New Zealand – Page 47 – Stuck in Customs
12
Jul 2018 : Thursday
filed under  Arrowtown, New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel

My Two Girls, Horsin’ Around

Horse Riding Tours

If you like riding horses and are coming to New Zealand, you should definitely schedule a few horse rides through the countryside. They are offered in almost every area. I’d recommend doing one in Glenorchy or Paradise, which is just about an hour away from Queenstown. That is the beautiful area where they shot Lord of the Rings and a lot of other movies. You can see many of my Glenorchy photos here.

My Two Girls, Horsin’ Around

My girls absolutely love horses. Below are two photos of them at their horse-riding school. It’s not just horse-riding, but all the stuff around it too. They do everything from brush and clean the horses to pick up the horse poop. They appear to love all aspects of this horse-care bit, which boggles my mind. They have been trying to talk me into buying a horse and keeping it here on our property. I have told them this is a preposterous idea and I will never do such a thing.

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8
Jul 2018 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, Luminar, New Zealand, Queenstown, Sony A7R 3

The Remarkables Across from Lake Johnson

New Luminar Tip – AI slider and Removing Color Cast

If you don’t have Luminar, grab it here! Today’s tip shows how to remove that color cast you may not know is there and how to use the AI-Accent slider.

Daily Photo – The Remarkables Across from Lake Johnson

Here’s a photo I took on my three-hour hike around the lake. I think it only takes half that time, but I was really going slow and getting distracted. I didn’t see another human soul the entire time, so it was sort of surreal. A lot of the Queenstown and Arrowtown area is overrun with tourists, so it’s rare to spend times like this alone. I have a rough plan to come back here after a fresh snow, because I think it will look incredible!

The Remarkables Across from Lake Johnson

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2018-05-05 11:45:55
  • CameraILCE-7RM3
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/640
  • Aperture7.1
  • ISO250
  • Focal Length36.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

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6
Jul 2018 : Friday
filed under  Camera Gear, New Zealand, Queenstown, Sony A7R 3

What I saw when taking out the trash

Want to see my favorite new trick?

Check out this very quick way to quickly add sunrays to any photo. Note this is only with the latest version of Luminar (get it via this link).

Daily Photo – What I saw when taking out the trash

Thursday mornings are trash days here in our neighborhood. I have given this job to Ethan, but he usually needs a bit of help because it’s about a 5-minute walk with multiple trash bins out to the main road. Anyway, I was getting the whole routine going when I saw this hot air balloon lifting up right behind my house. So I quickly abandoned trash duty to go grab my camera!

What I saw when taking out the trash

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2018-05-17 08:22:20
  • CameraILCE-7RM3
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/500
  • Aperture7.1
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length240.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

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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

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28
Jun 2018 : Thursday
filed under  Camera Gear, New Zealand, Queenstown, Sony A7R 3

The Wolves Attack Again

Post-Processing a Reflection Shot Towards Paradise

Just beyond Glenorchy, New Zealand lies a place called Paradise. If you stop on the way to go on a walk through the wetlands, you get some great reflections heading up into that valley. In today’s video, I do a bit of processing of one of those photos for you. Enjoy!

Daily Photo – The Wolves Attack Again

I swear, all these wolves do is think about attacking that samurai. Every time I come here, it’s always the same situation. It must be incredibly frustrating to be so fixated on something and not be able to make it happen. I should tell them that Buddha says that desire is the root of all suffering.

The Wolves Attack Again

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2018-05-17 09:58:40
  • CameraILCE-7RM3
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/500
  • Aperture8
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length63.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

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25
Jun 2018 : Monday
filed under  Camera Gear, Milford Sound, New Zealand, Sony A7R 3

A Moody Fog in Doubtful Sound

The Tunnel to Milford Sound in 360

Not far from where today’s photo was taken is the famous tunnel to Milford Sound. Here’s a 360 video we released that shows what the experience is like!

Daily Photo – A Moody Fog in Doubtful Sound

What an awesomely moody morning! I was really hoping for a bit more clarity, but sometimes I can be a little moody too. It was pretty cold outside, as we were here in the late Autumn. It was one of those rather misty mornings, so the cold really felt like having a cool blanket around you all the time. Every few minutes, I’d have to wipe down my lens… but this Sony A7r Mark 3 seems perfectly weather-sealed so far, so that is great news!

A Moody Fog in Doubtful Sound

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2018-05-09 09:06:10
  • CameraILCE-7RM3
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/640
  • Aperture4
  • ISO400
  • Focal Length105.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

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16
Jun 2018 : Saturday
filed under  Camera Gear, DJI Phantom, Lisbon, Milford Sound, New Zealand, Photography Tips, Portugal, Quadcopters

A Royal Panorama

Reflection Tip from Milford Sound

Here’s a quick hit tip about making imperfect reflections in Milford Sound.

And here’s one of my favorite photos from this same spot!

The Pink Milk Filled The Bay

Daily Photo – A Royal Panorama

I don’t make a lot of panoramas with my quad, but I thought this was the perfect situation. Usually, it shoots at such a wide angle that panoramas are not even necessary. But I wanted to do something that would end up with a much higher resolution. So I got a lot closer to the castle then normal and took four or five photos across.

A Royal Panorama

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2017-04-17 21:08:04
  • CameraFC6310
  • Camera MakeDJI
  • Exposure Time1/640
  • Aperture6.3
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length8.8 mm
  • FlashNo flash function
  • Exposure ProgramProgram AE
  • Exposure Bias

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14
Jun 2018 : Thursday
filed under  Arrowtown, Camera Gear, DJI Phantom, New Zealand, Quadcopters

High above Lake Hayes

Don’t miss my new Drone Tutorial!

You’re gonna love this thing! Seeing today’s photo reminds me of how much fun it was to create the series of lessons. You can buy it here in our store or Join Passport and have it included for free!

Daily Photo – High above Lake Hayes

How pretty is this idyllic lake? It’s only about ten minutes from my home and I don’t know why I don’t visit more often. I do like to go on runs around the outside… it’s about 8 km around the whole thing. It’s only glassy-still like this about 10% of the time. Most of those times, I don’t even have my camera, which is a major bummer. This is actually a quadcopter shot made from three different photos.

High above Lake Hayes

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2018-05-02 14:53:56
  • CameraFC6310
  • Camera MakeDJI
  • Exposure Time1/500
  • Aperture5.6
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length8.8 mm
  • FlashNo flash function
  • Exposure ProgramProgram AE
  • Exposure Bias

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13
Jun 2018 : Wednesday
filed under  Arrowtown, Camera Gear, New Zealand, Passport, Sony A7R 3

Speaking of Sculptures…

Editing Photos from Glenorchy

Here’s a long editing session where you see me working on a few photos from an outing. There’s a lot of stream-of-consciousness in here, so it’s not quite as “tight” as some of my other videos, but maybe a bit more “real”! Anyway, enjoy!

Daily Photo – Speaking of Sculptures…

Here’s a new sculpture up at The Hills by the British artist, Sean Henry. I kind of like this photo, but I think I can do better. The thing that is missing is the scale of the image. It’s absolutely massive… so I think I need to add another element in to give it scale. I may put a human in here, but I’m not sure what I would have them doing. I don’t do a lot of “setup shots” like you see on Instagram with solitary figures standing in a vast landscape. I find those photos a bit droll for some reason. Anyway, maybe I’ll get a little kid and let him crawl around on the creepy guys’ lap or something. That’s not a bad idea… kind of a strange idea. I’m obviously brainstorming now.

Speaking of Sculptures…

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2018-05-03 16:28:05
  • CameraILCE-7RM3
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/800
  • Aperture4
  • ISO250
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias+2

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12
Jun 2018 : Tuesday
filed under  Arrowtown, Camera Gear, New Zealand, Sony A7R 3

Another Max Patte Work

Daily Photo – Another Max Patte Work

This guy is one of my favorite sculptors! I believe the original one of these is in Wellington on the bay there. Some good news for me is that he’s moving down to Queenstown and will practically be neighbors with me! I look forward to hanging out with him more, and maybe we can even collaborate on a project or three! You can see more of his work at http://maxpatte.com/.

Another Max Patte Work

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2018-05-03 16:34:56
  • CameraILCE-7RM3
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/400
  • Aperture7.1
  • ISO250
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments