NZPhotographer Issue 10, Aug 2018

MISTY FREQUENCIES
F2.8, 15s, ISO6400
set it on time lapse mode, one shot per 20 seconds,
and then head out for hours exploring the golden
sandy coastline by kiteboard, sometimes with my son
onboard standing between my feet!
In early 2015 I started pointing the compact camera
and a GoPro upward attempting astro time-lapse but
that didn’t last long! In 2015 I bought my first DSLR, a
lightweight little Nikon D5300 body with a Tamron
17-50mm F2.8 lens.
By the end of that year, I had night shooting and
stitching as dialed as could be with rudimentary
gear and software and was itching for full frame.
Pretty much everyone was shooting Canon 6D’s,
and stomping on Nikon in online discussions, or so it
seemed. But after seeing some noise tests and DR
scores I diverged and got the Nikon D750 along with
Samyang’s 24mm F1.4 and the Sigma art 50mm F1.4
had me ready for any composition.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR
PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE?
I think I tend toward aiming for moody vignetted
scenes with a dramatic in-scene light source and
some close foreground feature of interest. At least
in my visualising and motivation that’s what I like if
not overly manifested in my gallery yet! It’s a cliché
formula yes, but likely for the reason that it optimises
all elements in the frame for maximum impact. I used
to be staunchly thirdly, framing landscape views but
now if I glance across my online gallery I notice it has
become quite centrist.
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR PROUDEST MOMENTS
IN PHOTOGRAPHY?
My first trip with the new gear was a windy February
night up at the Base of Farewell Spit. An image from
that night, “Badlands” won third place on Gurushots
and they used it as their social media promo image.
Then there was a fantastic night out on the Abel
Tasman coast. Firstly I remember quite nervously
shooting a two row panoramic nightscape which
spawned “Misty Frequencies”, a composition I’m
really proud of which has been one of my most
printed images… NikonNZ took a shine to it using it as
their Facebook sponsored ad image for quite a while.
I also caught "The Navigator" (next page) just before
sunset, a tricky bracketed stitched pano which won
the D-photo landscape photographer of the year
2016.
Next, I scored an epic night at the Tekapo Church
on a full moon with a fast moving veil of stratus…
perfect for single shot super wides. A couple of my
long exposures from that night won a few Viewbug
competitions - “New take on an overshot scene”
theme etc. I was really lucky with the conditions
making it easy to get something unique, but it did help
to have a wide 14mm and a low rising point of view to
accentuate and ‘radialise’ the cloud streaks.
August 2018
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