OT - Lake Hawea, New Zealand

I am still working through the NZ stuff. Have alot to go through between the digital stuff (stitches, blends, process etc), 4x5's to drum scans and I still have 47 exposed B/W sheets that are just waiting to have some chemistry poured over them.

This image is of Lake Hawea near Wanaka on the South Island of New Zealand. That day I had a really productive morning of shooting between a killer 6AM shot in Haast and spending the morning shooting waterfalls in Mt Aspiring National Park. Blue skies were coming in from the west and pushing out the 'good stuff'. This shot shows the edge where the weather is getting pushed out over Lake Hawea.

Canon 5DM2
24-105mm L
Autopano - 36 image stitch

Will show you more as I start to get through them.

RichieV

One more - These are 'wild' lupines on the way to Mt Cook National Park. They are considered a noxious weed there since they aren't native plants. I saw lots of these in every color and in some places like this they were for as far as the eye could see. Might be noxious but still very pretty. I have a 4x5 sheet from here that is really nice but still in an unscanned state.

Canon 5DM2
24-105mm L

RichieV

Both shots are marvelous. That first one would look great as a HUGE print.

I agree with Morris. And, both of these images have great "WOW" factor.

Both are awesome but I love the depth and color in the 2nd one. Nice work!

Really enjoy the first one. Great shot.

Beautiful stuff, Richie, especially the 2nd one.

Nice shots Richie. Also like both and vote for #2.

Bill Brennan

I like the second shot, although it looks like web compression isn't letting me see all of the detail that's there. A bluer/darker sky might also add to it.

Yeah compression is murdering #2, but i love the top shot--way cool!

@Scott/Stan - Yupper - in order to get the lupines image up here I had to ratchet the 'quality' way the heck back. Even as moderator I dont have the ability to bypass the software here .

@Everybody - Thanks. I am still drowning in work, images, XMas leftovers etc. so am still working on the body of work from the trip. Only been in Denver a little less than two weeks of nights for the past three months. Really looking forward to seeing everybody at the shindig and petting the white elephant again.

RichieV

Richie, these may be Russell Lupines, not sure. Yes, about 1976 park management was struggling to eradicate lupines from inside the park during darkness. But tourists still noticed, and complained the pretty flowers were being destroyed. Not sure how they got there in the first place.

Your photo suggests lupines have spread considerably. Outside the park, it's not so bad, since they help fixate nitrogen, I think. Great photos!

JoAnn

Great sky in the 1st image Richie, and wow that's alot of Lupines!. I saw bushes of yellow Lupine looking flowers too on the North island, growing right on the beach too. Can't wait to see the rest of your images!.

@JoAnn - Thanks for the info. What other varieties of lupines are there? I usually saw either full fields like these or others in pure yellow and then once a monster sized field of white ones. Are they all the same? These are actually shot about 30-40 miles from the turnoff towards Mt Cook. I am looking north towards Mt Cook Ntl Park in the photo. As I said before I have a really great 4x5 sheet from this same area that I will scan hopefully soon.

RichieV

Wonderful images! They warm me right up on these chilly days.
Sure am looking forward to seeing more soon!

Sweet lupine shot. I've never seen so many lupines as I did in NZ! Unfortunately it seemed that the best fields I saw were either on private land or I was trapped in a bus passing by, or both.

@Jack - Yeah, since I think we were there almost around the same time of year, the lupines were primo. They line the sides of every road and then occasionally you see huge fields like this around rivers and streams. One field I saw was on ranch property and there was a gate locked with just a pin and there werent any annoying 'No Trespassing' signs so I just simply let myself in. Found the people to be pretty friendly and figured that most likely a rancher wouldnt have any problem with me shooting my 4x5 there. Haven't scanned that stuff yet. Alot of them were tough to find parking nearby since they really dont have road shoulders like we are used to over there.

RichieV

Well done Richie.. I like both of them!