How I got that shot ? - Queenstown Sunrise

How I got that shot ? - Queenstown Sunrise

Sitting at home during this unprecedented time of the Covid crisis, a very very wise and dear friend of mine asked me to share the stories behind some of my favourite shots over the years.

Many a time as a traveler, photographer, and a wannabe explorer, I always fall short of words to explain "How I got that shot ?"

But the urge and motivation from friend made me start this blog series.

The summer of 2013 started as a fun-filled road trip with two of my friends around the southern part of New Zealand. A place that one will certainly fall in love at its first sight. After a few firsts for me in the trip, I landed in the city of Queenstown to be there for my first New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in New Zealand.

The weather was forecast to be torrid through the night and early in the morning. Hours of virtual navigation on Google Maps my preferred spot for a sunrise at Queenstown turned out to be Thorn Crescent at the Fernhill suburb. Checked in to my hotel and was up till midnight to catch glimpses of the night sky and the fireworks show. As this was my first trip to Queenstown I was not sure how steep the roads were and virtual navigation gave me no warning and walking around the city was no easy task that evening.

 

I shut my eyes at midnight and was hoping to get some sleep, however glimpses of the location and the virtual views along Thorn Crescent kept me up and was greeted with a disturbed sleep. Woke up 4 AM to start the journey of setup, compose and plan the shot along the Thorn Crescent, I was not satisfied with the composition as I wanted the full "The Remarkable" mountain range in my shot. Back then as a wannabe photographer, I could never read cloud patterns, Twilight Zones, weather impacts etc...

Little did I know how I would be treated to a fascinating Sunrise to start the year for all this planning.

For a brief window between around 5:05, I saw the glow around the hills, and I was still not ready or rather happy with the composition. I felt the need to get higher along the street. So quickly grabbed my gear and started running around the hilly street to a corner from where I got the composition that I was after.

 

Setup my camera gear, adjusted the horizon and around 5:15 AM I was treated to some fantastic colours of the sun rising behind "The Remarkable" mountain range. The view and the sunrise were truly remarkable. For technical reading and curiosity of your camera nerds like me, the trick to amplify colours in camera is to underexpose the shot as much you can. Around the exposure triangle of Aperture, Shutter-Speed and ISO try and underexpose the shot by reducing the ISO for better results.

With a satisfied heart and returned to my hotel to prepare to go a witness another spectacle on the cricket field at the Queenstown Events Centre cricket ground. With continuous rain post that colourful show of a sunrise, meant that the game was a reduced to 21 overs as opposed to 50-overs. Fun fact, NZ scored 283 and the fastest hundred then by Corey Anderson. If you count back the last over yielded only 8 runs which meant the NZ team scored 275 runs in 20 overs which was WAY TOO MUCH even for a T20 run feast.

The shot of the same scene at 5:30 AM and 8:30 AM on the 1st Jan 2014. Must say planning for this helped me get this shot, if I was late past 5:30 AM, I would have missed the spectacle.