Photo 150 "2022" - Wetapunga

The creative shot for this week, is a long exposure (30s) of Motutara Island.

#2 (Pic 100) Muriwai Seascape (creative theme)

a7Riii with Zeiss Loxia 21/2.8, 30s exposure.

EDIT

And the telephoto shot this week is of a takapu, also at Muriwai.
#3 (Pic 101) Takapu (telephoto theme)

Sony a9 with Tamron 150-500mm

Edited by Wētāpunga - 13 August 2022 at 04:33

The Motutara long exposure misses a bit of daynamic as found in the first one you posted this week, but the composition is very nice and the takapu colony is an added bonus.

The Takapu in flight is a splendid shot

Week 33: August 15 to August 22

A somewhat harder week for photos as the country was hit by some torrential rain most days.

I'll begin with the telephoto shot, taken on a particularly foggy morning. This made the local orbwebs standout. What appealed here was the way I could frame 3 of them in the shot.

#1 (Pic 102) Orbwebs (telephoto theme)

Sony a7Riii and Sony 24-105mm, at 105mm (and f8). Vignette added afterwards in C1.

The second shot is at Muriwai Beach and is my scenic theme. Post-processing consisted of of different layers for masks for the sky and rocks in foreground, to even to the exposure. (Sky was too bright and rocks too dark).

#2 (Pic 103) Early Evening at Muriwai (scenic theme)

Sony a7Riii and Zeiss Loxia 21mm f2.8

The last shot is my creative. The shot is Takapuna beach with the moonlight on the water, and Rangitoto Island in the background. The problem here is the moon was too high to be included in the photo. So I took one shot of the main scene, then captured the moon on a longer telephoto lens. The moon was then isolated in Pixelmator pro (the remove background function works perfectly here) and added to the main shot. I used the longer focal length because, well, at 21mm the moon would just be a tiny white dot in the sky.

#3 (Pic 104) Moonlight at Takapuna (creative theme)

Sony a7Riii and Zeiss Loxia 21mm f2.8 and 2s, f8

Thanks Howard- I think the softness on the horizon is a function of making the foreground pin sharp.

The moonscape shot isn't quite right- in the end I don't think having all that light on the right side of the frame gives it the right balance. But I still liked it. And it was a good learning experience with Pixlemator Pro.

Well, I heartily approve of the RadCam, of course, and it is good to see it grace these pages. This off-centre view brings in All Souls in the background while being wide enough to provide a glimpse of the Bodleian at rear left. This low-key treatment with darkened sky gives a lot of drama.

The isolated iris flower gives a lot of emphasis on its beauty, a nice treatment here.

The cat looks purposeful, in its own world, not ours. An attractive completion of the set this week.

Edited by Howard_S - 31 August 2022 at 20:52

Let me catch up commenting, I've been too busy with other stuff but I keep following the 150 challenge partcipants, which is not a big job anymore since it's just Howard, you and me left

For week 33 the orb webs is the absolute winner but the moonscape is a close second. For week 34 have you considered a perspective correction of the Oxford shot, at this moment I find the keystone effect not enough to be spectacular and too much to be neglected. The flower came out very nice, the black background makes the colours really stand out.
Week 35 the reworked waterfall is very nice, normally I'm not a big fan of "milkfalls" and like to see the texture of the drops but in this case the many small streams across the rocks in the lower part still provide an attractive texture. The Takapu shot is also nice, did it just open its beak for a short time or was it open for a longer time. I've heard that an open book is the only way a bird can cool itself when it gets too hot in warm weather.

Thanks for the feedback Pieter.

I did try a perspective correction of Radcliffe Camera, but it ended up with too much cropping of the image. The problem of using an APS-C Camera and a 20mm lens. I need to return with my E-mount cameras and my 21mm Loxia I think (or even my 15mm). Not that I expect this will happen any time soon...

I like Karekare waterfall because it isn't just a sheet of water flowing and has a lot of natural structure. Agree I did overdo the shutter speed then.

The open-beak takapu was for a very short time- I did not notice it at all at the time, until I got the images up on my computer

And yes Howard, I had the Animal Eye AF on. It's a great feature on the a9. I'm really impressed at how technology has progressed since those early days of the a100 and a700.