High and Dry

"Phew, what a scorcher", as the British red-tops used to say. It's been another warm Nor'West day in Canterbury, and when I arrived back on the Peninsula at 6.15pm tonight the digital mercury was still shouting out 28C. I know it's not much compared to the tropics, but to a maritime climate it's plenty hot enough thanks.

After digesting a salad tea (too hot for anything but) and knocking back an iced beverage or two, I decided to head down to the Lake once more to catch the sunset.

Despite having an eejit pull out of the scenic reserve in front of me without looking, and then proceeding to dawdle down our country road at 65kmh, weaving all over the show so therefore difficult to pass, I did manage to make it to the lake just in time. I was disappointed to see the real bloom of the sunset though as I was stuck behind said car, it's inhabitants craning to get a shot of the sunset on their cellphones that I was longing to capture with the D300. In my mind (Ok, it might have been out loud too) I was yelling at them to sod right off so I could get some proper pictures before the light left us. How arrogant.

Anyway, I did make it to the dry lake bed as the sun was setting. In the end I decided to walk out halfway to the retreated lake shore and capture this maimai all on it's own in its very shallow pool. It's weird to think that just a few months ago this hide was being used by a hunter to pick off his quarry of ducks and geese, the water lapping around the shins of them as they waded out to their shelter. The tidal nature of Ellesmere/Te Waihora (thanks to the manual opening of the lake outlet to the sea at Taumutu) makes it a very interesting place to capture with the camera.

We're forecasted rain tomorrow night so my next mission, to walk out to the now high and dry islands off the point and on to the lake edge itself, might have to wait until another fine evening.

(As an aside, the arrival of my new cokin filter kit tonight was perfect timing. To capture this light I used a grad sunset filter and set my Nikon to a cool WB setting, hence the blue tinged forground with the strong pinky/orange sky. 'Cause you know, some of you might be interested...)