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Canon EOS 70D, Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM lens, 5 shots ranging form 1/100 to 0.4 seconds @ f/4.5, ISO 125.

This week the challenge is to sell your town.

This morning, we got up bright and early to headed off to Evans Bay to catch the sunrise. It was quite windy, as the wind sculpture shows, but that’s what Wellington is famous for (see below – this sign is actually in the shot above, you just can’t see it because it’s so tiny). There’s not really any city here, as the sun rises in the wrong place for catching any nice city views, and I live in the suburbs and going into town is annoying. I’m also not very good/experienced at landscape-style shots, so this is way out of my comfort zone. This is a Lightroomed HDR of five images, and something funky is going on with the clouds, and I’m not sure why.

Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens, 1/640 second @ f/2.2, ISO 1250.

This week we’re to take an abstract portrait.

This is a stacked photo of Susan doing a cartwheel in her moonboot. My photoshop skills need to get much better.

Canon EOS 70D, Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM lens, 30 seconds @ f/5.6, ISO 125, ND filter used.

This week the photo challenge is about taking a long exposure of some water.

First thing I did was send Melissa off to get me a variable ND filter for my short lenses (a 24 and a 50). We went to Zealandia this morning, but the moving water that we found there didn’t make very good photos. So, while Melissa and her mother were out shopping, I went for a little drive to the gorge and set up my tripod on a landing, and hoped that people would stay away for 30 seconds so I could get an unshaken photo.

Canon EOS 70D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, 1.6 seconds @ f/10, ISO 100.

This week, we’re shooting in black and white with a focus on texture.

I was going to try and shoot some mud at Seatoun (see embedded post below) at the cup game tomorrow, but had a different idea today, so I shot something else. Any guesses?

Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, 1/200 second @ f/8.0, ISO 400.

This week the challenge is once again trolling the southern hemisphere by getting us to photograph a flower of significance to the area.

New Zealand doesn’t have a national flower. We have three main national icons: the Kiwi, the Southern Cross, and the Silver Fern (shown below). However, upon reading this challenge, I thought of two trees that flower: the pohutukawa (which flowers at Christmas) and the kowhai (which flowers from July to November). It’s June, so neither is supposed to be flowering at the moment. However, we went out exploring today, with an expectation of only finding silver ferns. We managed to find a small, sad looking kowhai tree that was actually in flower. Then, on the drive home, we saw a pohutukawa in flower. I’ve put my favourite shot of the kowhai up here. The name comes from the Maori word for ‘yellow’, and it’s not hard to see why.

A silver fern: