vajrasattva
New Member
This is absolutely refreshing. Rare to see a town lit against darkness and the sky. What a shot.:thumbsup:
Memories of New Zealand ( South Island )
- Thread starter giantcanopy
- Start date
This is absolutely refreshing. Rare to see a town lit against darkness and the sky. What a shot.:thumbsup:
giantcanopy
Senior Member
That last photo took my breath away. :thumbsup:
Got it back though
Thanks a lot for sharing your photos. And I enjoy reading the narration too. I do that too. Gives a lot more feel to the photos.
Looking forward to more.
thanks guys.
asterixsg, loved ur works as well! we hope narration will give others a better perspective of things and hopefully assist in their trip planning! a digital diary of sorts for me as well.
vajrasattva, one of the reasons was Lake Tekapo area is a UNESCO Skylight Reserve. Light pollution is a no no. in fact the reason why i can shoot a minute exposure and not overly blow the lightings of the streets was because they used different lightings there and all streetlights point downwards to curb stray light from going up the atmosphere. The brightest object across the skies that day was the moon, which lighted up the lakes as we took the ride up, but disappeared across the horizom by the time we landed atop.
The staffs at earth&sky observatory gives us a humerous quick education of identifying stars, their famous southern cross, pointer stars, how to find the celestial south while we were up there. ( and many other things which i forgot ;p ) They use a kind of powerful green laser pointer which actually works to point out the stars.
ryan
does this look like the milky way? :thumbsup:
giantcanopy
Senior Member
Yes. So many stars until i see until blur!
That was what i thought when i went up the observatory. WOW!
Here is a closer take with the 24mm on the equatorial mount at a lower ISO setting
# 7
giantcanopy
Senior Member
A shot of the Tasman sea when it is much calmer, that was a few days before the tsunami warning, at lower tides. Skies can be really clear in NZ.
# 8
# 8
Last edited:
giantcanopy
Senior Member
# 9
A branch in Bruce Bay.
The beach is actually pretty barren with rocks and sand, and sandflies, and many dead wood / logs adrifted to shore, and many little stacked stones and stone arrangements by visitors. I thought would have done well in B&W as well, but heck here is the shot taken near sunset. Would have placed a reverse ND for better control but the 12-24mm sigma was pretty tough nut to place at 12 mm with the protruding lens element and the petal hood, also was too overwelmed by the little buzzing draculas..
A branch in Bruce Bay.
The beach is actually pretty barren with rocks and sand, and sandflies, and many dead wood / logs adrifted to shore, and many little stacked stones and stone arrangements by visitors. I thought would have done well in B&W as well, but heck here is the shot taken near sunset. Would have placed a reverse ND for better control but the 12-24mm sigma was pretty tough nut to place at 12 mm with the protruding lens element and the petal hood, also was too overwelmed by the little buzzing draculas..
Last edited:
giantcanopy
Senior Member
ya. as of now, my sandfly bites are still itchy. i heard they last longer than mosquito bites...
# 10
My one and only attempt at taking star trails, thinking i might have cloudless nights for exposure the subsequent nights ( i was a little wrong on that )
anyhow, took about 40+min worth of exposure. Should have opened up a larger aperture for fatter trails. Mt Tasman and Mt Cook at the foreground, lighted by a really bright moon that night. Retrospectively might do a portrait orientation instead.
A better shot would be to identify the celestial south and do nice star trail rings. Unfortunately for that particular day there were other lighted buildings and lacking interesting foreground subjects. If only i got another shot at it..
# 10
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4416308795_49afa680d6_o.jpg
solid :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4416308795_49afa680d6_o.jpg
solid :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
giantcanopy
Senior Member
thanks billy. gotta revise ur tutorial on shooting stars u know ..
Here is a take from above a heli ride when we were in Mt Cook on day 2.
Unfortunately was too windy over fox/franz josef so we could not finish the whole trip (they shortened the trip for us and shortened the bill as well ) Heli rides are very subjected to weather, so do not be too upset if the flight was cancelled due to bad weather, but hopefully u can have another day to do the trip on the same holiday
The snow landing was only 5 min, i bring tripod also no use :bsmilie: i suggest carrying light if u r going for the short heli ride with snow landing. ( I went for a different heli-hike in fox glacier but that will be another story for another time )
Alot of shots were trashed because of bad reflections from the glass windows. ( no we could not open the windows and stick our cameras out ) Probably if u r going to do a good one, ask if u can charter the flight privately for photo sessions (i wonder if they allow opening up the side windows ) , they probably can work out something.
Things dun quite look the same at ground level than when on air. A shot taken ard Tasman Valley area
#11.
emlee
Senior Member
wah, your wife very supportive! i expose for 20mins already kanna passive aggressive treatment liao. good take on the star trail. ya, it is always like that, you think you have another shot at it, but the next day, cloudy or something crop up and spoil it. there is only 1 shot when you travel, so you have to treasure every bit of it.
giantcanopy
Senior Member
I actually left the tripod and camera outside the apartment clearing, with the programmed time remote to do the business, while me and my wife were indoors. Surfing facebook :bsmilie: It was too cold for me to hang outside, and .. abit too antisocial .. there was a massive condensation from my camera / lens to the entire tripod when i brought indoors. ( ** apparently NZ suffered the coldest ever summer this yr )
thanks esther! Wide angle at 12mm. Abit difficult to do stitching in a helicopter environment, was vibrating like crazy all the while and i cannot predict the route taken. The place was too beautiful, I feel I was not doing any service with my shots . . but i am really glad we took heli rides ard the places. We also trekked around the same area the subsequent day but things look so much different from above.
Wasn't too high above i think. the pilot was showing us the river formations and stuffs. And concurrently chatting to his young boy on the intercom who was asking if he would be attending his birthday party that night!
Ryan
giantcanopy
Senior Member
zoossh
Senior Member
thanks billy. gotta revise ur tutorial on shooting stars u know ..
Here is a take from above a heli ride when we were in Mt Cook on day 2.
Unfortunately was too windy over fox/franz josef so we could not finish the whole trip (they shortened the trip for us and shortened the bill as well ) Heli rides are very subjected to weather, so do not be too upset if the flight was cancelled due to bad weather, but hopefully u can have another day to do the trip on the same holiday
The snow landing was only 5 min, i bring tripod also no use :bsmilie: i suggest carrying light if u r going for the short heli ride with snow landing. ( I went for a different heli-hike in fox glacier but that will be another story for another time )
Alot of shots were trashed because of bad reflections from the glass windows. ( no we could not open the windows and stick our cameras out ) Probably if u r going to do a good one, ask if u can charter the flight privately for photo sessions (i wonder if they allow opening up the side windows ) , they probably can work out something.
Things dun quite look the same at ground level than when on air. A shot taken ard Tasman Valley area
#11.
all pics are good, but for the landscape details, this one is my fav (the star galaxy one is obviously the ultimate one but i've no interest in astronomy)
i didn't think the vignette works well in the top corners (but works great in the bottom). the colors for the top will probably come out better if you control on the blue cast. some areas seem a bit soft, dunno if it is due to the glass (probably is), and dunno if selective area sharpening will enhance the overall photo (i thought not), but it is already very good already. NONE of my aeroplane window shot ever make it (not even for posting, let alone good).
and if you got hooked on landscape/aerial shoot.... maybe next destination.... namibia. ;p. the soft mellow shots in the 1st page will find its excellent subjects in that country. it is a step ahead, though i think australia also offer a lot (and nearer)
Last edited:
giantcanopy
Senior Member
hi zoossh nice to have u back. i trashed alot of my arial shots because of internal reflection / obstruction from the bottom part of the window / accidentally catching rotor blade into the frame at the top, but all suffered from the horrible softening from the plastickywindow panes, the 100% size was too soft. This was probably the one that was least touched save some cloning. initially did not plan to have vignetting but i had to hide some bad reflections at the corners :bsmilie:
Aussie is a great suggestion, Namibia sounds like a too exotic travel place for family travels, but i will definitely KIV for retirement shoot.
ryan
zoossh
Senior Member
well, but then maybe it is a way to keep your wife more entertained (if she has no motion sickness).
u can always do a little research about its safety. it may not be more dangerous or more expensive than some of your earlier trips like hoikkaido and this nz. i have seen some pictures from namibia by marsel van oosten, and they are totally your style.
eg.
http://images.google.com.sg/imgland...=isch:1&start=8#tbnid=wXj0_dRVUDew5M&start=12
Similar threads
