Uploading now… available Monday. Sorry for the delay! The NFT world is a fast-changing beast!
Only New Zealand would actually have a little town called Paradise. It’s not even really a town, but an area at the end of the road past Glenorchy that has a few farms and a few little places to rent. The hikes are unbelievable and you see scenes like this in every direction.
Out past Glenorchy is this really cool place called the Paradise Trust. It’s amazing for a few reasons. First, it’s at the end of a dead end road that has countless views like this. Second, there are a ton of little cabins you can rent for less than $100. There is no electricity or anything, but there is fresh bedding and running water. A few even have outdoor tubs that you can heat with firewood. Romantic!
Out in Paradise, we went on a lovely little hike around the area where the trust is located. It’s a very easy walk, and it goes by a few of these calm, tiny little lakes with perfect reflections. The hills are often covered with sheep too, which is calming in its own way, as they look like little clouds on a green sky.
Want to win a $8500 week-long all-expenses paid trip to New Zealand to join me on a photo adventure?
We JUST announced this new photo contest on Viewbug – Awesome! Join in the fun! This worldwide contest will be going on during my Photo Walk Across the USA so that everyone can join in the fun!
Here’s my friend Choppy leaving the scene with our friend Frederick Van Johnson on board… after a day out shooting, she flew him straight to the airport so he could fly home to San Francisco.
This is one of the many beautiful things you see while looking down on a chopper flight from Queenstown down towards Paradise. I love the way these steep mountains jut into the water like angry teeth. And the colors and the way everything folds together — I can’t ever get enough of it!
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
Here’s one of my favorite Farside cartoons about sheep!
We took a drive out past Glenorchy towards Paradise the other day. About 30% of the time, I come across a shepherd moving sheep from one farm to the next. They totally clog up the road and it is hilarious. I’ll never get tired of seeing thousands of sheep all clogged up in the road like this. I’m sure the shepherds find it all quite banal, but I love it!
Here’s a cute video my daughter made… and there’s a little surprise grammar lesson at the end by the panda on her left! 🙂
We had a great overnight camping trip out past Glenorchy by the Greenstone River. Well, it was not really pure full-on camping because there was an old house there that we slept inside. We headed out on a few little hikes here and there, and on the way, I stopped to take this photo of Isabella. I asked her to stand right in the middle, so while she was looking down to get herself in the middle, I snapped this one.
If you ever come to the Queenstown area and want an absolutely incredible helicopter ride, be sure to contact Choppy at Over The Top. She knows all the best spots, and she’s a photographer at heart too… so she’s always thinking in those directions!
Choppy told me that in the winter, people get dropped off by a helicopter here and then ski all the way to the bottom. How awesome does that sound? I guess it also sounds a bit scary… I wish I was super-good on a snowboard so that I could take all my camera stuff along… even with traveling lighter, there are still several guaranteed crashes till I get to the bottom!
Has anyone tried XBox Fitness on the new XBox One? It’s cool but there are many problems! Even though my bandwidth is totally incredible, I still get “Low Bandwidth” warnings and it pauses quite a bit. Many times, I’ve lost connection and my whole workout has gone down the tubes! It’s quite demotivating for some strange reason! I hope XBox fixes that soon, or at least lets me cache everything locally.
Choppy landed here on this remote lake for a bit while I jumped out to take photos with Curtis, Luke, Pete, and Scott. It was so fun, and I felt lucky there was a bit of snow up high to give some more colors to the scene. You can also hike to this point, but while we were sitting there in the chopper, all we could think was, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”
I know I mentioned the new Photomatix just two days ago, but I’ve been informed I was mistaken about the upgrade policy. Sorry about that! But, here, straight from them, is the latest upgrade policy:
“The upgrade to Photomatix Pro version 5 will be free of charge for customers who purchased a license of Photomatix Pro version 4.0 or higher through our website or authorised resellers (Photomatix Pro 4.0 was released on October 2010).”
The final Photomatix 5 should be out very very very soon — I am excited! I used it on the image below… and, well, most images you see on the site here!
Do you primarily use a Mac to edit your photos? If so, then check out Aurora HDR Pro! I worked with Macphun for over a year to build the ultimate HDR software!
This is one of the first landings we made with Choppy on our latest helicopter tour. I swear — they are the most awesome things. I decided to reward myself with a few of these per year… the views you get are just amazing and I spend half the time being in awe and the other half recovering from the awe. Of course, I’m taking photos all the while!
