I had been told about these waterfalls on the way up to Northland. What no one did tell me was it was a long gravel road to get there and my car is not really gravel road friendly. But I was determined to check them out. After a very long 20km/hr drive down the road for 4 km I finally made it. After a little bit of a hike you finally arrive and thankfully not many tourists or swimmers were present. I’ve only been back once since this visit to check out the waterfall again so it looks like I’m overdue for a visit!
Christchurch - so many scenic viewpoints! This was taken at the top of the gondola at Castle Hill, it’s far easier than walking and seeing as you could no longer drive up due to the earthquakes, much safer. So many tones and textures were present at the top of the hill there. The dramatic sky added so much depth to this image it was nice to have the clouds rather than a plain sky. Well worth the visit if you ever do get there.
My regular haunt. Muriwai on Auckand’s West coast. I love this place on an incoming and outgoing full tide, so many different sets of rocks to shoot photos. On occasion some of them start to shift a little too so you’re never quite sure what it’s going to look like until you get there. Moody days are my favourite to shoot here and it lends itself quite well to a bit of black and white treatment.
This shot is on my regular list at Muriwai. It works best to shoot at full high tide and it’s my dependable location, I’ve shot here so many times and over the last 5 years it has changed quite a bit, shifting rocks and sand always making for slightly different images. Its always nice when you get a few clouds and some great colour in the water.
Bethells Beach. It’s one of the two closest beaches to me on the West coast in Auckland. I’m there quite often but when the tide is out I do sometimes struggle to find a good composition. It’s a great place to hike and I’m usually walking the length of the beach to my regular spots, however the day this image was taken I’d decided to explore the dunes a bit more.
Carefully climbing to the top of this spot I sat and waited till the light was just right. I do like sitting and waiting for images to come to me and in this instance I felt it was totally worth it!
The routeburn track. I was lucky enough to be invited down to Queenstown for a long weekend for my birthday a few years back. A little local knowledge led us do the routeburn track and we managed to walk it for a few hours. What can I say? There was scenery everywhere. The moss, the trees, the colours - all of it amazing! I took several shots similar to this but this one was my favourite.
Another image from the Routeburn track. This was probably one of the most stunning parts of the track we got to walk. I spent most of my time shooting these waterfalls while my family walked ahead. There were so many compositions available here it was hard to leave. I’d love to come back and do a more comprehensive trip along this track. I’m sure there’s so much more to see.
Whangarei falls. We have quite a few holidays up north and we pass this spit on the way up. Would be rude not to stop right?! I’ve shot it in the best and worst of weather situations. The spray coming off the falls can be problematic but sticking to one side helps. It pays to get here either early morning or later in the afternoon to avoid the crowds and the harsh shadows. It’s a great place to stop and stretch the legs too!
What a magical island! Lovely people, amazing scenery and wildlife! We spent a little over a week there and staying right in the beach was the best idea! This spot was less than 5 mins from my door! The doggo was a constant companion on my early morning and late night missions (Astro photography was also pretty epic here!) with so many great opportunities for photography (and relaxation) we will definitely be back very soon!
There’s a great little walk in between Takapuna and Milford where you can find a few good vantage spots of Rangitoto island. It’s was blowing quite heavily the day a good friend and I turned up there. I had in mind a long exposure shot to work with the fast moving clouds and shot a few different images, trying different things with the framing. I really like what the monochrome edit has done to this image.
I can’t believe I had never been here before this visit! It’s a nice easy stroll off the main road to the Chateau in Tongariro National Park! Featured in Lord of the Rings movies it has become quite a tourist attraction so finding it relatively to yourself is a nice surprise. After waiting patiently for everyone to leave I scrambled over rocks and around little coves trying to find as many different compositions as I could. I got a few different images here and liked nearly all of them but especially this one as it was so simple compared to the others.
Another shot from the regular spot! Muriwai on Aucklands West Coast, one of my favourite places to shoot. Sometimes I just go there to walk and clear my head from the days work, time to destress and be with nature. Sometimes nature gives me something more than relaxation back. This sunset almost didn’t happen but patience and luck do payoff quite frequently here. It may not be a happy light hearted sunset but it’s one of my favourite images here at sunset.
Every now and then you get a sunset that you just didn’t expect. This was one of those evenings, the tides lined up with the sunset and I think I had the place to myself for at least two hours shooting. My happy place away from home.
The Tutukaka Coast and more accurately the Pacific Rendezvous Motel. We stumbled upon this place looking for a weekend getaway and it was an area we hadn’t really explored. The motel sits high off the cliff top peninsula and had amazing views of the harbour and islands. A quick little hop over the fence and a careful scramble down the hill gave me a great little perch to shoot from. The colours in the rocks and water were amazing and the little hint of colour from the sunset behind me just gave the sky some needed interest. Also a great place to shoot astrophotography in the early part of the season seeing as the warmth of your hotel room is less than a 5 min walk away!
By far my best image of Muriwai in my opinion. I usually head to the southern end of Maori bay but had decided to try my luck overlooking the fisherman’s rock and blowhole. Halfway down the stairs and off to one side is a little flat spot. With some determination, a tripod can be set up here without blocking the stairs. Now it’s a waiting game...what was amazing about this visit was the brave souls that wandered out onto the slippery rocks and stood still long enough for me to get this image.
Elliot Bay in northland is an amazing spot, a great little surf beach and also far enough off the beaten track to not have to deal with hoards of people. There’s s little river that flies out onto this beach and this amazing gnarled old tree on its banks. Not the usual style of image for me, as in all honesty I usually overlook photos like this, I’m glad I didn’t this time. The reflection was close to perfect and after wadding out and waiting for the water surface to settle I fine tuned the composition and got this image. A black and white edit really brought out the detail in the image.
Probably one of my favourite images and missions away with a close buddy of mine. We had decided to stay overnight here, there’s an area where camping isn’t allowed but accepted by the Department of Conservation. Located on the Awhitu Peninsula it’s like you’re on another planet. Near vertical cliff faces made of sand and sandstone several storeys high, the tide constantly washing them away and eroding the scenery here. A very successful sunset was had here and afterwards a bbq and a tasty beverage were consumed before hitting the tents and getting some shut eye in preparation for the sunrise but that’s an image for another day....
Heading down towards Thames on the west side of the inner harbour there is a little spot called Whakatiwai. This is from the entrance to the boat ramp and mussel farm operation. An old 1950s wooden-hulled minesweeper has been scuttled and used as a breakwall for the harbour entrance. Quite dilapidated now and weather beaten, it has a huge amount of character which makes for some great images. It’s also a great place to come and shoot astrophotography earlier in the season or a sunrise if you stay late enough after the astrophotography!
When the tide is just right you can hike quite far south around a few bays from Bethells beach. You eventually get to a point you can’t cross unless on a king low tide, a rather deep channel with a large intimidating cave. There is quite a cool little peninsula you can walk out onto here and shoot by the looking South or North. This particular image is looking South close to sunset when I was lucky enough to have a bit of colour on the sky appear.
Sometimes conditions are just right at your favourite place to shoot photos! I’ve become so used to shooting this place that it’s almost like shooting in my backyard... another long exposure of the infamous South Maori Bay rocks. I particularly like this image for the strong lead-in lines in the foreground and for the soft dappled light that occurred due to the clouds that were present that afternoon.
Once again my regular spot, Maori bay on Auckland’s West Coast. This is taken from the northern end of the beach just below the Gannett colony. I’m no stranger to long exposures but I have been experimenting with stacking together multiple long exposures. This is an example of that technique. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t! I love the way the clouds have given a heavy vignette to the image and stitching together exposures allows for more movement to be present in the clouds which slows the sky out as well as the ocean. It’s a technique I’d love to spend more time doing but conditions need to be just right for it to work effectively.
This was an attempt at stitching together a panorama after shooting some large scale prints for a client to put up in a university. I got strangely addicted to seeing what worked and what didn’t. This little perch is found between Bethells and O’Neil’s beach. You walk across the river and it’s just before the sandy uphill slog to get to the next beach. I wasn’t expecting the colour in the sky so that was a pleasant surprise!