Purakaunui Falls South Island New Zealand
Oct, 2015Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
The Purakaunui Falls are a cascading three-tiered waterfall on the Purakaunui River, in The Catlins of the southern South Island of New Zealand. As one of very few South Island waterfalls away from the alpine region, it has long been a popular destination and photographic subject. The falls are located 17 km (11 mi) to the southwest of the small town of Owaka and 5 kilometres (3 mi) from the river's outflow into the Pacific Ocean. They can be reached via a short 10-minute bush walk from a car park on the Waikoato Valley / Purakaunui Falls Road, a gravel side-road off the main Owaka-Invercargill road.Time
I can't remember the exact time but in was in the morning before lunch and the sun was out but a little filtered with all the surrounding bush/foliage. It was taken in September 2015 which is Spring in the southern hemisphere so winter snow was still feeding the falls.Lighting
Because the light was a little filtered by the surrounding bust it wasn't too harsh for that time of day.Equipment
I was using at the time a Nikon D3200 mounted on a tripod. I used a shutter release cable back then and the camera was set at 1 second f13 iso100 and the zoom 18-50 lens set a 40.I remember taking a lot of photos mixing up the focal length, shutter speed and aperture. All shot using manual mode.Inspiration
It's a pretty easy waterfall to get to so that allowed me to spend more time there and experiment with different angles etc. I thought it was important to get the trees with hanging moss into the shot as it just adds to it.Editing
It was shot with colour in mind but I decided to have a look at black and white in processing and kept it because I think it adds a more moody feel to the shot plus the white water contrasts with the black rock and trees. Other then the usual sharpening I didn't do too much to it.In my camera bag
My bag now consists of a Nikon D7200 camera along with Nikkor lens 18 - 55 zoom & 55 - 300 zoom lens. I sometimes take a Sigma 10 - 20mm if I think it will come in handy for what I might shoot that day. I always carry a cleaning pen, uv filters, polarizing filters and an electronic remote shutter release.Feedback
Just have a go at photographing something you won't see every day, you might surprise yourself with the result. But the one thing you should do if you are truly interested in photography is learn how to shoot in manual mode. That way you understand what happens when you use different shutter speeds combined with different apertures etc. It makes you think about what you are trying to achieve, for example if you want to blurr a background you know you need to have a low f:stop and base the shutter speed around that.
