Wetlands in photography
Views of Southern Alps across coastal native forest and lagoon near Okarito, Westland Tai Poutini National Park, West Coast, UNESCO World Heritage Area, New Zealand, NZ
It’s strange, but for some reason, wetlands are rather forgotten places of a general interest, yet, they are the home to probably more creatures then any other environment. Sadly, over the centuries, the vast majority of these essential habitats in New Zealand have been drained in the sake of “human’s development”.
Fortunately, a few of these wetlands manage to survive under protection of national park status, such as this, in the Westland Tai Poutini National Park.
Photographing in these places is hugely rewarding, since wetlands offer endless opportunities for wonderful photographs to be made.
This image has been photographed on an early morning, just when the sun appeared over the Southern Alps.
There was a morning mist over the lagoon of the wetland near Franz Josef Glacier, and as the sun climbed higher and higher on the sky, its morning light was defused by the mist and illuminated the scene with beautiful warm tones, lending the image wonderful airy mood.
What a wonderful morning it was, with the Tasman Sea crashing behind my back and Mount Tasman, 3,497m, the second highest mountain of New Zealand on the horizon.
For more images with similar theme, please visit COASTAL IMAGES.
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Alpine Beauty
Alpine sunset viewed from Mt. Fox with Cook River and Tasman Sea in distance, Westland Tai Poutini National Park, West Coast, UNESCO World Heritage Area, New Zealand, NZ
Continuing with the theme of “my golden 20 minutes”, this image was made not too far from Fox Glacier, high up in the alpine environment, when the end of the day light was dressing up the scene with a wonderful golden glow.
This is one of my favourite locations where I love spending my time; exploring and amalgamating with the environment, looking and planning for new photographs.
What’s remarkable about this alpine place is that the Tasman Sea, visible on horizon, is barely 10km away and you’re already around 1600m asl.
I’ve been in this spot many times before, observing angles of the light, compositions, simply chasing photography opportunities. Among other images, I have always been attracted to the rock stacks scattered all around this alpine terrain, with these rocks in particular. They offer wonderful angle toward the sea on horizon, while incorporating the Cook River draining the Fox Glacier into the sea. All I needed was to be there in right time, when the setting sun was at the right angle and a suitable amount of clouds, or, rather lack of it, enabled the light to cast its wonderful warm hues across the landscape.
For more images with alpine theme, please visit ALPINE IMAGES.
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Golden Hour
Golden hour of dawn on Aoraki Mount Cook 3,724m with Tasman River, Aoraki Mt. Cook National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Area, Mackenzie Country, New Zealand, NZ
There is a good reason we call some particular times of the day “the golden hour”.
Well, for me, it’s more like “the golden 20minutes” – before sunset or after sunrise, like in this image, when the light can dress up the landscape into a wonderful golden glow. Depending on the atmospheric conditions, this glow can range from very subtle hues to quite strong golden colour cast, lending the landscape a regal quality.
Just like in this photograph of the highest New Zealand mountain Aoraki Mount Cook 3,724m.
In this image, I wanted to show the beautiful golden light on the east face of Aoraki, which was making the mountain stand out in the landscape. However, that wouldn’t be possible with wide angle lens therefore a longer lens was needed to be used to capture this panorama. One frame wouldn’t be enough either so the only option was to take 3 horizontal frames and composite them together to make this final frame. To give this image the depth, I used the Tasman River with its colourful reflections as a foreground anchor.
This is also one of the locations on my premium 15 days tour – 6 National Parks Sojourn, where we photograph.
For more info on these tours and workshops, please visit our website page PHOTO TOURS.
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