occasionalclimber

Swan lake

Lake near Omarama, MacKenzie Country, New Zealand

Lake near Omarama, MacKenzie Country, New Zealand
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COOLPIX P7800

settings

Aperture 71/10 ISO 100 Shutter 1/50 Focal Length 214/5

upload_date

Aug, 2016

Views

414

Likes

+80

Awards

Winner in Mist on the lake Photo Challenge

Peer Award

Absolute Masterpiece

Superb Composition

Top Choice

Magnificent Capture

All Star

Outstanding Creativity

Virtuoso

Superior Skill

Emotions

Impressed

Relaxed

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 2

Top 10 rank week 1

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Behind The Lens

Location

In July (winter), beside the main highway south of Twizel. Wairepo Arm, a man-made lake resulting from hydro-electricity generation.

Time

Late afternoon.

Lighting

The day was perfectly still, permitting mirror reflections and lovely soft lighting. Although it wasn’t yet dusk, soft colouring had already started to appear in the subdued sky.

Equipment

A Nikon P7800. For this shot the zoom setting was 43mm, ISO 100, F7.1 and shutter 1/50 sec.

Inspiration

On the drive to Mount Cook National Park the view of delicately ice-encrusted trees, perfectly reflected on the lake surface just couldn’t be ignored. The view was almost surreal, stretching for several hundred metres. Then swans emerged from mist on the lake’s surface – perfect!

Editing

RAW processing to bring out texture and subtle colouring.

In my camera bag

I love the mountains, so as little as possible - at present a Nikon D750 camera body, a Nikkor 24-120 small zoom and the 55-300 bigger zoom, a spare battery and beaten up lightweight tripod - good for hiking. If I'm going for a summit then it's even less - a compact Nikon P7800 with mirrorless through the lens digital view finder, full manual operation and RAW file capture - absolutely great when you still want to control your photography but need to keep moving and can't afford to have stuff hanging off you.

Feedback

Just keep your camera to hand and be willing to break your journey if something spectacular appears, especially in the hour or so before dusk. And shoot RAW so you can optimise the image.

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occasionalclimber

occasionalclimber

Swan lake