film

North Head Dune, Westhaven

North Head Dune, Westhaven

This wide angle view is on the ocean side of Westhaven Inlet and features a dune flank backed by a steep line of limestone, which forms the rugged spine of North Head. It’s a memorable scene from an Easter foray to the far side of Golden Bay in 1986, not long after my purchase of […]

Low tide at Te Hapu, before sunset

Low tide at Te Hapu, before sunset

Although I took it 34 years ago this composition in thirds seems to have a timeless quality. It makes a fitting follow-up to my previous post: texture remains but vibrant colour is added in this telephoto view from a terrace above the beach at Te Hapu, a private property on Nelson’s far western coast.  A […]

Surf at dusk, Waitoetoe

Surf at dusk, Waitoetoe

This simple, moody abstract is a long exposure in north Taranaki, further north from Turangi Rd (my previous post). The view is from a small headland, looking down on a tide-washed sill above a bouldery seabed. A small aperture (unrecorded) was used primarily to extend the exposure, rather than the depth of field, although this […]

Taranaki textures at Turangi Rd

Taranaki textures at Turangi Rd

This unusual view at Turangi Road was an obvious candidate for monochrome. I like the four textures so suggestive of Taranaki: the skinny macrocarpas, corrugated iron, long tufts of hardy kikuyu grass and the Michael Smither-like stones and boulders. The sky was grey and cloudy behind. This scene will have eroded more since, as the […]

Round Rock and the Sugarloaf

Round Rock and the Sugarloaf

Another long exposure by moonlight, for which I certainly recall sheltering the tripod from a cold southwesterly, blowing strongly from behind. It meant I had the beach to myself, but airborne sand was a risk. The moon being a waxing one rather than full, it was much higher in the sky (and further west) for […]

Mirror exercise, Taranaki

Mirror exercise, Taranaki

This uncommon view of Mt Taranaki from the roadside at Kaimiro required a careful climb on to my car roof with the heavy Pentax 6×7 and tripod in hand, as I wanted the mountain to show well above the roofline. Elevated viewpoints so often improve a shot and sometimes I had a stepladder on board […]

Monochrome for Hallowe’en

Monochrome for Hallowe’en

A long exposure in deep twilight on my Pentax 6×7 film camera captures the tail lights of a car heading towards a fuel depot on Beach Rd. Monochrome is good for silhouettes and night lights. and with long exposures B&W film had the added benefit of not “going off” as much as colour film did […]

Kaihoka monochrome

Kaihoka monochrome

Winter turns to spring (in the southern hemisphere, that is) and my thoughts turn to summer, when I will re-visit this favourite place with friends – but not with the 6×7 Pentax SLR that I used here. Of course the roll film in the big camera did not have a digital stamp on it, but […]

Early Snow On The Old Man Range, Otago

Early Snow On The Old Man Range, Otago

A roadside view from a calendar tour of the South Island, made over autumn with my wife Al. This early morning scene explained the chilly temperature in our camper van overnight. We then drove a little way up the summit road before the snow and slush made it clear that the rest of the way […]

Roadside View: From the Lindis Highway

Roadside View: From the Lindis Highway

The view west from the sharpest corner on the Lindis Pass-Tarras road, heading north from Wanaka. I had driven to Central Otago to meet up with a Wellington friend, thinking that Spring would follow me south. It didn’t, and a biting southerly blew for some days. When it relented some beautiful weather followed, but here […]

Kaihoka Lake in Infra Red, Golden Bay

Kaihoka Lake in Infra Red, Golden Bay

Back in the day I loved the surrealism of this film (Infra-red Ektachrome), and used it quite often when I had an extra Pentax on the go. This trip was my first proper visit to the far corner of Golden Bay, and I was very taken with the graceful landscapes we found there, despite having […]

Afternoon On the Beach at Anatori

Afternoon On the Beach at Anatori

What could be more New Zealand than a landscape with cattle? This combination was unexpected, though. All three beef beasts (Aberdeen Angus?) were recumbent as we came up the beach, enjoying the sea air no doubt. They only rose to their feet as we got closer. This section of the upper West Coast has been […]

Roadside view: Wanaka, Central Otago

Roadside view: Wanaka, Central Otago

Such contrast! A scene I could not resist, although I have no record of its exact location, nor the season – nor can I be definite that this was taken in 2002.  This lapse is instructive, because for so many years I kept a film diary, noting the place, people and date of every exposure […]

Abandoned farmhouse, Riverton

Abandoned farmhouse, Riverton

In the late summer of 1975 I toured the South Island with a friend, in a 1952 Standard Vanguard (three forward gears; 22 mpg). One drizzly, very overcast Saturday morning we stopped to look over an abandoned farmhouse, close to the roadside. I was 19 years old and felt perfectly free to poke around any […]

St Joseph’s twilight muster: horizontal

St Joseph’s twilight muster: horizontal

This twilit tableau was the runner-up in my series of St Joseph with a vase of faux flowers. It ranks as “runner-up” only because it’s entirely moon-less, the crescent moon (the object of the whole exercise) being too high in the sky to be included in a horizontal composition. However as a simple set-up, this […]

135. Star trails and mountain, from Lake Ratapiko

135. Star trails and mountain, from Lake Ratapiko

I don’t sing because I’m happy. I’m happy because I sing. – William James Ratapiko is a small hydro lake near the edge of the Taranaki ring plain, about 40 minutes northeast of New Plymouth, in a quiet country district. Quiet on a winter’s evening at least, as in season Ratapiko is popular for boating […]

134. Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, moonlight

134. Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, moonlight

The heaventree of stars hung with humid night-blue fruit. –  James Joyce Night-blue signals tungsten film! It was not something I usually shot with, but in my younger days I used whatever film was affordable. To get balanced colour in daylight you had to apply corrective filters, but none were used here, so the blues […]

127. Beside some moonlit highway

127. Beside some moonlit highway

When inspiration arrives I want it to find me working. –  Pablo Picasso “Some highway” means that I do not know exactly where this was taken. On Easter holiday near Tongariro National Park (central North Island), we were off for a drive-about, on the night before full moon. Here we might be on the Turangi […]

125. Twilight in the front garden, Nelson

125. Twilight in the front garden, Nelson

Twilight has one simple and obvious advantage over night photography: you can see what you are doing. You can focus by eye or auto, and compose quickly. You have a wider range of exposure choices, to allow or prevent movement showing, for example, without the sacrifice in aperture selection that workable shutter times need at […]

115. Crescent moonset, with Venus

115. Crescent moonset, with Venus

This took around 15 minutes at a small aperture, on Fuji slide film. It was a perfect summer’s evening at Paritutu Centennial Park, and I spent the interlude chatting with a friend. I’m only guessing that the stripe is Venus, but as she often accompanies the early moon it’s a good bet. For trails like […]

105. Night tide at Kaikoura

105. Night tide at Kaikoura

Moonlit abstraction on the square; Light balance selection with mixed sources

92. Stars over Mangarakau, Golden Bay

92. Stars over Mangarakau, Golden Bay

Streaks of unexpected colour on a moonless night; “It must be film!”

90. Purakaunui Falls by moonlight

90. Purakaunui Falls by moonlight

40-minute exposure by muted moonlight, where film still has the upper hand

85. Midnight girls, Auckland

85. Midnight girls, Auckland

The joy of glamorous and co-operative subjects, in colour infra red; the near side of night photography

83. Lilies by moonlight at Marybank

83. Lilies by moonlight at Marybank

Close-ups by the hour at home; vertical frames and wan moonlight

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Barney Brewster – NZ Landscape Photographer

Based in Nelson, Barney loves to capture the New Zealand landscape, mostly through long exposures at dusk or after dark.

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