Golden Sunset

This photo was taken from our balcony yesterday evening. I increased the shutterspeed to about the highest I've consciously used. The chimney is our next door neighbor's.

Golden Sunset Details

The above photo is on a higher zoom. The one beneath is both on high zoom and had noise reduction applied.

Mishka

Mishka is a nearly-three-month-old 'Ragdoll' cat.

November balcony dusk

My first application of noise reduction software (see post below the one below).

Balcony moon at dusk

Totally unprocessed.

Neatimage

The above dusk photos show up what is probably the major fault of our Panasonic Lumix fz30 - visual 'noise' under low light / high ISO settings (speckled and grainy image). The fact that this hasn't been a problem in the half year we've had the camera shows that we probably got the camera suited to our needs.

Anyway, now that I've taken some shots that had a lot of noise, I've downloaded a noise reduction program called Neatimage, and applied it to the photo. I've applied it to the dusk photo above, but not the one of the moon. I've added a link under a renamed 'my stuff' [technical section] of links on the side bar.

Jacaranda I

This is the view from our front 'lawn' patch, over the courtyard's ivy covered wall, to the next door neighbors' jacaranda. They are the trees the council used as street trees in our street. Different streets around here feature patches of different types of tree. It's kind of nice to have jacarandas around, although none are as impressive as the one that loomed over the fence at our last place (click here to see a winter view of it).

Jacaranda II

This is the view from our balcony looking out to the neighbors' place across the street. The Jacaranda is 'our' street tree. The neighbors have beans in the front yard and solar panels on the roof. Makes you think they're aging hippies.

World Pool I

Both this and the following images are majorly modified shots of the sky reflected on the pool surface early on Saturday afternoon. I used the Arcsoft Photoimpression software to alter the hue and then applied the 'firelight' effect in the 'create' menu (first time I've used effects). It would probably be a bit boring if you saw it all the time, but these images are quite striking...

World Pool II