Category Archives: weather

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.

Wicked weather

I’m still catching up from having been gone the better part of April. In some ways my days seem to be mirrored by the current Midwestern weather — chaotic and unpredictable. Thankfully my situation is far less dangerous than the weather system. My heart goes out to all of those who have been affected by the recent tornados and other severe weather in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama… seems like just about everywhere this year. I’ve lived in the central part of the U.S. all of my life and can’t remember another year like this one.

The shot above is not from this weather system but from a brief rainstorm in the South Pacific last month. Lightroom’s contrast, curves and clarity provided a little extra intensity. You can practically make a sunny day look like a supercell megacyclone with the tools we have available to us these days.

Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio

I’m back from a week of shooting in the Midwest — mostly Ohio and Indiana. It’s always bothered me, that name “Midwest”. I live very near the center of the U.S. and the Midwest is east of me. Seems like “Midwest” ought to be Utah — halfway between the center and the west coast. Shouldn’t Ohio be “Mideast”? But I digress…

Most of the work I was doing on this trip was on assignment and, unfortunately, I can’t share it prior to publication. I did squeeze in a quick trip to Hocking Hills State Park for my own stock, however. I’d visited before about a year and a half ago, but lack of water made for no waterfalls to shoot. This time was much different. Parts of the park were closed due to flooding but the parts that were open were stunning. I got absolutely soaked by the on-and-off rain, but enjoyed the heck out of it. I know I’ve just come from Fiji — many people’s dream location — but it’s really these dark, misty, craggy, rocky places that I love the most. I’m not sure what that says about me.

I should also mention that I found two pieces of equipment essential for the Hocking Hills shoot. First, a tripod was an absolute must. Without long exposures, the water didn’t have nearly as much movement or mood. The other thing that aided in the long exposures was my 8 stop neutral density filter. It adds no color to the scene (thus the name “neutral”) but it cuts the light down so that I can get much longer exposures than even my lowest ISO and smallest aperture will allow. NDs and polarizers are the only filters I carry any more because they both have abilities that I can’t mimic later in Photoshop or Lightroom. When I reeeally want to cut the light down — say, for a long exposure in full daylight to show clouds streaking across the sky — I’ll stack up all of my NDs and polarizers to the point that it’s hard to see anything through the viewfinder.

More from this shoot and Fiji in the coming days.

Palm trees, two ways

This is the idyllic view that I had from my hotel room for most of my time in Fiji. Abstracted to just palm fronds, trunks and ocean, it tells the story of a perfect vacation spot. I shot this view several times over the course of my stay, taking advantage of different lighting, clouds, etc., but perhaps my favorite version of it was the first one I shot, and in the most imperfect situation:

It was hot in Fiji. And humid. And when I checked in to my room, the air conditioning was cranked to the point that water was condensing on the sliding patio door to my balcony. It was also a bit cloudy that first day which, in combination with the “rain” on the glass, painted a very different picture. As a stock image, I like the way this shot says “the vacation that wasn’t”, “rained out”, etc.

When traveling — and certainly when on vacation — I would much rather have the first scene be the one outside my window, but I’m very much hoping that some photo editors out there are in need of the second version.

Late snow

After a weekend of temps in the 60s and 70s, yesterday morning brought a wet 4-inch snow — one of the prettiest I’ve seen in years. The winds were calm enough that the snow could cling to the tiniest branches and grasses creating a wonderland of white. My first thought was to try and get to the KU campus to shoot but the streets looked bad (we have to go up steep hills either way we leave our house) and the temperatures were rising so fast I knew the snow wouldn’t last long. In the end, I opted for my favorite morning walk spot just across the road. You may recognize the trees in the first photo. I’ve blogged them before here.

By the end of the day, only a few patches of snow remained in areas of deep shade and this morning they are predicting temperatures rising back into the 70s again by mid-week.

the big thaw

A hipstamatic shot from my iPhone during yesterday morning’s walk shows large swaths of grass reappearing after months of being blanketed under snow. Our snow usually melts off in a few days around here but not this year. I don’t think I’ve had a snow-free lawn since before I left for the Gulf Coast in early December. The bitterly cold temps are losing their grip now and we’re seeing that it may hit 70F on Thursday. Spring may not be here, but it’s on the way.

Palm trees for my dad

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but it’s been really busy around here between work projects and dealing with the blizzard that moved through this week. The latter may have been what inspired my dad to request a palm tree shot. That or he was just reeeeally tired of looking at those whale-watching photos on my last post. At any rate, here’s one for you, Dad. Some palm trees from a very warm morning nearly a year ago in Thailand. Enjoy.

Whale watching in the Pacific

Oh, warmth. Where have you gone?

Pardon me while I escape the reality of single digit temps outside my window and I relive my visit to San Diego last week. For those of you who are also snow-bound, maybe you can live vicariously through the images and know that warmth will one day return to you as well.

Today I’m reminiscing about a whale-watching trip that we took from San Diego out into the Pacific. I’ve been on a couple of these before, but always in the Atlantic off of Canada’s coast and always on smaller boats. The bigger boat definitely made for fewer people going to the rail seasick than on the smaller boats but I also found that it puts you a bit high for photographing the whales. Sure, you have a good view of them, but from a small boat your lower perspective shows how large they really are with their flukes breaking the horizon as they prepare to dive.

That said, it was a great day to be out on the water and the whales showed up right on cue and put on quite a show. We saw at least 10 or 11 and had a pod of 6 all together in the end. My 200mm lens was barely up to the task, however, as the whales are always some distance from the boat. The dolphins, on the other hand, would practically attack:

If it makes you feel any better on this January morning — it was chilly enough out on the water that you needed a jacket.

Sorry!

Return from the sun

Freshly home from San Diego, California, where it was sunny and 70 to 80 degrees every day. Palm trees, t-shirts & shorts, sun, sun and more sun. Lest you feel envious, I was barely able to find the car in the airport lot when I got home due to several inches of snow that fell the day before:

Back to reality.

Escaping Winter

When you start seeing things like this out your front window, it’s time to start thinking about heading for warmer climates — which is exactly what I’ll be doing for the next few days. Actually, I like the snow. If it’s going to be cold, it might as well be snowy. It’s much more attractive than a landscape of leaf-less trees and dead grass and it actually feels warmer when there’s a blanket of snow on the ground. Or the beauty takes your mind off the cold. Whatever… it works for me. But, my plans were made months ago and I must head for San Diego for a few days. Such is life. I’m working on a year-in-review post for 2010 but I don’t know that I’ll have it ready before I need to head for the airport. I’ll post from the road if I can, but if it doesn’t happen, I’ll be back soon.

Careful on that ice!