I am recently back from some deferred travel. While away I had to rely on scheduled blog posts “I had prepared earlier” and these mostly were macro related from lockdown. Feedback from some regular readers along the lines of “enough of the spiders already” should be addressed by this and future posts. A warning though. There is one spider macro post still to come but that will be kept in reserve as I may have some weekends where I have to be away at short notice so will have to again schedule a canned post.
Our South Island trip for the Nature Photography Summit had been delayed after the September date was rescheduled due to COVID-19 Delta. 2 cancelled and rebooked flights for exorbitantly increased fares finally saw us land in Queenstown, collect our vehicle, and after a brief supply stop, enjoying a picnic lunch of cheese and crackers at Lake Hayes.
Lake Hayes is always a lovely stop, convenient and picturesque. My enduring memory though, is of Great Crested Grebes, as it is the first place I saw them after long admiring images since childhood. It was one of those almost too good to believe moments so I always drop by in the hope of seeing them again. I have had some fun sessions over the years and this occasion was no different with a courting pair moving along their territory and episodically displaying.
The images shared here are just a couple from a big series. I usually don’t travel with a laptop as I prefer editing with a larger screen, but as I was needing to work on my presentation for the Summit, I had my MacBook and had invested in a small Bluetooth graphics tablet so could edit some images which I really enjoyed. I may share more once I have edited all the selects.
Interestingly we stopped by the lake twice more on the trip and saw none. Presumably courting complete, they were secreted on a nest incubating.
Grebe photos with Nikon D850 and Nikkor 500mm f5.6PF lens. These images were taken using the tilting LCD in LiveView to achieve a low shooting angle as the profile of the lake margin would prevent such a low angle even if lying prone.
