Wee Wet Waterfall

A deteriorating frontal system moving across New Zealands Southern Alps…

Perfect weather to chase for that extra drama that lifts an image and imparts a story to the viewer.

Well that was the theory… in actuality it was all mist glad ridges, damp grey light and a miserable drizzling rain.

But you can only sit in your nice warm car for so long watching the rain drift across the car window ;-) so with few sighs and the odd mutter I levered myself up, out and away from the car. A short walk, a stumble or two across slick tree roots and mossy boulders and I was hunkered down under a little footbridge happily (ish) snapping the odd frame of a little step waterfall.

Often the high expectations at the start of a day can be left along way short of the end result, but, all in all I was quite happy to come away with more than a wet pair of boots.. :-)

The step waterfall..

Mountain Moon Set

Its fair to say that Sunrise and Sunset take the lion share of the vote for most photographed times of the day be it from a landscape photographers point of view or just a quick holiday snap.

Its also true that often from a judging perspective it is all to easy to become somewhat “numbed” to the share volume of images that get presented for competitions. At least this is what Judges have told me several times :-)

Which is why I enjoyed taking this image of “Moon set” over an alpine lake in Canterbury’s high country.

Despite the fact it was two hours before sunrise the the amount of light that was left as the Moon sank behind the far ridge was enough to illuminate the whole scene at a 30’s exposure and only ISO 1000.

I was just lucky that a particular cloud, building up over the ridge on my camera left was still catching the moonbeams (?) so provided a beautiful contrast to the heavily shaded ridge to my right.

And, the bonus is that I also got a sunrise in that morning as well…. ;-)

Green Clothed Vandals.....

Well, sort of…..

Anyone who has spent time in the alpine areas of New Zealand will be familiar with the mighty Kea, New Zealand’s and in fact the Worlds only Alpine Parrot.

Clothed in muted shades of green its only when in flight, or preening, that you get to observe the brilliant under-wing orange plumage that more resembles the colour you expect from a Parrot.

Nestor notabilis - You turn your back for just one second….

But that’s not the point of this post, oh no not at all, that info is all readily available off the net. And when you do some research you will no doubt come across that other small matter of Kea’s proclivity to vandalise any and all human made objects whenever they get the opportunity!

A quick stop at Arthur’s Pass National Park (APN) after a morning shoot ended up with a gang of Kea’s descending on my car’s roof rack’s as soon as I turned away to take a couple of snaps… As you can see from the 1st image above, Kea’s posses an extremely strong and sharp beak along with some serious foot wear..

After shooing away the gang I ended up taking a quick image of one of the miscreants posing before I left and it turned out to be an image that has now been sold a few times, meaning I get to have the last laugh on the Kea.

This time… :-)

Strike a Pose!

The last minutes of the day.....

I can honestly say I have seen more sunsets in the last few years of landscape photography than many people see in a lifetime.

Sure, you see it when your driving back from work, on the bus, at dinner etc… But when your standing in total seclusion, with out any noise apart from the wind in the trees the occasional bird and across this lake the gentle clacking splash of a row boat, then you get a 100% immersive experience.

Oh, and at this lake there is no cellular signal (fist pump!) And its rowboat only, no outboards.

So I just stood, in the cooling evening air, and clicked off the occasional frame as sunrise ended and the long shadows crept across the lake and far mountains of the Southern Alps.

I will be back!

Silence is golden, or maybe rose gold in this case…

Last Rites..

If I was french I would say I had a Penchant for lurking around old abandoned piers, jetties, wharf’s and bridges… taking pictures of them that is.

But i’m not so lets just say I “have a strong or habitual liking for something or tendency to do something” ;-)

This old pier from St Clair Beach, on Dunedin’s coast has been photographed a 1000 times and more and I dutifully clicked my way through some frames this morning along with another random photographer.

After the usual compositions were shot I wandered around looking for something a little different and end up with this image, which gave me , in my eyes, the most interesting image for the morning.

Some days, you just have to love a good old stark and minimalist scene like this.

Stoic Timbers - The last of there kind on this beach…

A whole lot of nothing...

If you get caught up in chasing the more dramatic types of landscapes it can often be quite cathartic to kick back and look for more subtle and quite compositions.

I find this part quite hard and often come back to my image files multiple times before my creative side ‘clicks’ and I realise what the image is all about.

The below is an example of an image I played with in Lightroom a few times before a subtle crop and some colour adjustments gave this balanced, simplistic final image that takes well to the panoramic sizing.

Muted colour and clearly separated areas are a point of interest.

Motion...

Just before dawn on a New Zealand east coast beach…

Seagulls perform their usual harsh wake up call. They are few and far between this morning so are drowned out by the hissing of wave over sandy beach shingle…

Its early February but there’s a cool breeze easing in off the Pacific, nothing a warm jacket, and a warm cup of coffee can’t stave off however.

Its the second location for the morning, 3rd composition, taken with the 2nd coffee of the day. The 1st drink was somewhere between 3 or 4am as I navigated my way out of Christchurch’s suburban sprawl and the 2nd as I cruised this coastal towns main highway looking for another caffeine hit to sustain me through the morning.

I’ve already taken an image or two of this location but as the waves sweep up the beach my eye is drawn to the movement up, across and back down the beach each time. A cycle any regular beach traveller can vouch for as hypnotic…

The clinical photographer part of my brain laments the lack of clouds on the horizon to give more drama to the image, to be lit up by the sun’s 1st beams.

But the creative part revels in the motion, the blurred lines between water and shingle and the soundscape punctuated by the click of my cameras shutter…..

It’s a good morning..