8
May 2022 : Sunday
May 2022 : Sunday
Lake Wakatipu
Daily Photo – Lake Wakatipu
Here’s Lake Wakatipu being its normal awesome self…
5
March 2022 : Saturday
Mar 2022 : Saturday
Above Wakatipu
Daily Photo – Above Wakatipu
Here’s a previously unpublished pic from above Lake Wakatipu…man, I have soooo many of those. It’s almost impossible to take a bad picture here!
31
January 2022 : Monday
Jan 2022 : Monday
Patterned Sky
Daily Photo – Patterned Sky
Here’s a view across Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand. I often share shots of this lake when it’s showing off the amazing blue colour during bright days but on this occasion, it was the cool lines crisscrossing in the sky that caught my attention.
7
December 2020 : Monday
Dec 2020 : Monday
The Beautiful Road to Glenorchy
Chance of a Common Birthday
How many people have to be in the same room for the odds of you having the exact same birthday as someone else? Since there are 365 days in a year, you might think 183, right? Wrong… way off… watch this! I just shared this with my daughter who had her birthday… she’s a math nerd like me, but this will blow your mind!
Daily Photo – The Beautiful Road to Glenorchy
I’ve taken like 700 photos of this road, and each one is incredibly unique. I got this one from the air with a quadcopter and it was created out of a 3×3 grid of 9 different photos. This spot is only about 40 minutes down the road, so it makes me feel lazy I don’t get out there almost every day!
23
November 2020 : Monday
Nov 2020 : Monday
Beautiful Braided Rivers from the Glaciers
Machine Elf 39 – The Hive 4K
As soon as I moved to New Zealand, I got about 250,000 bees. I’ve always wanted to be a beekeeper, so I thought it was a great opportunity to give back to the planet a little bit. It’d be kinda awesome if everyone did that, eh? We have a little farm with that’s about 10 acres big and it’s had all sorts of ups and downs. We’ve had sheep born and die (even buried one but not deep enough so its legs sticking out of the ground…) We’ve had chickens that have been killed by dogs and birds of prey… but the only thing that keeps on going without fail is the beehives. It’s not that I’m a great beekeeper; I’m actually terrible! But I’m learning all the time.
The reason that I got into bees is because I’ve always been fascinated by superorganisms. I first got interested in ants then got into bees. From the early days of the internet, I kind of got the idea that humans were going to someday form a superorganism and we would use the internet the same way ants use scent trails or bees perform the waggle dance. I’ve learned so much from my bees about nature and the fundamental inter-workings of the world… I’ve also learned that I’m a pretty crappy beekeeper and I still have a lot to learn!
Daily Photo – Beautiful Braided Rivers from the Glaciers
Here’s the Dart River that flows down from the Southern Alps then fills up Lake Wakatipu. I took this from a helicopter with Choppy and Over the Top while we were on the way to one of our first glacier landings. You can get a quadcopter up over this as well, but you can’t get nearly this high to get this perspective… to me, the more braided rivers, the better!
13
June 2020 : Saturday
Jun 2020 : Saturday
filed under Camera Gear, Glenorchy, Lake Wakatipu, mavic 2 zoom, New Zealand, Quadcopters, Queenstown, Travel
Lake Wakatipu
Daily Photo – Lake Wakatipu
Here’s a new photo from the lake that I live near – Lake Wakatipu. This is a 9-photo panorama, stitched together in Lightroom. It was shot with a drone, and the final image is even higher rez than my best Sony camera. This exact spot is about halfway between Glenorchy and Queenstown. Pretty soon, we’re gonna get some snow… so I’ll head back out here with all the mountains are icy white.
22
April 2020 : Wednesday
Apr 2020 : Wednesday
Taking Photos around New Zealand with Brandin Cooks
New Zealand in lockdown Video
Here’s a nice video from here in New Zealand.
Daily Photo – Taking Photos around New Zealand with Brandin Cooks
My friend Brandin blew into town for a few days with his lovely wife. He was able to get a hall pass to come spend the day with me taking photos all around the Queenstown area. This is one must-stop location. The clouds were not super-amazing, but they were still good enough for us to take a few panoramas. I think this one was made out of about six vertical shots.
3
February 2020 : Monday
Feb 2020 : Monday
Shadows of the Southern Alps
New SmugMug Film
Our friends over at SmugMug have released a new film about this cool photographer named Bella Kotak. Hope you like it!
Daily Photo – Shadows of the Southern Alps
If you get out to Glenorchy early enough in the morning, you can see these amazing shadows from one set of mountains projected across the lake onto another set of mountains. One of the more stunning things about the mountains around Lake Wakatipu is how they have very steep faces jutting out of the water. It’s basically the same mountain shapes as in the fjords not too far away. If I’m not mistaken, all of this used to be a fjord at the beginning of the most recent ice age.
6
January 2019 : Sunday
Jan 2019 : Sunday
filed under Aurora HDR, Florida, Glenorchy, Lake Wakatipu, mavic 2 zoom, New Zealand, Nikon D3X, Passport, Quadcopters, Queenstown, Travel, United States of America
The Shuttle at Rest
Part 2 for Passport Sunday
The creation of this photo took many steps, so I decided to split the process into two videos across two Sundays for Passport Members. So, today, we get to see the resolution to our exciting cliffhanger!
Part 2 of the Mavic 2 Zoom Panorama
Here is a Link to Part 1 of this video from last Sunday if you did not see it. In this one, you’ll see how I put the finishing touches on this challenging pano with Aurora HDR.
Exclusive content for Passport members
Daily Photo – The Shuttle at Rest
This is actually another panorama, but it was a little easier to put together. I was lucky enough to go out and get really close to the space shuttle on the day before the big launch. I was so excited… just a like a little kid! I still get excited thinking about it.
30
December 2018 : Sunday
Dec 2018 : Sunday
filed under Glenorchy, Lake Wakatipu, Luminar, Mavic Pro 2, New Zealand, Passport, Quadcopters, Queenstown, Skylum
Editing a Massive Panorama
Passport Sunday!
If you’re a Passport member, today you’ll see how I’ve changed the way I stitch together my panoramas, especially for these shots that are made from the drone.
Editing a MASSIVE Panorama
Creating this photo took quite a while, so I decided to split it up into two videos! In this first one, you’ll see how I prep the photos before I make the panorama and then the final stitching process. In the next video (next Sunday), I’ll show how I use Aurora HDR for the final touches.
Exclusive content for Passport members
Daily Photo – A Huge Panorama of the road from Glenorchy to Queenstown
It was a perfect day a few weeks ago on the drive back, so I got the new Mavic 2 Zoom up in the air to take this panorama. It’s kind of annoying, in a way, that when the Mavic zooms into the sky, it doesn’t do any exposure adjustment. That always requires a little bit of cleanup.
