14th Annual Spider Awards - Results

Every year, we choose a few select images to be entered into photography competition…. this year, I entered two images into the Spider Awards for the first time…. this competition is strictly for Black & White images so needs a slightly different approach than colorful images… the two images i selected came from a trip to New Zealand last year with Steve Gosling, Joe Cornish and Christian Fletcher… the full set of images is here (https://www.keithwilson.photography/new-zealand)

The first image was nominated in the Wildlife section… when we arrived at Milford Sound , the weather was very moody and we couldn’t believe our luck to find the Heron in the water just near the shore… I grabbed my camera and delicately maneuvered over the very slippery rocks to get the composition I wanted… there wasn’t really time to setup a tripod so I was just shooting handheld… I really wanted to keep the Heron and it’s reflection inside the line of the mountains while keeping the full reflection of the mountains as well…

White Heron fishing in Milford Sound… Phase One XF IQ250, 80mm, 1/80sec, F8, No Filters

White Heron fishing in Milford Sound… Phase One XF IQ250, 80mm, 1/80sec, F8, No Filters

The second image was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Nature Category… this was a very spontaneous image as I was driving along one of the many back roads on the way to Queenstown… I was struck by some dead trees I could see beside the road... turns out they were in the middle of a dam beside the road... since it was clearly private property, I approached the local farmer to get permission to enter his fields... I think he was surprised there was anything photogenic on his farm... I really enjoy the long exposure effect of smoothing the water and clouds... I always envisioned this image in Black & White while taking it as the weather and setting really worked for this image… maybe I’ll need to send a copy to the farmer so he understands what I saw…

2 minute exposure... Phase One XF IQ250, Mamiya 24mm Fisheye, Nisi 3 Stop Medium GND and 6 Stop ND, Custom holder

2 minute exposure... Phase One XF IQ250, Mamiya 24mm Fisheye, Nisi 3 Stop Medium GND and 6 Stop ND, Custom holder

Having such great results from my first time entering is very encouraging… normally the main goal of taking images is to get out and enjoy the world around us… whether it’s a cityscape or landscape… good weather or bad… sunrise or sunset… middle of the day or night… having that effort recognized on a international level is really the icing on the cake…

Prints of these or any other images are available for purchase / licensing…

There's no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weathe

A little break in the blog posts as we've been working on some wedding and other event photos for the pats few weeks... got to do the paying jobs first :-)

Officially, our group trip didn't officially start until after lunch when the rest of the group was scheduled to arrive so there was a little time to explore downtown Queenstown... the weather was not great so I dropped off the hire car and then walked around the local park and foreshore... overall Queenstown has a pretty nice vibe being a city which thrives on tourism... lots of cafes / bars to hang out and very close to the Ski Fields... in New Zealand, there is very little opportunity to stay in the ski areas so towns like Queenstown become the party hub :-)

After lunch, the weather hadn't really improved but as we were a bunch of photographers, we still packed up the vans and headed out to our first location in the Remarkables... the trip was organised by Christian Fletcher (http://www.christianfletcher.com.au/) from Western Australia and co-leaders were Steve Gosling (https://www.stevegoslingphotography.co.uk/) and Joe Cornish (http://www.joecornishgallery.co.uk/) for the UK, so we had a great opportunity to learn / discuss different philosophies... the group was quite a mix, mainly from different parts of  Australia, a few from Hong Kong and one Kiwi...

This is where the title of this post comes into play... the weather was very "changable" with sunlight and rain showers moving through the whole time... this can make for very interesting photos so in cases, you've just got to set up a shot and then wait for the conditions to change... we spent some time at our first location enjoying the views of the mountains as the clouds moved across...

Phase One IQ250, 210mm, 1/125s, f11

Phase One IQ250, 210mm, 1/125s, f11

After some time, we decided to try a different location... unfortunately, as we drove further up the mountain, the weather got worse and soon we were driving into horizontal snow showers... so we decided to head back down in search of calmer conditions... we ended up an area called Jacks Point which offered some options... we managed to get few shots before being chased away by the storms again... I actually got one of my favourite images of the trip during this time so it pay to always be prepared for the weather, no matter what comes

Phase one IQ250, 80mm, ISO400, 1/200sec, f8

Moeraki to Queenstown

One of the things I really like about travelling is having some flexibility in the plans to adapt to local information... after such a magic morning at the Moeraki Boulders, I needed to make it to Queesntown to meet up with the group of other photographers but I didn't have a fixed plan for the route... I discussed the different options with the motel owner when I checked out and got recommendations for things to see along the way... 

NZ_map1.PNG

Overall it's a very interesting drive across much of the width of New Zealand... every corner was a temptation to stop and explore... from one of the largest gold mines in the southern hemisphere at Macreas Flat to the home of Curling in Naseby... since I live in the south of Germany, i found it funny to see a Black Forest Cafe in Naseby so I definitely had to stop and have lunch there... it was really good food and I struck up a conversation with some locals at the next table... turns out they were hanging a selection of Night photos from around the world to prompt the listing of the local area as a Dark Sky reserve... I got a sneak peek as I was going to miss the main show and end up helping them setup some parts of the exhibit :-)

After lunch, I moved further down the road and made a stop in St Bathans, another old mining community... they have taken the time to really preserve the old buildings and ruins in the village and lots of information around town on the inhabitants during the glory days... the weather wasn't the best for photography (very flat cloudy skies) so I was more in tourist mode than photographer mode but that was soon to change...

As I left St Bathans and headed back to the main road, I was struck by some dead trees I could see beside the road... turns out they were in the middle of a dam beside the road... since it was clearly private property, I approached the local farmer to get permission to take enter the his fields... I think he was surprised there was anything photogenic on his farm...

2 minute exposure... Phase One XF IQ250, Mamiya 24mm Fisheye, Nisi 3 Stop Medium GND and 6 Stop ND, Custom holder

2 minute exposure... Phase One XF IQ250, Mamiya 24mm Fisheye, Nisi 3 Stop Medium GND and 6 Stop ND, Custom holder

I hope you'll agree it was worth the stop... I really enjoy the long exposure effect of smoothing the water and clouds... by the time I was finished here, the rain clouds were starting to roll in and I still had approx two hours drive to get to Queenstown... there were so many other places I could have stopped along the way so it just means I need to go back and spend some more time in the area... I rolled into Queenstown and got checked into the Heritage Hotel before jet lag kicked in... as luck would have it, the others from the group were just meeting for dinner so it was a good time to sit down and get to know some new friends

A dream morning...

Leaving Christchurch, I moved on to my next location... it was quite a drive (over 3.5 hours) since the roads are a bit different to Germany :) I'm very glad i took the option to stay in Christchurch on the first night to get some rest... would have been crazy to attempt this directly from the airport (at night)... my goal was to reach Hampden on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand...

I arrived around the time for sunset but there wasn't much sun to be seen as the heavens opened as I got to my motel... I did take a quick trip to the beach to make sure i knew where everything was in the morning as this location would be an early start for sunrise... following advice from the motel owner, I went to the Moeraki Tavern for dinner which was an excellent suggestion but just make sure you're not too late as things close early in these small towns... more on that later in the trip

I'd love to tell you I planned my visit to this area in minute detail... consulting long term weather forecasts and tide tables but in all honesty, I got lucky... I only had one night / morning in the area (could have maybe squeezed another) and the tide was coming in at a perfect time for sunrise... so the alarm was set with hope that the rain would clear overnight

Let me tell you that 5am is one of my least favourite alarm times but looking out the window made it worthwhile as the rain was gone and enough clouds to be interesting... so I grabbed a quick coffee, a snack, my headlamp and headed to the beach... I was the only car in the carpark... this was surprising as Moeraki Boulders is one of the most popular photo locations in New Zealand but I wasn't complaining... I walked about 10 minutes up the beach to the main boulder area and actually took my first shot about 5:55am... I had to wait about twenty minutes for the light to improve and BOY... did it improve!!!! Over the next hour and a half, the light just got better and better... the sort of morning you dream of as a landscape photographer and I had the beach basically to myself... one other photographer turned up about 6:30am and a third around 7am... this gave me to the freedom to fine tune compositions and get some long exposures without getting in anyones way...  the only problem was the incoming tide which was giving me wet feet but that was a small price to pay... also had to remember to keep my bag on my back so it didn't get drenched as well... below is a gallery of images from the morning... just click for the next image...

Warning.... techie speak coming... to be able to smooth water and balance the sky, I needed to use Neutral Density filters... I have a set from NISI Filters... I used a solid 6stop to get the longer exposure times and a 3 stop Reverse Grad ND for the sky (otherwise the boulders would be too dark)... I can combine these in my custom holder for my Fisheye lens or in the NISI S5 150mm Holder on my other lenses.... if you want more details, just comment below or send me a mail... Here endeth the techie speak :)

This post is already a bit long so I'll talk about the travel to Queenstown in the next post