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Take the Long Way Home

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 3 July 2024 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

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Today it is time for a New Zealand classic, view of Mount Cook at dusk from a viewing point on Mount Cook Road, next to Lake Pukaki. It is a well known photo location but it was just too hard to resist not taking one there. I kind of considered it a test of my skills. Having seen so many beautiful photos from this spot, I wanted to take my own and to see whether it could possibly stand up to the best. Conditions were quite alright too. Evening was warm and very calm. We decided to go for a sunset photo, but a sunrise could work just as well, if not better. Still sunset it was, and I was happy with that decision. We have been to this viewpoint before, however, the conditions were not quite right for the kind of photos I was hoping to take. This time around it was almost perfect.

I was expecting quite a few people to be there at sunset but we were there by ourselves for most of the evening. We stopped there on the way to Mount Cook earlier in the day and I checked out possible photo ideas, so when we arrived in the evening, I was ready to set up and start taking exposures. I knew that this would be another good time to use my longer lens. I still tried some wider compositions but they did not quite work as well. Wider perspective diminished the majestic peak, and also took away from the road which I wanted to feature in my composition. Using long lens allowed me to balance the composition exactly how I envisaged earlier. I especially liked the two main leading lines - the road and the show of the lake. I thought that they converged nicely to lead towards Mount Cook in the distance. I was slightly worried about the right side of the foreground being a little uninspiring. I did like the yellow flowering plants though, and they added a bit of interest to that area. I believe that there used to be trees growing there, but they were considered invasive and damaging to the local natural environment, so a decision was made to cut them down. You can see some remains of them in the photo.

The light was wonderful as well. I kept taking photos from about ninety minutes before sunset until just after. I could watch the progression of light throughout the evening and that in itself was a fantastic experience. Once I set up my main camera, I was just able to relax and take photos periodically, as I needed until the end. That allowed me to have a good selection to choose from, and also to enjoy the moment and beauty around me. When it came to selecting frames for this image, the moment which I liked the best, was the light just before the sun disappeared. The peak was illuminated by lovely soft red sunlight, and the clouds behind also benefited from this light. I was worried that the clouds would be blown away by this stage of the evening, however, they fortunately stayed with us long enough. It was also that interesting moment of transition between golden and blue hours. I could see and feel the warmth of the golden hour, and also I could see the blue hour settling in the shadow areas already.

I was not sure if wanted the light trails in the final photo to start with. As I contemplated the scenery and light though, I thought 'why not' and decided to see if I could make something out of it. I used four different frames to combine together for the final image. One for the foreground including the closest light trails. One for the light on the mountains. One for the distant light trails, and one more for the red light trails, just to have a hint of the on the road. It was actually surprisingly quiet on the road, and this was the reason why I originally did not consider the vehicle lights. When I took longer exposures towards the end of the day, I noticed a couple of them to have reasonably prominent trails, and that change my mind to be in favour of including them in the photo. I actually took a couple of 30 second exposures just for the light trails right at the very end and I was able to include them in the image. They emphasised the leading line of the road, and added further interest in the foreground. With not many cars on the road by that time, we packed up and went back to or hotel.

As much as I enjoy looking for unique compositions and points of view, sometimes it is good just to embrace the tried and tested classic approach. These viewpoints are considered iconic for a reason. They are pretty spectacular, and I definitely wanted to have this photo in my collection. Whether it stands up to others and on its own, I will leave that to you to assess. For us, it was a wonderful evening spent with nature and amazing views. I am pretty pleased with the photo too, and that made the evening even better.

Canon EOS R5 25 seconds F/8.0 ISO 50 145 mm

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This image has been featured in 2 Remix collections.

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