That Wanaka Tree
I was on a photo adventure holiday with a mate of mine in New Zealand. We only had eight days to get around the south island, so our time was scarce. We made so...
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I was on a photo adventure holiday with a mate of mine in New Zealand. We only had eight days to get around the south island, so our time was scarce. We made some sketchy plans to be at certain spots but ended up basically following the weather, or trying to out-drive it!
So, we figured out where this tree was at about 11pm during strong winds and forecast rain. Hmm, not looking too promising for sunrise then.. Our campervan was buffetted by gale force winds during the night and it sounded like it was raining on and off. When my alarm went off I got ready and tried to talk my mate into getting out of bed, but he refused. Undaunted, I pressed on.
I wasn't really trying to be uber creative with this very popular tree, just trying to get 'a' shot that would work. I decided to use my 10 stop ND filter to smooth out the water, since everything else I had taken looked awful. It was really hard to get the camera to stay still for the long exposure and as a consequence, this was the only sharp image I got! I'm glad I did get one, and that I got out of bed and tried.
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So, we figured out where this tree was at about 11pm during strong winds and forecast rain. Hmm, not looking too promising for sunrise then.. Our campervan was buffetted by gale force winds during the night and it sounded like it was raining on and off. When my alarm went off I got ready and tried to talk my mate into getting out of bed, but he refused. Undaunted, I pressed on.
I wasn't really trying to be uber creative with this very popular tree, just trying to get 'a' shot that would work. I decided to use my 10 stop ND filter to smooth out the water, since everything else I had taken looked awful. It was really hard to get the camera to stay still for the long exposure and as a consequence, this was the only sharp image I got! I'm glad I did get one, and that I got out of bed and tried.
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Oct, 2016Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
Lake Wanaka, New ZealandTime
This was just before first light, so morning blue hour.Lighting
It was quite cold and windy and I wanted to convey that cool feeling in the shot. This was aided by the choice of a 10 stop ND filter, which gave a blueish colour cast. That wasn't the main reason I used a 10 stop ND though, it was blowing a gale that morning so I thought the best way to smooth the choppy water was a heavy ND to extend the exposure to 30s or more. (That was quite a technical challenge though, with the strong wind and slippery rocks - you really have to practise this technique)Equipment
Shot with an Olympus OMD EM5 Mk 2 with a 12-40mm lens and Lee 10 stop neutral density filter + Heliopan polariser. I was using a cheap Chinese tripod.Inspiration
I really wanted to shoot that Wanaka tree. I was travelling with a mate (a pro photographer, albeit not landscape) in a campervan on a madcap 10 day visit to the south island from Sydney. We crammed so much in! I remember trying to out-drive a weather system on the way back from Milford Sounds and this morning was our only chance to shoot Lake Wanaka with our schedule. We arrived at around 1am somewhere near the lake with howling winds and sporadic rain. The campervan was buffeted all night so much so that I couldn't sleep. It definitely wasn't looking good for the glorious sunrise photo I had imagined. I decided to set my alarm anyway and promised myself if it wasn't raining, I would get up and try.Editing
Yes, I used Lightroom initially to set the white point, black point, get rid of lens distortion, etc and corrected the blue tint a little. Then I took out a few little distracting elements in photoshop, eg I cropped out some rocks in the foreground.In my camera bag
I have totally changed my setup since then (that was four years ago!). Now I have a Nikon D810, Nikon D750, Tamron 15-30mm, Nikon 30-70mm (yes old glass, I know), Nikon 70-200mm F4, Nikon 50mm f1.6. Oh, and a Sigma 105mm f1.4. I wouldn't normally carry all of that though (!), just the stuff I need for the job. But if it was a landscaping adventure like the Lake Wanaka escapade, def the Tamron 15-30 F2.8 (great lens, also good for astro), Nikon 35-70mm F2.8 (good value) + Nikon 70-200mm F4 (much lighter than f2.8 version) and the backup body. I would probably bring my Nisi external filter kit for the Tamron with a polariser + 10 stop ND and an external timer. I always have my Gitzo traveller series tripod - expensive, yes, but worth it I believe. (that cheap Chinese tripod let me down badly a year later in Tassy - the aforementioned Olympus lens and body, both destroyed.. so not so cheap after all)Feedback
Plan carefully and make the best of whatever weather you get on the day. It would have been easy for me to sleep in that morning, but I got out of bed. I would check out the best season for this shot as well, which I believe could be in winter with snow caps on the background mountains. (I didn't know that then) I would definitely try to use NDs to smooth out the texture in the water unless it was perfectly still + a polariser to enhance whatever colours you get. Then again, a lot of people use NDs in this location, so it might be good to experiment with exposure times to get an original look. Crap weather can help with that, ha ha.
