More quake damage, flowers, and shots from out and about

It's hard to believe that I've been using my camera now for a month now. I'm still getting to grips with which settings work best for certain situations, but am now starting to get a good feel for certain sets of settings for certain subjects. For example, what's useful on overcast days in moving vehicles (aka typical travel scenarios)... for which burst-speeds and AI-Servo AF are really handy... hehehe

Having heard that they had finally decided to pull down that tall+elegant brick tower/office block that had been badly damaged during the quake, I took a trip downtown today to take some last shots before it was history. So without further ado, here are some of my favourite shots of the day/week:

The old "Manchester Courts" building on the corner of Manchester and Hereford streets. Soon to be demolished.

For this shot, I got off the car, and walked right up to the fence; the closest I'd gotten to it for ages, as the road blocks extend about a block away each side of the building. It's really a shame to see this old beauty go, but seeing how the bricks were all sheared off in staircase fashion in places really puts things into perspective.

Science Alive clocktower with its new wooden "brace". Apparently, the concrete structure inside is fine, but the bricks on the outside are at risk of falling off, or something like that. IMO, this brace makes it look preety goood... retro "art-deco" good ;)

On reflection, I really quite like this shot. Originally, I was going for the crane in the distance, though AF went for the biker instead, and then when I realised that, the traffic light had changed colour already. 

An interesting alley just before the intersection where I took the photo above.

Scaffolding on Manchester. This scaffolding looks almost as haphazard as the (now infamous) set of Manchester Street buildings in front of which it stands (this is the cluster just north of Tuam St)

All boarded up. This office block used to be a new startup newspaper's office, though that startup quickly went out of business after mere months. Once upon a time, there was a Chinese restaurant next door in the vacant gap, but that was demolished years ago and hasn't been rebuilt on (I remember going there for their egg tarts!).

Merivale in tatters. Many of the old villas in Merivale suffered severe chimney-inflicted roof and related damage

Now for some happier images...

My regular favourite flower to photograph - the camellias in the garden. This time, the light was really nice, though I think playing with white-balance presets here made it look even nicer. Still not too happy about this crop though - the leaves on the side make things tricky!

Another one: fallen. This one reminds me of my shot of the beheaded "God of Prosperity" doll on the floor after the earthquake.

A sunset view. We're getting our fence rebuilt to keep the intruders out better. This placement of the old (disintegrating) parkbench facing the street while sitting under a tree at sunset was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

Weird green flowers (at least that's what I think they are) on a tree nearby.

Some nicely-coloured blossoms on campus that I've been eying up all week... The framing of this one was a bit accidental, but looks rather interesting IMO.

and another shot... of the actual row of blossoms I was planning to take photos of, just outside the department

For more of these shots and others too, check out:
Earthquake Photos and Uni Snapshots