Kiwiblog

Mirror reflection of Mitre Peak in Milford Sound, Fiordland National Park. South Island, New Zealand. Photography by Todd Sisson

It’s Wednesday Wallpaper / (Fortnightly Foto?) time again.

This week we return to Fiordland for a majestic morning view of Mitre Peak & Milford Sound.

Apologies for the gratuitous use of alliteration…

Cheers – Todd

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:   Password = wwp

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd [www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Rainbow at dawn, over the Ben Ohau Range, Mckenzie Country. New Zealand landscape photography by Sarah Sisson.

This stunning rainbow was captured by Sarah near the turnoff to Mount Cook Village several years ago. Such moments of natural beauty are all too rare (and fleeting).

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Please note the new, shorter, Password = wwp

This image is available as a greeting card here.

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd [www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Autumnal sunrise over McArthur Ridge pinot noir vineyard. Clyde, Central Otago. New Zealand landscape photography by Todd Sisson.

I fear that we may not be seeing too much of this juicy colour in 2013 – most of the trees seem to be kicking it in early after a summer of interminable thirst.  Speaking of slaking one’s thirst – I understand that the pinot noir from this vineyard is pretty good value (according to someone who knows about these things).

Have a great Easter break – see you on the other side…

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Please note the new, shorter, Password = wwp

This image is up as a canvas print here and available for licencing here.

See you next week – and thanks for all the great comments last week!

Cheers – Todd [www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Summer evening fishing on the jetty at Lake Rotoma. New Zealand landscape photography by Todd Sisson.

A change of scene from all of last week’s mountainous drama-filled glory.  I made this image while taking my little guy, Jack, out for a spot of fishing in January – if you look hard  you can see his camo-clad figure at the end of the wharf.  We caught nothing, but we made a significant blood donation to the local sandfly population.

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Please note the new, shorter, Password = wwp

This image is up as a canvas print here and available for licencing here.

See you next week – and thanks for all the great comments last week!

Cheers – Todd [www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Evening light near Mesopotamia station, Rangitata Valley Canterbury. Photography by Todd Sisson

Did you see how I did that?  Adjusting this week’s post title to ‘Weekly’ in order to deftly wallpaper over my Wednesday tardiness, all the while retaining my beloved ‘W’ alliteration….

This image was made many moons ago and I have had a bit of fun playing in Adobe Lightroom to enhance the drama in the scene.

Thanks to Davidinnz for pointing out that I was directing you to our website development site over the past few weeks – I have moved a pile of wallpapers to the correct gallery now – sorry about that!

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Please note the new, shorter, Password = wwp

See you next week – and thanks for all the great comments last week!

Cheers – Todd [www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Cathedral Square, Christchurch at night with full moon and fire poi guys (and gals?). Post first Canterbury earthquake. Photography by Sarah Sisson

Sarah made this image in October 2010, after the first Canterbury earthquake.  We were both amazed at how well the city was rebounding from those first earthquakes – Cantabrians had done an incredible job of getting most of the core CBD landmarks up and going even within 6 weeks of the quake.  We have a gallery of Christchurch CBD images up on our stock photography site from that October shoot that some of you may find to be a pleasant use of five minutes.

Sorry for posting and running last week – I forgot about my Canon v Nikon question.  Beautox nailed the answer – yes it was made on the Canon.  And we’re great thanks Bob – must catch up soon!

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper.

This image is available  as a canvas print. on our  website.

See you next week – and thanks for all the great comments last week!

Cheers – Todd [www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Winter sunrise looking across the Tasman River towards Aoraki / Mt Cook. New Zealand landscape photography by Sarah Sisson.

Brrrrr….

The mornings are getting dark and chilly down this way – we are not too many weeks away from scenes like this appearing on my lawn (minus the 3,700m mountain peak and glacier fed river obviously).  Fortunately for me, this image was made by Sarah a couple of years ago, while I slept in my nice warm bed.

Here’s a question for the photographers amongst you.  At the time that this image was made we were shooting on both Canon and Nikon equipment – can you guess from the colours which brand this was made on?

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper.

This image is available  as a canvas print. on our  website.

See you next week – and thanks for all the great comments last week!

Cheers – Todd [www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Early Morning, Pataua South, Northland. New Zealand landscape photography by Todd Sisson

This is one of my favourite images from last month’s Northern sojourn.  On the previous evening I had headed out barefoot to wash my coffee cup and half an hour later found myself at the top of this hill (with very sore feet).  I resolved to return the next morning to chance my arm at a shot (suitably be-hooved this time) – and this was the pick of the bunch IMHO.

Enjoy!

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper

I like this one so much that I have loaded it as a canvas print.

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Source of Hamurana Springs, Lake Rotorua. New Zealand landscape photography by Sarah Sisson.

This is another image from our recent North Island adventures, this one is by Sarah – @fredinthegrass is hiding somewhere in the bush wrangling our kids out of shot

Hamurana springs was one of my favourite finds on this trip. The crystal clear waters are on a par with pupu springs in Golden Bay with the addition of plentiful trout.  To boot, the bush walk along the stream is fantastic – thanks to the restoration planting undertaken by the local community and DOC.  A great family outing.

Have a great week.

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Sail Rock at dawn. Cathedral Cove, Coromandel Peninsula. New Zealand Landscape photography by Todd Sisson.

Well it transpires that when I go on holiday, I go on holiday….. hence my absenteeism from Kiwiblog for the past couple of weeks.

Sarah & I have once again hit the beaches of Northland hard, this time with our kids, Jack & Indi in tow.  Neither of us have ventured further north of Auckland for over 15 years, so we have found the sub-tropical pleasures of the region quite intoxicating – maybe that was just the effects of the (non shifting air) seabreezes

I will feed you some of our images from this trip over the coming weeks.

Have a great week.

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Pohutukawa Flowers, Near Paihia, Bay of Islands. New Zealand landscape photography by Sarah Sisson.

Happy New Year & welcome to the inaugural 2013 Wednesday Wallpaper!

Sorry for the unannounced Hiatus over the past three weeks – we were swamped at work leading into Christmas.

I thought we would kick off with a nice summery image that Sarah made during our December trip to the Bay of Islands.  We enjoyed our Northern travels so much that we have decided to return for the bulk of January – hopefully we see plenty of this kind of weather…..

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper

Also available as a premium canvas print at sisson.co.nz

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Mares Leg Cove, Cathedral Cove Walkway, Coromandel. New Zealand Landscape Photography By Sarah Sisson

As promised, I am delivering a welcome reprieve from big colour lupins this week by way of some summery beach delights.

Sarah made this image yesterday morning after we had photographed sunrise at Cathedral Cove (next bay over).  The advantage to being thick enough to get up at 4:30AM to photograph this is that we got the whole place to ourselves for 3 hours – the first visitors only arriving 2 minutes after I decided to take an impromptu dip in my undies – too much info?

Have a great rest-of-week y’all – we are now up in the Bay of Islands chasing more beachy goodness.

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Summer Sunrise & Lupins – Lake Tekapo, Mackenzie Country New Zealand. Landscape Photography by Todd Sisson

No lupin(e)s next Wednesday I promise!

I made this one last Saturday morning while teaching a workshop – I usually don’t take photos for myself while in teacher mode, but this scene was just to juicy to ignore

I’m off photographing dairy cows today – a week full of contrasts….

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper

Of course it is also available as a premium Canvas Print on our website (please note that Friday is the Christmas cutoff for canvas prints)

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook]

Russel Lupin(e)s Eglinton Valley, Fiordland New Zealand. Landscape Photography By Todd Sisson

This week’s wallpaper was captured on the banks of the Eglinton River, just outside the Fiordland National Park boundary – and apparently out of reach of the spray trucks. This little spot would surely make the world’s top 100 most idyllic freedom camping sites (self contained campers only of course) – barring the omnipresent cloud of sandflies.  I hope to get back there again one day soon.

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper

Of course it is also available as a premium Canvas Print on our website.

2013 Calendars

Thank you to those fine folk who have purchased our 2013 Calendar ‘South’ – your support is greatly appreciated

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]

Afternoon sunstar over Mitre Peak, with toi toi flowers in foreground. Milford Sound, Fiordland. New Zealand landscape photography by Sarah Sisson

Welcome to another Wednesday Wallpapering.

This week we are off to the comparatively incomparable Milford Sound.

This splendid image was made by my equally splendiferous wife Sarah and the experience was a memorable lesson in the meteorological impact of large slabs of granite.  Before we entered the Homer tunnel on the Te Anau side, we were considering ‘chaining up’ as  snow was settling rapidly on the road – we popped out of the tunnel on the Milford side to be greeted by this pristine day, it was an other-worldly experience.  This image features as February’s pinup in our 2013 Calendar.

Free Wallpaper Download

You may download the large version of today’s image from this link:  Password = freewallpaper

Of course it is also available as a not so free print on our website.

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]

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]

Dramatic clouds over a summer field, somewhere near Moeraki, South Island New Zealand. Landscape photography by Todd Sisson

Welcome to the inaugural Wednesday Wallpaper US election special. What is the tenuous link between this image and today’s nail-shredding political deathmatch?  Like me while shooting this image, it will come down to the wire.  Sorry about that one – very ‘borderline’…..

2013 NZ Calendar

Some of you kiwiblog-kins may be interested in 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]

Dusky Dolphin Pod, Kaikoura New Zealand. NZ wildlife photography by Todd Sisson

Yes, it’s Wednesday Wallpaper time again!  This week we are off to Kaikoura on a little marine mammal tangent.  These dusky dolphins were photographed while on onboard with the Kaikoura Dolphin Encounter team – a very worthwhile excursion if you are ever in Kaikoura and the weather is good.

We had a little technical hitch last week, our website is in development mode at present and the download function was disabled – the large file downloads can be found at the amended link below until we get that issue tidied up. Sorry for any inconvenience – but you get what you pay for sometimes

You may download the large version 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]

Sunset on the summit of Aoraki / Mt Cook, New Zealand. Photography by Todd Sisson.

Welcome to the most timely Wallpaper Wednesday post in living memory (my memory only spans one month these days).

Having dissed sunset/sunrise images in my outro last week I now present you with a sunset image….

I almost blew the making of this image while indulging in a rare (in my humble opinion) dose of ego-mania. I had been set up for some time waiting for a thick valley fog to clear and provide a glimpse of the summit of Aoraki Mt Cook. While waiting, I got to talking with a couple of Australian photo enthusiasts and was modestly explaining how awesome I was – with my back turned to the mountain…. fortunately, one of the Aussies was sick of my rhetoric and kindly pointed out that the mountain was glowing orange. A frantic ‘practical demonstration’ of my awesome skills ensued. I was really lucky to get this, and one other, sharp shot out of the shoot as every other image was marred by sloppy technique.

Lesson learned. I never talk to Australians now

See you next week.

Cheers – Todd

You may download the large version from this link:  [free iPad wallpaper] Password = freewallpaper

Also available on our website as a canvas print.

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]

Morning fog shrouds golden poplar trees near Lake Wanaka New Zealand. Landscape photography by Todd Sisson

OK, This nocturnal posting is getting a little ‘old’ – time to change some notifications in my calendar

This is the view from the very nuggety Mt Iron in Wanaka – captured after a pre-dawn mission to photograph a sunrise that never happened.  I love the layers and visual depth that receding fog imparts upon a landscape and I felt especially privileged to witness this scene unfolding before me.  Better than a red sunrise sky any day in my book.

You may download the large version from this link:  [free iPad wallpaper] Password = freewallpaper

Also available on our website as a canvas print.

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]

Evening Light Over The Haast River, South Westland New Zealand. Landscape Photography By Todd Sisson

Sorry for the tardiness on this week’s wallpapering –  I’ve been running a day late (and several bucks short) this week due to the tyranny of school holidays.

This image has always called out to me from the depths of our image archive, but I have never shared it with the world – simply because I could never figure out how to bring the best out of it in post-processing (yes, I am a proud proponent of tasteful photoshoppery).  Fortunately, the problem resolved itself today when I walked past Sarah’s computer and spotted this on her screen – apparently it had called out to her too.  I think she has made it sing.

You may download the large version from this link:  [free iPad wallpaper] Password = freewallpaper

Also available on our website as a canvas print.

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]

Doubtful Sound Reflections. Landscape Photography By Todd Sisson

This week’s Wednesday Wallpaper is one of the images I made while away in Fiordland last week.  This capture was made from Real Journeys’ Patea Explorer while heading out of Doubtful Sound.  I am particularly pleased with this image, as it is the first time I have managed to make a photo that captures Doubtful Sound’s beauty on an inclement day.  My last 5 day trip resulted in exactly zero usable images, due to the abysmal weather conditions…..

You may download the large version from this link:  [free iPad wallpaper] Password = freewallpaper

Also available on our website as a canvas print.

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]

Sunset on Walter and Cecil Peaks, Queenstown, seen from Coronet Peak road, South Island, New Zealand.

Welcome to a remotely posted Wednesday Wallpaper – I am out of town today, so hopefully WordPress scheduling is doing it’s thing…..

This image is of Queenstown from near the Coronet Peak road.  It was the result of some serious personal discomfort, as I (unintentionally) found myself waist deep in a snow-filled ditch and straddling a barbed wire fence in order to get in position for this one…

You may download the large version from this link:  [free iPad wallpaper] Password = freewallpaper

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]

Meandering Boardwalk, Okarito Lagoon, Westland, New Zealand
Photography By Todd Sisson

Welcome to the  tardiest Wednesday Wallpaper post yet.  It has been a frantic day, blog posts and social media have had to slip down the priority list – I toyed with posting this tomorrow, but couldn’t arrive at any catchy strap-line to tie in with Thursday….

This boardwalk is on the Okarito Trig track.  It must have been constructed during more fiscally ebullient times (read: during Helen’s reign) as it is a magnificent exercise in whimsical form and folly.  I love it. Its meandering form really is beautiful to behold and it is much more fun to walk over than the practical and economically sensible alternative – a straight boardwalk.

The rest of the walk is wonderful too and culminates in some redonkulously good views of the Southern Alps.

You may download the large version from this link:  [free iPad wallpaper] Password = freewallpaper

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]

Grazing Cattle on the road to Lake Matheson, Fox Glacier New Zealand. Landscape Photography by Todd Sisson.

Welcome to another hump day wallpaper on KiwiBlog

This week we return to South Westland for a view of the Southern Alps from the verdant pastures surrounding Fox Glacier village.  Fox is another of my favourite locations in NZ, not just for photography – it has a great ‘vibe’, well worth a visit….

You may download the large version from this link:  [free iPad wallpaper] Password = freewallpaper

See you next week!

Cheers – Todd

[www.sisson.co.nz] [facebook] [blog]