Posted on

Sunset from Hawker Street

Sunset from Hawker Street

Taken on a walk around my local neighbourhood of Mount Victoria. I’ve been pointing the camera at the sun more recently as I like the look of lens flare. It’s especially great in video, which I have been experimenting more with recently. Though I’m far from ready to share my video work publicly. As you can see Hawker Street is a steep street, close to the city centre. It is the road that you have to drive up to get to the Mount Victoria lookout. It has a couple of great spots overlooking Wellington.

Posted on

Sunset from Piha beach

Sunset from Piha beach

For this landscape, I walked right up to the edge of the water. This gives a closer view of the sun setting behind these jagged rocks. I find with landscape photography, I often shoot very wide views to try and capture everything I’m seeing. Like the previous photograph of Lion Rock at sunset from much further back up the beach. It’s often worth getting closer and focusing on specific details in a landscape. I much prefer this composition. Not just for the great colours in the sunset but also the textures and lines of the rocks and water.

Posted on

Lion Rock at sunset

Lion Rock at sunset

Piha beach was one of the first coastal areas I visited in New Zealand. It is a winding but specular drive from Auckland and well worth the visit. The focal point of the beach is Lion Rock. It is about 100 metres but unsafe to climb right to the top. You can get about half way up, which I’ve done before but not on this visit. We were camping at the Piha Domain Camp Ground which was fantastic. This photograph was taken on an evening stroll along the beach at sunset. This is a black sand beach due to it being a volcanic area. In fact Lion Rock is the eroded neck of a volcano which erupted 16 million years ago.

Posted on

Sunset over the Cook Strait

Sunset over the Cook Strait

Driving along The Esplanade from Red Rocks, I stopped the car on the east side of Island Bay. You can see Taputeranga Island on the left side of this photograph. On the far right is the main land on the other side of the bay. Along the horizon you can make out the shapes of New Zealand’s South Island on the other side of the Cook Strait. What I like most is the way the rays of light from the sunset fans out into the sky.