Photography can be frustrating. You go to an iconic landmark, and it’s in scaffold. Wake up early, and the sunrise gets obliterated by cloud. The perfect street photo opportunity arises, and you left the camera at home.

Last week I headed down to Taupo in New Zealand’s North Island, and the weather looked fantastic. I therefor had high expectations for photography the next day, planning to head to ‘Craters of the Moon’ as late in the afternoon as possible, with the hope of catching some interesting light. Unfortunately the sky was gun metal grey, and as interesting as boiled rice.

Boring Sky solution…

A boring sky does little to catch the eye and is unlikely to set the scene for a spectacular landscape photo. The obvious solution in this instance was to avoid the sky altogether. Fortunately Craters of the Moon is spectacular, with towering pillars of steam and boiling pools of mud. Very ‘Lord of the Rings’ indeed.

Shooting & Processing

This image combines about five different photos and was stitched together in Lightroom. The fact that all 5 photos were taken with no tripod really shows how far the latest versions of Lightroom have come. Luminar Neo remains a favorite tool for getting a ‘final look’ to an image. Other photos were captured, but this is the best!

Next…

Next up, today I’ve had an afternoon photo session up the road and under a pier…

Take care and keep clicking, Chris