Travel Photography: New Zealand's Coast

Course details

There is no off-season for landscape photography. Even winter offers unique image-making opportunities. Follow along with landscape photographer Justin Reznick as he travels to the stormy Punakaiki coast, a beach on the South Island of New Zealand well known for its Pancake Rocks. By taking advantage of breaks in the weather, Justin captures incredible photographs of the ocean waves, rock formations, and stormy skies. Along the way, he'll teach viewers how to experiment with shutter speed and long exposures, isolate subjects with a telephoto lens, take multiple bracketed exposures, and more. At the end of each chapter, he reviews images from the shoot and demos his post-processing workflow in Lightroom.

Learning objectives
Experimenting with shutter speeds
Working a coastal shot
Shooting long exposures
Venturing into the ocean to get a shot
Working with foamy streaks on the surface of the water
Photographing water spray
Post-processing landscape photos in Photoshop Lightroom

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome

1. Photographing the Punakaiki Coast

02 - Introduction to the Punakaiki coast
03 - Shutter speed strategies when photographing surf
04 - Working a coastal shot with safety in mind
05 - Isolating a subject with a telephoto lens
06 - Shooting a long exposure of the surf
07 - Reviewing the beach location

2. Working Quickly on a Secluded Beach at Low Tide

08 - The importance of researching the best locations
09 - Photographing a natural arch and dressing for the location
10 - Wading into the water to add drama to the foreground
11 - Taking multiple bracketed exposures to capture a wider dynamic range
12 - Working the foamy streaks created by swirling waves
13 - Final shots in a rising tide, from waves to sea stacks
14 - Processing the beach photos in Lightroom and Photoshop
15 - Fixing an image by increasing canvas size and using Content-Aware Fill

3. Photographing the Pancake Rocks

16 - Exploring the Pancake Rocks location
17 - Photographing water spray from a blow hole
18 - Capturing an abstract image of waves at dusk
19 - Chasing the last of the light on the coast
20 - Blending exposures from the Pancake Rocks in Photoshop
21 - Post-processing the abstract waves image

4. Image Review - The Wintery Coast

22 - Reviewing the final selects from the coastal shoot