I was at Mosgiel recently and visted a few places. When fine weather wasforecast for Queenstown, i took a detour there just for a photo opportunity: i’ve never struck fine weather at Queenstown  before!  It was indeed a magnificent day.

On the way there there were many photo ops, but stopped at only half of them.

Having lost the old Christchurch to the earthquakes….Dunedin looks impressive

Perfect condition as far as the sky was concerned.  It just snowed, and the ‘high’ was hovering over the country so no cloud, and light pollution was minimal at Hanmer SPrings.  Problem was…… it was minus 5C!.

Yep, Noise is a problem!  Cold is another one!.  This shot is not the best, but it gave me a chance to experiment with stacking 3 images taken on high ISO.  I actually did 15s live-stacking (LiveComp) for 43 minutes of a star-trail of the same shot, but after standing around for that time at minus 5C, I somehow pressed the wrong button, so the image was not saved after showing up on the Live view all those time.  Aaaaargh!

I have just investigated…… need a Nikon 810A!  Time to get a Lotto ticket!

Milky way over Hanmer SPrings

Winter is here, and in Christchurch, we’ve had a few weeks and days of freeze.  Last night I explored a bit of astro, since a “high” is hovering above the country.  It was freezing cold when I tried to get a star trail above the city.  The temperature was about 0 degrees centigrade, and the city was covered with a layer of fog, but from the port-hills, it was perfect condition.  I was going to do a composite of 2 + hour shots (of 20 seconds), but after an hour, an aeroplane was about to cross right in front of the shot, so I stopped it at just over an hour.  I also discovered that I was slightly out of focus though it is only noticeable at 1:1.

Here’s the first effort

Every face tells a story.  Some people have a noble and majestic face, some have a lived face, some have a mystery behind their face.  I have always wanted people who would pose for me so that I can ‘play’ with the light to highlight certain features.  Mostly people are shy……  Only managed a few, and often without control of the lighting.

Joe McAskill once posed for me – it was easier to ask when he owed me a favour for cutting his hair!.  I’m glad he did.  His is one of those I regard as a ‘noble’ face (thanks to my handiwork with his hairstyle? !!)

Born in the Hebrides, Scotland, and lived is last years in New Zealand.  Many a stories  he could tell.  He was a lad when the shipwreck captured in the film “Whiskey Galore” happened at his very home.  May he rest in peace.