New Zealand Wildlife 3: Juvenile Delinquent Sea Lion

June 27, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 15
Nature / New Zealand / Photo Log / Photography / Wildlife

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June 28, 2018, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand. This is a bonus post. A few minutes before yesterday’s shots were made, this bigshot chased us off the beach. Tony told us this guy had been troublesome at times and had chased several people away. He told us to run if he started chasing. Run fast. New Zealand sea lions can sprint 26 kmh. (16 mph.)

My wife got the lead shot before he decided to mess with us. (First time I’ve posted one of her shots. Won’t be the last.)

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I grabbed this shot an instant before he started to move on us. As a photographer, I must say that the shoot-or-run decision creates a noticeable amount of mental conflict — shoot or be squashed — but in the end, the desire not to be steamrollered by nine hundred pounds of testosterone-infused adolescent sea lion with infectious teeth won out. One shot and I ran.

Once we reached safety, he dejectedly lumbered away. We thought we could hear him mutter under his breath, “Gee Officer Krupke.”

(Nikon D750, 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 AF-P ED VR; Nikon D500, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

New Zealand Wildlife 2: Yellow-Eyed Penguins

June 25, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 29
New Zealand / Photo Log / Photography / Wildlife

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June 28, 2018, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand. A one-day tour of Otago is like going to a gourmet restaurant, having the amuse bouche, and leaving — but there we were, and we were going to get everything out of our day that we could. Tony said it was very important that we get to the beach by 3:45.

“Why?”

“Because that’s when the penguins come home from work.”

“Oh. Really? 3:45? Exactly?”

“Within a very few minutes of that.”

And so we went.

We arrived a bit early and positioned ourselves, just in time for a nine-hundred-pound juvenile New Zealand sea lion to chase of off the beach.

Reminds me of an exchange in Avatar:

(Referring to a large and very threatening creature) “What about that one?”

“Run. Definitely run.”

We ran. (Perhaps a bonus post about that soon.)

I was just regrouping from rapid sea lion avoidance when Tony stage-whispered to me to move back about a meter and be very quiet. I did and I looked to the right. Plop plop. Plop plop. Plop plop. The commuter came up off the beach and plodded by like I wasn’t there. My shutter clicks bothered him not a bit.

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A few minutes later, two more came marching by in step. And then another and another. About a dozen in all — some eyeing slumbering sea lions to whom they gave a wide berth, hoping they wouldn’t wake up.

According to Wikipedia, these are possibly the most ancient of all living penguins. There are only about four thousand of these determined creatures left. All in New Zealand and neighboring islands. They deserve respect.

(Nikon D500, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

New Zealand Wildlife 1: New Zealand Fur Seals

June 24, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 31
Nature / New Zealand / Photo Log / Photography / Wildlife

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June 20, 2018, Doubtful Sound and June 28, 2018, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand. New Zealand fur seals were hunted to near-extinction in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and were injured and killed by the thousands by commercial fisheries well into the twentieth century. In New Zealand, they have been protected by law since 1978.

The show-off above was guarding the mouth of Doubtful Sound in Fiordland National Park.

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This mother and child were on the southeastern end of the Otago Peninsula.

(Nikon D500, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

New Zealand 6: Otago

June 21, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 15
Landscape / New Zealand / Photo Log / Photography

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June 28, 2018, Northwest of Dunedin, New Zealand. After the photography workshop, we rented a car and headed southeast from Queenstown to Dunedin and then took a week to drive all the way up the east coast of the South Island.

We fell in love with Dunedin, which reminded us a little of San Francisco — although it beats San Francisco by having the steepest street in the world. While there we took a tour with Tony from Elm Wildlife Tours. Tony knows his stuff. Ask him anything about natural history, geography, botany, wildlife, and the San Francisco music scene in the late 1960s. Encyclopedic, he is. The morning was dedicated to landscape photography and the afternoon was filled with wildlife. (Stay tuned. Wildlife shots next week.)

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Both of these shots were made in the hills northwest of Dunedin. In both I reverted to conventional wisdom (which didn’t kill me) and featured prominent foregrounds.

(Nikon D850, Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. Nikon D500, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

New Zealand 5: Lake Pukaki

June 19, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 21
Impressionism / Landscape / New Zealand / Photo Log / Photography

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June 25, 2018, Peter’s Lookout, Mount Cook Road, New Zealand. Lake Pukaki is fed by the runoff of two glaciers. The fine silt in the runoff, known as glacial flour, makes the water turquoise. Take a look at satellite photos of the Southern Island and it will stick out like a turquois thumb. We stopped for a lunch break on the way to Lake Tasman and fed our stomachs and our cameras. These two photos were taken exactly an hour apart.

The first, above, looks east — straight across the lake toward Mount Dobson.

(There is a northward view in my Betterists post.)

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This second shot looks southeast in the direction of Grays Hills, the Grampian Mountains, the Dalgety Range, and the Kirkliston Range.

Conventional wisdom has one put something in the foreground in landscape photography. I am not conventionally wise. Rather than attempting to create a third dimension, I was going for a two-dimensional feel. Sort of like my ocean horizons, but with landscapes. Vaguely impressionist, but not.

(Nikon D850; Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

New Zealand 4: Thunder Creek Falls

June 19, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 16
Abstract / Impressionism / Landscape / New Zealand / Photo Log / Photography / Waterfall

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June 22, 2018, Haast Pass-Makarora Road, New Zealand. A quick stop on the way to Fox Glacier. I posted photos of Fox Glacier back in February. The road we were on leads through a temperate rainforest pass in New Zealand’s Southern Alps out to the Tasman Sea. There are many waterfalls along the way. This is a small somewhat abstracted crop of one of the most impressive.

(Nikon D850; Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

New Zealand 3: Wanaka

June 18, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 23
Landscape / New Zealand / Photo Log / Photography / Sunset

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June 21, 2018, Wanaka and Lake Wanaka, New Zealand. You can’t go to the South Island of New Zealand without going to Wanaka and getting your own shot the famed lone willow. Here’s mine. Water: Mirror flat. Late-afternoon sky: Entertaining. Tree: Noble.

Gary and Don showed us shots they made just a week earlier when the water was all the way up to the base of the trunk. Conditions change fast.

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Just before dinner we went to Glendhu Bay on Lake Wanaka for sunset. No clouds but no one was heartbroken. It was sun star day, so there you go. No extra charge.

One of the peaks — the one to the left of the sun I believe — is Mount Aspiring. Our guide, Steve Norris, told us it is the twenty-third highest mountain in New Zealand. I asked him what it was aspiring to be. He said it was aspiring to be the twenty-second highest.

Now you know the rest of the story.

(Nikon D850; Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

New Zealand 2: Fast Frosty Sunrise

June 17, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 9
Landscape / New Zealand / Photo Log / Photography / Sunrise

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June 21, 2018, Te Anau-Milford Highway, New Zealand. Our planned sunrise shot was a wash: thick fog meant no sunrise to speak of. Actually, no visible sunrise at all, although the sky sort of got lighter. A bit dejected, we got into the van and motored off. But as we headed north toward Mirror Lakes, another opportunity presented itself. A soft frosty hillside lay before shadowed mountains with the sun just behind them about to show itself.

Stop. Seconds were ticking.

No time for tripod. Dash. Quick frame. Nope. Change position. Quick frame. Not quite. Move up and to the left. Yes, there’s the frame. Go to f/16 for a sun star. Check exposure. Good. And wait, wait, there it is — click. Check it. Damn, not quite right. Waited a bit too long: no sun star. Move to the left to put the sun behind the mountain again, recompose and wait for the sun to come up for its second rise in sixty seconds. Here it comes…annnnd… Click.

In the space of five hectic minutes the frost was already melting, but you can still see a bit of a glow on the grassy ridge.

Best shot of the day. Until what you’ll see tomorrow…

(Nikon D850; Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

New Zealand 1: Lake Wakatipu

June 16, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 25
New Zealand / Photo Log / Photography

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June 18, 2018, Closeburn Beach Lookout, Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand. A year ago this week, on our first evening of a photo workshop led by Gary Hart and Don Smith. A few kilometers west of Queenstown. Although Mother Nature was very kind to us regarding lighting and sky, we were not yet used to freezing fingers from her June winter.

(Nikon D850; Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

Poise

June 6, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 22
Abstract / Filoli / Floral Photography / Flower / Photo Log / Photography

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March 23, 2013. Filoli, near Woodside, California. I have not one single clue what kind of flower this is. But here it is.

I made many attempts at doing this justice over the years and it wasn’t until three and half years later that I was satisfied. It kept calling me back till I finally got it right. It was its own muse.

(Canon 7D; Canon EF-S 18-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Zoom. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

More Fine-Art Photography at www.amagaphoto.com

Monserrate Reveal/Blue

June 5, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 35
Abstract / Floral Photography / Florascape / Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography

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August 24, 2016. Parque e Palácio de Monserrate, near Sintra, Portugal. While exploring this magnificent park — where I could have easily spent days — I was captivated by a large, smooth succulent. I saw the picture immediately. I made several shots with minor variations in composition and depth of field and moved on to other botanical wonders. I didn’t think about it again until a couple of months later, back in California.

Time being what it is, I saw something different when I looked at the RAW file in October. What I’d thought was the essence, wasn’t. Crop. This was.

But then it was so abstract — especially after I’d had my way with the surface texture and had further sharpened the edges — that color had become arbitrary.

(Nikon D750; Nikon 28-300 f/3.5-5.6G Zoom. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

More Fine-Art Photography at www.amagaphoto.com

Rose Mountains Sunset

June 3, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 46
Abstract / California / Floral Photography / Florascape / Photo Log / Photography

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May 13, 2012. Monterey, California. Shooting roses from the side opens the door to myriad possibilities. I was unaware of most of them when I shot this. Imagine my surprise when I checked focus a moment later, magnifying the image to 100%, and was faced with a visage that took me straight to the New Mexico desert with Georgia O’Keeffe by my side.

I coined the word on the spot. A floral landscape. Florascape.

This is a case of the best camera is the one you have with you and necessity is the mother of invention. The camera was a 10-megapixel Canon s95. This image started as a tiny crop of the original — 300 by 200 pixels at most. I had to very carefully enlarge it about seven times just to work on it. There was lots of experimentation in post — all limited to selective sharpening, blurring and vibrance with Georgia looking over my shoulder offering gentle guidance. No painting filters. Never EVER! Then, as proof of concept I painstakingly enlarged it a step at a time to 10,800 by 7,200 pixels — 36 by 24 inches at 300 pixels per inch — to be able to print it large. I could take it to 72 by 48 if anyone’s interested.

(Canon s95. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

More Fine-Art Photography at www.amagaphoto.com