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One of the best places to see a variety of birds in New Plymouth is the Waiwhakaio river mouth.  As well as waders, shags and sea birds there is nearly always a good variety of small birds around in the tussock and scrub including silvereye, gold finch, green finch, dunnock, yellow hammer and skylarks.  On saturday morning I headed down there again get some more shots with my new nikor 500mm lense.One of my first shots of the morning, a black shag (kawau), lifting off from the water.A …

I've been wanting to do some night photos of the milky way curving over the mountain (Taranaki) for a long time now but the conditions haven't been right and there is only a few days a year when everything lines up right. Firstly the milky way has to be in the right aspect then it has to be close to a new moon and lastly you need a fine clear night. For the last couple of months the night conditions around the new moon just haven't been clear enough and the weather outlook heading into Taranaki …

Last year nikon released a new 500mm lense using phase fresnel technology to create a more compact telephoto lense. It had good reviews so I ordered one at the beginning of October 2018. Five months later it has finally turned up after a long wait as worldwide demand immediately outstripped supply.  Naturally I've immediately been out to see how it performs and must say I'm really impressed by the results.  It's light weight and compact and fast to lock onto its focus. I'm pretty pleas …

I love getting out at night and getting photos of the night sky.  Because of the annual and nightly rotation of the night sky, getting a shot in a chosen setting with the stars in the aspect that you want them can often come down to only a few nights in a row where every thing lines up with the moon below the horizon and hopefully a clear night. Waste light from our modern cities is also a real problem when it comes to getting a clear shot of the night sky. There are a number of techni …

Royal spoonbill are one of those distinctive species that stand out from the crowd.  I think they're very photogenic but being mostly white you need to be careful with the light and exposure to get good photos of them. You get the best results in the soft light at dawn or dusk or when it is lightly overcast to reduce the contrast.I took the series of shots below just before sunrise of a spoonbill feeding in one of the channels at the Manawatu estuary and then drying itself off and grooming …