Back to landscape images. I’ve been out and about most of today, starting quite early with my usual Thursday morning BNI meeting in Manukau, and there seems to have been little time to capture any new scenes. Keen to get more images of South Auckland into my Landscapes galleries on here I’ve started a new section called Ihumatao Stonefields. Maori lived and worked the land at the Stonefields for centuries besides collecting shellfish and fish from the nearby Manukau Harbour. Ihumatao Stonefields is a very special and sacred place and offers some lovely walks and views. European settlers also worked the land here for over 100 years. Believe it or not, the reserve is also home to a rare and highly endangered plant called mawhai or the native cucumber, which has not been recorded growing elsewhere on the New Zealand mainland since 1866.
The shot in this post was taken with my D300 and the Nikkor 24-70mm lens. Often, under conditions where there’s such a range of light levels, I’d take several shots at different exposures and blend them together using either Photomatix Pro or HDR Efex Pro. However, this image is a single shot processed in Nik’s Color Efex Pro. I’m becoming increasingly impressed with Color Efex Pro. If you work with digital images consider downloading the free trial of the various Nik products as you may find they’re ideal tools for your workflow.