Photography — A Walk Through Auckland Domain Park
The summer weather has finally turned consistently nice (as opposed to mostly rainy and drenchingly humid), so I took my macro-lens out for a spin in the Auckland Domain park, a 75 hectare (185 acre) spread of paths, trees, open grassy areas, gazebos, duck ponds, walking trails, streams, public sculpture and ornamental gardens located within Auckland’s city limits.
The lens is a 180mm macro, so it leans toward the big and heavy end of the spectrum, and maybe just a bit too big and heavy to lug around for hours as I trudged through gardens and wooded paths, but in-between the cramping, muscle spasms and the forced dodging of packs of sweaty joggers on the walking trails, the photo-tripping was actually a lot of fun.
I saw birds:
An Eastern Rosella parrot, introduced to New Zealand from Australia
And bees:
Already loaded with pollen, but coming back for more
Flowers:
The consensus appears to be that this is the best of my flower shots
And trees:
The tangled branches of the trees in the Auckland Domain
Plus kids on school field trips:
Young children are generally comfortable with cameras — adults tend to glower or hide
Statues:
A particularly expressive piece of statuary in the Wintergardens
And more flowers:
Water lilies bloom inside the Wintergarden tropical house
After a couple of days of carrying the 180mm macro lens, I marched into my local camera shop and purchased the smaller (and much more lightweight) 100mm macro lens as a far more hand-held friendly substitute. I love my 180mm macro (it’s what I used for the majority of my more dramatic perfume packaging photographs), but I think I’ll be a lot happier saving it for indoor projects when I can bolt it to a tripod.
Of course, I shouldn’t really be using the 180mm for outdoor nature photography without a tripod in the first place, but how can I live my sleek and minimal dream while labouring under a backpack full of equipment?
I’m trying to avoid the beast of burden story. I doubt I’ll be very successful in the long run, but for now, my hands, wrists and arms welcome their new 100mm lens overlord.
You can find more Auckland Domain photographs at my Flickr account: Auckland Domain Wintergarden & Park. I’m sure I’ll be adding more pictures to the set in the future — I only just scratched the surface of the heavily wooded walking trails, and I’m looking forward to tackling a couple of photo-days when the leaves begin to turn colour.
