Wenderholm for a change

A somewhat gloomy Wenderholm beach

Arriving at Wenderholm we had high hopes of a lovely warm sunny day at the beach.  As you can see from the first shot, it was somewhat moody and cloudy.  Lots of lovely textures both in the rocks, the windswept pools of water and, of course, the clouds.  Whilst composing the first image you see in this post I could only think of a monochrome shot.  Perhaps let me know what you think?

As the day progressed it became brighter.

As the day progressed the sun came out a little more and things started to brighten up.  there remained lots of drama in the clouds and, to be honest, the sea was quite a way out, so I thought I'd stick with monochrome for the second image.  I was really taken with the textures and patterns in the sand in the foreground and felt a monochrome treatment would work well with this.  You can just make out my son and daughter paddling in the sea centre right of the image.

Truth be told, as the day progressed it just got better.  Wenderholm is quite a lovely place to visit should you ever get the chance and I managed lunch at one of my favourite lookouts.  We were fortunate to visit during the week when most other folks are busy at work - great time to visit the parks and beaches!!  The last shot in this post was taken from close-by my lunchtime picnic table, and, as you see by the use of colour now, the day didn't turn out too badly at all!

Quite a nice spot for a bit of lunch.

Wenderholm ... again!

Wenderholm.

Looking out of the window at a gloriously blue and cloudless sky I decided to take wifey north of Auckland to see the sea at Wenderholm.  We've been before and you may recall this post from 2009 created after a previous visit?  So, the car was packed and off we set.  Travelling north the feeling that we were leaving the better weather behind was soon made quite apparent with a significant increase in cloud cover.  Never mind, just so long as the clouds don't leak all is fine I thought.  Thankfully we stayed dry throughout the visit to the regional park.

View from atop the cliffs looking down on Wenderholm beach

Light was quite good, but there were some very deep shadows and bright highlights that I decided to bracket all my shots.  I must admit that I didn't take very many as wifey was more interested in a walk than taking photos!  Anyway, on return home I decided the best way to treat the images was with a bit of HDR.  This allows me to get a bit more detail into the clouds and shadowy areas as well as pull back the bright highlights.

The first shot in this post is looking north over the Puhoi River as it heads out to sea camera right.  The car park, incidentally, is just visible at the right of the shot.

As it happens, the second shot in the post is of the Puhoi River as it meets the sea and is just to the right of the previous shot.

It's a lovely place to visit with some very pleasant walks thought the bush for the more active members of the family and very pleasant views from the carpark for the more sedentary among us!  The final shot in this post was taken from the car park just a few steps away from the drivers seat in my car.

Wenderholm car park view!

Wenderholm

Wenderholm, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

North of Auckland is a lovely place called Wenderholm. Earlier this year we were fortunate to enjoy some lovely weather as we visited the park. There's bush walks, beach walks and estuary walks. Depending on the time of year it can be pleasantly peaceful or boisterously busy. When we went it was peaceful.


The camera was new, and I took many shots , a few of which I've saved here. Looking back at the images I couldn't help feeling with a bit of a tweak some of my less favourite shots could be improved with a bit of hdr. This particular shot started off like this.
I think you'll agree has detail lacking in the clouds. Surprising to me was that detail had not been lost in what appear to be blown out highlights. Perhaps that's the advantage of shooting RAW? You may also notice extra detail and texture in the sand (or mud).
So, this shot lives another day. Perhaps it will end up in the bin shortly, but for now I'm intrigued by the detail hidden in those clouds in the original image.

Comments anyone?