Tongariro National Park, Monday morning.

[christofurr]

On Monday I decided to get out of bed at 2am and drive up to the Tongariro National Park for some sunrise photos.
I'm not even sure I can properly describe how cold it was. When I jumped out of my car at 6:30am to set up the camera it was telling me it was -7c outside. All the tarns on the desert road were completely frozen over, and there was such a thick coating of ice on the ground, it looked like snow.

Anyway, it was an absolutely magical experience just standing around watching the sun hit Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. Something I'll have to repeat in the future. I'll leave you with the pick of the bunch. 4x5 Velvia with a 3 stop hard ND-grad.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2551/3764443982_60281ff50f_o.jpg

[NikonF4s]

mate, that is such a nice pic, all the better when you consider the effort to get it!

if i had to critique it though, id ask for a little less foreground.

other than that, its a beauty.

[Fabolous]

awesome picture man, that's some dedication!!

[wirehunt]

Where as I'm the other way and like it with the foreground. Or maybe there's two images here, cut the sucker in half.......

[Kelsonmassif]

nice capture here, its always worth the effort though! bet you had no regrets at the end

[EGD]

top effort man (Y)

[talan]

So surreal. Must have been cold! Good job!

[tomberkley]

stunning mate.
Good job

[Wozza]

Fantastic shot. Bet those roads were dodgy at that time!

[christofurr]

Thanks for all the comments guys. It's by far the most effort I've put into a single photography trip so I'm still pretty stoked it turned out so nice. Here's another from just before the sun hit the Central Plateau. Love the skies in this one, and it portrays the cold so much more, but it's just not as nice overall. This was a 2 stop soft ND-grad filter, which I probably should have used for the first image I posted in this thread.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2478/3764441410_c0777bedc1_o.jpg

Also here's a little something different for all you who've grown into photography through digital. This is the glorious side of film.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2524/3771017353_7db2bd1950.jpg


Fantastic shot. Bet those roads were dodgy at that time!
Thanks. They weren't actually too bad. There were heavy ice warnings on the radio when I went to bed on Sunday night, but the car didn't wobble once. I didn't quite get into the twisty part of the Desert Road though, so maybe that's why.

[robo git]

Hmm... An aside: What are you using to digitize your photos?

[christofurr]

Hmm... An aside: What are you using to digitize your photos?
I scan all my negatives on an Epson V700. Options for 4x5 film scanning are fairly limited, and most options aren't cheap unfortunately (then again, neither is the film or colour processing).
It'll do everything from 35mm up to 8x10 though, and does a pretty good job for a flatbed scanner too.

[stuart]

Sensational capture - I love the colours and how your pic refelects how cold it was - well done - I look forward to seeing more

[Bigelboe]

Yeah chris post up your sunset pics :)

[christofurr]

Yeah chris post up your sunset pics :)
Still not happy with either of them, but alright...


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2625/3787061697_8632815c2b_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2581/3787060189_73c54fdcaa_o.jpg

[The Mad Hatter Project]

Heh christofurr your bro has just made a shameless family promotion of your work on a different website forum :cool: