The Red River

It's another late night blip posting for Horomaka (and like last night, another moody image) after I spent an hour or so down at the bridge over the Kaituna River on the edge of Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora.

Tonight's sunset was just intoxicating; to be honest I just had to stay there, drinking it all up. I've a lot on my mind at the moment, so a time of peace at the end of the day was just what I needed.

Well, when I say peace, what I really mean is a stunning glowing sky and the chattering of waterfowl at the river mouth; a gathering of twenty or so Royal Spoonbills were making their presence known, as were the countless pukeko, white face heron and pied stilts. The spoonbills are wonderful to watch, their white tresses blowing in the gentle, warm, nor'west breeze.

After focusing out towards the lake for a good while I spun the tripod head around to see the sky turn pink above Kaituna Valley and the Mount Bradley-Mount Herbert massif. If you go large you might be able to pick out the roosting pied shags on the right hand side middle of the shot - this stand of macrocarpa is a favourite of theirs, although I noted yesterday that the spoonbills are also dossing down there too.

Tech note (once more): I shot this using a circular polariser and 6-stop ND filter, allowing me to slow down the exposure to 30 seconds and to capture the movement of the clouds and the water. Without the filters my shutter speed would have been 1/8 of a second! The ND filter cuts out a lot of light, but also gives a pinky/blue hue. Not that you'd think it, but I've actually removed it (notice the reeds are a natural colour), so the pinky-blue sky is exactly as it was to the eye without the colour-cast.