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MacLaren Footbridge Lake Tekapo

Opened in 2015, the MacLaren footbridge connects the Lake Tekapo township with the Church of the Good Shepherd. It is 125 metres long but only a couple of metres wide. It makes it much safer and quicker for pedestrians to walk between the township and the church, rather than having to walk along side State Highway 8. The bridge crossed the Tekapo River from Lake George Scott Pond to the left. The river opens up into Lake Tekapo to the right of the bridge. From this angle the township is on the other side of the bridge. We can see some of the lights from a couple of the local bars and restaurants. The straight red lines on the left, behind the bridge are from cars driving over the nearby Lake Tekapo Bridge, part of State Highway 8.

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Church of the Good Shepherd Lake Tekapo

I first visited Tekapo about 8 years ago. Ever since I’ve wanted to go back in winter. It often snows in the area during this season, as it did on our second day. Typically night and astrophotography is better during winter when the milkyway is visible. The last couple of times I’ve visited Tekapo were in the summer when there were hundreds of tourists surrounding the church. On this evening I had the place to myself. What doesn’t come across in the photograph was how windy it was. Even with the camera on a tripod many of the photographs were blurred due to the hallowing winds coming off the lake. This photograph was taken after sunset so there was still a little light in the sky. It was still a relatively long exposure of 1.6 seconds.

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Blood Moon 2021

Super Flower Blood Moon was the only total lunar eclipse of 2021. This was captured on the evening of 27 May 2021. A friend invited me to the south coast to photograph the blood moon without the light pollution of the city. I ended up staying home. This was taken from my apartment balcony in the centre of Wellington. Using a tripod and the lens zoomed in to 240mm. The camera settings for this ended up being a 2 second exposure at f8 with ISO 1600. The moon isn’t a subject I photograph often, as it has some photographic challenges. It is a very bright subject on a very dark background. Lunar eclipses are a little easier in some ways as the moon is darker, due the Earth’s shadow. You can read more about this from Space.com’s Super Flower Blood Moon 2021 article.

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Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth

Driving through the centre of New Plymouth it would be impossible to not see this building. Day or night it stands out as an extreme contrast to the surrounding architecture. This is the Len Lye Centre. A modern (2015) extension to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. This is New Zealand’s first gallery dedicated to a single artist. Taken from in front of the Clock Tower On Devon Street West. If you look closely you can see the clock tower, lit up in green and purple lights reflected in the building. It was dusk when this was photographed. Using a 30 second long exposure helped capture the blur of car’s white headlights and red tail lights as people drove past. Designed by architect Andrew Patterson. It has a highly polished, stainless steel exterior that curves around the sides of the gallery. From almost any angle this looks futuristic and so unusual. The only difficulty I had was not photographing myself or my tripod reflecting in the building.