Blow Wind, Blow

Yesterday (like today actually) was bitterly cold and windy. Windy like a bare-knuckle fist fight with God. The sky was clear though, so I decided to combine my daily exercise with a little photography by walking up the peninsula road before sunset. Walking without being beaten to the canvas was an ordeal, but I made it up to a cool boulder field near the Fallen Soldiers Memorial and the light was great.



The wind did make holding the camera steady a real challenge... so I had to use a faster shutter speed... which meant I had to open up the aperture... meaning my depth of field was kind of narrow. The result was I couldn't have the foreground boulders and the background in sharp focus at the same time. Damn. Maybe next time. The boulders are a remnant of the Dunedin shield volcano that once dominated the area. I do love these rocks. They wear the mark of time, something I like to have in my photos. Pity you can't see the wind in my shots, but apart from a few flax belts and cabbage trees, anything able to flap or flow in the peninsula gales was torn to shreds or blown away a long time ago.



I also went to my first meeting of the Dunedin Photographic Society last night, along with Mike from the Dunedin Flickr Meetups group. Links to both are on the left. The folks at DPS were very welcoming and there was a great talk from Jane Trotter on her abstract making process for the portfolio she presented to apply for Associateship of the Photographic Society of New Zealand. Beautiful images, made from household objects, a macro lens, and a powerful imagination.

Today is the start of Strobist Boot Camp II, something I'm joining up for. The whole Strobist thing is about learning how to light with off-camera flash. There's a link to the Strobist Blog on the left too. More on that later.