travelphotography – Sandy's Views

Kiwi Greenery

June 27, 2018June 27, 2018Posted in New Zealand, photography, TravelTagged art, greens, landscapephotography, landscapes, photography, travel, travelphotography, wilderness1 Comment

A selection of New Zealand awesomeness, in predominantly green hues!

Mt Naki Rail Bridge — Taranaki Rail Bridge

Long Exposure stream — Long Exposure Stream

Doubtful Sound Waterfall — Doubtful Sound

Lake Manapouri Reflections — Lake Manapouri

Well mostly green.

Back Home

January 6, 2018Posted in New Zealand, photography, TravelTagged abstract photography, art, beach, beachlife, canon, cityscape, cityscene, New Zealand, photography, portrait, Roadtrip, sport, sunset, travel, travelphotography4 Comments

By back home, I mean I traded the Olympus Mirrorless camera back in for a Canon. I missed having what I feel is a proper camera. A big Digital Single Reflex Camera. I like Canons so I bought the Canon 6D MkII. Actually it’s not quite as simple as that. The 6D MkII is the camera almost made for me. It’s more clever as one of Canons best ever camera’s, the 5D mkIII. I’ve also had one of those, a second hand one which I traded in for the Olympus Camera as I thought I would enjoy the drop in camera weight. It wasn’t worth the change sadly, still, you live and learn.

I wanted my own new Canon DSLR camera though and the 6D MkII came along at the perfect time. It’s got great image quality, plenty of pixels, it does a bunch of stuff I don’t care about or understand and it has built in wifi which is awesome in so many ways. It does what it says on the tin and has delivered a number of quite fetching images already. My only issue with it is that the shutter isn’t as quiet as I’d like. I know right? That’s literally the only issue. I love this camera and I’m looking forward to getting to know it better. Herewith some imagery from my 6D MkII. It’s not all about the camera though. For those who are interested, I mostly, currently only, have a Canon 24-105 L series walking round lens on the front of my camera.

Ariana and Millie — People standing in my shot, I may have asked them to.

Shepherds Delight, Himatangi Beach. This is home.

St Andrews Side — St Andrews Church, Turakina.

Turakina Cottage — I like this building.

Wake boarding one handed — KIte surfer, practicing at the new place in Foxton. It’s called ‘Off The Loop’ Cable wake boarding among other awesome adventure activities.

Weds 03-01-18 part 2 — Home, of an evening.

Muapoko Street — That’s my street at night. Awesome sunset.

Eclectic mix. See you soon.

Himatangi Beach

November 21, 2017Posted in photography, TravelTagged architecture, beach, community, holidays, landscape, New Zealand, photo, rustic, seascape, seaside, summertime, travel, travelphotography, Vacation, village2 Comments

This is where we live now. A small beach community in Manawatu, New Zealand. Himi as I call it has a wonderful eclectic variety of proper beach baches and more conventional homes, and the largest sand dune in the Southern Hemisphere apparently.

The phrase, ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ is best applied here. Here is a collage of Himatangi Beach images. I love it here.

This is the road to my place, ok, it’s not the only road, but it is a road.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Cool ay? See you at Himi.

Temporary Change Of Gear

October 21, 2017Posted in New Zealand, photography, TravelTagged landscapephotography, landscapes, mountains, nature, New Zealand, photography, reflection, road trip, sunset, travel, travelphotography, wilderness7 Comments

I decided to go light, I decided I was carrying around too much heavy expensive gear for someone who isn’t a professional Photographer. I wanted to try Digital Mirrorless Technology. I’m currently enjoying the light weight, little bit hipster, retro’ish Olympus OM-D E-M5 MkII which is a hell of a mouthful for a camera name. I only have one multi purpose lens on the front which is an Olympus 14-150mm. I have to admit I’m not totally in love with this camera. I’m not as happy with the image quality as I had hoped I would be and I find it a bit small in my hands. It’s pretty much lacking in every department for what I want to achieve photographically. But it is light. I’ll be going back to a bigger DSLR set up when I can afford it. That said, here is a selection of images I’ve taken in the last couple of months with the little Olympus.

I don’t think it’s just a case of a poor workman blaming his tools, maybe it is though. I still want to go back to a full size DSLR, or mirrorless. This nice little camera is just too little for me.

On The Road

May 5, 2017May 5, 2017Posted in New Zealand, photography, TravelTagged Driving, landscapephotography, landscapes, natural beauty, nature, New Zealand, photography, Roadtrip, sunrise, sunset, travel, travelphotography, wilderness3 Comments

I’m not even going to pad this out with words, well not many words. If you come here a bit you’ll know I spend a lot of time on the road. I’m lucky that I live in New Zealand which is the worlds greatest road trip. People travel from all over the world to see this stuff and I just have to leave the house. These images are some that I have captured since my previous Dolphins post, which was just over a month ago. As far as a travel experience goes, it’s truly epic out there in New Zealand. I almost couldn’t believe I’d covered this much territory in under a month. I should get out more…

Ratana Side — Ratana Church, Raetihi, Central Plateau

Ruapehu Reflection — Waitonga Falls Walkway, Mt Ruapehu, Central Plateau.

Ruapehu Sunrise — Sunrise near Raetihi, Mt Ruapehu, Central Plateau

Eglington Valley-3 — Eglignton Valley, Fiordland National Park

Portobello Sunset — Portobello, Otago Peninsula

Lake Benmore Blue — Lake Benmore, Mackenzie Country. Canterbury

Lake Benmore Road trip — Mackenzie Country, Canterbury

Pukaki shore road — Lake Pukaki and the Southern Alps, Mackenzie Country.

Te Anau Autumn Dawn — Te Anau, Southland

Nelson Marina-3 — Nelson Marina, Nelson.

Pelorus Sound light show — Pelorus Sound from Queen Charlotte Drive, Marlborough Sounds.

Island Bay Brew'd front on — The Pub in my local village. End of the trip. That’s not my car though.

So, where too next?

Cuba Street

March 19, 2017Posted in New Zealand, photography, TravelTagged art, cityscape, cityscene, photography, street, streetlife, travel, travelphotography, urban, Wellington6 Comments

Cuba Street in Wellington is pretty Iconic. Cuba Street is where the cool people go, the bearded hipsters, the fashionable in mind and spirit. The wannabe’s and the once were. The right on, right now and the faded jadeds. The tattooed ladies and the skater boys. Cuba Street is a place of street food, expensive food and retro shopping. Vinyl records and vinyl furniture, probably. Quirky things on the street and in the shops. Cuba Street is colourful. I decided to spend a morning taking photos in Cuba Street. This is the work of one hour, one morning. This Sunday Morning in March.

There are many photos and (almost) no captions. Sometimes images speak for themselves.

Cuba Callum — That’s Callum, this isn’t Cuba Street, but is in Glover Park. Glover Park is just round the corner from Cuba Street. So almost Cuba Street

Cuba Craft Beer — Also not actually in Cuba Street, but nearby in Glover Park

Berhampore Bus stop — OK, this isn’t in Cuba Street. This is Berhampore. But it’s very colourful.

The Far End Of The World.

January 13, 2017February 14, 2017Posted in photography, Travel, UncategorizedTagged England, History, holiday, London, travel, travelphotography, Vacation3 Comments

I recently had to return to England over Christmas, I say had to, I was happy to go of course. It’s been over 3 years since I returned home to New Zealand from my 20 plus years living in England. I was interested to see how it would look as a visitor, rather than a resident. I took my camera. What England mostly looked like, was foggy, although we did have a sunny day, so that was nice. Images in no particular order.

blitz — St Paul’s with Blitz memorial statue.

bridge-crossing — Looks like a Russians outing. Not sure it isn’t.

cafe — Corner of Frith and Old Compton Street in Soho. Spent many good nights round here.

modern-art-creation — Standing on top of the Tate Modern Art Gallery. I decided to try my hand at making some modern art, I didn’t have any crayons though, so I used my camera. I expect the Tate Modern will be in touch any day to ask if they can hang this in the foyer of the gallery.

modern-art-moment-2 — People having a modern art moment in the boiler room of the Tate Modern.

tuba-of-fire — Man blowing fire out of his Tuba, as one does.

bath-cemetary-tomb-2 — I got up at Sparrow fart to have a poke about in this cemetery in Bath.

book-shop — I was taking a photo of this characterful book shop when some urchin parked their bike in my shot.

buckingham-palace — Liz and Phil’s, they’re not home.

castle-coombe — Castle Coombe, no racing in this bit.

general — I believe the four legs on the plinth means something, don’t know who he is either. Above Horse Guards parade ground.

highbury-fields — Highbury Fields, on the sunny day.

horse-guards-parade-ground — London, not Moscow. St James’s park.

palace — Who doesn’t like a nice ornate building. This is Horse Guards parade ground in front. History fans will know what that building is.

So not the usual touristy shots perhaps. It’s actually quite hard to take a photo a bit different to what is obviously on offer and on a million postcards. My lingering impression of my revisit to England though was that I’m very pleased I live in New Zealand. It’s good to be home.

Before the sun comes up

December 2, 2016February 14, 2017Posted in New Zealand, photographyTagged beachlife, landscapes, natural beauty, nature, New Zealand, photography, seascape, sunrise, travel, travelphotography4 Comments

Once upon a time. I spent a lot of time out and about before and during the sunrise. I should do that more often.

epic — State Highway One in the Rangitikei, from Leedstown Road. Most people don’t know where that is.

Halcombe cows don’t care about the sun coming up.

stilts-at-dawn — Once again, Kawau Bay, different day. Place of contrasts and all that

red-sky — You know the phrase ‘red sky in the morning’? Well this is an epic warning.

The sunrise was so awesome, even the seagull stopped to watch

early-mist — Low fog, or mist, or whatever. Creeping over a farm fence. Manawatu.

Get up early. Sunrise is often way cooler than sunset.

Back In The Capital

November 26, 2016February 14, 2017Posted in New Zealand, photography, UncategorizedTagged cityscape, newzealand, photography, street, travel, travelphotography, WellingtonLeave a comment

We had a big earthquake recently. Bigger in the South than it was in the North, but big none the less. There are many buildings in Wellington still closed, cordoned off and some to be demolished. Big buildings. We also had a Tsunami warning. So I thought I’d go and take some photos of the capital city before it gets destroyed in the next big earthquake and washed away in the following Tsunami. You know, for the archives. I took an eclectic mix of photos, not the stuff people usually photograph in Wellington. It is quite a diverse, colourful and interesting place. See? Due to the number of photos, I’ve gone for the ’tiled mosaic look. Welcome to Wellington.