Next up on the 3 day trek home… Auckland. Which reminds me that I really need to go there and spend a good week or so exploring. I’m there often but 99% of the time it’s basically a hub to use for exit/entry to NZ. So this is about the only image I’ve processed from there. That needs to change!
The landscape on the North Island of NZ is vastly different to here around Queenstown on the South. Especially so around the more northern parts, past Auckland… still beautiful though. Especially so at sunset.
Here’s another tip for one of my favorite editing programs, Luminar. This one has to do with De-haze!
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.
If you don’t want to take the ferry to Waiheke Island and instead arrive in style, I recommend Heletranz as an incredible way to see the island and travel about. They can set you up for a day-long experience that includes visiting wineries, crazy car rides, knife-throwing, gun-shooting (those last three via Boomrock), and more! Here’s a live show we did while there!
I got up with the quadcopter as many times as I could while on the island… looking at these photos really makes me want to go back. It’s just a short ferry ride from Auckland, and now I have some new friends that live there. If you’re planning a month-long trip to New Zealand, be sure to spend a few days over here, touring the wineries and whatnot.
I have a new Playlist on YouTube that has links to all our Creation Wars shows. Check it out and you can watch all the shows! 🙂
My friend Stu has an awesome bach not too far from Auckland. It’s up on top of a cliff, and the perfect place to make lots of bad decisions. Stu is really into fire, you see. Actually, I have noticed a very strong pyromaniac gene amongst many Kiwis. I don’t know why this is… maybe because it gets cold here a lot, kids just learn to play with and love fire. Somehow, this quickly jumps the gap into explosives. And that’s what we started doing here… there was quite a bit of chaos, especially when it fell over and started shooting in random directions!
A New Photo-Video for you – All New Zealand awesomeness…
I have a Landscape Photography Tutorial based here in New Zealand available over at https://stuckincustoms.com/landscape-and-travel-photography-tutorial-new-zealand/
Animation/Slideshow – more info at https://stuckincustoms.com/links/animoto — or see my review at https://stuckincustoms.com/animoto-review/
Amaze-maze music by the New Zealand band, Arma Del Amor – see more at https://www.facebook.com/ArmaDelAmorNZ
I need to spend more time in the North! I feel so New-Zealand-Lame! I spend SO much time in the South Island, exploring all the mountains and everything… so I am feeling like I am a little lost up there, you know? I gotta get my act together!
I stayed for the night with my friend Stu Robertson at his amazing secret hidaway. It was awesome. We shot of fireworks and made all kinds of really bad decisions… at one point in the night, things were so lovely that I stopped for a moment to take this photo.
I edited this photo live during the New Zealand Institute of Photographers (sounds important, doesn’t it? hehe) masterclass. I actually wanted to do the class for free, but I was told that was not good because it would make the other masters upset. Well… I thought that sounded like a silly reason, so I changed it up so that all the money raised would go to support a scholarship for students who want to join but can’t afford it.
I may have another upcoming event down on the South Island for locals… a free event. Perhaps down in Invercargill. I’ll update the blog when that happens! 🙂
Wow I had a great time in Auckland! I did not have a car and was booked pretty much solid with meetings or speaking engagements, so I did not get to shoot as much as I wanted. But, I did get a chance to take this photo one evening during one of the NZIPP parties. I excused myself (I was the only one at the party carrying a tripod and huge camera!) — so then I went out to get the shot… listen to music… then dropped off my camera then came back!
When I was in Vancouver, I got one of the new Macbook Pros with the retina display. I have been truly impressed at the clarity and the colors… it is really so shocking! I knew it would be a little bit better, but I did not expect this level of improvement.
I’m really looking forward to retina external monitors, if those ever come out!
Here is another new photo from Auckland. Luckily, this amazing place was very close to my hotel. I saw it during the daytime and decided to pop over and visit it during the late evening… hoping that the lighting and the path would flow together nicely, and it did indeed work out!
