Getting back out to the West Coast

Hey interwebs!  So it’s been a while since I posted on here and I have decided this needs remedying!  I am going forward now and making a real effort to get more of my thoughts, ideas and general view point on things out there and try and make it a weekly occurrence starting today.  Hope you’ll come along!

Two weekends back I did something I haven’t done in a while.  I chucked the camera bag and tripod into the car and headed off to the west coast beaches - last spring/summer I spent a lot of time out at Muriwai working on my landscape photography and really enjoyed it.  Then life got hectic, open homes followed by auctions, followed by pouring over mortgage and sale documents!  Fun times, which ended in the purchase of our house.

With all that behind us and some hunkering down over winter and a holiday back to Africa my work on the west coast slipped into the back ground.  Now that spring is here and with it some more favorable weather I figured it was time to head back out there, especially seeing as we now reside in West Auckland and are that much closer to some of its’ gorgeous beaches.

With all this mind I headed to Piha, a beach I have not been to as much as I probably should have been as an Aucklander I will admit, with the plan of getting re-acquainted with the tripod and my landscape side.

Lion Rock at Piha - 18mm; ISO 100; f/22; 1/15sec 

It is amazing how quickly things come back to you once you are out there again!  This first shot I took maybe 3 paces out of the car park!  Maybe you don’t need to go half way round the world to get pictures you are happy with, sometimes 20 minutes down the road can do the trick.

It felt really good to be back out on these black sand beaches, just wondering around with an empty mind listening to the waves and taking in the scenery.  I felt really relaxed and I think that calm feeling really comes through in these pictures.  What I also found was that by taking a break my eyes came back refreshed (if that is even possible??) and this really helped me picking out, what I felt, were interesting subjects.

Piha Pool - 18mm; ISO100; f/22; 1/8sec

I feel completely re-invigorated to explore more of the different beaches around here now and see how I can capture them photographically.  I look forward to sharing the experiences and pictures with you all over the coming months!

Thanks for stopping by!