Wednesday Wallpaper | Looking Southwards, Waikaia Bush Road
November 14th, 2012 at 12:35 pm by Todd Sisson
Alpine tussocks from Waikaia Bush ‘Road’, Central Otago New Zealand. Photography by Todd Sisson
Howdy Kiwi-bloglings!
This one is a bit of a rule breaker – putting out of focus elements into the foreground of an image is usually a no-no and instant death knell for an image. I am such a bad-ass rebel that I find myself doing it quite often, typically with poor results. This one works for me though, as it creates a stark delineation between the pillowy soft foreground and the contrasty background. As a bonus I have uploaded it in absurdly large format to keep kyotolaw’s retina Macbook happy 
I noticed a couple of gear related comments on last week’s post, I thought I would respond here:
HDR – although we don’t employ HDR software such as photomatix we do extensively lean upon ‘extended dynamic range’ techniques to create more balanced exposures that retain a natural appearance. We used to blend exposures quite a lot but we are finding that the latest generation of Nikon cameras combined with Lightroom 3 are delivering near HDR tonal range from a single exposure. I have posted on this here on my neglected blog.
Cameras: We use Nikon DX and FX bodies these days – the D800e is getting the most use these days. Just to confuse things, we shot the Canon 5d mkii for several years (this was made on the 5dii) but have returned to Nikon upon the release of the D800.
If you have any further queries just contact me via the website.
2013 NZ Calendar
A reminder that our 2013 Calendar ‘South‘, featuring 12 of our most popular images – it is available exclusively from the webstore.
Free Wallpaper Download
You may download the large version of today’s image from this link: Password = freewallpaper
Also available on our website as a canvas print.
See you next week!
Cheers – Todd
[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]
Related posts:
- Wednesday Wallpaper | A Paddock & Some Clouds….
- Wednesday Wallpaper | Sunset & Lupins, Eglinton River NZ
- Wednesday Wallpaper | Milford Sound, Fiordland
- Wednesday Wallpaper | Dolphin Viewing, Kaikoura
November 14th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
I like your rule breaking shot, it works for me too.
Which DX body are you using?
I’m currently using a D5100 (for the flip out screen) and find the sensor performance very good indeed, the dynamic range is impressive for a crop sensor cam.
I am also very interested in the recent announcement of the 24mp D5200, this camera could be the perfect ‘budget’ landscape camera in my opinion.
I’m really enjoying your work, thanks for posting.
Vote:November 14th, 2012 at 3:28 pm
It’s got a nice mix textures leading the eye into the horizon. Perhaps that is why it works with the defocused foreground- the viewers eye is guided into the image’s depth.
(The larger version on your website also has more impact- I recommend viewing it there).
Vote:November 14th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
yes, eye holding I think I see a vignette and a gradient slope, but I like the way we get drawn to look at the hills.
Vote:November 15th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
You all lose me when it comes to the technical stuff!
Vote:But the image reminds me of the 4 Wheel drives we have done
taking the Waikaia Bush Road over the Umbrella Mountains to Piano
Flat Road and on to Waikaia.
Think I’ll take Todd along next trip to do the photography.
Fabulous shot of a fabulous area, Todd.