Lake Wakatipu

Photo of the Day: Sunset over Lake Wakatipu

Here's a shot I finally got around to processing. Honestly I didn't have to do too much considering the remarkable conditions over Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, New Zealand. Every 30 seconds during this sunset the light was changing to something new and fantastic.

Here I shot seven bracketed photos with a 1.0 exposure variation; this is something you want to do when shooting directly into the sun. Using the tone mapped image I pulled in the sky from the +1 exposure to fix some of the gray sky. I also brought in some of the redder grasses from the 0 level exposure. These grasses were unbelievably red while I was standing there. 

 

Photo of the Day: A Lone Tree on Lake Wakatipu

I've started going through some of my first day images from my New Zealand trip. I decided to play around some tight versus wide crops. This is a fun tight crop across Lake Wakatipu in the heart of Queenstown. Thanks to the Nikor 28-300 lens I was able to get in nice and tight on this copse of trees. 

This is an HDR shot but instead of using the 5 images I shot I decided to only use 4. The +2 exposure shot was too blown out. I did a multiply layer and then masked back in some of the darker trees that I saw that misty morning.

It's fun to see some of my first day images versus the images I was starting to shoot by the end of the week. It's amazing what some intensive learning can do to a person.

 

 

​Lone Tree on Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand

Photo of the Day: Sunrise over Lake Wakatipu

This is the first sunrise I got to witness in New Zealand. It happened while on my photo adventure with Trey. As I began to look at the 3,500 photos I took in Kiwi land I noticed something interesting, a marked improvement of my skills over the long week. Initially I shot this with HDR in mind but I ended up processing just a single RAW file because it just felt right. I'm learning to better trust my instincts. 

Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand
Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand