It has been quite a while since I last posted on my blog, primarily troubled by my seeming lack of good photography during a three week trip to New Zealand in October. New Zealand itself was spectacularly beautiful. The only foreign countries that I have visited to date that seem to possess as much amazing landscape this ripe for photos are Iceland, England, Canada, and Scotland. My time in each of those locations resulted in numerous images that I found very pleasing upon my return home. Even while out shooting each day in those travels, I knew that I was making some fine photos that I would be quite pleased with. For some reason, however, that did not seem to happen in New Zealand for a variety of reasons. Often, my timing was totally off, since my wife and I would not be at a good location during the right time of day, or the landscape lacked any sort of attractive light that would help bring an image to life. Sometimes we stayed at places where the only opportunity to get something to eat would occur during sunrise or sunset, eliminating those times of day from photo sessions. Lastly, I occasionally did not have my Nikons with me at an opportune moment, and I was reduced to capturing a shot with my iPhone, certainly not the end of the world, but less than ideal. I found myself very frustrated at the circumstances, which seemed to be almost unavoidable if my wife and I were to enjoy ourselves and not starve to death, given that we did travel to some remote areas of the South Island. While I did have a number of respectable posts for Instagram and 500 px, my prints of any significance feel like they are lacking. I guess that not every trip can produce real winners, and I have been fortunate that recent travels have produced some of my best work to date. perhaps it is that fact, namely the recent successes, that make this trip feel so sparse in comparison. And so the blog has languished, buried in my own feelings of dissatisfaction with myself. Also, when this kind of trip happens, it makes me question my own photographic abilities, or lack thereof. At this point, all that I can hope for is a better experience on my next major venture—a trip to Antarctica.
Clearing Storm, Mt. Cook National Park, New Zealand 2018
Cleaved Boulder, Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand 2018