New Zealand (Lots of photos)

[KidChameleon]

This is still work in progress but I thought I would put it all together in its own thread instead of filling the Photo A Day thread. I'm leaving on Monday.

I've already posted some of these in the Photo A Day thread.

Sydney airport at 6am on Monday.









Auckland the same day.

This could be done better but I'll sort it at home. It's Mount Eden, an extinct volcano and the area I used to live in. I lived somewhere behind this photo.




Some time around 5pm from One Tree Hill.




There is a local vet's with this car.







Then we went for a walk in the Waitakere hills.










Click for bigger:



Bugger!
A little wiggle got this one loose. (Yes, we had paid for it.)



This is a very good example of what a polariser does.

Unpolarised:



Polarised:





And now I'm up to today. Today I filled two 4GB cards plus some on a 2GB card. That was something over 400 photos in one day, which I don't believe I've ever done before. I'm really glad I brought a laptop with plenty of space. I've taken around 800 photos on this holiday in about four days.

There are more photos than these but they're fairly similar, or they're family photos, or they're very touristy.

This morning we went to Mission Bay in Auckland where we had ice cream and I fed the vultures.









Post continued...

[KidChameleon]

Then we went on a cruise around Auckland harbour. I got plenty of good photos, and even managed a good ~180* panorama which has surprisingly stitched together well, considering I was on a moving boat. I'm working on resizing it for Photobucket, but I'm thinking of opening a Flickr account. Flickr seems to be a better option for sharing photos in a gallery format. Photobucket is good for forum posts, though.






^That one needed to be rotated a bit so I think the re-crop isn't quite right. I need to get rid of the thin black lines of the windows.

We got back on land and had a walk around downtown Auckland. I got a few shots of people doing the Sky Jump.




On the way back from town we noticed the sunset was incredible, so dad rushed us up Mount Eden. Just as I got out of the car I saw the last sliver of the golden orb go over the horizon. The light lasted a few more minutes, but I missed the full spectacle. There were lots of other photographers there with tripods and camcorders. There was also a rush of cars getting there just as we did, and they were gone within a few minutes. Evidently, it's a very popular viewing spot for this sort of thing.








[EDIT]

Click for bigger:





Bearing in mind that was a series of photos taken from a fast moving boat with strong winds and a bit of roll, I think I did very well. Needs a little crop on the right, though.

[Blastuk]

loving the photos.

what lens was the 3rd one shot with?

[Bobster]

what lens was the 3rd one shot with?

85mm 1.8

some nice shots in there

[Blastuk]

85mm 1.8

some nice shots in there

i thought that too but it looked like it was stopped down in the exif and i didn't see the lens -.-

[kalniel]

Lovely shots.. but grrr at the polariser comparison.. I don't need another hole in the wallet! (Besides if I got one I'd have to choose between the kit lens with CP or the WA without..)

[mmh]

85mm 1.8

some nice shots in there

the 3rd one is 85mm 5.6

[vicar]

Very good pics.

[rushholme]

[Bobster]

the 3rd one is 85mm 5.6

the 85 doesnt come in 5.6 flavour

only 1.8 or 1.2L

he asked what lens, not what settings

[KidChameleon]

Thanks for the comments.

All the ones I posted were taken with a 28-135mm 3.5-5.6 on a 50D. The only other lens I have with me is a 50mm 1.8 but I only used that in Kelly Tarlton's aquarium.

I'll be going up the Sky Tower today. The forecast is for sunshine, so it should be good. I have a lot of photos of that from last year. Like this one...

[toolsong]

Nice photos!

My girlfriend's a Kiwi and we were there at xmas. A lovely part of the world.

[mmh]

the 85 doesnt come in 5.6 flavour

only 1.8 or 1.2L

he asked what lens, not what settings

so it couldnt be a kit lens at 85mm it had to be a prime 85mm lens?

edit: oh look at the post below yours it happens to be a kit lens at 85mm...

[Gerrard]

Excellent photos! I hope I can learn how to produce some by the time I go on holiday.

[KidChameleon]

On Friday I went up the Sky Tower and got some not particularly interesting photos. Then I walked up Mount Victoria.













Yesterday I drove about 90 minutes North to some friends in Mangawhai. New Zealand drivers are terrible. I was in a rubbish old Nissan Sunny with bad brakes and no power with a woefully bad automatic transmission and seatbelts that would slice your head clean off in a bump. The road had varying limits between 60-100kph, which I was sticking to or driving below because I was terrified of the car. So many people were tailgating or cutting me up right at the end of the passing lanes. Dad got side swiped by a lorry on the motorway the other day and they didn't even stop. There were four lanes, the two on the left forked left, and the other two went straight on. Dad was in lane two bearing left and a lorry went from lane one to lane three suddenly without indicating. The rental car has a nice big circular rubber mark.

[luo9670]

the sky is sooooo clear so blue ... really wanna live here