Category Archives: New Zealand

Dunedin, New Zealand

Once my convention was over in Wellington, it was a short flight down to Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island where my post-tour would begin. Still set at a whirlwind pace, at least the focus for me would now be photography — my convention responsibilities were now behind me. And at first glance, Dunedin was just the place to get started. The train station (above) was our first stop. Well, a farmers’ market that was being held at the station, actually. I always love shooting markets but I did find myself very distracted this time by the striking railroad station itself. I worked my way through the market stalls and spent a good amount of time exploring the architecture. Later in the afternoon, after a walking tour of downtown, the sky had cleared and I made a return trip for a few more shots like this one:

There are things I like about each — and actually think there might be some good black & whites in the cloudier set — but always like having different weather options in the files. You don’t always get that luxury when traveling through a region at high-speed like this but New Zealand seems to be much like Kansas in that, if you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute. It will change.

A few more from that downtown walk:


Much like Wellington, there were still plenty of hills and steep grades in Dunedin as seen by these rowhouses. Dunedin was settled by the Scottish as was evident by the statue of Robert Burns in the octagon, the city’s central “square”, and some of the grander architecture. According to Wikipedia, the name “Dunedin” came from the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh — “Dùn Èideann”. The gothic church above is the First Church of Otago which also seems to channel that Scottish influence.

Wellington, briefly

I was on a press trip in China a few years ago and heard our host describe our fast-paced schedule as “to appreciate the flower from a gallop”. Sometimes I feel that most of my life is lived that way. Always at a gallop. Certainly my few days in Wellington, New Zealand, fit that description. It was the core of the Society of American Travel Writers Annual Convention and I had several roles to play: I was finishing my term up as Chair of the Society’s Freelance Council, I was on the professional development committee helping to coordinate a few of the sessions on photography, I was helping with the judging and presentation of the winners for a “photo shootout” that took place just prior to the convention, and I was trying to glean some benefit for myself in the form of getting some stock images and making contacts with various writers and PR professionals. Sounds like a lot to do in four days, doesn’t it? I’m not complaining, however. I’ve gotten a lot out of the organization and I’m happy to contribute when I can as well. That said, I might have overdone it a bit this time. Live and learn.

The shot on the left sums up much of my time in Wellington — I saw glimpses of the city through windows as I passed from meeting room to meeting room. These coffee cups were set up for the attendees of my Freelance Council meeting one morning and I was somewhat relieved to see the rain outside as I felt that I maybe wasn’t missing quite so much that day afterall. On the right is a quick shot of Andrew McCarthy, actor-turned-travelwriter, who was our keynote speaker at the first day’s lunch. The shot at the top of this post was made at a reception the night before. I had taken a camera — just in case — and was relieved to see that one side of our venue opened to the waterfront when a beautiful sunset appeared. I missed out on some hors d’oeuvres that evening, but got a few nice shots.

Our final dinner and the presentation of the photo shootout winners was held at the Te Papa museum, above. An amazing place. Wellington is one of those great cities that deserves much more time than I was able to give it on this trip. I hope to return one day soon to explore further and to reconnect with my new Wellingtonian friends. But, for the next few posts we’ll be off to the South Island of New Zealand…

Shooting details with the Tamron 18-270

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I’ve neglected to mention that all of the photos from my last three blog posts — Glimpses of Auckland, Auckland Graffiti and Back from New Zealand — were taken with my new Tamron 18-270mm lens. As I had suspected, the wide range of focal lengths offered by that one small lens made it the perfect companion on those quick walks that I would take in the morning before breakfast or between sessions of my SATW Board meeting. I also took it to meals just in case something particularly photogenic was served, like these oysters on Waiheke Island:

When I travel for reasons other than purely photography, it’s always a trade off of when to take the gear and when to just focus on the meeting or whatever else might be the actual purpose of the trip. The thing is — you never know when an opening ceremony at a convention might include dancers in traditional dress or be held at a venue that has an amazing view of sunset over the bay. It’s not always practical to take a backpack full of gear and keep it shoved under the table while having dinner at a nice restaurant. For a while I made do with a pocket point-and-shoot for times like this but I was never entirely satisfied with my results. For this trip, I went with the Nikon D7000 and the Tamron 18-270mm lens. I even had video capabilities when needed.

The flowers at the top of this post and the detail shots below came from a couple of hours that I had to walk around the small village of Greytown, New Zealand. The weather was overcast and wide shots weren’t exactly tourism brochure worthy with those white skies, so I focused on details that kept the sky cropped out and took advantage of the nice, flat light. The Tamron came through for me again with its ability to focus close enough that there really wasn’t ever a shot I couldn’t get (I think Tamron specs out the minimum focus distance at just over 19 inches). The bokeh is nice as smooth as well.

Sure, there were other times on the trip when I had more time and freedom to photograph and I’d make use of nearly every lens and filter that I’d packed, but for those days that I had to tend to other business and still feel prepared for the occasional shot that presented itself, the D7000 and 18-270 combo never let me down.

Glimpses of Auckland, NZ

As I mentioned before, my real reason for being in Auckland, New Zealand, was to attend a Board meeting for the Society of American Travel Writers. Due to this, most of my time was unfortunately spent inside of hotel conference rooms but I took every opportunity to get out and explore when out of session. Each morning before breakfast I would grab a camera and take a walk — often through Albert Park which was just a few (steep!) blocks from the hotel. That’s where the photo above was taken, in part to prove that it was indeed Spring down under. That and I liked how the flower forms echoed the shape of Sky Tower.

For being such a long flight away — around 12 hours from LAX — New Zealand felt less foreign than many places I’ve been. The fact that they speak english helps of course, but the country was also settled at roughly the same time as the area where I have lived all my life. An 1860s building is old in New Zealand as it is here in Kansas. There aren’t a lot of ancient reminders around to let you know that you’re far from home.

That said, every now and then you’d run into something like this tree, the scale of which was altogether foreign in my terms (note the woman walking just behind the park bench for a size reference):

We’re looking for a shade tree for our side yard and what I wouldn’t give to have that baby! I don’t think I could wait the hundreds if not thousands of years it would take to reach that size, though.

I’ll end with a few more architectural shots from my morning walks and the last from the window of my room at the Sky City Grand Hotel that was located right at the base of the Sky Tower. With a landmark like that, it was no problem finding my way home from those walks.


Auckland graffiti

One of my first impressions of Auckland, NZ was how clean it was and how little graffiti I saw. Every now and then I’d spot an odd tag or two but, for the most part, graffiti seemed to take the form of larger, more organized murals. A little research since I’ve been home reveals that the city had undertaken a large-scale cleanup prior to the Rugby World Cup. Most graffiti was painted over but murals that had the permission of the property owners were spared, for the most part.

To some degree, the authorities seem to even sponsor graffiti as seen in this campaign for recruiting police officers (more here):

My favorite piece of art was one that I found in St Kevins’ Arcade — a building on the city’s funky K Road that has a walkway through to Myers Park. Here’s one small section of it:

According to Long White Cloud, this piece is the work of Cut Collective and is a recent addition to the street art scene in Auckland.

Back from New Zealand

Two weeks in New Zealand just flew by. I was there to attend the Annual Convention of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) held this year in Wellington. Prior to the Convention, I was in Auckland for the Society’s Board meeting. I’ve served as the Chair of the Freelance Council for the last two years — my term ended on the final night of the Wellington Convention. I’ve enjoyed my time on the Board immensely but also look forward to taking some time off to return more focus to my own freelance business. I have lots of thoughts floating around for tweaking my business model and will now have the time to start implementing some of those ideas. 2012 promises to be an exciting year. More on that as it happens.

Since I didn’t have time to post while in New Zealand, I’ll share images now as I go through post-processing. First up is a shot I took on Day One in Auckland. I had just landed that morning and took advantage of some rare free time to walk the city and get my bearings. This is a kinetic sculpture on the waterfront with Auckland’s iconic Sky Tower in the background.