New Zealand Archives - Page 105 of 106 - Ed O'Keeffe Photography

9 March 200828 May 2017

Mitsubishi Evolution IX at Malcolm Wilson Rally

When I think of car rallies there are two cars I think of, one being the Subaru Impreza and the second being this car picture above. The Mitsubishi Evo is a fantastic rally car and this one sounded amazing. The noise from the engine really went through me as I stood under some trees in the middle of Whinlatter Forest as the car power-slid around the corner just a few feet away from me. This particular Evo IX was driven by Thomas Naughton with Horace Saville as the co-driver. After doing a little research on the British Trial Drivers Association website, the reason this photo is so sharp is probably because the car was being driven slowly around the corner. The car retired from the rally soon after this photograph was captured because of a broken differential.

29 October 200728 May 2017

Sparkler Pattern

It has been easily five years or more since I last held a sparkler in my hand. Last Saturday I had a couple of packs of them with me and so tried experimenting with long exposures and painting with light experiments. The above photograph is a self portrait. It is very blurred, but that is due to waving the sparkler around to make the pattern. The images were captured with the camera on the tripod and with a remote shutter release. In this particular shot I tried really hard to keep still, I think it is almost impossible to take an image like this and make the face sharp. The exposure was five seconds on this picture. If you do have a digital camera and have sparklers this type of picture is very easily achieved, even on basic compact cameras. Simply make sure that the camera is supported, on a tripod or table etc. Make sure that you have the flash turned off (in auto or programme modes the shutter speed will then compensate for this). Another setting is to use the self timer to reduce camera shake. Light a sparkler, press the shutter and start drawing crazy shapes in front of the lens. You can even try writing your name (backwards of course).

28 June 200728 May 2017

Bell Longranger Helicopter at Manchester Airport

Yesterday afternoon the sun came out and I had a strong urge to get out and make the most of the blue skies and fluffy clouds. So I walked over to Manchester Airport to try and get some photographs of planes taking off and landing. I saw two things at the airport that I had never seen land at Manchester before, one was a very small Cessna plane and one was the helicopter in the photograph above. As much as I love flying and have a keen interest in one day getting my pilots license, helicopters have always seemed very unnatural. Still I like the way I captured this aircraft flying over the runway with the terminal two buildings in the background. The reason why the propellers on the helicopter seem almost stopped is the fast shutter speed of the camera. I could blur them more in Photoshop. but I think I prefer them this way.

3 April 200729 May 2017

Fat Boy Harley Davidson Motorbike

I think this is the first photograph on my blog that was taken using 35mm traditional film. I stopped using film in about 1998, not so much because I moved straight to digital but that’s another story. This photograph was taken some time between 1995 and 1998. I would have been at a car show, probably Tatton Park with my dad. He takes some amazing photographs of motorbike engines, and I think this style of photograph does have a certain style or quality about it that is appealing . The Fat Boy Harley Davidson bikes were first introduced in 1990. I have no details about the age of this model, but to me (I don’t know anything about motorbikes) it looks like there is two fuel tanks. Maybe reader Mark (my biker friend) could comment on this. It’s just a shame a missed out the logo of the bike in the top left.