Having seen large Maori canoes in museums in Auckland and Wellington I thought I knew what to expect from the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. However this one is huge. At just under 86 metres long it is believe to be the largest Maori war canoe ever built. Capable of carrying 160 warriors.
In addition to it’s great length the lighting conditions posed a big challenge here. Obviously the canoe is in the shade but being the middle of the day the grounds around the bay were very bright. To combat this I captured a very dark image to expose more for the outside areas of the photograph. Then using shadow recovery in Lightroom brought back the details of the canoe.