I wish I lived closer to this lake in Tekapo so I could go out there more often to see all the pretty sunsets across the glacier-fed blue water. Whenever I do drive back and forth to Christchurch, though, I usually stop here for a bit! It’s actually one of the reasons I prefer the 4 hour drive to Christchurch from Queenstown rather than the 30 minute flight… there are so many places to stop and take photos!
From the new NFT drop on Foundation
In the Spring of each year, the lupins come out to play. Some local Kiwis don’t like them because they think of it as a weed. Well, as far as weeds go, they are pretty spectacular.
Lake Tekapo is one of the countless glacier fed lakes where the water takes on a beautiful level of clarity. Like many lakes in New Zealand, nobody actually lives by the lake so it maintains an idyllic purity.
I had the most amazing acid experience while listening to this song!
It was at Burning Man, and me, Rene, and Jonatas had all ended up in our RV. We were all on acid (of course). Anyway, we were listening to some of the craziest music from Jonatas’ Brazilian playlist and we were laughing SO HARD. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much. They went to sleep, but I was still pretty wired, so I decided to put on some Hans Zimmer. This song “Mountains” from Interstellar came up and started to play… whoa did it ever take me to another place.
Daily Photo – A Drive to Tekapo
It was a super moody and stormy day on my drive to Tekapo. I could see there was a big storm a-brewin’ ahead of me but it was still sunny where I was standing. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to stop here near Mount Cook and get a view from the quad of this rather amazing water on Lake Pukaki. Yes, that’s the real color!
I’ve released about 100 videos for Passport Members, and more are on the way! Today’s video shows the how-to edit of this pretty sunset photo in New Zealand.
Getting Rid of Ugly Bits
Today’s photo that you see below has had quite a few modifications. Wait till you see the original in this video. This photo was already 90% pretty, but there was 10% of very ugly stuff right in the middle that I had to eventually get rid of. And then, in the end, you see my little mountain stretch trick!
I took this photo during an overnight journey with my friend Cliff. We actually slept right here in my pickup truck, which was kinda fun. I had heard about these pools, so we went up here for sunset then decided just to stay until the sunrise. One not-so-awesome thing about this water is it is some kind of water treatment facility. So there was some trash and junk in there. I can’t imagine how it all got there since this is about 20 kilometers from the city of Tekapo itself.
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.
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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.
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!
A special day in Tekapo (more for Passport members)
Want to see how today’s photo was processed? I do the whole thing from beginning to end… it was kind of a challenging photo, I’ll be honest. Anyway, you’ll see the bonus material at the bottom of this blog post if you’re a Passport Member and THANKS again for all your support! 🙂
A very in-depth post-processing of the Tekapo Lupins
So, this is kind of a long video, but it’s one of the most in-depth post-processing videos I’ve ever made for you, awesome Passport member. I hope you enjoy! 🙂
This is a new favorite photo of Tekapo! I had a lot of trouble figuring out what composition to use and how to process it (you’ll see in the how-to video below), but I’m very happy with the result. Can you believe a lot of locals in New Zealand find this lupin flower to be a pest and a nuisance? I’ve been trying to collect more and more and plant them at our home! I think they are very pretty! 🙂
I take A LOT of photos of it… I think people in New Zealand get tired of seeing it because they see it so much, but my feeling is others around the world can’t get enough of it! 🙂
Daily Photo – Stopping in Tekapo on the way to Antarctica
It’s easy enough to drive to Christchurch in a day, but why do that when you can stop halfway there and stay here for the evening? That’s what Stu and I did on the beginning of our harrowing trip to Antarctica. The skies aren’t always this amazing by the Church of the Good Shepherd, but I’m glad they were this night.
I’m slowly adding more and more content over on the YouTube channel, so be sure to pop over there and check out the latest uploads! :
Daily Photo – Wandering in the Lavender Fields
This was shot on a small lavender farm on the edge of Lake Tekapo in New Zealand. I don’t know what’s involved with growing lavender, but it kind of made me want to plant a ton of it at home. I know nothing about gardening, and this is probably obvious to all of you that found my previous statement ridiculous.
See this church below? Here’s another video that I shot in this area a few years ago when I was using the Sony NEX system… of course, now I’ve moved to the Sony A7 system! You can read more about these and more on the Reviews page here on the site.
Daily Photo – Exploring New Zealand on the way to Antarctica
Stu and I had a really fun road trip on the way to Christchurch, where we took a flight down to Antarctica. Along the way, we had a fun night here in Tekapo. There’s actually an AMAZING sushi restaurant right by here… we stayed there a LONG time and ate a lot of sushi and had a lot of sake, then stumbled over to take this photo during an amazing sunset!
