A trip to New Zealand always provides a target rich environment for the photographer and this is especially true for the South island. The mountains seem to spring up out of the ground with a youthful enthusiasm and walking amongst them is a truly uplifting experience.

We had based ourselves in Queenstown and had already tried our hand at climbing Ben Lomond and had spent a very pleasant day walking in and around Lake Moke, both to the NW of the town. We thought it would be interesting to head up to Lake Alta in the Remarkables Ski Area to see whether the Summer vistas of shattered rock would make for interesting images. As it turned out it was more difficult than I thought to capture such rocky terrain as there is little upon which to base a sense of scale - but that's a story for another day.

As we headed up the switchback from Kawarau Falls a glance back revealed a clearing sky and patchy sunlight illuminating the valley floor below. I set up on the side of the road taking shots as the clouds and light moved and shifted across the landscape. I took several panoramas of this view but this one was by far my favourite. Clearer skies had started to give way to the darker roiling clouds in the distance which were pushing over the tops of the far hills as if trying to toboggan down the slopes and into the lake but yet the foreground remained lit by beams of sunlight cresting the peaks of the Remarkables range to the West. These contrasting lighting conditions really lent themselves to the HDR technique with which I was experimenting.

I love the clouds in this image and the intense green on the valley floor but I am especially drawn to the dappled light and detail on the mountain peaks to the East.

We planned a trip up to Lake Alta in the ski-fields above Queenstown and I knew we would be climbing up the side of The Remarkables to reach our destination.

Using the The Photographer's Ephemeris allowed me to know where the sun would break out above the mountains and thus provide me with the opportunity to potentially capture the valley and the hills lit with interesting light. Timing the trip allowed me to get into position about half way up the range to the vantage point from where this shot was taken