That Tree
The last three images I uploaded where already quite representative of New Zealand: A beautiful beach, a rainforest and one of its iconic mountains. But we also drove past one of the most iconic places in all of New Zealand and probably THE landmark that everyone knows: the Wanaka tree. And let me tell you, it definitely is popular. When we arrived in Wanaka, we drove straight to the campground and while driving through town, I took a look at the lakeside. In the distance I saw a crowd of people, and as I looked closer I noticed a small tree right next to the crowd, and my first thought was: this little thing is supposed to be the world famous Wanaka tree? Well, after checking in at the campground we went back to the tree and I have to say that it looks only small from a distance. We also were a little disappointed that the water level was very low such that the bottom of the tree wasn’t covered in water, but we tried to make the best out of it. We then spent the sunset photographing the tree and waiting until there were some short windows of time when no one was right next to the tree which actually happened only very rarely.
Don’t get me wrong, I take selfies too, but what we saw there was purely selfish: groups of people came regularly and every single person in such a group took a picture not only of themselves, but also with every possible combination of other people in the group, followed by the same procedure for the next one. I kid you not, one group took at least 30 minutes and even while reviewing the pictures, these people were standing right in front of the tree. And as soon as one group was done, another group came in and it all started over again. I’m actually very patient and I know that everyone wants to take images there, but that’s exactly the point: I think you should always show respect for others who also want to take pictures. When it was already very dark and we were trying some long exposures, the last guy came up to me and said: “Just out of interest: What are you waiting for?” If I wanted to be mean, I could have said I was waiting until everyone finally got out of the frame, but I just replied that we were doing long exposures in the blue hour.
Since we had booked the campsite at our next destination for the day after tomorrow, we decided to spend the following day in Wanaka as well. Like almost every day on this trip, we got up at sunrise the next morning and enjoyed a beautiful and quiet morning without a single person at the lakeside. However, I didn’t take my favorite image of the tree until sunset. Unfortunately, that meant we had to deal with the tourists hordes again, and this time I was even more annoyed since the light was really beautiful. In addtion, the slight haze in the distance helped to create a natural separation between the tree and the mountains in the background. I really considered politely asking the people to move out of the way for a minute, but luckily one guy who was being photographed went to his friend reviewing the images for a moment. He was still slightly in the frame, but I could crop him out and was very happy that I got at least one image before he went back to the tree and they continued the photo session. We then kept photographing until it got dark, but these few minutes of light were the most beautiful ones, and despite the tree not being in the water, I really like how this image turned out. I hope you like it too!
That Tree
The last three images I uploaded where already quite representative of New Zealand: A beautiful beach, a rainforest and one of its iconic mountains. But we also drove past one of the most iconic places in all of New Zealand and probably THE landmark that everyone knows: the Wanaka tree. And let me tell you, it definitely is popular. When we arrived in Wanaka, we drove straight to the campground and while driving through town, I took a look at the lakeside. In the distance I saw a crowd of people, and as I looked closer I noticed a small tree right next to the crowd, and my first thought was: this little thing is supposed to be the world famous Wanaka tree? Well, after checking in at the campground we went back to the tree and I have to say that it looks only small from a distance. We also were a little disappointed that the water level was very low such that the bottom of the tree wasn’t covered in water, but we tried to make the best out of it. We then spent the sunset photographing the tree and waiting until there were some short windows of time when no one was right next to the tree which actually happened only very rarely.
Don’t get me wrong, I take selfies too, but what we saw there was purely selfish: groups of people came regularly and every single person in such a group took a picture not only of themselves, but also with every possible combination of other people in the group, followed by the same procedure for the next one. I kid you not, one group took at least 30 minutes and even while reviewing the pictures, these people were standing right in front of the tree. And as soon as one group was done, another group came in and it all started over again. I’m actually very patient and I know that everyone wants to take images there, but that’s exactly the point: I think you should always show respect for others who also want to take pictures. When it was already very dark and we were trying some long exposures, the last guy came up to me and said: “Just out of interest: What are you waiting for?” If I wanted to be mean, I could have said I was waiting until everyone finally got out of the frame, but I just replied that we were doing long exposures in the blue hour.
Since we had booked the campsite at our next destination for the day after tomorrow, we decided to spend the following day in Wanaka as well. Like almost every day on this trip, we got up at sunrise the next morning and enjoyed a beautiful and quiet morning without a single person at the lakeside. However, I didn’t take my favorite image of the tree until sunset. Unfortunately, that meant we had to deal with the tourists hordes again, and this time I was even more annoyed since the light was really beautiful. In addtion, the slight haze in the distance helped to create a natural separation between the tree and the mountains in the background. I really considered politely asking the people to move out of the way for a minute, but luckily one guy who was being photographed went to his friend reviewing the images for a moment. He was still slightly in the frame, but I could crop him out and was very happy that I got at least one image before he went back to the tree and they continued the photo session. We then kept photographing until it got dark, but these few minutes of light were the most beautiful ones, and despite the tree not being in the water, I really like how this image turned out. I hope you like it too!