Onehunga Wharf

Spirit of Resolution, Onehunga Wharf, New Zealand

Friday evening usually has the "Spirit of Resolution" docked at the Onehunga Wharf.  Returning from the city in the evening and driving over the motorway bridge I can often see out of the corner of my eye interesting lights and activity as the ship is either loaded or unloaded with its cargo.  Always keen to stop and take some shots, but never with the time to stop and play.  That all changed this Friday.  The sunset looked interesting and we had a bit of spare time, so off we set to see what we could do!

The first shot in this post is a blend of five images shot at 1 stop intervals (-2, -1, 0, 1, 2) processed in Photomatix Pro.  I didn't want the HDR effect, but needed some help with the high contrasts.  The sky was quite bright, but there were deep shadows in the foreground.  There was also the problem of the boat moving on the water as well as the cranes working to relocate the ship's cargo.  I was reasonably happy with the shot, but really wanted a bit more saturation.  All efforts to date have resulted in a somewhat false looking shot, so I'll stick with the image you see above!

Spirit of Resolution, Onehunga Wharf, New Zealand

The second shot in this post is a closer shot of the rear of the boat.  I was quite intrigued with the lights, evening colours and reflections on the water.  This second shot is a single image.  This shot helps you appreciate the range of light levels.  Any suggestions on how to bring out the darks, push back the lights yet retain a reasonable level of contrasts and saturation would be most welcome.

Shot three is a landscape version of shot two from a similar viewpoint used for the first shot.  Difference now is time ... about 10 minutes!  I think I prefer this shot to  the first as it seems to have more interest to it.  Perhaps let me know which you prefer?

The last shot is a 15 second exposure of the motorway bridge from which I've observed this ship on a number of occasions.  I picked 15 seconds in an attempt to "flatten" the water and get a bit more emphasis on the motorway lights.  Not sure it's worked, but I'm sure you'll let me know.  Oh, if you click on the images you should get an enlarged version of the shot :-)

Spirit of Resolution at Onehunga Wharf

Highway 20 motorway bridge at Onehunga.