Category: Landscape

We caught some spectacular displays from Mother Nature during our trip to New Zealand. This impressive display of clouds was taken at Lake Pukaki while on our way to Mount Cook Village (you can see Mount Cook in the background here). A polarizing filter helped to increase the overall saturation in the skies while the turquoise-blue of the lake was a result of natural glacial or rock flour. Dad has coincidentally an almost exact version of this same picture although we were using separate tripods and equipment!

We arrived in Christchurch on the first day of our trip to New Zealand. Setting off the next day, we drove past the towns of Ashburton and Timaru, before settling down for the night at Oamaru. I was half-expecting to see immediately the famed landscapes that New Zealand is well-known for, but the Cantebury plains that we passed through on our journey seemed just so-so. The above was taken at a viewpoint overlooking the Oamaru Habour. I love the pristine blue of the Pacific Ocean waters which complimented the bright red of the boat and the yellow-green of the grass perfectly.

Canon 40D technical report: Even though the 70-200mm f/4 lens (non-IS) is one of my favourites in terms of optical sharpness, it was frequently let down at the long end when using slower shutter speeds without the stability of a tripod. The 40D can produce near-noiseless images at ISO 800 (compared to ISO 400 for my old 20D). This came in handy as the higher ISO allowed me to use a faster shutter speed even at long focal lengths, enabling me to hand-hold the camera for such shots with confidence 🙂

We’re back from what the Maoris call “the land of the long white cloud “, New Zealand! I was a little worried during my first couple of days’ visit there because of terrible rainy weather. However, the weather started to clear up later on and New Zealand certainly didn’t disappoint! The above is one of the many fantastic scenes I got to witness during my short 11-day visit. More to come… 🙂

I had the privilege to purchase a brand new Canon 40D right before my trip which I put to good use during the trip. The camera is a certainly a joy to use… more on that in my future posts to come!