South Canterbury winter

A few photos taken after a recent snowfall. These were taken over on the terrace above the Te Ngawai River near Pleasant Point.

Panorama with Fox Peak to the right.

Mt Dobson

Telephoto shot of Fox Peak

Mt Dobson with hares in the foreground.

Mt Nimrod away to the south.

Another snowstorm is expected tomorrow so there could well be more photos to add to these.

Close ups.

Here is as selection I took at an evening with the local photographic club in Timaru, Focus Aorangi.

All photos here were taken with a 15 - 85 mm lens and apart from cropping, very little processing has been done.

Simple set up with mirrors and some side lighting.

A layer of glass beads lit from below.

Oil droplets floating on water in a glass.

Pencils in a cylinder filled with lemonade. Side lit against a white background.

The next shot shows at the set up with an array of water droplets on some cling wrap.

Cropping in on the shot above shows how the droplets act as small lenses.

Timaru at night

A few shots here of Timaru at night taken around the central city area. Following these are some taken on the visit to the well kept Timaru Cemetery.

The Herald Paper Boy

Some action in the Arcade

State Highway 1 from the Church St over bridge.

To get this shot one needed to experiment to find not only the best exposure (20s, f/22 at ISO 100) but to get the right light trails. Too many cars coming towards me burnt out the oncoming lane. This shot was timed perfectly as 2 milk tankers and 2 heavy truck and trailer units travelled north in convoy. There was not much traffic about on this damp night as it took nearly 45 minutes to get everything right for this shot.

A little bit of post production processing to bring up the dark areas on both sides of the road was needed. A few drops of mist on the lens adds effect too. The diamond effect of the street lights is made by using an aperture of f/22.


Timaru Cemetery.

The object of the visit was to experiment with light painting and anything else we found interesting. A tripod and remote release being essential items of kit.

My first effort at light painting. A few seconds with the torch have added to the figure on the cross, perhaps a little uneven though. 

No extra light here. Converted to monochrome.

Painted with my torch.

Side lit.

Light painted angel.

Cherub. My favourite shot, just a hint of colour shows up here in the side light. The background here was very dark and no "Photoshopping" either.

White ducks on ice

With the recent cold weather and a continuation of -8C frosts, there is plenty of ice around. The duck-pond down near the Pleasant Point Domain has frozen over. All the ducks have gone except 6 rather tame ones which come when called.

South Canterbury snow, June 2015

We recently had a big snowfall which dumped around one metre on the ski fields. The same storm moved north and caused havoc with the biggest ever flood recorded in Wanganui.

Six days later we managed to get out on an afternoon with  the camera. Below is a selection which have had a little processing.

The Albury area is lower down so a bit of a thaw on.

St Pauls Catholic Church at Albury

The Fairlie Basin from Mt Michael

Fairlie

Just up the road from Fairlie is the village of Kimbell.

Main Road Kimbell house

Kimbell Gallery, not open despite the sign although the artist is on duty.

Old house at Kimbell.

Four Peaks from Mt Michael

The Farm Barn at Mt Michael.

Steel wool fun.

I had the opportunity with the Timaru photographic club to spend a weekend at Moeraki. One of our exercises was to play with flaming steel wool after dark. some spectacular results were obtained. It started off with experimentation to find the best exposure and focus. Cameras on tripods and manual setting used.

A wide angle lens is required and pre-focus using the manual MF focus setting selected. All these shots were at ISO-100.

Shot  details: 10s at f/6.3

 All the remaining shots were at 6s at either f/8 or f/7.1.

So how was the steel wool used?

Firstly, steel wool does burn but will only smoulder when a lighter held to it. For best results, the finest grade (e.g. 0000 grade) works best. Makes sure it is not impregnated with soap - like you would get for cleaning pots and pans in the kitchen.

When it is heated and you blow on it it will spark and burn faster.

A small metal cage, like a cheap egg whisk tied to a piece of cord, swung around rapidly will make it spark and burn for a few seconds. Around 6 -10s is the maximum time for a display of sparks.

After a session at the boulders we went back to the town for dinner and then tried again outside on the street.

The rope holding the metal cage burnt through here.

Two burning cages.

The best way I found to click the shutter was by cable release when the sparks really get going.

After the first 6 seconds, and the sparks had nearly finished, I pressed the cable release for the next shot.

After the steel wool had burnt and sparks flying, you are left with molten iron to get the cage of light around whoever was in the middle.

The only concern was the molten bits of iron spread out and a possible fire. Extinguish all hot spots!

In the above photo there is a blue light stick on the ground. This was used to pre-focus and serve as a guide as the where to stand with the steel wool.