Tolaga Bay Wharf, 1986

Otherworldly, and visually rich. The exposure and print values are superb (and not easy to achieve.). Really well done.

Fantastic. I've tried similar photos, but this one really stands on it's own for the technique used, not just the subject matter - masterfully achieved.

tremendous effort pays off in this grand image ... great composition.... well seen..... just simply wonderful to look at ..


Miles

Quite enjoyable and well executed.

cool . . . this is rather otherworldly. the wharf looks almost organic. wonderful tones.

david

Great vision to capture this as you did. John and davido said the word I was thinking: otherworldly. Great job!
- Thomas

Just wonderful, it looks like some sort of giant insect.

Thank you for your comments.

I was staying at the motorcamp at the beach very close to the wharf. It is a beautiful area and I was there for three nights. The days were beautiful, the nights were something else. I had to gather large pieces of driftwood from the beach to put around my little backpcking tent to keep the storm winds from blowing it down on me. The mornings would be clear, and in the afternoons the clouds would come in...the clouds starting to arrive can be seen in the photo.

I set the camera up under the wharf, but the tide was quickly going out and once I got everything figured out, I had to move the camera forward, as I wanted to be somewhat close to the waves. Fortunately I was able to keep the island centered between pillars. I had a time restriction, as I wanted the shadow line to be close to centered and the sun was moving fast.

The print is even better, of course. The wharf (the longest in NZ), goes straight out, then bends to the right near the end. In the print, the pillars at the bend are visible in the distance. The actual shutter speed was 10 seconds -- smoothing out the waves and ocean. I made a companion image on top of the wharf, but it suffers too much from the static damage to print.

The wharf has recently been partially restored, so I suppose it is not as quite as rustic underneath now. Sorry for the book...tripping down memory lane here...

Vaughn

Vaughn, forget about being sorry. I always enjoy reading a good story of a photograph's genesis. It can add even more depth to an image.

david