Rural Installation Art?

Once again I woke before sunrise and went out on a run. Over to the other side of the peninsula; past the Baptist School, educational, and religious instruction centre hoping to reach the edge of the Mahurangi River estuary. Blocked by farms at the end of the road, and no public way through.

On the way back I spotted an abandoned old tractor in the middle of a field in which the grass was being left to grow long enough for hay or silage. The sun had risen by this time and the clouds were showing the effects of the still low in the sky sun.

To be able to see the tractor in the photograph, and still retain the olours in the sky, I needed to decrease shadow, adjust the S curve, and also adjust highlights. The end result was a little noisy, so I also decreased the noise. This is pretty much what I remember seeing.

One can tell from the steering wheel of this tractor that it is a very old one. The grass tufts around the wheels suggest that it hasn't been moved for quite some time. Hence my query about its purpose in the middle of a field.

Most of the rest of the day was spent in getting son and his family to the airport and onto their plane back to Sydney. Then us back up here.

Yesterday, I had intended to comment on the solitary heron of November. He (it or she) is still the only heron in the southern part of Snells Beach. Intriguingly, yesterday morning it was in the middle of a group of gulls. I wonder at the reason(s) for its solitude, as all the others are in groups of at least two and usually more.