Spectacular Taieri Gorge Railway
River and a lush, rocky gorge along the Taieri Gorge Railway Line.
I discovered the Taieri Gorge Railway offers picture perfect scenery that's a joy to explore and a treat to photograph.
The Taieri Gorge Railway is a spectacular tourist train that begins and ends its route at the gorgeous Dunedin Railway Station on the South Island of New Zealand. The train follows along and above the Taieri River for 25 kilometers (16 miles) providing plenty of opportunities for great scenic photography of the gorge.
The Taieri Gorge
Located on the Taieri River the Taieri Gorge is a deep canyon that stretches from just outside the town of Pukerangi to near Outram.
At over 40 kilometers (25 miles) in length the gorge is a significant site.
Fantastic Pictures on the Taieri Gorge Railway
The above image is my favorite from my own journey along the Taieri Gorge Railway.
It was made from a 3-image HDR sequence with a 2-stop interval between each exposure.
While it was a spectacular day I set my camera’s sensitivity to ISO 1600 to arrive at 1/640 second for the middle exposure in the 3-image HDR sequence.
Given that the train I was on was moving, albeit quite slowly, I needed to ensure that the 3 images in the HDR sequence would be made quickly so as to ensure sharpness in the final composite image.
The fact that the wind was blowing further complicated matters.
Because it’s difficult for software to successfully combine images that are not completely aligned, I very rarely make HDR images of moving subjects.
What’s more I almost always make HDR images with my camera securely attached to a tripod. But when you’re photographing from a moving train that’s just not possible.
in Photography Practice Makes Perfect
Photography is a creative pursuit that’s very much about adapting to the situation you find yourself in.
Travel photography is particularly challenging as you have to deal with the light, the weather and the personalities that you’re presented with.
In my case I almost always arrive unannounced and am treated the same as any other tourist. Mind you sometimes having a fancy pants camera can make folks suspicious of your motives.
I photograph everyday people rather than professional models and I have to deal with the conditions at hand.
It’s rare that I have the opportunity to come back and try again under more favorable conditions.
But there are solutions to all manner of problems.
I’ve found that, like most things that are worthwhile, it’s through practice, stress and struggle that you gain the experience you need to deal with all manner of challenging situations.
The good news is that through experience you become better, and the better you become the easier it is to adapt to future challenges.
In that regard photography’s a great metaphor for life.
Composition in Landscape Photography
From a design point of view the line of the river adds an important element of composition in the photo at the top of this post.
It does so by breaking up the foliage and helping to bring the eye from the foreground through the middle section of the image.
Even when working quickly I’m aware of making the most of whatever possibilities I have available to make a good composition.
But it’s not so difficult in New Zealand where the term picture perfect is completely apt and it’s a thrill to photograph the gorgeous scenery the New Zealand landscape offers.
One of several viaducts on the spectacular Taieri Gorge Railway, New Zealand.
How To Photograph From A Train
I had a lot of misses during this journey. When you’re photographing from a train you see something and a second later it's gone.
But it’s not like the odd days when film photography and the associated processing costs made it prohibitive to make hundreds of photos on a journey like this.
However, because of many years experience as a film based photographer, I’m anything but a spray and pray digital photographer.
In my case making two or three hundred photos on any given day would be extreme, though there have been exceptions.
On this particular day I decided to try a slightly different approach to making photos. Normally I bring the camera up to my right eye to compose the photo.
My left eye stays closed until I decide to bring the camera and eye away from each other.
But given the fact that the landscape was whizzing past me so quickly I needed to be able to see what was about to come into the composition, before it actually did.
By keeping both eyes open I was able to see what was coming with my left eye while my right eye was busy building a composition and determining the exact moment to release the camera’s shutter.
Multitasking is overrated. I found that I was able to concentrate with one eye and then the other, backwards and forwards, so that each was able to achieve their role without adversely compromising the job of the other.
You might find this technique works really well for the kind of street photography where you set up a composition and photograph one or more people who move into it at the decisive moment.
One of the things I’ve discovered that separates me from the pack is my determination. I’m happy to let other folks make photos, even if it means standing in front of me to do so.
In fact that’s usually what folks do when they see me making photos. I can only assume that they think I know what I’m doing and that by standing in front of me they’ll be able to steal the image for themselves.
Sadly, there’s a little bit more to it than that.
But there’s an important lesson I learned long ago when, in another life, I was a professional wedding photographer that helps me manage this kind of situation.
There was always quite a bit of mayhem on the steps of the church after the wedding service had been completed.
My strategy was to stand back and let people rattle off a few frames of the wedding party standing, somewhat bewildered, on the church steps.
I’d then move in and announce that I’d help out by setting up a great photo for everyone else to make.
I’d organize the wedding party into a cohesive and harmonious group and stand out of the way and let the onlookers continue to snap away.
After a few more minutes they’d be satisfied and I’d be able to move into position and, in a few seconds, make my own photos.
Needless to say that another passenger saw how much fun I was having making photos from the train and immediately stepped in front of me.
He made a bunch of photos and, after seeing I hadn’t budged, just kind of stood there pretending he hadn’t noticed me.
It wasn’t long before he realized he’d made an idiot out of himself and moved on. But he did so without acknowledging me.
All he had to do was to ask if he could pop in front of me and make a few quick pics. But you know how dumb those competitive types are.
From my point of view, other than in my days playing junior tennis, I’ve never felt the need to compete with anyone, other than myself.
It didn’t matter as I was able to move back into position and get back to living the dream through photography.
Perfect Day on the Taieri Gorge Railway
I'd recommend a trip on the Taieri Gorge Railway to anyone, particularly a keen photographer who doesn’t need to spend the entire trip feasting on scones, jam and cream.
That’s a fun thing to do, but it’s not the reason I came to New Zealand.
If you want to make great photos you simply have to put yourself in a position to be able to do so. And then means keeping your eyes pealed and your camera ready.
Nonetheless, adventures such as the Taieri Gorge Railway rely on tourist dollars.
That’s why I ate my scones, in the car at the end of the trip, and made sure I bought a little souvenir from the gift shop.
About to Travel?
Managing A High Dynamic Range Situation
HDR photography is a great way by which you can better manage the high to extreme dynamic range in a scene, that contains both bright highlights and dark shadows, back to within the range of what your camera’s sensor is able to record.
However, as well as HDR, there’s another, old school way to manage high contrast.
Employ framing to exclude the brightest and/or darkest parts of the scene from your photo.
In the photo at the very top of this post there was a massive difference in relative brightness between the bright, blue sky and the darkest shadows within the scene.
To better manage the situation I tipped my camera down, to exclude the bright sky from the photo, and zoomed in to fill the frame with lots of mid tones.
The dark shadows that remain now serve to emphasize shapes and the sense of three dimensional space within the image.
Workman on the Taieri Gorge Railway line near Dunedin in New Zealand.
Bright, Direct Light Kills Color
Bright, direct light is a problem for photographers as it tends to wash out colors.
This is evidenced when looking at highlights on rocks and leaves, which tend to burn out and retain very little color.
The solution is to employ a polarizing filter.
The filter’s primary job is to reduce reflections and I found my polarizer, which I don’t often use, very useful in this environment.
You may notice that, for a bright day, the above photo of a rail workman about to link carriages on the Taieri Gorge Railway is quite a colorful image.
The polarizing filter certainly helped, but notice how most of the composition consists of mid tones, which is where colors are most highly saturated.
Continue To Dream Of New Zealand
I love Australia, but I prefer the cooler summers and the landscape photography opportunities on the South Island of New Zealand.
There’s also nothing there that will kill you, assuming you don’t find yourself bleeding profusely in a lake inhabited by gigantic eels.
They tear flesh off their prey in much the same way that crocodiles do: by grabbing on and spinning around.
Anyway, I plan to spend as much time as possible in New Zealand over coming years. Perhaps I’II see you there. I’II be the one with a bag full of scones.
