I had been planning this shot of the Wanaka Tree for several months in anticipation of our trip to New Zealand. We had arrived in Wanaka at about 3 pm the evening before in a pouring rain. We were camped in our rented RV in a park about a mile up the road from the famous Wanaka Tree. Around 7 pm, the rain had stopped, and my wife and I walked down to the Wanaka Tree's location, hoping for some nice sunset shots. I attempted to take a few shots of the tree, but the light and weather conditions weren't cooperating. We had only booked one night in the Wanaka area, so after sunset, we walked back to the RV Park, hoping that the next morning might have better lighting.
My wife Jean and I got up at 5:15 am the next morning and walked back down to the lake, hoping for some good colours at sunrise. When we first arrived, the colors were very weak, and nothing was all that impressive. The predicted sunrise, according to PhotoPills, was later than indicated due to either mountains to the east or clouds. I took some shots but was beginning to think my Wanaka Tree photos were going to be a bust. Then, about 10 to 15 minutes after the anticipated sunrise time, suddenly, the colors started appearing. The remaining clouds from the previous day's storm made for a nice accent when the rising sun's Alpen Glow started illuminating the clouds and the Southern Alps of Mount Aspiring National Park, a World Heritage Site.
This is a stitched image made up of 40 individual shots, 4 rows by 10 columns, with approximately 33% overlap. The finished image is 60 by 80 inches (152 by 203 cm) at 300 PPI. I was using a Gigapan Epic Pro Nodal Head to do these shots. Because of the small waves on the water's surface, the timing of the shots was critical. I had to time each shot so that the waves were more or less lined up from the previous position. I had a cable release on the camera. While the Gigapan handled the positioning, I made mental notes of the wave position when I took a shot. Then, for the next shot, I would wait until another incoming wave was approximately in the same position. I had used this technique a couple of other times when shooting panoramas of water with wave action. In this case, it worked fairly well for me.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor