Tag Archives: red

Little Country Church

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A scene like this is easy to miss.  Normally when I’m driving somewhere I’m focussed more on “getting there” and can zip past some great photo opportunities.  This time I was actually looking for them; I saw this little church off the road and made a mental note to stop there on the return trip.  I almost forgot!  So after some “James Bond” braking I stopped and took a few minutes out to snap this one.  The sky was just right; it was in the middle of day but the cloud cover helped to make the shot work.  
It does seem to me that 90% of photography is about “just taking the shot”.   We cant always wait for the sun to drop down or the sky to be perfect.  Any shot is often better than making none at all I reckon.

This church was closed while I was there, so I was unable to gather much in the way of background information.  What I can say is that its built on local Maori tribal land (you can see a small whare on the right of the church itself.
I do like white picket fences, too! Little Country Church NZ

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One More Look

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Just one more shot, just one more moment.  It’s easy to take the shot or shots, figure you’ve got what you came for and just walk away.  I was doing just that when I thought I’d turn and look one more time.   You know what’s its like; when you cant help yourself, the beauty is all around and somehow it draws you in.   I was glad I stopped and took one last longing look at the sunset.   I could see that even though the sun had dipped below the horizon there remained that afterglow.  It was covering everything in pink, red and gold.   I hope I managed to capture the feeling in a picture.   You can’t rush these things; nature has her own tempo and we march to it.  We don’t dictate. Auckland Sunset HDR

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Volcano At Rest

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I don’t to complain but sometimes clear blue skies can be a little boring!  So, either its just enjoy the scene and put the camera away or focus a bit more on the foreground.  In this case the tussock grass is so vivid and glowing that I reckon it works just fine.   The ground around here is that strange volcanic ash and earth; this in turn seems to effect the colour of everything else.   The volcano in question in this picture is dormant at the moment but I remember back in the mid 70s when it was puffing away with gusto.  For the present it is happy to be at rest.Blue mountain tussock

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Good to the last moment

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It’s true that taking photographs at sunset and sunrise time, is probably the best time of day to take landscapes.  The shadows are longer, the contrast greater and colours look magical.  It’s easy to take that great photo and then pack-up, head for home but did you know that the few moments after the sun has set is also really interesting?  Sometimes you can get a “bloom” of light after the sun has gone.  It’s a good idea then to hang-around a bit for any last minute magic…

In this case, the sun had set (to the left of this shot) but there was just enough light left to create some mood.  So, its time to wind-up that ISO a bit on the camera and take a few shots.  Back in post-processing, I just did the basics in Photoshop (noise reduction with Noiseware, curves, levels etc.) and then I masked-in a single texture.  It already looked pretty painterly to so I figured I’d push it a bit further in that direction.

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Check-out my Topaz Lens Effects contest while you’re here.

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