NZPhotographer Issue 11, September 2018 by NZPhotographer

ISSUE 11, September 2018

INTERVIEW WITH MARK GEE

WE ARE ONE

NZP PHOTO COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT

BEHIND THE SHOT WITH MIKE MACKINVEN

HOW TO CAPTURE: COASTAL SUNRISES

WITH RICHARD YOUNG

PLAYING WITH FIRE WIRE WOOL SPINNING

WITH RAY SALISBURY

September 2018

WELCOME TO ISSUE 11 OF NZ PHOTOGRAPHER MAGAZINE

HELLO EVERYONE, You'll be seeing starts in this issue as we look up at the night sky for inspiration! We have interviewed worldrenowned photographer Mark Gee, he of Full Moon Silhouette fame. Local legend Ray Salisbury has been playing with fire and walks us through wire wool spinning step-bystep, and then, in Behind The Shot we head back to that famous NZ location to learn how Mike of Mack Photography captured the Milky Way over the Wanaka Tree. Leaving the stars behind and looking out to sea, Richard reminds us to always look behind when shooting coastal sunrises and sunsets and Brendon Gilchrist recounts his shipwreck adventure. This issue is also full of opportunity for you to get involved and win some outstanding prizes... We have teamed up with Wellington Botanical Garden as they celebrate 150 years with an exciting competition that runs for a year. Plus, NZP celebrates its 1 year relaunch next month and to celebrate, we're running a special competition that covers 4 categories with 4 prizes to be won, judged by local and international judges. Turn to page 35 to meet the judges and learn all about it.

Emily Goodwin

Editor NZ Photographer General Info: NZPhotographer Issue 11 September 2018 Cover Photo by Mark Gee

www.theartofnight.com Night On The Ridge

NZPhotographer

Publisher: Excio Group

Editor: Emily Goodwin

Website: www.excio.io/nzphotographer

Graphic Design: Maksim Topyrkin

Group Director: Ana Lyubich ana@excio.io

Advertising Enquiries: Phone 04 889 29 25 or Email hello@excio.io

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS

Brendon Gilchrist

Richard Young

Brendon is the man behind ESB Photography. He treks from sea to mountain, and back again, capturing the uniqueness of New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unforgiving landscape.

Richard is an award-winning landscape and wildlife photographer who teaches photography workshops and runs photography tours. He is the founder of New Zealand Photography Workshops.

nzphotographer

nzp_magazine

nzp@excio.io

ÂŠ 2018 NZPhotographer Magazine All rights reserved. Reproduction of any material appearing in this magazine in any form is forbidden without prior consent of the publisher. Disclaimer: Opinions of contributing authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the magazine.

September 2018

CONTENTS

6 16 17 20 22 30 34 37

INTERVIEW WITH MARK GEE

INTERVIEW WITH MARK GEE OF THE ART OF NIGHT HOW TO CAPTURE: COASTAL SUNRISES & SUNSETS with Richard Young SHIPWRECKED by Brendon Gilchrist WELLINGTON BOTANICAL GARDEN COMPETITION PLAYING WITH FIRE WIRE WOOL SPINNING TUTORIAL by Ray Salisbury BEHIND THE SHOT with Mike MacKinven

SHIPWRECKED

WE ARE ONE COMPETITION BEST READERS' SUBMISSIONS THIS MONTH

16 HOW TO CAPTURE: COASTAL SUNRISES AND SUNSETS

Playing with Fire WIRE WOOL SPINNING TUTORIAL

THE DIFFERENCE MAKER

100

MARK SENSOR

The search for uncompromising photography and videography performance is over. The Nikon D850 sets remarkable standards of quality with an impressive 45.7 effective megapixels. Capture the most awe-inspiring images and produce phenomenal 8K UHD time-lapse movies. Create epic film masterpieces in full-frame 4K UHD with NIKKOR wide-angle lenses, or prolong exquisite moments with its 120p/100p Full HD slow-motion recording. Purchase from an Authorised Nikon New Zealand Retailer to receive an Extended Two Year Local Warranty.

www.Nikon.co.nz

September 2018

Interview with Mark Gee of The Art of Night

HI MARK, WOULD YOU CARE TO INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO OUR READERS? I’m Mark Gee (Gee pronounced as the letter G) and these days I class myself as a photographer and filmmaker. I’m currently based in Wellington, but New Zealand isn’t my country of origin. I was born and grew up on the east coast of Australia. I found my love of photography aged about 14. My uncle dabbled in photography and took me to an auction to buy my first camera, which was a Canon film camera. I did photography as a subject at school and even had my own darkroom set up at home. After leaving school, I studied graphic design and worked at various places, from an architectural office to a magazine publisher and even a signwriting shop. I became interested in 3D animation and set my sights on a career in the film and television industry. I landed my first job in the industry working on a television series and also TV commercials and within a few years, I got the opportunity to come to New Zealand to work on Lord of the Rings at Weta Digital. This was certainly the start of something special, and 15 years on, New Zealand is now home. Coming to New Zealand inspired me to explore my photography more, which now is a big part of my life.

NZPhotographer

I run a few workshops throughout the year. They range from The Art of Night Wellington meet up which around 1000 people attended last year, to multi-day workshops for up to 10 people. I also do workshops overseas including the now legendary PhotoPills Camp on the island of Menorca in Spain. Most of the workshops focus on astrophotography, but I also do some workshops with other photographers which are multi-disciplined.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY SPECIFICALLY? It wasn’t until I came to Wellington in 2003 and went and visited Castlepoint for the first time. It was one of those perfectly crisp and clear winter nights, I went outside to put the rubbish out and looked up. I had never seen so many stars in my life, and it was the first time I had ever seen the Milky Way with my own eyes. I ran back inside, grabbed my camera and tripod, and with no real knowledge of how to take a photo of the night sky, I pointed the camera up and took a shot. The photo itself was really disappointing, as I could see more stars with my own eyes than what was in the photo itself! But that was the night when my passion for astrophotography was ignited and things have only improved from there!

CAMPING UNDER THE STARS F2.8, 30s, ISO3200

GALACTIC FLOW F4, 30s, ISO6400

VALLEY OF STARS F2.8, 30s, ISO6400

YOU’VE WON TOO MANY PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS AND COMPETITIONS FOR US TO NAME… WHICH HAS BEEN YOUR PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT? My proudest achievement would have to be Astronomy Photographer of the Year in 2013. Not only did I win the People and Space and the Earth and Space categories, but I also won the Astronomy Photographer of the Year overall. And within the 10 year history of the awards, that has never been done again. I never expected anything like that, so you can imagine my excitement when I did find out I had won! My only regret was I didn’t go to London for the awards, but I was well represented there by my sister.

WHAT EQUIPMENT ARE YOU SHOOTING WITH? I’ve just recently switched from Canon to Nikon and am really loving the new gear. I’m currently shooting with a Nikon D850 and my favorite astro lens is the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8

GUIDING LIGHT TO THE STARS F4, 30s, ISO6400

TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR CAREER IN THE FILM INDUSTRY… I’ve been working in the visual effects side of the film industry for over 20 years now, and for 15 of those years, I’ve been at Weta Digital in Wellington. My current role is a Visual Effects Supervisor, so I work with the artists and other supervisors to deliver the director’s vision for the film. It can be demanding work, but also very rewarding once you get to see the final product on the big screen.

WHERE’S YOUR FAVOURITE SPOT IN NZ? I’ve got a few favourite spots, especially on the South Island where the skies are dark and the landscape spectacular. But I would have to say the one place for me would have to be Cape Palliser in the Wairarapa. It is the first real dark sky location I shot at, and I love going there and finding new interesting compositions. The Cape Palliser Lighthouse is always great to shoot against the night sky too.

HEAVENS ABOVE PALLISER F2.8, 30s, ISO6400

UNIVERSAL SCALE F4, 30s, ISO6400

WANUI NIGHTS F2.8, 25s, ISO6400

UNIVERSAL BONDING F3.2, 30s, ISO3200

DO YOU HAVE A SINGLE FAVOURITE IMAGE? My favourite changes all the time, but my all time sentimental favorite would be the one I shot of my son and I looking up at the Milky Way in Kaikoura three years ago. I called the image Universal Bonding. It was taken on the last night of a week long road trip my son and I did on the South Island – We try to go on an annual road trip each year to explore new locations and photo opportunities. I’d been trying for over a year to get him to pose and stand still with me long enough for the 30 second exposure, and on this night he finally did. It was the perfect moment for the end of an amazing trip.

TELL US ABOUT THE FAMOUS FULL MOON SILHOUETTES... I always like to try and come up with fresh ideas and the Full Moon Silhouettes (which you can see here) was one of those. It took me a year to capture the moonrise as I had envisaged it, but it was all worth the many frustrating failed attempts.

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The night I finally pulled it off was a perfect evening with not one breath of wind, which doesn’t happen often in Wellington! I was in a park 2.1km away from the people on the Mount Victoria Lookout and I didn’t know if I had lined up the shot correctly, but as I hit the record button on my camera and the moon began to rise, everything fell into place better than I ever expected. At that point, I knew I had captured something cool, but I had no idea of the impact it would eventually have on people... until it went viral. That was totally unexpected and quite overwhelming, I was getting hundreds of emails a day from people all over the world sharing their experience of watching the moonrise as well as media interview requests and even academics offering their expert opinions. That video gave me lots of opportunities - It got my name out there and my astrophotography noticed. I had the opportunity to travel and run workshops around the world, as well as doing various media and public speaking engagements, and of course, my TedX talk which was an amazing experience on its own!

WHAT TIPS CAN YOU SHARE WITH OUR READERS FOR SHOOTING ASTRO?

on the image to check the sharpness. Hopefully your stars will be in focus and you are now good to go.

Always plan your astrophotography shots well in advance and do the location scouting in the daytime. Use planning apps so you know exactly where the Milky Way will be in the sky at the planned location - I personally use an app called Photopills which is like the swiss army knife of astrophotography planning.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?

When you do get to your location at night, make sure you allow yourself plenty of time to set up and frame the shot. I usually arrive at least an hour before I plan to start shooting. Focusing is one of the hardest things to get right in astrophotography. I use the live view function on my camera and then find the brightest star in the night sky and try to get it towards the centre of your LCD screen. Once you’ve done that, make sure you are in manual focus. Magnify your live view screen as large as it goes (usually 10x) and rotate your focus ring until the star looks sharp. Take a photo and then zoom in

I’m starting to work on a few personal projects which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, so I’m cutting down on the workshops, public speaking and travelling so I can get back to doing my own thing. I enjoy doing all of those other things but want to get back to where it all started for me, and just go out and shoot for myself for the time being.

WHERE CAN WE FIND YOU ONLINE? www.instagram.com/theartofnight www.facebook.com/theartofnight www.theartofnight.com

MOON SILHOUETTES F9, 1/125s, ISO400

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HOW TO CAPTURE: COASTAL SUNRISES AND SUNSETS

Coastal photography tips with Richard Young

Sunrise, Abel Tasman National Park

F8, 30s, ISO 100, 24mm

FIND A SUBJECT:

CAPTURE THE WAVES:

Coastal shots are often largely made up of sky and water, but they also need a focal point to help draw in the eye of the viewer. This could be some foreground detail like a rock in the sea or a landscape feature such as a distant headland. Make sure the subject fills your shot so you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t leave the viewer lost and looking around for it.

Waves present a great opportunity to add a creative element. Experiment with different shutter speeds to either freeze or capture the movement of the waves. To freeze the waves and capture them as they break, use a fast shutter speed, ideally faster than 1/500sec. To blur the waves and capture their movement, use an exposure of 1 second or longer.

LOOK AROUND YOU:

ADD SOME SKY:

As the sun slips over the horizon, it casts a beautiful golden light across the beach. Whilst everyone else is busy looking at the sun and shooting that scene, take a moment to look around, the scene behind you might be gorgeous too.

One advantage of being on the beach at sunset or sunrise is that the horizon out to sea gives you a lot of sky. If you have interesting clouds, use a wide-angle lens and place your horizon lower in the photograph to capture more of the sky.

CAPTURE SOME OF THE COUNTRY'S BEST COASTAL LANDSCAPES ON A 4-DAY GOLDEN BAY PHOTO TOUR: 27TH - 30TH SEPTEMBER WITH NEW ZEALAND PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS

SHIPWRECKED by Brendon Gilchrist

always felt like I wanted to shoot a shipwreck. But with no shipwrecks nearby I pushed it to the back of my mind. A few months later one of the world’s oldest schooner’s beached itself not far from Christchurch. It is hard to describe what I felt when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw that the MV Tuhoe had beached itself near the head of the Waimakariri River. I could not believe that it had happened! This 97 foot double masted auxiliary schooner, constructed of triple skin kauri, was built in Auckland in 1919 by George Nicol. Her Maori name meaning ‘the children of the mist’. I saw this as an opportunity not just for photography, but to document the resting place of a piece of history but I only had 1 night in which to do it. After a day of work followed by a basketball commitment at night, I drove to the nearest car park and walked the 40 min along the beach in the dark. It felt like forever, as if the beach would never end. Was I walking through portals and coming back to the same piece of driftwood? Maybe I was? Off in the distance, I could see a shape but it was still far away. I keep walking, enjoying the sound of the crashing waves, hoping I would not step on a sleeping seal.

The further I walked the more the shape resembled a boat – I felt a sense of relief, I was nearly there. It was around 10.30pm by this time and I didn’t know when the moon was going to rise and also had no idea that it was a full moon at this point – Not conditions I would have chosen to shoot in if given a different option. As I continued walking I could see the glow getting stronger on the horizon and thought “oh no, you got to be kidding. I have only a few minutes before the moon rises.” If you have never sat and watched the moon rise you won’t realise how fast it moves. I quickly put my camera bag down, looked at what I had to work with and got my camera out and onto the tripod as fast as possible. It’s these moments when you need be creative in an instance – I needed to capture the emotions of this boat as fast as possible. I managed to get 3 great compositions before the moon got too high and bright. The reflections in the sand and the moon rising to the side, this its last night alive... I was privileged to stand there alone, shivering cold, capturing the moment. I set up my time lapse after I had taken the stills and stepped aside to let the camera do all the work. Over the next hour and a half, I watched the moon rising and the stars rotating. These moments of waiting, of being cold, of being entirely alone, are also some of the most inspiring. I was witnessing the last night that this boat got to see on this earth,

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sailing no more, just resting upon the land where it was once built. Being alone and in awe in these times is challenging but rewarding, the solitude is great but company, someone to share the moment with, is better. I believe everything has beauty even if many do not see it. If you look past the tragedy that has happened you will see something new. It may even help you as a photographer to capture something that has an ending and will never be seen again. After my time lapse had finished I took a quick selfie beside the boat then, after packing up, struggling to put my gear in my bag as I was shivering so much, I headed off into the darkness, back along the beach on the 4km walk back to the carpark. It was well after midnight and I had work at 7am but my thoughts were this; I have photos that no one else has. I have captured something I wanted to

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shoot. I enjoyed my day. There is not much more I could have asked for. The next day I saw photos of The Tuhoe being pulled apart with a digger. There was nothing that could be done to save the boat as it was too far up the beach and there was no way to pull it back into the ocean, the stern having twisted from every wave and tidal change but it was so sad to see something so rich in history being destroyed.

3 TIPS FOR SHOOTING A TRAGEDY • Respect the moment for what it is.

• If you know the history of the subject you are shooting, this will help you to capture the emotions. • Don’t question ‘should I go out with the camera?’ Do it as soon as you can because time is of the essense – The opportunity could be gone before you know it.

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Celebrating 150 Years of Wellington Botanical Garden On 3rd September the formal establishment of the Wellington Botanic Garden turns 150 years old and NZP readers are invited to participate in the special photo competition that runs through the year. David Sole, the Manager of Wellington Garden tells us more about the history of the garden and the photo competition. Wellington Botanic Garden is fondly regarded as ‘our garden’ by the residents of Wellington and enjoyed every year by tens of thousands of visitors to the city. The origins of the garden, and its inclusion on the Wellington Town Belt, dates from the planning for the city in the period 1839-44 but the formal process for the establishment of the garden did not begin until 1868. The legacy of Sir James Hector, the botanic garden’s first director, is today revisited as we establish education programmes in the newly developed Discovery Garden Te Kaapuia O Te Waouku. We are returning to science and beginning to carefully reconsider the role of our collections in supporting education, science, and conservation – how we contribute to the local regional, national, and international roles of botanic gardens in plant conservation in the face of climate change and the alarming worldwide loss of plant species due to human activity. The garden still continues to be a place of refuge and respite from the pressures of the city and ever

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increasing social pressures of urban intensification. People can find calm and tranquility and immerse themselves in a landscape that is safe, soothing, and satisfying. It is a place where individuals and families and friends can come together and enjoy the flowers, the events, and the diversity of seasons; where they can enjoy the wondrousness of plants and their contribution to our world. The ‘Fresh Shoots’ photo competition will provide inspiring opportunities for amateur and pro photographers to capture the garden, its people, the wildlife, its dramatic landscape and, fundamentally, the beauty of the plants. With four separate competitions taking place over the year, photographers are encouraged to capture seasonal aspects of life at the gardens. A panel of expert judges will select the winners from four categories; People, Nature, Events, and Creative with both senior and junior (photographers ages 14-18 years) winners. We look forward to seeing your photos!

FRESH SHOOTS PHOTO COMPETITION

ENTER

We’re inviting photographers to highlight all the wonderful things that make the Wellington Botanic Garden much more than a garden, while encouraging photographers to focus on the garden season by season. For prizes and full Terms & Conditions see: www.excio.io/freshshoots

The competition is split into four quarterly competitions based on each of the four seasons:

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

1 September 14 December 2018

15 December 22 March 2019

23 March 21 June 2019

22 June 20 September 2019

CATEGORIES

NATURE

PEOPLE

CREATIVE

EVENTS

PARTNERS

September 2018 21

Playing with Fire WIRE WOOL SPINNING TUTORIAL by Ray Salisbury

LET THERE BE LIGHT Repeating the geometric shapes at Lake Rotoiti to create my own 22 NZPhotographer ‘spin’ on light painting.

he literal definition of the Greek words photos and graphos mean to ‘paint with light’. So, by definition, if you practice photography, you are light painting; you are producing art. But how do you stand out from the proverbial crowd when every man and his DSLR is saturating social media with stunning images? One answer is to shoot at night time. Under the cover of darkness, you can put a different ‘spin’ on your shots!

In this tutorial, I will show you how to spin wire wool to create arty, abstract photos that exude that elusive ‘wow factor’.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• Head-Torch with fresh batteries. Carrying a spare torch is a wise precaution! • BBQ Firelighter or cigarette lighter. A 9 volt battery will also work. • Fine Grade Steel Wool. The steel wool comes in several grades. The ‘super fine’ grade, labeled ‘0000,’ burns fast. The ‘very fine’ grade ‘00’ gives off more sparks, and burns longer, for about 25 seconds. • Spinning Device. A 25cm egg whisk can be purchased from a Two Dollar shop for $2.50. Get the steel version, not the plastic! Attach the kitchen whisk to a length of chain, a skipping rope, or a dog lead about one metre long, using a carabiner or similar bolt. • A Trusty Assistant for both practical and safety reasons. • Warm Clothing & Snacks especially if you’re set up in a remote location.

PLANNING YOUR SHOT: 1. Location. Find a suitable plot of ground, devoid of vegetation, vehicles or flammable material. Think concrete… netball courts, train tunnels, or under a bridge. Spinning steel wool will bounce off the walls of a closedin space, such as a tunnel, sending random sparks flying. While this is a neat effect, your surroundings should be damp, so that stray sparks don’t get you in trouble - Err on the side of caution. Alternatively, a calm pool of water will reflect the spinning orb of light. Sparks may bounce off the water – another cool effect. In this situation, gumboots are a godsend! 2. Timing. If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail. Just like comedy, timing is critical. Set up during the daylight, so you can scout for a decent composition. It’s best to set up your camera on a stable tripod well before dusk, and pre-focus on your subject before auto-focusing becomes impossible.

• A DSLR Camera with Manual Mode, and preferably, low-noise capability. However, many compact cameras will be suitable, providing they have manual focus and a long enough shutter speed. • A Cable Release or remote timing device so that you don’t accidentally bump the camera. Use the humble self-timer as a ‘poor man’s shutter release.’ • Fire Extinguisher • Safety Goggles • Gloves

The ideal time to shoot is during the Blue Hour – more specifically, half an hour after sundown, when the sky darkens to a deep blue – perfect for a contrasting backdrop. Indeed, blue is the complimentary colour of the burning orange orb you will be spinning. My rule of thumb is to start the shoot 20 minutes after sunset so that you can make several attempts during this 10-minute ‘window’. If you shoot after twilight, the background elements of the scene will disappear into darkness and the resulting photograph will lose context. 3. Composition. Spinning wire wool creates a circle of fire. Ask yourself, ‘how can this geometric shape relate to the surrounding landscape?’ Also ask yourself: ‘Do I want to appear in the photograph?’ If not, wear black clothing, gloves and a balaclava.

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For my iconic image shot at Lake Rotoiti, I made a long exposure of the stars circling the Southern Celestial Pole, then mimicked these concentric circles by spinning the wire wool. 4. Camera Settings. Once you have a composition planned, lock down the camera on a sturdy tripod. Hang a small LED light from it to make it visible. Focus on where the firespinner will stand, then switch to manual focus on the lens barrel. A wide-angle lens is preferable.

• The wire wool will not burst into flames, only simmer. Once the wire wool has caught alight, spin the whisk in consistent circles. Then get the photographer to begin the long exposure.

• Keep your arm straight to create a perfect circle. Consistency is the key. Try not to move your body, or you will appear as a blur.

Set the camera’s Mode Dial to Manual, with a shutter speed between 20 and 30 seconds. Apertures can vary from f/2 to f/11. Set the ISO. between 50 and 800. Any higher and digital noise may become an issue. For colour temperature, choose a ‘Daylight’ setting, or drop the Kelvin temperature down to about 3500K.

WIRE WOOL SPINNING TECHNIQUE:

• Pull apart a wire-wool pad length-wise to break up the density and allow oxygen inside. Unravelling the wool, then spinning it speeds up the chemical reaction. • Insert a wool pad into the whisk, ensuring it won’t fall out.

Note: If you are the photographer, wait for your assistant to light the wire wool and begin spinning it in a circle, then fire the shutter. Both of you should switch off your headlamps, so they don’t interfere with the photo. To mitigate light leaking into the viewfinder, hang a baseball cap over the top of the camera. Being an experimental art-form, be prepared for lots of trial and error, especially the latter. As Ansel Adams remarked, “Landscape Photography is the supreme test of the photographer, and often the supreme disappointment.” This is a challenging genre of photography with many inherent difficulties to overcome, but the rewards are there for the patient photographer.

• When igniting the wire wool, a BBQ butane lighter is preferable for a continuous flame, whereas a cigarette lighter is fiddly and hard to operate with cold hands.

RAY SALISBURY is a seasoned landscape photographer and art teacher based in Nelson. He sells his photos to magazines, calendars and image libraries. He also shares his knowledge through his free e-Books and affordable online courses allowing you to learn photography at your own pace through a series of video training modules that have been filmed in NZ. www.hotpixels.co.nz

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My shots on the following pages are sure to inspire you to get out there and give it a try. If you need more help, tips, and inspiration, there are tons of tutorials on Youtube. There are numerous variations of this technique that you can try too, from orbs to spheres to halos to a vortex.

SPINNING WOOL Repetition of geometric shapes through use of reflections.

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SPIRAL AT SPOONERS Moving towards the camera while spinning steel wool creates a vortex.

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September 2018 27

SPOONERS WIRE WOOL SPIN Playing with Fire inside the retired train tunnel at Spooners, half an hour from Nelson.

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September 2018 29

Behind The Shot with Mike MacKinven

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CAN YOU GIVE US A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON YOURSELF AND YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY? I am Mike MacKinven of Mack Photography and Design Ltd. I am an Advertising Art Director, Designer, and Retoucher. My photography journey started in 2012 in Auckland – I’d always wanted to learn photography but never really got to the point of purchasing a camera until my beautiful wife bought me a Canon 600D for my 28th birthday. As most enthusiasts know, it’s all downhill from there… I was mostly interested in cityscapes, until one night I noticed stars appearing in my photos. From there I researched Astrophotography and made it my mission to master that genre. I’m not quite a pro photographer, more a semi-pro amateur photographer once removed kind of thing, but now hold workshops teaching other photographers about the night sky and how to capture it.

TELL US ABOUT THIS SHOT... 32 images went into creating this shot. I hadn’t planned on shooting at this famous location but after a bit of encouragement from a few people I thought ‘Ok, let’s do this’. However just going out and shooting it wasn’t going to work, a fair amount of planning was required as the Milky Way was going to be above the treeline looking back from the Wanaka Tree. This meant I’d need to get wet to capture our Galaxy above that tree! So I ended up wading out into the chilly lake to get the optimum composition, waist deep in leaky waders from midnight until 01:40am with the temperature hovering at about 1º, it being the middle of Winter. After a while, my body temp warmed up the trapped water but I had to be super careful as the stones on the ground were very slippery, and the waders don’t have grippy soles for these kinds of situations! My biggest concern was keeping the dew heater battery and camera dry but I managed to successfully capture 2 x 240º panoramas, a series of tilt-shift style images, and some timelapses. My tripod is actually kitted out with a nifty beer holder so, being in the South Island, it seemed rude not to have a bottle of Speights ready, especially as my wife was asleep on the shore in a green sleeping bag, looking rather like a slug in my images!

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WHAT WERE YOU SHOOTING WITH? I was using my Canon EOS 6D and the trusty Samyang 24mm ƒ1.4 lens. I still use this setup today as it’s just so good but now being sponsored by Samyang Lens Global, I use this lens and the XP 14mm ƒ2.4 lens combo, a killer setup with two cameras.

WHAT WAS YOUR POST-PROCESSING PROCEDURE FOR THIS IMAGE? I generally keep this as simple as I can. I do basic edits in LR (White balance, sharpness, lens profiles etc) then I export the files ready for stitching in either Hugin or Autopano Giga. Photoshop and Lightroom aren’t suited to multi-row panoramas where you need the freedom to adjust composition, horizon angles and projection settings. Once the panorama is stitched, I fine tune it in Photoshop (fixing stitching areas if any) and then global contrast is added (Brightness/ Contrast or Curves) and masked to mostly sit in the sky. Once I’m happy with how it looks I’ll import the panorama to LR so it’s added to the catalog, crop it, and then export it as a final file.

WHAT ELSE SHOULD WE KNOW ABOUT THIS IMAGE? With most of my astro shots I strive to get away from light pollution, however, to shoot this tree you cannot get away from it, so I embraced it! Most of the lighting is pretty antique, well, a few billion years old but still shining bright! Other than natural starlight and the light pollution from nearby towns, no other lighting was used. I still get people confusing the floodlights as sunset light!

WHERE CAN WE FIND YOU ONLINE? www.instagram.com/mack_photography_nz www.facebook.com/mackphotographynz www.mackphotography.co.nz www.zodimap.nz

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One Community, One Magazine, and One Year Old! Join us in celebrating our 1 year anniversary of the re-launched NZPhotographer magazine by participating in our biggest competition yet! Judged by local and international photographers, competition is now open for entries. For prizes, judges and full Terms & Conditions see: www.excio.io/one

ENTER NOW LANDSCAPE & NATURE

DOCUMENTARY

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

CREATIVE

Win a Benro FH100 M2 Filter Holder Kit & Hard Grad Filter

Win a DSLR Video for Photographers course bundle

Win an Everyday Sling 10L Charcoal Bag

Win the Complete Photography Training course