the Second World War. The Type 166 is the most numerous mass-produced amphibious car in history.

VW Schwimmwagens were produced by the Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben / Wolfsburg and Porsche's facilities in Stuttgart; with the bodies (or rather hulls) produced by Ambi Budd in Berlin. 15,584 Type 166 Schwimmwagen cars were produced from 1941 through 1944; 14,276 at Fallersleben and 1,308 by Porsche. Given these numbers, the VW 166 is the most mass-produced amphibious car in history. Only 163 are known by the Schwimmwagen Registry to remain today, and only 13 have survived without restoration work."

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/50sec at f8, ISO 800, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Southward Car Museum

Over the coming weeks I will post some highlights of our trip to the Southward Car Museum yesterday. All in all I took almost 500 photos :-)

So as a start, here is a 5 shot panorama of the main floor of the museum. For those of you who have not yet been, especially if you are a petrol head like me, YOU GOTTA GO!!!

Back to the aim of this blog - my Tamron lens performed beautifully. It allowed me a useful 18mm for most of the shots since you are pretty close to the subject matter being constrained by the insides and layout of the museum. I could also get some nice close ups shots like the badge off a Porche 911, and it gave me the option to take shots of interesting bits at full 270mm zoom to blur out the busy background to isolate the focal point. I must also note that the brilliant image stabilizing allowed me hand held shots throughout not using flash but only museum lighting.

(click the image for a fuller version)

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/100sec at f8, ISO 800, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Aiming at Wellington

This cannon is just next to the Dominion Observatory in the botanical gardens in Wellington. Not the easiest subject due to the greyish paint color of the cannon. I've tried to make the composition as interesting as possible with the cannon on the right etc. Some post processing in Photoshop managed to regain some character in the cannon.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/250sec at f8, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Cable Car

I am on leave, so we took the boys on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens and the Observatory. To get there we took the cable car up from Lambton Quay. At the top I had a chance to snap the following pics.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/250sec at f8, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

 Below a 3 shot bracketed HDR.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/320sec at f8, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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