# Grim day turned gold



## vonnagy (Aug 7, 2005)

(as taken from my blog http://www.vonnagy.com/photoblog)

I often reiterate to fellow photographers that the best days to take outdoor shots are the days that you would probably rather be sitting inside next to the fire. I nearly didn't go out and take photos today, it was looking very grim. But since I had been sitting inside programming for the past two days, i wanted to make an effort to go out and do something.  I decided to drive down to Port Waikato.

Driving down, there was nothing but a cold steady drizzle of rain. I was still going to go out and attempt to take photos, but in mind I thought this would be one of those 'good for nothing' photos. I wasn't going to lug my camera in the drizzle but I would still go out and check whats going on at the Port anyways. 

When I got to Port, the rain had reduced to a sprinkle so it would be ok to carry my camera in its bag. I decided to go ahead and walk along sunset beach to where the Waikato river flowed into the Tasman.  Let me tell you it was a miserable walk. The rain, though light was icy cold and the wind was blustery. It was blowing water into my ear, and more than once i had to stop to tap the water out of my ear. 

In addition the skys were too overcast- i prefer overcast skies to sun but in this case it was all grey and bleak. I did manage to make it too the rivers mouth, and took a snap of the sand patterns. 







I figured it was time to cut my losses and head back. I was cold and semi miserable and the lighting was just not right to take any good shots.  At least the rain had stop making the blustery wind more bearable.

About half an hour into my walk back the car park, the lighting came:


























I was some of the most intensely red lighting that i've seen, even for NZ standards. In fact, post processing these pics was the first the time I've added a small amount of blue so the red would be more tame.  I've never added the colour blue to photos before because the colour it tends to add alot of noise to photographs, but in this case I felt it was needed. There's a first for everything! In addition, the lighting was very contrasty. I've never quite seen the lighting light this before, it was very bizarre (in a good way). All in all, this lighting lasted about 10 minutes, i took heaps of shots but several of them where badly out of focus.

I then hiked up the dune for a couple of parting shots and caught a rainbow

A flash was used on this:





This was underexposed 1.5 stops, i've brought out the foreground post processing the shot:





I whipped out my 85 canon lens to get a tele of the rainbow, the light was quite low i believe the aperture on this shot was 2.5





I accidently DOF'd the rainbow out of this, a bit of a blooper:





I wouldn't recommend doing this, but I took a final parting shot with my wide angle at 1/20 of a second. Not super-duper crisp, but the foreground is ok considering:






When I got back to my car, i got out my tripod and took a few shots. Unfortunately, the wind was blustery and shook most of my time exposure shots. This one was taken at 15secs:


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## Dave_D (Aug 7, 2005)

Great colors. I love how dramatic they came out. I toured your links and will visit them often. Great stuff!


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## Middlemarch (Aug 7, 2005)

Gorgeous shots.  The light is incredible -- good excuse to go for a walk, huh?!


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## Raymond J Barlow (Aug 7, 2005)

far from snapshots vonnagy, these photos are awesome.. as are all of your scenery photos, spectacular!

I also toured your website, and I find it so amazing that your country NZ has so much beauty to offer.  It must be one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

We are very lucky here in TPF to have you open the window to New Zealand for us!


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