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View from the flight out of Heathrow. This is the photo I've used for the backdrop of these web pages. |
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A couple of views from the Cape Reinga coastal walkway - right up at the top end of the North Island. |
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Astro photo 1:- to the left of the moon is Mercury (about the same height above the hill as the moon) whilst up and to the left is Venus. |
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Astro photo 2:- Two versions of the same photo - left is the usual size and right is a larger version. These 3 photos were all 15 second exposures, with the lens wide open (f2) and with the film speed set at ISO400. So the maximum light gathering possible with the camera! Then I've increased the contrast as much as I dare in photoshop. So some of the stars captured weren't visible to the naked eye. |
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A female New Zealand dotterel. Population of this bird species is about 1400 - so fairly rare. These are the best two photos of many I took of this and about 4 others I saw. In the right hand photo the bird was about 5 yards away and I took the photo with max zoom (245mm). Then I've cropped the photo just to show the important 1/9 of it! |
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Wide-angle view of the Mahia Peninsula. |
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Lake Waikaremoana |
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Astro photo 3:-Of Orion - the middle of the 3 vertical stars above Orion's belt is actually the Orion nebula - I'm quite impressed that it showed up red even if no-one else is! |
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Astro photo 4:- of the Milky Way rising - the diamond of the Southern Cross is visible (left star is the red one) whilst the Large Magellanic cloud is now middle top of the photo. Left photo is the low res version, right the high res version. |
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Kingfishers alongside Lake Waikaremoana. |
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Waterfall near Lake Waikaremoana. |
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A silver-eye. |
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View on the Queen Charlotte track of Kenepuru Sound. |
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View North of Queenstown looking towards the North end of Lake Wakatipu. Two views of a falcon whilst walking the Routeburn Great Walk. |
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Two views of a falcon whilst walking the Routeburn Great Walk. |
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Two more waterfalls - this time on the Routeburn |
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View of Lake Manapouri from the end nearest Doubtful Sound |
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At the top of the Wilmott Pass (700m high). Two views looking down on Doubtful Sound on the South West coast of the South Island. |
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Sunrise over Lake Te Anau. |
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Arty view of a shell in a beach on Stewart Island THE PHOTOS BELOW WERE TAKEN ON ULVA ISLAND, A SMALL ISLAND JUST OFF STEWART ISLAND. |
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These two photos and the one above are of the Stewart Island Robin. I'm not sure how rare it is - not endangered. But only 16 were released onto the island in 2000 so there's not that many of them on Ulva Island. The leg ring is so that their numbers van be monitored. They're renowned for being tame - this one was no exception. I actually missed a few photos because it was too close to focus on! |
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My best 2 photos of a red-crowned parakeet. These are quite rare - only found on the small islands around NZ. There were a couple of groups of them flying around all day - I crossed their paths 2 or 3 times - but they were difficult to get anywhere near. |
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Two versions of the same photo of a weka. These birds were everywhere on Ulva Island - probably saw about 50 of them during this day. They were fearless/inquisitive/amusing/daft so I ended up taking photos of virtually everyone I saw! This one was about 5 yards away from where I was sat on the beach. |
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These 2 photos are of a bell-bird. This has an amazing call - something like R2D2 is probably the best way of describing it! |