NEW ZEALAND ADVENTURES - MILFORD SOUND

Milford Sound, located on the west coast of New Zealands south island. Apparently our kiwi neighbours made a number of errors when naming this area.
Their first mistake was calling Milford Sound - Milford Sound. It is not actually a "Sound" at all. But rather a fjord. Which means it was formed by glacial activity rather than the ocean.
Now, to make amends for this oversight, our NZ friends decided to fix their error by calling to entire region Fiordland. There in lies their second error. "Fiord" is a Norwegian word, which is actually spelt "Fjord". Oops. Yep. Nevermind.

On this leg of our journey we stayed a couples of nights in a small town about 2-2.5 hours away from Milford Sound, called Te Anau. Which I believe is pronounced Tee-Are-Now. It is such a great small town, not to mention FREE WIFI!

Disappointingly, on this occasion, we couldn't go or stay for a sunrise or sunset. But instead do more the touristy thing and take in a cruise. Which was awesome! We were lucky enough to have a small pod of dolphins start swimming next to us, which apparently isn't too common around there. We also got to see some lazy male sea lions sunbaking on the rocks, learnt some history and interesting facts of the area. Not to mention saw some great scenery as we went. One of which was the Stirling Falls (pictured below), which deceivingly is approximately 155m (511ft) tall.
We were told that this is one of the few remaining waterfalls in Milford Sound, that is fed by melting glaciers. It won't be long until this majectic fall with have to rely on rainfall alone to operate.

It just goes to show that you should cease the day. As what's here today may not be tomorrow.

Stirling Falls, Milford Sound NZ

PLAN B REIGNS SURPREME...

On a recent getaway to the Blue Mountains I was hoping to get "the Three Sisters" at sunrise. Luckily we had booked accommodation in Katoomba so we were nice and close. Even though, I set the alram for 530am to make the 2 mintue drive to the Echo Point lookout. As we got outside there was a lot of fog around! And I mean a lot of fog! I thought "Great!", this would add an interesting effect to an otherwise commonly photographed subject. When we arrived there was no-one in sight. No wonder! You could not see a thing! It was quite a eerie feeling when you looked over the edge only to see a nothingness. It actually made your knees got to jelly.
We waited around for about an hour to see if the fog would lift, but with no luck (it actually took until 3pm). So not to waste our early start, we travelled to nearby Leura - to visit the Leaura Cascades. Only a short walk from the carpark, there are a series of falls. This one is nestled just of the track, before you head around and onto other lookouts looking over the Blue Mountains. 
My wife patiently waited for me to shoot for a good couple of hours and we had a bit of a joke that this image was one of the first half a dozen frames I shot and therefore we could have left and saved a lot of time. Thanks Rachy!
There were a number of things that drew me into this image. One being, the obvious one - the silky waterfall. Another being the great colour of the grreny/yellowy pool and the brown interesting rocks, in the foreground. It was quite slippery around here, so yet again I was paranoid about dropping my equipment.....again.
All in all it was a fantasic shoot and I am really happy with the final capture.

Sometimes your plans don't really go to plan, so you have to improvise and check out new locations. The key is to know your surroundings, even if your an out-of-towner. That way you can make the most of your trip away.

Catchya
Josh

Cascade Cove, Leura NSW © Josh Pitt

THE BATTLE OF BATEAU BAY...

The Battle, Bateau Bay NSW © Josh Pitt

My first shoot out at Bateau Bay NSW. I discovered this interesting counteracting section of water which had me mesmorised by its directionality. I shood there for quite a while trying to figure out how to shoot it best. Once I got home I ended up choosing one of my first captures. I think it was because I liked the longer exposure (compared to my other shoots) - 3.2sec.

The scene almosts resembles that of a battle scene in Lord of the Rings, with both sides rushing towards each other and occasionly the team running left to right would take the spoils when reinforcements would arrive from the surging ocean behind.

COME AND BE ENCHANTED...

This week I decided to go and shoot a place I had been only once before - North Avoca. I was hoping to find a new angle different to my original shot "Morning Streams".
On this visit the sky was totally clear, not a cloud to be seen, so this focused my attention more on the rocks or beach (instead of the sky). I came back to the little stream running down the rocks and had me fascinated once again with the movement of the water within the miniature rock canyon.
 I wanted to shoot the scene from very low down, so as to focus the viewers attention primarily on the tiny waterfall. I spread my camera legs out very wide so I could get as low as possible to avoid any surrounding distractions.
I choose this name, because to me, the image has a magical quality about it that facinates me when I look into it.

Enchant, North Avoca NSW © Josh Pitt

Available at www.joshpitt.com.

Thanks for stopping by.
Josh :)