The root definition of photography is to draw with light. One of the hardest things for me to learn is that I don’t take pictures or videos of things but rather how light interacts with those people, plants, rocks, or water. In the past month, the days have shortened, the weather has turned nasty, and the dawns and dusks have elongated. I’ve been forced to change my approach to taking pictures. Now I drive with my camera and drone in the car and take advantage of the chance shifts in clouds and lighting. The sun doesn’t rise until 8:30 am so I can be to remote places like the Moeraki boulders or Tunnel Beach before sunrise. The cold temperatures have eliminated the casual visitors, so often I’m in this places alone. Dusk begins by 4 p.m. so there is abundant lovely light at the end of the workday. In addition, night photography isn’t quite as challenging since we have 16 hours of darkness in which to experiment. Even during midday, the sun is low in the sky, creating a beautiful golden glow even at mid-day.
This past month we’ve been making an effort to stick close to home—Eliza and Sophie judge all potential outings based on the time in the car. Anything more than 45 minutes is too far. As a result, the photos and videos from this collection are almost exclusively found in the footprint of Dunedin City or Central Otago. The exception to this is the sunrise shown over Half-Moon Bay on Stewart Island, the most southern island in New Zealand.
I have to admit to not being fully present during the capture of the most stunning photos in this collection. I decided to take some Milky Way photos on our beach the night of Sophie’s and Eliza’s birthday. I started the sequence at 10 pm and at 2 am I stumbled out to change the battery and reverse the pan on the time-lapse dolly. In the morning when I downloaded the images I was shocked to see that I’d captured the Aurora Australis—the Southern Lights. They were blazing when I went out at 2 am but in my somnambulant state I missed the green glow to the south. Now each night I check the aurora forecast and the night sky visibility before going to bed in the hope that I might see them for myself.
For me, winter light beautifully reflects the essence of southern New Zealand, with its ethereal nature, its ruggedness, and its remoteness. The night sky in particular is magical. A recent study concluded that 2/3 of humanity lives in areas where light pollution obscures the Milky Way. Needless to say, that isn’t an issue where we live.