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Landscape Photography – The Unexpected Moment at Mount Cook
Gale drive winds and cloudy skies gave the indication that we would not have the very best circumstances to {photograph} sundown.
Arriving to Queenstown for a brief 4-day journey to {photograph} ice patterns, I had one location in thoughts and that was Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. Having visited New Zealand and photographed the peaks round Queenstown, Wanaka and Milford Sound many instances earlier than, there was one path I’d heard a lot about, however by no means had the prospect to go to.
The Hooker Valley Trail.
It’s ranked as among the best day hikes you are able to do in New Zealand, but regardless of driving previous on quite a few events, climate, time or only a totally different itinerary had at all times stopped me visiting.
For this quick and spontaneous journey, I made it the only vacation spot.
Hiring a automobile in Queenstown, we drove north to Mount Cook Village and whereas the climate window regarded nice after I booked the flights 24hours earlier, it had modified rapidly and a storm was quickly on our tail.
I’d researched two different quick hikes that I wished to try whereas within the space, and with sunny skies upon arrival, we opted to enterprise all the way down to the shores of Tasman Lake first, with icebergs on the menu. It’s solely a brief 20 minute hike from the automobile park which made it supreme for a fast journey earlier than the storm swept by.
I’ll be sharing extra on Tasman Lake in one other article, however this story is all in regards to the peak of Aoraki/Mount Cook that was taking part in an excellent sport of disguise and search with the cloudy circumstances.
Waiting out the storm in our motel, I sat by the window gazing out on the mountain landscapes because the home windows shook within the robust, gusty winds. There’s one thing about these wild moments that make me really feel so alive, even when I used to be hiding inside whereas the worst of it handed, I couldn’t wait to get outdoors and was utilizing the time with WiFi to suss out just a few choices for sundown.
Kea Point was on my listing of backup areas and seeing that it was one other quick hike from the carpark, we opted to wander up as soon as the rain cleared. The wind was nonetheless extremely robust however felt so becoming on this rugged, alpine wilderness.
Reaching the purpose, I spent an hour photographing close by icy pockets and the rocky glacial moraine as clouds caught round and clung to the height and light-weight light. I had the 300mm f4 lens on my OM SYSTEM OM-1 digital camera and was having fun with getting tremendous near the snow patterns as clouds rolled by the valley.
While I normally like to attend it out till nicely after nightfall, the winds have been fairly fierce and the temperature was dropping so I started to wander again down in the direction of the automobile. Within about 100m of the perspective, I observed a glow beginning to seem within the sky. It was nonetheless darkish in entrance of my, however after I rotated, my jaw dropped.
The clouds that had been clinging to the height, all of a sudden turned each shade of pastel pink. The winds had created lenticular cloud formations that produced probably the most photogenic show that stretched up and over the height.
To say it was stunning is an understatement.
The mild and clouds have been altering so quickly that I rapidly dropped my digital camera bag and began taking pictures with the 300mm lens as a result of I already had it on. The sky although, was far too good to overlook, so I in a short time converted to the 40-150mm f2.8 lens to try to seize a little bit of the encircling colors within the sky too.
It was a kind of moments all of us hope for as panorama photographers. I prefer to suppose the boring lead as much as a second like this at all times makes it ten instances extra thrilling when the sunshine, panorama and placement align.
I’ll be sharing in regards to the Hooker Valley Trail in a extra informative information/article quickly!
The three pictures beneath have been taken inside about two minutes as I photographed whereas surprised on the scene earlier than me. Captured with the OM SYSTEM OM-1 digital camera, the primary picture is with the 300mm f4 lens, the second and third with the 40-150mm f2.8.
You can see why my jaw dropped at first look of the pastel brilliance, then how rapidly the sunshine modified within the closing picture.
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