2023 in review

So another year has come and been.

It has been a year of change - been made redundant, fortunately found another role fairly quickly, but other personal factors have meant I haven’t had as much of a chance to go roaming up country as I usually like to do. This isn’t to say I have entirely stopped. I still got the odd chance to go up country as this shot shows.

Mt Taranaki/Egmont in sunset tones

This was taken as part of a trip up to Tongaporutu to see the Three Sisters rock formation. These are sea stacks that, along with Elephant Rock, are only accessible during low tide with the whole area covered in surf waves the rest of the time. So you get a two hour window around low tide to let you see things like this.

Three Sisters plus Elephant Rock

It is an amazing chunk of the country side and reminds me again just how lucky I am to both live in New Zealand but also have the time and means to get out and see things like this. It helps put the problems of life a bit more in perspective. I have long considered photography a great way to practice being present in a moment and a bit of mindfulness. It forces you to pay attention to the here and now and often gets engrossing enough you just shut out the future issues that are usually lurking in the back of your mind.

Of course I have been doing other stuff during the year. I bought a set of radio trigger macro flashes and have been playing with semi-precious rocks over the winter months. The nice advantage is that you don’t have to go out into the weather or travel too far to play with them. It also let me practice using flashes to do controlled lighting. Thus far I have been heavily working with and relying on the ambient lighting of whatever I was shooting. So this forces me a little out of my comfort zone and into doing something new plus learning some tricks.

Yooperlite in a multi-light setup

The above shot required four lights. One backlight flash to bring up the smoke. Two flashes doing side lighting at a 2:1 ratio and a fourth UV light to bring up the sodalite and cause it to fluoresce. It struck me as looking like a chunk of lava cooling off and thus the smoke to convey that in the image.

Half the fun of this is taking what are often fairly ordinary looking rocks and finding their beauty. Which for me is kinda the essence of good photography - finding the beauty, often in otherwise mundane things, and revealing that to the world. Hopefully next year I can get enough images like the above to do my long thought about second photographic exhibition.

Aurora Australis seen from the bottom of the North Island

It doesn’t hurt that we are firmly going into the Solar Maximum which lets me get images like this. This is quite literally a mile away from home, looking across the Cook Strait and getting these kinds of amazing displays. I remembered seeing the green ribbon of an aurora some thirty five odd years ago in Wellington. The displays like this are finally getting close to what I saw that night so long ago and I actually have the gear and skills to capture them this time.

Been a real pleasure planning and trying to capture this. I can see from my photo collect that I got three good capture attempts this year. Which is a remarkable run. This next shot is something I had in mind for the better part of three years - about as long as I have a new car which had enough off-road capability to let me be comfortable going out to a few remoter places and try things.

White Rock with an Aurora

This also included a couple of attempts to try and capture a comet. I didn’t get the classic long tail but I did actually capture one. So given we are predicted to have a bright comet later in 2024 I suspect I will be out trying to get a better comet shot than this.

Pleiades/Matariki constellation, Mars and a little green comet

The other change for the year is I finally got a secondary light camera which I tend to habitually carry now in my shoulder bag whenever I am out and about. It isn’t as capable as my primary camera but most of the skills carry over and it is much lighter - so becomes the camera I tend just always have around. So it lets me capture a lot more of the routine beauty around as I transit to/from work - like this…

Sunrise across Mirimar Pennisula and Wellington Airport

It also didn’t hurt that I started the year with a bang and went to the Manawatu White Cliff Boulders. A set of conglomerations similar to the much more famous Moeraki Boulders but both on the same island and a bit less famous. It made for a fun trip up trying to get there for the sunrise. It was also classic NZ in that this is just on farmland with a rumpity track access, an honesty box and a book you can sign in to record a visit. No frills just straight to the point simplicity.

Never change NZ, never change.

Boulders in the mist.

So much as I thought it was a quiet year photographically it has actually been kinda busy now I look back at it. Sure less big trips up country but instead more taking advantage of the local environs and learning new skills.

I hope people have enjoyed the journey thus far and continue to enjoy it with me into the new year.