Nikon D800 – Stuck in Customs
11
Mar 2019 : Monday
filed under  Camera Gear, Moeraki, New Zealand, Nikon D800, Travel

More of the Moeraki

New Star Wars Park

This is pretty cool – check out the new park Disney is building for Star Wars. I asked my Disney contact if we can get in there early to do a private photowalk. How cool would that be!?!

Daily Photo – More of the Moeraki

I haven’t been back to the Moeraki boulders in probably for years, but I did recently finish working on this shot. Seeing it reminds that I need to get back over there! It’s only about 2 or 3 hours away from here, and it sounds like another good reason for a road trip!

More of the Moeraki

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2012-11-27 21:09:13
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time1/15
  • Aperture11
  • ISO50
  • Focal Length16.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias+1

Comments
11
Feb 2019 : Monday
filed under  Camera Gear, New Zealand, Nikon D800, Travel

Stars in New Zealand

Don’t watch this on Mushrooms

Check out this crazy CGI videos this guy made…I’ve put 10 of them in a playlist for you (they last 30-60 seconds each). I’d love to find more of these. I think I could watch them for hours!

Daily Photo – Stars in New Zealand

It’s the middle of summer now, and you only get this Aurora Australis action down here in the winter months. When people ask me when they should come to New Zealand, I tell them it really doesn’t matter! Every season, especially on the south island is about exactly 3 months long and has a special flavor all of its own. We usually hold our Photo Workshops in the Autumn, because that’s one of my favorite times for photos… but if you want these Auroras, come in the winter.

Stars in New Zealand

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2012-07-15 11:45:23
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time30
  • Aperture2.8
  • ISO1600
  • Focal Length14.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
30
Jan 2019 : Wednesday
filed under  Camera Gear, New Zealand, Nikon D800, Queenstown, Travel, Workshops

The Korean Prison in the Distance

Becoming an Artist, Episode 5

Welcome to the fifth week of the new year and the fifth episode of the show!

Daily Photo – The Korean Prison in the Distance

This is a shot from here in Queenstown atop Deer Park Heights. We brought one of our workshops up here early one morning to check out the scene. At the time, there was a Korean Prison built, and you can see it over on the left there. It was used for a totally terrible Disney movie and they just kind of left it up there. There’s no way the Department of Conservation would let you get away with that nowadays! I’m pretty sure it’s been destroyed now.

The Korean Prison in the Distance

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2013-02-08 11:32:54
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time1/250
  • Aperture7.1
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length17.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-2

Comments
22
Nov 2018 : Thursday
filed under  Nikon D800, Otago, Queenstown, Travel

Beautiful Queenstown

Best Black Friday / Cyber Monday Photography Deals

Searching for the best photography deals? We’ve made a tidy little list which will hopefully save you time and money!

Only TWO spaces left for our New Zealand Photo Workshop

Also, be sure to pop over to our workshops page to get more info and sign up. You’ll love it! (Be sure to check out the Black Friday page above for a special offer on the Workshops…)

Daily Photo – Beautiful Queenstown

You might recognize this from a lot of advertisements that Google ran to promote its Chromebook laptops. That caused a minor point of contention, I will tell you, honestly. But I didn’t have any desire to sue Google because I have so many friends there. Besides, the idea to sue a big company is just an invitation for disaster, no matter how genuine and earnest the intention. I mentioned this issue one day when I was talking to Sergey and things were worked out.

Anyway, this is one of the scenes you’ll see if you come out to New Zealand for the workshop! I only do one of these a year, and I have as good of a time as all of you!

Beautiful Queenstown

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2013-02-08 11:45:33
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time1/200
  • Aperture7.1
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length14.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-1

Comments
5
Jul 2018 : Thursday
filed under  Auckland, Camera Gear, Luminar, New Zealand, Nikon D800, Photography Tips

Flying Into Auckland

Luminar Tip – Dehaze

Here’s another tip for one of my favorite editing programs, Luminar. This one has to do with De-haze!

Daily Photo – Flying Into Auckland

I’ve made the flight back and forth to Auckland probably 20 times now. It’s a beautiful 1.5 hour flight where you get to sail across the top of New Zealand. About half of the way, you only see ocean, but it can make for some amazing clouds as they form on the coast. We get a warm wet wind that blows in from Australia across the Tasman Sea. When it collides with the NZ coastline, you get all kinds of fancy clouds like this.

Flying Into Auckland

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2012-08-13 03:01:09
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time1/125
  • Aperture5.3
  • ISO800
  • Focal Length98.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias+1

Comments
29
Jun 2018 : Friday
filed under  Australia, Camera Gear, Nikon D800, Sydney

Under the Bridge in Sydney

New Han Solo Spinoff?

I heard a rumor that Lando may get his own series of productions (played by Donald Glover). I think it’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time. I think I could watch that guy play in anything… such an interesting guy! My favorite part with Lando was when he was doing The Calrissian Chronicles on the bridge. They should use that title and get Glover to write it!

Daily Photo – Under the Bridge in Sydney

Not far from an area of downtown Sydney called “The Rocks”, which I believe is the oldest area of the city, is a sidewalk where you can walk underneath this bridge. This was a three-exposure HDR that I took probably about five years ago. I’ve been going back and editing some older photos that I never had the chance to edit. I was happy the clouds looked so moody this night. The way they pick up and reflect the city nights feels like it’s out of a movie or something.

Under the Bridge in Sydney

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2013-01-09 17:52:05
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time15
  • Aperture8
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length15.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias-1

Comments
17
Jun 2018 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, Mt. Fuji, Nikon D800

Classic Fuji-san!

Searching on SmugMug

Remember that if you want to see more photos of a particular location, you can always go over to my Portfolio on SmugMug and do a search at the top. For example here is a search for Japan. It returns the photos with some sort of rank that coincides with “most popular,” although I am not sure how that algorithm works!

Daily Photo – Classic Fuji-san!

How amazing is this volcano! It’s right out of a storybook. On my most recent trip, I tried out the bus system to get me out here to explore the area, I finally mastered the subway system (which took many failed attempts), but I was always a bit afraid of the bus system. Now, I haven’t quite mastered that yet, but I’m on the right path!

Classic Fuji-san!

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2013-04-14 13:21:00
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time1
  • Aperture7.1
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length55.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
31
May 2018 : Thursday
filed under  Camera Gear, Invercargill, New Zealand, Nikon D800

The Aurora in Invercargill

Aurora HDR 2018

I thought I’d use today’s photo of an Aurora to mention Aurora HDR 2018! Thanks again to the team at Apple for giving it the Mac App of the Year award. That came as a huge surprise, considering how I had lambasted Apple after the first iteration of their new Macbook Pros.

I just announced a new photo walk in Shanghai on June 17!

As usual, it’s a free event, open to all levels, all cameras from mobile phones to DSLR, and of course it’s a family friendly event! See you soon in Shanghai! Here’s the FB event…

And my WeChat also has the details via the easy-to-remember ID: wxid_xpff8r0gr29122

Daily Photo – The Aurora in Invercargill

Chasing Auroras is a difficult activity! I have a few good Aurora apps on my phone that alert me to incoming ion storms. This is both exciting and daunting. It means that you need to jump in the car and find some awesome places to frame the aurora. In this case, we ended up down on a bridge near Invercargill, where they just recently stopped eating people (inside New Zealand joke), to take this photo. Across the east coast of New Zealand are a lot of wide rivers that start up in the mountains then empty out into the sea.

The Aurora in Invercargill

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2012-07-15 11:42:17
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time30
  • Aperture2.8
  • ISO1600
  • Focal Length14.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
26
Sep 2017 : Tuesday
filed under  Camera Gear, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand, Nikon D800

Bright Fields of Lupins

Aurora HDR 2018

It was fun going back in my “back catalog” from the last five years to find photos I had never processed to test out the new Aurora HDR 2018. This was one of them… I was testing the “ghosting” here to see how well it worked… as you might expect, in my three exposures, the lupins were blowing all over the place.

Less than 48 Hours to pre-order!

Purchase Prior to September 28 to Save 10% and Get Tons of Freebies!

A couple of years ago I teamed up with the geniuses at Macphun to design the ultimate tool for HDR photography. I had them put in all of the things I felt were missing from Photomatix, OnOne, and the other tools out there. I’ve been blown away with the results.

Current users of Aurora HDR should check this link to see if you qualify for the special pre-order price of just $49.
New users may purchase Aurora HDR 2018 for $89. A collection of free bonuses is included with every purchase.

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Daily Photo – Bright Fields of Lupins

This is one of those pretty Spring days in Tekapo at the Church of the Good Shepherd. It’s kind of a hard shot to get nowadays because you have to get there between the busloads of Chinese tourists. It’s great for the economy, but horrible for photos!

Bright Fields of Lupins

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2012-12-05 11:17:16
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time1/30
  • Aperture16
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length28.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
26
Aug 2015 : Wednesday
filed under  New Zealand, Nikon D800, Queenstown

Driving Around The Hills

More Max Patte work

If you’re ever in Wellington, be sure to visit Weta Studios and take a tour. It’s absolutely unbelievable and you can see some of his incredible work he did for all the Weta movie

Daily Photo – Driving Around The Hills

Here’s another one of Max Patte’s sculptures that you see when driving around The Hills golf course. I must say that I spend more time taking photos on the golf course than playing golf! Sometimes I just go get a golf cart and don’t even put on my clubs… I’m sure people just think I am nutty!

Driving Around The Hills

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2013-03-30 09:56:05
  • CameraNIKON D800
  • Camera MakeNikon
  • Exposure Time1/50
  • Aperture16
  • ISO125
  • Focal Length16.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments

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