Photo Walk - Cornwall Park, Auckland, NZ
It's a long weekend in New Zealand, so of course the weather has done it's best to stay inconsistent enough to try and ruin everyone's plans.
On Saturday morning I headed out to Harbourview Park on Te Atatu Peninsula. It's a coastal wetland area around 10 minutes drive from my home, and I thought it would be a great place to take some photos. I certainly picked the right place, just went at the wrong time. The weather was on and off, the lighting was terrible and there were persistent low clouds obscuring the view across the harbour of the city skyline. To top it off, after what felt like a productive birding session, I got home to find all of the photos I had shot in burst mode were small 4mp Jpegs and not full 16MP RAW. I later learned that when the fastest burst speed (SH) is selected on the Lumix G85, it can only produce those small noisy and unusable files. Ultimately it proved to be an unproductive outing, but I did have fun hunting for birds and shooting them (with a camera)
Roll onto Monday Lunchtime, and with the weather becoming even more indecisive with spells of glorious sunshine alternating with showers, I decided to take the risk and head out with just the G85 and 2 lenses; the Lumix 12-60 and 100-300 II, as the whole kit is weather sealed and I wouldn't have to worry too much about a shower.
Cornwall Park
For the location on google maps, please click here
I had seriously underestimated how large this place is despite being here a few times before. 2 hours - that is how long it took me to traverse the entire park at a brisk march, including up to the summit and back. On previous visits, I had really only been interested in going to the top of the hill to see the view and leaving again. With a camera, I found this had flipped on it's head. The vast parklands surrounding the hill were just so full of wonderful things to photograph, from animals and birds, to people and fauna, and I found myself looking at things differently than before, suddenly the mundane became interesting, wether it be how the light was hitting something or spotting an angle or interesting layers.
At the summit, the wind was blowing a gale and although the views are 360 degrees of Auckland from up there, I struggled to get good photos of the view. With so much detail, so many layers and yet all so far away I just couldn't compose shots that I was happy with. Something to work on in future.
What I was stoked with, was finding an Eastern Rosella in a tree. It eluded me for a little while and patience was needed to wait for it to move onto a branch that gave me a good view. There were a number of other birds around as well, and they weren't so difficult to find suggesting they are relatively plentiful. My photos of birds are at the very bottom of this post and I think they are improving!
One bird that continues to elude me, and I know this because I can always hear them taunting me is the Tui. Their dark bodies and penchant for sitting hidden in the branches make them hard to spot in the shadows, but when the light hits them and the iridescence in their feathers shines they are stunning and that's the shot I want. Next time perhaps.
Anyhow, please enjoy today's photos taken at Cornwall Park.
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