2364 Autumn birch, Eltham, Taranaki. 6.17pm, 4 May 2013 One early moonless evening I wandered a small block attached to a church camp, using flash in the deepening twilight. Balancing the light from two different sources often takes some doing, but I was happy by frame 3 on this occasion. I took this in colour, […]

2727 Wet evening, Whangarei Harbour. 5.24pm, 25 May 2013 On a sodden summer’s day here in Taranaki I’ve been looking through my yearly folders for fitting material. This high-tide scene from Mcleod’s Bay, on the northern shores of Whangarei Harbour, takes in the blue of twilight and the clean, bright highlights of torchlight. I was aiming […]

9286 Ahu Ahu hues (moonrise-with-flax-flowers) Simple, graphic compositions such as this moonrise-with-flax-flowers can be varied in post-processing with the hue tool. In my tool kit this is handily located next to the saturation dial, and enables a surprising spectrum of bizarre and surreal imagery. I have put some variations up for contrast but am not […]

9289 NZ flax with moonrise, Ahu Ahu Rd, Taranaki. 8.59pm, 4 January 2015 My previous post left out another great NZ silhouette, Phormium tenax, now in summer flower and shown here in only semi-, thanks to flash. Taken at a sheltered  location south of Oakura, one of the few north-facing beaches along the western North Island. […]

9135 The evening rush. 9.03pm, 27 December 2014 At Bell Block, a suburban outlier of New Plymouth, the Mangati Stream meets the coast through a steep shingle bank. This last reach came into view after sunset as we came up from the beach, by the new walkway extension. Adding to the uncommon textural unity was […]

5957. Renee on the coast Sunset and twilight glows are great times to photograph people, as the light is warm and lateral, rather than cool and overhead. Long exposures are sometimes necessary, true, but using the tripod slows you down to give each frame full consideration. It was a full moon and Be Kind to […]

4086 Mokau Highway, Taranaki    8542 Moonlit horses, Awhitu Peninsula   9308 Tank farm, New Plymouth    1128 Angel at Puniho, Taranaki Copyright images in 16:9 wide screen ratio, posted for free download as background wallpaper on your desktop (a right-hand click of your mouse over any image will show this option). Downloads are for personal use only. […]

The true art of memory is the art of attention.  –  Samuel Johnson 50mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f11

  Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.  –  Napoleon Bonaparte 50mm; ISO 2500. 30 seconds at f22. Flash; sodium vapour light balance

There are no eyes here / In this valley of dying stars / In this hollow valley /                This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms  –  T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men 85mm; ISO 500. 30 seconds at f16. Incandescent light balance    

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and realize that prisoner was you.  –  Lewis B. Smedes 85mm; ISO 500. 15 seconds at f16. Incandescent light balance

The most powerful force on earth is the human soul on fire  –  Field Marshall Foch (adapted) 85mm; ISO 2000. 30 seconds at f16        

I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. – Joseph Campbell 85mm; ISO 1000. 5 seconds at f11. Flash  

With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy? – Oscar Wilde  85mm; ISO 2000. 1/400th second at f4

 This is my simple religion. No need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Your own mind, your own heart is the temple. Your philosophy is simple kindness. – Dalai Lama XIV 50mm; ISO 2000. 1/13th second at f11

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.  –  Oscar Wilde 85mm; ISO 2000. 1/400th sec at f9

The illiteracy of the future will be ignorance not of reading or writing, but of photography. –      László Moholy-Nagy (Weimar photographer, 1926) Oh for a rising moon behind! But there was heavy overcast – and anyway, the moon was yet to rise. By the way, a big moon rising after dark is past […]

The moon develops the imagination, as chemicals develop photographic images. – Sheila Ballantyne 28mm; ISO 2000. 1/1.3rd second at f18. Flash

 I see magic in the quiet light of dusk.  –  John  Sexton 85mm; ISO 250. 30 seconds at f16. Incandescent light balance

Twilight photography is unfortunately neglected; what may be drab and uninteresting by daylight may assume a magnificent quality in the halflight between sunset and dark.  – Ansel Adams 28mm; ISO 2000. 1/200th sec at f5. Flash

My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world, and exiles me from it.  –  Ursula K. Le Guin 28mm, ISO 2000. 1 sec at f11. Flash  

All living creatures are making a great endeavour, struggling, to attain real everlasting happiness.  –  Srila Narayana Maharaja Happiness through illusion? This actually is twilight, but stirred with the flash for foreground and then thoroughly shaken in post-pro. The original sky is very blue because I was trying a tungsten light balance. However I wanted something more […]

Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and the goal of a good intention was never reached through its opposite, laziness.  –  Cervantes, 1615 85mm, ISO 2000. 1/500th sec at f5.6

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not our circumstances.  –  Martha Washington, American First Lady. 85mm, ISO 320. 5 secs @ f5.6. Col balance 8330 deg K  

Tomorrow will be the same, but not as this is.  –  Colin McCahon “60mm”, ISO 125. 1 second at f2.8. Tungsten light balance