I’m in New Zealand and we just started exploring. Yesterday we went to Doubtful Sound (instead of Milford) at the recommendation of my friend Roger, who now lives in the South Island. To get there we cruised across a lake for an hour, rode a bus over the mountains for another hour, then experienced a three hour tour on the fjord.
I won’t bother with pictures of docks and boats, but here’s one of our greeters as we got off the bus. (We can talk more about life on land another time.)
Everywhere we’ve been so far has been fabulous. Even the ordinary seems extraordinary.
And I’m sure Milford is good too. But Doubtful is much larger, and I’d say that Roger nailed the recommendation.
All the wildlife we encountered seemed to be perfectly happy. I’d give bottlenose dolphins the nod for most exuberant among them.
We were blessed with incredibly pleasant conditions. The water was calm as we moved along the inside of the fjord. It was even glassy in places.
But the water is not calm where it meets the Tasman Sea, which lies between Australia and New Zealand. I’ll add a word now about the implications of that for making these photographs. If you’re not interested then just skip to the next images.
Camera choices
Some images can be made with almost any camera, using solid technique and a good eye. But for action at a distance, having the right gear is a critical. Your phone has limits; lots of expensive cameras have action-related limits, too. For these shots you need a long lens, and life is definitely a LOT easier if you have quality autofocusing that tracks quickly and accurately. Good image stabilization is also of great benefit when you’re shooting hand-held.
Still, there are a lot of camera/lens choices on the market that have these qualities, with nuanced differences. (Some of those nuances cost many thousands of dollars.)
But when you’re on a boat that is heaving 15-20 feet up and down at its bow, which is where I was standing as we approached the Tasman Sea, you also need a manageable camera.
So here’s another argument, depending on conditions, for my relatively “amateurish” Sony RX10 IV. It weighs 2.4 lbs and is compact, even at 600mm. The lens part of it is especially light. I do love my professional camera, it’s great and it’s sturdy. It has gaskets that allow it to survive a typhoon, it takes a licking, etc. But the lens and body weigh over 6 pounds together, and the end of the lens is much further away from the sensor, while the lens itself is quite heavy. It’s therefore more difficult to keep the ”superior” camera steady, under even favorable conditions. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to make any of the next shots with the heavier camera given my roiling platform.
The moral of the camera story: Don’t be snobby about your gear! Be open to using the right tools for the job, whatever it is, even if they are supposedly “lesser” tools. (We can talk about phones another time).
One last thing. If you aren’t using AI tools routinely, you’re missing the chance to live an easier life. I didn’t use one to help write this, but I used claude.ai to positively identify all the wildlife, including the age estimate of the pups. If I don’t trust the answer I’ll search for images and compare to what AI said. FWIW, Claude.ai will allow you to upload images on their free plan, and is great for the purpose I just described. It’s not great for everything; last time I checked it only had access to information that was 6-9 months old. When I want current information, like I did today when I needed to fix a software configuration issue, I use perplexity.ai. Both are way faster than the old methods.
My tips for the day, from Down Under.
Until next time,
Note: I’m on an airplane soon that will take me far away from home through the month of February. I’m not sure what will emerge via this letter series over the next four weeks. It’s a mystery.
Limited Edition Prints for Sale
This is an Extremely Limited Edition of prints for the series called Seas and Skies. I’ll make just five 16x24” archival, Numbered Prints (and two Artists Prints), each with associated certificate of authentication.
These are going fast and *Closing Curtain is Sold Out*
Bring peace and joy to someone’s 2025 with these. And yours, by the giving.
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man did I need that Sony on the Rees Dart track. Lugging around 4.5 lbs of Canon was no bueno! Great shots as always; glad you are having a great time! See you soon
Wonderful! It is an extraordinary place. 😍