Ricoh GRD IV
The Quiet River
Mountains beyond the Grass
Looking over one of the blogs I regularly follow, I was inspired to have a look back, and reflect on my trip to the South Island in December 2011. My second time travelling from New Zealands North Island to the South Island, I cannot express how beautiful parts of our wonderful little country are.
Todays image was shot somewhere in the region of the Routeburn track (a stunning 32km track down the bottom part of the South). What takes ones breath away when down near the Souther Alps is the shear size and enormity of this great mountain range. Its something that simply must be on your travel list if you come down to New Zealand.
Shot on the Ricoh GRD IV, resized and bordered in Gimp.
Remarkable Southern Alps
An archive shot for today. Taken a number of years ago, on my first trip to the South Island of New Zealand, a view of The Remarkables.
Shot on my simple Fujifilm J15 point and shoot camera, I played around with the image a little in Gimp tonight. There was a fairly large contrast between the foreground and Alps in the distance. Whilst this assisted in showing the grandeur of the mountain range, I wanted to get some more detail, so selected the background and adjusted the levels a little. then added a touch more contrast, Sometimes great landscapes look better in B&W in my opinion (not all the time mind you), so I converted to Black and White also.
Looking at the image reminds me of when I first looked up in awe at the mountains. I had been to a number of large volcanic mountains over the years, but until then never in front of a giant range. It really is an amazing site to see and one you cant miss if you visit New Zealand’s beautiful South Island.
Punakaiki and the Rocks
Looking back over my last handful of images I decided today needed a bit more colour and brightness to it! As I had worked extra yesterday, I was hoping to get off early today, but unfortunately that was not to be…so I dived into my archives.
Punakaiki, otherwise know as the place with the Pancake Rocks, is part of the Paparoa National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. I visited them late last year (along with a huge group of other tourists to the area). The amazing pancake like ‘piles’ stretch out from the ocean and stand out as a bit of an oddity compared to everything else around them. As the tide comes up there is a number of blow-holes. I encourage anyone travelling the South Island to put it in one of your (many) must stop locations!
Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown
All photos I took today were on film for my Rollei 35 – loaded with my first self develop film in some time. I finished the film, but realised I was missing my thermometer for developing, so will have to get another this week (and post my hopeful results).
Based on yesterdays popularity of ‘Paradise’, I thought I would add one more from the Lake Wakatipu region. Taken from the summit at Queenstown, the view is quite amazing. Todays image is a sew together of two images from my Ricoh. Due to the settings I had on it, I was getting some vignetting at the edges and had a hard time getting the color/shade match right when stitching them together…so its not perfect, but its ok considering.
For those interested, lake Wakatipu is New Zealand’s longest (80km) and third biggest lake. If you base yourself in Queenstown, you can do anything from skiing, para gliding, tramping… the list goes on. – you can also visit Paradise (yesterdays image).
Taken on the Ricoh GRD IV, 2X images, stitched in Gimp.
Paradise, New Zealand
Just south of Queenstown in New Zealand’s South Island is a little settlement called Paradise. Taken late last year, we drove through it on the way to the Routeburn track. Sandflies aside, Paradise really is paradise. The view in my opinion is one of the countries most stunning, and captured on a still day as in my image above, it takes ones breath away.
Taken on my Ricoh, I just resized for the net without making any adjustments. If you come to visit the country and head to the South Island, you really must make a stop in at Paradise!
Path to the Sea
Another photo from the files today. I intended to head out after work to take some images, but the wet weather hit hard late in the afternoon, and neither I or my camera was prepared to venture out. Todays image was taken just outside a penguin colony at Oamaru in the South Island New Zealand. A great little place worth visiting for its historic nature, we had to make a stop rather then drive through. Again on my Ricoh, straight from the camera with its bleach bypass setting. Prior to owning the GRD IV, I was never a fan of built in effects on cameras – I always shot in standard RAW or Jpg. Ricoh however have really put some thought and a huge amount of control into its menu’s and process options on many of its cameras. I still shoot unedited on all my other cameras. I think I just like it because I can fine tune its on-board editing and then share the pictures without spending any length of time in editing – after all, why spend hours in post production when you can be out shooting?
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