I know it's been a while since I put up new material here, but 2023 has been a difficult year for photos. I had to deal with my mother's death in January, then flooding and cyclones in Auckland, and then I was hit by a car whilst cycling to work. The recovery from that is still ongoing and I'm really not up to any hiking.
Nonetheless, I'm more mobile than I was for months, and I obtained a Sony a1 recently. This was a slightly used copy, and partly funded by selling my other two cameras. I was motivated to go out and give it a try.
One of the first photos I took, was of this sunset at Cheltenham Beach. This oddly named beach is on Auckland's North Shore, near Devonport. I knew of a good vantage point, based on previous trips there, and positioned myself (and tripod), waiting to see what the sunset would bring.
The best shot was this one, when the sun had completely set, but its light lit up the clouds with an orange and red light. and this light was reflected on the still waters of this bay.
The extreme conditions of light prompted my to take two pictures. One exposed for the sky, to capture the rich clouds there, and one exposed for the foreground. This second one was much brighter. I combined the two photos in post, and used a masking layer to bring up the details in the foreground. Otherwise it would have been lost in shadows.
I thought it was a good start to my new camera :)
The photo has also been uploaded to my seascape gallery https://www.nznaturephotos.co.nz/seascape