Hiroshima, Japan

We took a different route from the Peace Memorial Park to get back to Hiroshima Station. Walking by Hiroshima Castle, sometimes called Carp Castle. We didn’t visit the castle itself but could see the tiers of it’s roof from this point and from almost a kilometres back too. We didn’t have the time to spare as we wanted to be in Miyajima before sunset.

This is actually the entrance to the second compound of the castle. You may not know, I surely didn’t, but the castle is a replica of the original which was destroyed by the atomic bomb blast. It now serves as a museum of Hiroshima’s history before World War II. I would’ve loved to have visited it. Though a replica, I still find this architecture amazing.

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40 mm, 1/125th second @ ƒ/11, ISO 100

I took a few photos along Route De Prony (Mont Dore, New Caledonia) heading back home from the Néocallitropsis refuge. I wanted to try out the welder’s glass as a filter on flowing water. I found this bridge interesting with it’s huge tube-like holes and as I headed down stream I found this composition. I love the way the water flows from the holes of the bridge and over the rocks in the foreground. And the mountain in the background adds depth to the image. I really like this photo.

The light was nice due the the overcast day. It helped to extend the long exposure with the small aperture used. I think I focused on the rocks in the foreground which I think was a mistake as I find the bridge slightly on the soft side. Not as sharp as I would have liked. Otherwise very happy with the exposure and composition. And the edit. You may not know but welder’s glass has a strong green tint which, I find, is very difficult to remove completely. Not impossible but more work than I’d like to do in post. The reason why I convert these images to black & white. Next to no colour correction needed.

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10 sec @ ƒ/11, 55 mm, ISO 100

Cockington Miniature Village was the last of my photos from Australia. And even though I’m heading to New Zealand this weekend, I won’t be sharing photos from there but from home, New Caledonia. The reason being I don’t have a laptop to edit my photos on the go. I promise you’ll get to see them as soon as I get back in a couple of weeks though.

Néocallitropsis Refuge Falls is located in the Yate municipality in New Caledonia. A small waterfall ending in a nice waterhole, especially appreciated after a long walk. A few of us decided to hike the first stage of the GR NC1. Which is a fourteen kilometre hike that starts from the Prony refuge in Baie de la Somme (Mont Dore) and ends at the Néocallitropsis refuge (Yate). The refuge (hut) is located just off to the left of this photos. The hike doesn’t loop so either you retrace you steps back or drop a second car near the Néocallitropsis refuge to head back to the start once finished. I stayed the night in hopes of capturing a couple of sunset and sunrise photos. Unfortunately I missed out on sunset. I drove a couple of ladies and their dog, who thought the track looped, back to Prony refuge. By the time I got back, all the beautiful light had vanished and rain clouds were rolling in. It poured down pretty much all night so a shot of the stars didn’t happen either. I woke up to an overcast and drizzling morning. I want to pack up and head home but I didn’t know when I was going to be back here. I told myself “You’re here now, make the most of it. Go home with at least one photo.”. It stopped raining long enough for the ten minute walk back to the refuge (I didn’t anticipate the bad road to the refuge so I camped next to my car) and take a couple of photos before it started raining again. I got back to the car drenched but happy with myself for not giving up earlier.

Getting the long exposure time that I wanted for this photo wasn’t difficult with the lack of light from the overcast skies. The small aperture to get everything in focus helped as well. My aim was to get a silky smooth waterfall and it’s exactly what I got.

Never give up. You never know what lies in store.

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1.3 sec @ ƒ/11, 55 mm, ISO 100

My friend decided to kill two birds with one stone by visiting Sydney for the first time and keeping her promise to her daughters that they would see and play in the snow. So we headed down to Jindabyne, just south of Canberra (Australia). We stayed two nights there so as to have a whole day in the snow at Thredbo.

These are the only photos I took and I’m the first to admit they’re not very good. I was busy taking souvenir snapshots of the kids. The first couple of photos were taken on the beach at Jindabyne Holiday Park. The rest are from Thredbo.

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The rain had stopped and left puddles everywhere. Nonetheless, it took me a while to find this composition. I like it because it reflects what is not shown. You can just see the Paladio building, the sculpture Silence and even the blue glass building.

I wanted to get down lower but my tripod wouldn’t let me. The centre rod was in the way. I ended up moving back a little farther and zooming in to get a lower perspective. And to bring the background a little closer too. I had edited this photo in colour and was going to share like that but something was bothering me about the image. I couldn’t put my finger on until I converted it to black & white. It was the colours. They weren’t doing justice to the photo. I reset the edit and started from scratch. Colour can be such a distraction in an image.

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1/5 sec @ ƒ/8, 29 mm, ISO 100

A very different shot of the National Australia Bank (nab) building. I was wandering around Newquay (Melbourne, Australia) on a beautiful winter’s day. There was very little to no breeze at all. I saw the colourful reflection of the nab building on the Yarra River and thought it would make a nice photo. As always, my first instinct was to capture everything. The building, the reflection, the blue sky, everything. But again, as I was framing my shot through the viewfinder, I realised it wasn’t what really attracted me to the scene. The reflection is what I want to show. I included the bottom of the building at the top of the image because that part is very dark and blurred in the reflection. And I liked the semi abstract look it gave the image.

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1/80 sec @ ƒ/5, 44 mm, ISO 100

Even though my tent was only fifty metres away from Poe Beach (Bourail, New Caledonia) I set my alarm to wake an hour before sunrise. Hoping to capture an image during blue hour. Unfortunately the alarm woke me to rain. Now I’m not an early morning kind of person and going to bed late the night before didn’t help but rain?! Nooo!!! I was determined to capture images of Poé though so I stayed awake, hoping the rain would stop. And forty-five minutes later, it did. About ten minutes after that the clouds opened up. Time to shoot! Blue hour was gone and golden hour was in full swing so I had to hurry to find a composition.

I had to walk up the beach a little before finding this dead coral, I think it’s coral, rock? Anyway, it would make for an interesting foreground. All I had to do now was to wait for the water to wash over the coral/rock and snap a shot. The line of the water would lead the eye towards the surveillance cabin and then the sky. And it worked quite well. I’m very happy with the photo.

I wanted to take a few more shots but the rain came back and my gear isn’t weather sealed so I packed up and took cover under a tree. And guess what I saw?… Check out my next post.

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1/60th sec @ ƒ/11, 18 mm, ISO 100

A company had contacted me for a sunset photo over Apogoti Bay but, unfortunately, I hadn't any. I decided to head and scout the area for potential spots and came back with this one. I just had to shoot this amazing sunset over Apogoti Bay (Dumbea, New Caledonia). I almost missed it. I was about to head home when I notice the orange coming through. It's not the best of shots. I rushed it a little. But I'm glad I got it.

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