New Zealand Travels - Part 1

[radar]

Hi,

I was on holiday in New Zealand last week. I always love going to that country. This time I had the camera gear to take some decent photos, I hope. I finally got a bit of time to load some photos. This was on the last day there. Not much PP, just resize for web, a bit of a crop on #2 and #3.

Click on image for a larger version.



#1 - Glendhu Bay close to Wanaka. This was about 30 minutes before sunrise. Glad I came here. In Wanaka itself, there were clouds all over the lake but here, it cleared up by the time I got there.
Nikon D70s, Tokina 12-24 at 18mm, f/16, 1sec



#2 - Cardrona Valley - On the way to Queenstown from Lake Wanaka, it was a glorious morning. This was with the kit lens with a CPL.



#3 - Now in Queenstow. Only spent a day there. I thought this was a bit different, what do you think?

C&C always welcome.

Got plenty more to process, just not enough time right now

cheers,

André

[huynhie]

Great shot Andre, I really like the first photo.

It look really cold there at the moment.

[moggy]

Nice shots, they bring back pleasant memories.

Bob.

.

[griffo]

that first photo looks just like a pic I took in Queenstown....spooky!

uh-oh....horizon police on the way!



the place really is amazing

[mudder]

Beautiful images mate! Isn't NZ a photographic paradise... Spent a couple of weeks there in Jan this year and want to go back and just cruise around in a campervan for a couple of weeks...

[sheepie]

Hi Andre - welcome back Looks like you enjoyed yourself...

The first one here is the best of the three, it has a nice feel to it. The reflection works nicely, and the foreground finishes the shot off nicely.

The Cardrona shot is a classic postcard picture, and of course having sheep in it has to be a winner It wouldn't be a classic kiwi scene without them!

The third one doesn't work for me. I think I can see what you were trying, but (for me at least) it is missing something - or maybe has too much. I don't really know. Looking at it again, I think maybe the lines in it are a bit distracting (the base isn't straight, which gives an impression the steeple is a little off).

Really looking forward to seeing more of these, and catching up with you to talk kiwi stuff

[radar]

thanks for the comments.

The first one is also a favourite. I've got a few variations on it that I'll work on as the sunrise was coming up. I bracketed a few so hope to put them together nicely.

Now that you mention it Leon, it does look a bit off, I'll have to revisit it. Unfortunately, there was a big yellow crane on the left. You can't get away from them much in Queenstown.

griffo, that is a classic NZ shot of the Remarkables. I remember looking at that vista a few times the day I spent in Queenstown.

As you say Andrew, one can just spend days on end finding photo opps in NZ, beautiful country that we keep going back to.

Hope to get more time on the week-end to do some PP.

cheers,

Andre

[rooboy]

All 3 are excellent shots, but I think they need some PP work to really shine. I did a quick job on the first (ignore the purplish tinge in the hills ), if you'd like me to remove it please say so.

[radar]

Certainly makes it pop a lot more

I'll have to do some PP on them to improve it

thanks for showing what is possible. Did you just adjust curves, etc.

cheers,

Andre.

[rooboy]

I did this using Nikon Capture NX. There's a free 30 day version that's well worth a try, especially if you're not very Photoshop-friendly. I set about 4 colour points, to darken and increase contrast in the sky & water, then brightened the foreground & warmed the whole image slightly.

This could be done in PS with some curves work (most important), saturation or by that wonderful cheat option, the Fred Miranda software Velvia Vision . There's always dozens of ways to achieve a particular effect in PP, I like NC because I can just click somewhere and drag a slider to get what I want, much easier than messing in PS.

[Pa]

hello andre,beautiful photos 1&2 candidates for picture of the week well done.
cheers pa

[marcotrov]

Great trip and lovely images Andre
cheers
marco

[pippin88]

Andre, really like them compositionally, but agree they need a bit of PP to make them pop.

A bit of curves adjustment should do fine.