Golden Bay Holiday - Farewell Spit Dunes and Sunset

The Golden Bay Region at the top of New Zealand's South Island is a photographer's paradise! There is so much to see and photograph; from rugged coastline and sandy beaches, to old abandoned buildings and various wildlife. 

On just our second day at Puponga, blessed with beautiful weather (not a breath of wind), we decided to walk along the Spit at low tide, to photograph the sand dunes. We hoped for some nice evening light and some interesting formations to photograph. What we got was out of this world spectacular!

It's about an hours walk to the dunes from the car park. But if you are going to go you need to make sure that the tide is well out. Fortunately for us, we had timed it perfectly and low-tide coincided with sunset. I didn't really know what to expect from the dunes, and after about three quarters of an hour of trudging over broken shells carrying a tripod and camera gear, I was beginning to wonder whether it was all going to be worth it? But boy oh boy, was it worth it!

Farewell Spit Sand Dunes. Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm XF lens. f9 @ 1/45th sec, ISO 200

We were greeted with a landscape unlike any other I have ever experienced. I've never been to the desert before, and am possibly never likely to? So for me, this was the next best thing. A sandscape that reminded me of the sand planet Tattoine in the Star Wars movies, bathed in beautiful evening light. My photography brain almost exploded from sensory overload! It was almost too much to take in and process. It was so alien and foreign - I'm used to a lot of lush green on the West Coast - that I almost didn't know how to approach photographing it? And yet, at the same time, incredible images seemed to materialise no matter where I pointed my camera!

Visions of Tattoine. Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm XF lens. f9 @ 1/56th sec, ISO 200

Faced with such an overwhelming visual experience, I knew that I ran the risk of just 'spraying and praying'. Taking hundreds of images of stuff that was 'new' without really considering the 'why' of the image. So luckily I decided to slow down and give myself 10 minutes just to soak it all in and not take a single photo. I also decided to switch the camera to black and white in the viewfinder (shooting RAW + Jpeg so I would have the option of both colour and b&w later). These two decisions saved my bacon (so to speak), as they forced me to slow down and actually 'look' at what I was seeing.

What was I drawn to most strongly? What was I responding to most emotionally? When I took the time to ask myself these questions, and when I looked through the viewfinder of the X-E2 at the black and white image, I realised that it was the textures and the forms in the sand that excited me the most. And especially how these textures and forms were responding to the light. So that's what I concentrated on for my images.

Golden light. Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm XF lens. f9 @ 1/25th sec, ISO 200

If that had been the photography done and dusted for the evening then I would have gone away very happy and considered it a successful evenings shoot. But mother nature wasn't finished with us yet.

The light was slowly fading as we left the sand dunes to head back to the car park. We had another hours journey ahead of us, and wanted to make it back before dark. But we were also hopeful that the sky might colour up for a decent sunset. We'd had an amazing time with wonderful light at the sand dunes. Did we dare hope for a great sunset as well?

Colouring up. Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm XF lens. f11 @ 1/40th, ISO 200.

As we made our way back, we couldn't believe our eyes (and luck)! The light was gorgeous, and just kept getting better and better! At low tide, on such a still and calm evening, the reflections in the remaining water were perfect. Glassy smooth and pristine. Nicki and I were two very happy and excited photographers, with perfect conditions, in what turned out to be one of the best evenings of my life - period!

Very happy Photographers! Photo: Joanna Lorimer

On a more technical note: I continue to be impressed and more than satisfied with the 16MP x-trans sensor in the Fuji X-E2. The x-trans colours are beautiful, the files are clean, and the cameras themselves are a joy to handle and use. I still love the programmable 'film simulations' of the Fuji's, and switching quickly between them is a breeze. Having shot b&w using my 'C2 - Acros' film simulation at the sand dunes, a quick press of the 'Q' button and flick of the control wheel and I switched to my 'C1 - Classic Chrome' film simulation for punchy sunset colours. The jpegs that these film simulations produce are astoundingly good. But so too, surprisingly, are the RAW files from the x-trans sensor. Most manufacturers RAW files are somewhat duller (even lack luster) when compared to the out-of-camera jpegs - but not so with the Fuji RAW's from the X-E2. Even the RAW files are punchy and colourful, with very little needing to be done to them in the way of added contrast or saturation. When I flick between a Nikon jpeg and RAW capture in Lightroom, the difference between the two files is obvious. Not so much with the Fuji's. Which I like.

Sunset over Abel Tasman. Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm XF lens. f16 @ 2 secs. ISO 200

We had gone on holiday to Golden Bay knowing that there would be plenty of photo opportunities. I had prepared my gear as best I could, but you always need the weather to come to the party. So there is always going to be an element of luck involved with any photographic endevour. On only our second night at Golden Bay, we got extremely, extremely 'lucky'. We were in the right place, at the right time, to capture some truly magnificent light on the landscape.

On nights like this, in those moments when everything aligns and comes together (which - lets be honest - are extremely rare), I feel amazingly honoured, and incredibly humbled, to be a photographer. It's a hobby/profession that I've been passionate about for over 30 years of my life.

You may or may not be a person with a religious faith. I happen to be. And on a night like the one we experience that evening, I feel closer to my creator than at any other time. That's the gift that photography gives me.

Golden Bay Holiday - Wainui Falls

Greetings fellow photographers, and welcome to 2020!

Over the next few blog posts I'm going to be chronicling my recent holiday to the Golden Bay region at the top of the South Island.

My wife and I spent 9 nights (10 days) in mid January, with friends (Tim and Nicki) staying at a batch at Puponga - the northern most settlement in the South Island. Nestled at the base of Farewell Spit, Puponga is an idyllic spot to stay over the summer, and we were blessed with amazing weather (hot and sunny with no wind) for the whole 10 days!

Golden Bay is a beautiful region that incorporates Nelson's Kahurangi National Park, The Abel Tasman National Park, and some iconic landscape locations such as Cape Farewell and Wharariki Beach (more on them in future posts).

Cair Paravel - The batch at Puponga

Neither my wife Joanna or I had ever been to the Golden Bay region before, so we were very excited to be visiting for 10 days, and to have Tim and Nicki as our guides. They have holidayed at Golden Bay several times, and knew exactly how to get to all the beautiful locations. All my wife and I had to do was sit back and relax - and find out from Tim every morning what we would be doing and where we would be going for that day!

As well as posting these blogs, I am also putting together some 'vlogs' on my Youtube Channel. The first of these here: https://youtu.be/kcZ4POkUAFk is a 'What's in my Bag' video that shows all the photography gear I took on holiday. If you have read any of my previous blog posts (and of course you have 😉), then you will know that I changed all my photography gear over to Fuji towards the end of 2019.

What's cooking? Fuji X-E2 with 16-50mm XC lens

My Fuji cameras - the X-E1 and X-E2 - are ideal travel cameras. Small, mirrorless, lightweight, range-finder style bodies with superb image quality from the 16MP X-Trans sensor. I used the X-E2 as my 'main' camera, paired with the 16-50mm and 50-230mm XC 'kit' lenses, and the X-E1 with the 27mm f2.8 pancake lens for an even smaller and lighter combo. This worked very well, and I never felt that I lacked for anything on the holiday - even on the days when I was just carrying the 27mm pancake.

I  also took 6 (yes, six!) camera batteries with me so that I wouldn't run out of battery power during the day. Turns out that six is a bit overkill, even if you're shooting all day. With some pretty heavy use as we traveled around, I only ever needed two batteries to make it through a full day of shooting. And of course, staying at the batch meant that I could charge batteries every evening. So really, three or four batteries would have still been more than enough. Better safe than sorry with these mirrorless cameras though, I guess.

The first day of the holiday was a travel day. With stop-offs along the way (and plenty of them), it took us about 8 hours to get from Greymouth to the batch at Puponga. We did go out on the first night to recce a spot for sunrise the following day, but the light was fading and so no good photos were had on day one. Unfortunately, sunrise on day two didn't really happen either. See the vlog on my Youtube channel about that here: https://youtu.be/9wjQTTuDXWk

It wasn't until the afternoon of day two that the photography began in earnest, with a trip to Wainui Falls.

Wainui Falls is a waterfall (surprise, surprise) about 20km east of Takaka. It's quite a tourist destination and even has a cafe and family play area at the start of the track. You know a waterfall is a popular destination when it has its own cafe!

It's just a short walk through native bush to the waterfall - about half an hour there - and is a very well maintained and easy walk. Mostly flat and only rising gradually to the waterfall itself. I guess its easy accessibility is what makes it so popular. It was a lovely walk, although we were there at the hottest and brightest time of the day - not ideal for great waterfall images. And I also wouldn't call it the most impressive or photogenic waterfall I've ever seen? In my humble opinion, the Coal Creek Falls at Runanga on the West Coast is a much more impressive waterfall, just as easy to walk to - but would only get a fraction of the visitors. Just saying...

Wainui Falls, Abel Tasman National Park, Takaka. Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm. f/5.6 @ 1/500th, ISO 200

On a hot summer day, it's inevitable that you will also get people who want to go for a swim at the falls. This adds yet another possible obstacle for us landscape photographers looking for a good image of the falls. In this instance, however, I actually like the inclusion of the two figures in the bottom right of the image. They add some interest, indicate that it was a hot day, and give a clue to the scale of the falls themselves (which aren't massive). Given that most of the elements for a good image were conspiring against me on this occasion, I'm very happy with the photo I managed to capture. Shooting in RAW allowed me to pull extra detail out of the blown highlights and deep shadows you get mid afternoon in summer, and even though there were probably another 20 or so tourists milling about trying to take their own photos (mostly selfies), I was able to isolate just these two swimmers in one frame.

Wainui Falls Swingbridge Selfie.

And speaking of the dreaded selfie... yeah, ok. It had to be done. We were on holiday after all! This was taken on the swingbridge leading up to the falls. It's only about another five minutes from the bridge to the falls themselves, and is a natural place to stop and grab a quick selfie. I took this on my wife's iPhone 5s, since I was using my iPhone to vlog the falls for my Youtube Channel. The video isn't 'live' yet, but soon will be. Just follow the other links above to my channel and make sure you check out Vlog #15 when it becomes available...

I've been vlogging on Youtube for almost a year now, and I'm still not sure what I think about it? It's a lot - and I mean a LOT - more work to create coherent video as well as stills, and there were many time on this holiday where I just couldn't be bothered carrying around all the extra gear.

I've been a 'stills' photographer for over 30 years, and old habits die hard. I still don't really 'think' in terms of video, so it takes a lot of extra time, thought, and effort to shoot video for the channel. But, the flip side of this is that when I do take the time and effort, the resulting video can be a much stronger visual experience. Especially if I've taken the time to shoot a lot of B-roll (I don't always remember). Now that we are back from holiday, and I'm working through the photos and putting together the videos that I could be bothered to shoot, I find myself wishing that I'd actually shot more video than I did. Might have to reflect on that for the future?

Wainui Falls Cafe. Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm XC.

Anyway, enough with the video talk - this is a photography blog after all. Having photographed the Falls, we headed back for a coffee (I actually had an ice cream) at the Cafe.

Since the video was only going to be about our trip to the Falls, I felt that I could now relax and get back to what I do best - take photos. The Cafe and family play area was the perfect place to relax, enjoy an ice cream, and people-watch for a while. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon sitting in the shade, watching the ever-present,  very tame Weka's (flightless native birds who always hunt out free food) pick through leftovers and drink coffee from tables! They are very used to people (obviously) and will come right up to you expecting to be fed whatever it is you're eating. Probably not recommended food for native birds, but the Weka's won't take no for an answer!

Help yourself! Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 50-230mm XC. f/6.4 @ 1/60th, ISO 200

Your move. Fuji X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm XC

Tim and his son Tim Jnr. ended the day with a game of Garden Chess. I'm not going to say who came away victorious - except to say that the wiser (or should that be older?) head prevailed 😂

We picked up Tim Jnr. in Nelson and he joined us for the first few days of the holiday. It was great to catch up with him, since we've known him as a young lad, but haven't seen him since he moved to Nelson a few years ago.

The trip to Wainui Falls was a great way to start our Golden Bay adventure. I wouldn't say that the Falls themselves were anything spectacular, and the photos aren't anything above travel snaps, but in terms of relaxing, enjoying ourselves, and settling into 'holiday mode', it couldn't have started any better. There was going to be many more opportunities to take some 'serious' landscape photography on the trip. And trust me, the best was yet to come...