19 May 2014

February, 2010.  Road trip with my eldest daughter Jessica.

I was driving her to Dunedin with a car full of  furniture for her flat.

I spotted this scene while driving along the Canterbury Straight towards Ashburton. Having overtaken a few slow moving vehicles the decision is “do I stop for a photo and have those overtaken cars, over take me ?”.

Male Ego or Photographic Interest is the decision.

A quick U turn and 20 minutes later a photographic history of that spot in time had been recorded!

I think it was worth the delay in the journey. (Jessica was very patient……)

Canterbury Plains Redux

Well, peer pressure  forced me to revisit the picture. I cropped back the cloud and desaturated the cloud so there is less distracting colour. Then I increased the vibrance of the whole scene. Happy Brent and Richard? I think you were both “right”.

As a matter of interest I thought I would show everyone the original scene I saw .

8 May 2014

I bought the Nikon D800 (36mp) for this type of image. Because of the extremely high resolution, the sensor records any error in technique and deficiency in lenses. I made a point of bringing my tripod with me from Wellington to Auckland. The occassion was my Aunty Marions 80th Birthday. I purposely booked an extra day so I could drive to Muriwai . I discovered the Muriwai colony by looking at photographs from a wonderful bird  photographer Steve Richards . Judging by the scene I thought you would need to walk for miles and camp yourself on a precarious  slope. No he said, its just 5min walk above the car park. Talk about accessible! Great for an outdoors wimp like me.

 I mentioned in the previous article about shooting images that have been done before. Well this is another one…. Just Google the heading and see all the different images.

Well it was raining when we drove north of Auckland. The Occassional Photographer (see about me) doesn’t plan much, relies  on dumb luck and the presence of Sally, his wife as a good luck charm. Just like when we went to China , Yellow Mountain, the weather was overcast and raining. i was thinking dark clouds ahead and a waste of a tour. But that rain brought an unusual late snow to the mountain and when we got to the top it was like a white Chrismas. But thats another story…..

When we got to the colony after having lunch at the Muriwai golf course the weather started to clear up. Then I realised I left my tripod in the suitcase in the motel. I blame the jet lag. Thats me the occassional photographer. Anyway we walked around the various tracks above the carpark and I stoppped upon this scene. When fortunately there was a fence post to support my elbows at just the right place!  And the Sun was coming out! Thats me the occassonally forgetful but sometimes lucky photographer.

26 July 2013   Nikon D800   iso 200  18mm f 4.5  1/500sec  (no tripod!)  lens14-24 f2.8