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Quite a busy year with a crop of good photographs. One has to always keep on learning and experimenting, no matter how many "years of experience" one has.
Some dangerously wild weather hit NZ in late September. Photos - no, I won't go ruin my kit in the driving rain or risk my life in gale force winds. But 1 October was fine and brought out some rare and interesting cars to the Car Museum. Finally got to Waiotapu (30km South from Rotorua) and the Champagne Pool, the largest hotspring in NZ at 65m diameter and a surface temperature of 74°C.
As Summer tried to kick in, attention to details on walks and trips to towns like Te Aroha netted some shots. November is also great for seeing the young ducklings and chics. A few more walks in December and a bit of a break from sitting at home rounded out the year. It has been consistently wet and windy, very unlike a 'real' Summer should be.
Furthermore - no editing, no deletes.
Camera: Canon EOS RP
Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 + RF adapter
Took a short break in July to the Coromandel, so lots of photos. The weather was not the best, but it was still a worthwhile trip. On another purposeful trip, I got several images just as I had hoped for. I was just thinking the other day, am I the only one tired of all the overly saturated, super sharp, and over-edited photos currently in fashion? They are mere technical works, but have no soul.
As Winter runs out everything is bland, empty or sticks - nothing of colour to interrupt the greens and browns. The first signs of a coming Spring are the daffodils, and then decorative cherry trees. But the daffodils lead the charge.
There are far too many restaurants and eateries. I did a mid-week after 8pm trip to the "vibrant" (dead) CDB. Yeah… and note the empty dark street with the recently ram-raided pawn shop.
I've had some new website dev work on my plate, but did get a break and got to some (crazy) experiments with lens combinations. Uniform gray skies for days on end are not encouraging, so my energy has been directed into laptop upgrades and coding projects. In fact I took so few photos of anything at all in May and June… exception being right after a major deluge that flooded many areas, turning farms and fields into lakes.
The year got off to a mixed start - busy and slow at the same time. My 360 worlds took on a new life with the addition of a Ricoh Theta. Back in the film years I had two Ricoh KR-10 cameras in my bag. Things come full circle. Late Spring had some nice features, like the entire monarch life cycle on and around the same plant.
