The 2015 New Zealand print project continues with one of my favourite photographs from our trip. This composition was taken at one of the nicest stops on our journey - Muriwai Beach. After a couple of rainy days, we spent three sunny spring days at Muriwai, on a beautiful campground close to the beach, everything was friendly and quiet, and the landscape impressed with sweeping vistas across kilometers of sandy beach and the wild Tasman Sea. However, the main reason for our visit was the mainland gannet colony that is so easily accessible at Muriwai Beach. The paths in this beautiful park are well-organized and direct the birdwatchers, photographers and visitors to different viewing platforms that are just above the shrieking and stinking birds and the thunderous Tasman Sea.
The composition shown here is one that I imagined long before we even came to Muriwai (New Zealand even). I am quite satisfied with the result, even though chromatic aberration was a problem here as well - as in the last print example. Actually, this is the first time that I cheat a little bit with my monthly print: Although I have printed this photographs already several times, the result is still not satisfactory. There is an annoying line of black spots that appear across the entire print and that I still have not managed to get rid of, but I keep trying and cleaning the printer.

The April 2015 print, again a photograph from New Zealand, is much belated, but better late than never. This photograph is a good example to illustrate the value of printing. Not only did I struggle to get the highlights, shadows and colors right (to my linking), but I also discovered an annoying chromatic aberration along the mountain ridge. To my shame, I have not ben aware of this problem before; probably because I look more consciously at a print than at a photograph on the screen and because I am not a pixel peeper.
Before the final print, I prepare small test prints to get an overall impression and to look for major shortcomings and defects. After several rounds of adjustments I prepare a print in the final size (roughly 19 cm high, which fits on an A4 paper) and sometimes I have to return correcting and adjusting; such as in this case. Unfortunately, in this particular case the printing has actually lowered my appreciation of a photograph (and of the particular camera-lens combination).
In many ways - artistic ones - I do not rate this photograph very highly. It is "just" a nice landscape documentary. However, for us it is a souvenir, from our amazing hike in Tongariro National Park, that brings back precious memories, which is the main purpose of many photographs.

The Beehive - the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington - reflected on the trunk and rear window of a car. You may think that the photograph should be turned 90° to the left and I guess this would work just fine. However, I have composed this carcolor just like this, in portrait format, and this is why I cannot look at it in landscape mode. If you want, have a look at the carcolors gallery with many more examples of reflections and distortions on shiny car bodies.

The next episode of my monthly prints, which are New Zealand prints at the moment, is a photograph that I have not shown before. Sometimes, after time and repeated viewing, I start to appreciate a photograph that I may have overlooked earlier. A more intimate composition that was created at the same location has been shown in the blog post about nature details from New Zealand (the second photograph), but at the moment I prefer the version above. Which one do you prefer?

Even though I am repeating myself and may therefore bore you, I have decided to print, and thus show again, several photographs from our New Zealand trip. The February 2015 print is the Moon-lit Moeraki boulder shell that is still the most preferred photograph of our trip (the knee is slowly getting better). Actually, after having printed this composition, I like it even better. Sometimes, or rather most of the time, it is worthwhile revisiting a photograph that was developed earlier. In this particular case, I realized that adjusting the white balance much improved the composition - at least in my opinion.
I hope you do not mind the repetition. For me, the monthly print posts are necessary to encourage me to keep printing at least one photograph a month.

Although I have concluded my series on New Zealand photographs with the contribution on New Zealand city reflections, I am already showing another photograph from our recent holiday. It is the monthly print for January 2015.

During our vacation, I photographed with a Panasonic Lumix GH-1 and a Sony A7r (and sometimes a Panasonic Lumix FT3). On a few occasions, I took similar compositions with both (real) cameras; with the intention to compare the results also in print. In all such cases, I clearly prefer one of the two photographs already before looking at the print. In the example shown here, the composition from the GH1 is much better overall (I missed the focus with the Sony - it was very dark), but much much more difficult to develop and print.

The scene is the same as the one shown in the first New Zealand post: Moon-lit Moeraki boulder shell. It was dark, but the moon was shining bright. To prevent a burning out of the moon light reflection, the photograph had to be strongly underexposed, which in turn required a lot of adjustments to the shadows and exposure compensation in Lightroom. As a consequence, the noise in the dark area, which comprises most of the frame, became disturbing and thus also had to be taken care of.

I have the impression that this photograph is an extremely far stretch for the GH1's sensor. The equivalent photograph from the A7r was easier to develop and the boulder in the center shows more detail, but the light pattern in the foreground is much better in the above photograph. With the A7r print as a guide for the noise in the dark areas, I managed to create a print from the GH1 file that I am satisfied with. Is the technical quality of the GH1 file better? Of course not, but the resulting photograph is and the resolution and detail do not matter for my print sizes (usually smaller than A4). In my opinion, it is an amazing result for a sensor/camera that was introduced almost six years ago (April 2009)!

I have been posting many New Zealand photographs recently already, but here is one more post. Although our holidays are usually spent in nature and the outdoors, we also like to explore cities along our way. During our recent New Zealand trip, we have stopped in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

The seven photographs shown here are all reflections of some kind. Sometimes, they are just interesting distortions and colorful reflections, but other compositions may seem strange, confusing, or even manipulated. They are not. Closely inspecting a window pane may reveal overlays of reflections and "through-views" that almost look like double exposures. The first example is a composition that I like particularly. It is a wild overlay of reflected containers, shop items and even a Kiwi postcard that was discovered at Christchurch's fascinating Re:Start container mall.

In the coming weeks I may add a few more photographs to the New Zealand gallery, but this blog post concludes the series of New Zealand holiday posts. Other topics are long overdue (for example the monthly print) and I should rather turn to my nearby photography instead of reminiscing.

Kiwi postcard in the Re:Start container mall, Christchurch, New Zealand

Rangitoto Island through Sky Tower windows, Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland double exposure, Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland distortion, Auckland, New Zealand

Sky Tower reflection, Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland sunset reflection, Auckland, New Zealand

Straight and distortion, Wellington, New Zealand

Although today's photographs have been created during our New Zealand holiday, these nature details are really location independent. Such photographs are sometimes labelled "intimate landscapes" or with the adjective "abstract". I really enjoy this type of photography, because it is rather about seeing and discovering than about being at the right location at the right time. We are surrounded by undiscovered and unnoticed details of beauty everywhere. The discovery of a reflection, shadow or any kind of easily overlooked detail makes one such anonymous detail significant to me. Maybe one or the other of these compositions also makes you happy for the few seconds while watching.

In addition to the ten rather diverse New Zealand details shown here, more are found in the New Zealand gallery. I wish you many discoveries of overlooked beauty and a nice weekend!

Loophole

Porarari river waves, Punakaiki, New Zealand

Fern view (in German "Farnblick")

Lake Pukaki rocks, Lake Pukaki, New Zealand

Spiky golden Speargrass

Punakaiki river streaming, New Zealand

Nikau palm tree detail

Bubbling Lake Rotorua, New Zealand

New Zealand flax detail

Sand color patterns at Muriwai beach, New Zealand

Amidst the many family holiday photographs from our New Zealand trip, three more landscape compositions have been hiding. The first photograph, a long exposure, shows clouds flowing over a mountain ridge and then dissolving. One can only imagine that there may have been many more clouds on the other side of divide. Lake Pukaki, the subject of the second composition below, has already been shown in the last post. However, I like the particular view below (also a long exposure) and did not want to withhold it. A Moeraki boulder has also been shown, but in contrast to the first example, the specimen below is intact. If you want, also have a look at my entire New Zealand gallery; more photographs will be added in the coming weeks.

The cloud divide, Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand

Lake Pukaki, New Zealand

Moeraki boulder in a pond with full moon, New Zealand

The third New Zealand holiday photographs blog post is about landscapes. Looking at my compositions, I realize that I am much less of a landscape photographer than I may have thought. Of course, New Zealand abounds with impressive landscapes on every coast and in between. I am also as much in love with nature and the outdoors as ever. However, I think that landscape photography is mostly about being at a beautiful place at a right time. With respect to photography, I am now more interested in seeing and discovering than in being. Therefore, details and intimate views are the subjects I am mostly after, not primarly broad landscape vistas. Nevertheless, here is a collection of my most preferred "classical" New Zealand landscape photographs of our trip. Some of these landscape photographs are more documentary than the others and you can see that I was particularly inspired at Muriwai Beach, Tongariro, and Lake Pukaki and the Aoraki/Mount Cook area. Besides the landscape gallery, all my New Zealand photographs are collected in a dedicated New Zealand gallery.

Orange lining beyond Oaia island, Muriwai Beach, New Zealand

Nesting gannets on the cliffs and on Oaia island (in the distance), Muriwai Beach, New Zealand

Mount Ngauruhoe and South Crater, Tongariro National Park, New Zealand

The three Emerald Lakes, Central Crater, and Blue Lake (on the left edge, in the background), Tongariro National Park, New Zealand

Rocks and surf at Monroe Beach, New Zealand

Hooker River, Hooker Valley, and Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand

Lake Pukaki and Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand

Kaikoura, New Zealand

Sunset at Lake Pukaki, New Zealand

Aoraki/Mount Cook catches the very first sun rays, Lake Pukaki, New Zealand

I am working my way through the photographs from our recent New Zealand trip, so that I can share more compositions here, prepare a family photo book, and put together a slide show. Today, the topic are trees and forests. For a visitor from Europe, the native trees and forests of New Zealand are otherworldly, astonishing, and foreign. The lush and intense greens, the dense undergrowth, all the epiphytes and mosses, and of course the many types of ferns. There are also the majestic Kauri trees - which might be on the verge of extinction due to a microbial pest - and wonderfully colorful trees such as the Pohutukawa and the Rata tree. During our walks through the New Zealand rain forests the visual impressions were often completed by exotic noises, smells, and the sensation of pouring rain on our jackets - quite fittingly for a rain forest. However, I found it extremely difficult to adequatly capture our impressions in photographs the "work". Below are a six compositions that I like; not only as docuemnts, but also as photographs. However, a photograph can never really do justive to the experience of wandering through such a forest.
All my New Zealand photographs are filed in thematic galleries, but there is now also a New Zealand gallery, within the new "Beautiful places" folder, where all photographs from our recent trip will appear.

Pohutukawa entaglment in Wenderholm Regional Park, Waiwera, New Zealand

Pohutukawa forest in Wenderholm Regional Park, Waiwera, New Zealand

The awe-inspiring Tane Mahuta Kauri tree in Waipoua Forest, Kauri Coast, New Zealand

Lush Kauri rain forest in Trounson Kauri Park, New Zealand

Temperate Northland rain forest, Trounson Kauri Park, New Zealand

Waving Northern Rata tree in Paparoa National Park, Punakaiki, New Zealand

Moon-lit Moeraki boulder shell on the beach, Hampden, New Zealand

A few days ago, we have returned from wonderful New Zealand and I am now sorting, discarding, selecting and developing the thousands of photographs that the children and myself took. It is a slow, time-consuming process, but it offers many opportunities to look back at our adventures, to reminisce, and to be grateful for all that we could experience as a family. Although photography was of course not the main purpose of our vacation, there is a number of compositions that I am satisfied with. The first New Zealand photograph that I would like to share is, at least currently, my preferred composition of our entire trip. For me, this photograph is rendered special not only because of what you see, but also because it involved planning, some hardship, and a bit of luck. 

I was really looking forward to photograph at the Moeraki boulders, but had hoped to discover compositions that are different from the famous sunrise/sunset shots that I had often seen. When we arrived on the beach where these gigantic boulders lie around, it was clear that I could only photograph the rocky spheres early in the morning or late at night - unless if I had cared for photographs of tourists posing on the rocks. Luckily, the tidal patterns were compatible and I had realized that it was full moon. I previsualized Moeraki boulders in moon light and set out for a nightly walk from our campground. 

The scene was as I hoped: the beach, rocks and sea lightened by the moon and no tourist far and wide. But then, while kneeling next to my tripod in the wet sand, while taking photographs, my knee cracked. It first seemed like a negligible inconvenience, but soon became a painful disability. The prospect of the hike back to the campground became more and more discomforting. However, just when I had packed up my equipment and started limping back, I came across this boulder: a cracked Moeraki boulder with a puddle in the middle, and if looked at from the right angle moon light in the puddle and on the sea. Almost too good to be true! Despite the pain and advanced hour, I unpacked and quickly took two exposures (only one of which turned out reasonably sharp). It is one of the rare cases where I think virtually everything is right - the frame has not even been cropped the tiniest bit.