I Love Balian...

Balian is a village situated on the west coast of Bali around 2 hours drive north of Denpasar. It reminds me of the old Bali, before the thousands of tourists and developments around Kuta and the surrounding areas. I stayed at the Pondok Pitaya Surfer Hotel right on the beach at Balian and had a great time. There’s fantastic food, massage, surfing, exploring and kitesurfing right at your door. And as far as I was concerned, the best time of the day there was right around sunset.

The west coast of Bali is renowned for it's sunsets - you certainly won't be disappointed in Balian.

If you’re ever in Bali, go check out Balian for yourself. You can get there from the Kuta/Denpasar area with a driver. At the time of writing, this it cost me around $50 US one way. Or better still you can book a complete package of accommodation airport pickup through the guys at Bali Retreats in Australia.

Want to see more of my images from Balian? Well either check out the slideshow below or click here to see the full gallery.

Pondok Pitaya – Balian | Bali | Indonesia – Images by Mark Gee

All of these were shot in color, but I went with Black & White duo-tone type processing as they seemed to work better.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to post these as I kind of liked them, but kind of didn’t, but they were all shot with one of my favorite lenses – The Canon 90mm TS-E.

This is a tilt-shift lens where you can use selective focus by tilting the lens to achieve miniature looking shots. The shift part of it is useful in architectural type photos where you can avoid convergence of parallel line when shooting taller buildings. Apart from that it’s a great portrait lens & pretty good for some landscapes too, as it’s super sharp with great contrast. Have a look at them & see what you think…

The bungalows at Pondok Pitaya located right on the beach in Balian. Great place to stay...

I wasn't quite sure what to think of this one - I sometimes like it, but then I change my mind & don't like it so much. It's probably the best example of this bunch of using the tilt-shift to make things look miniature.

I didn't tilt or shift the lens on this one, just shot it as is - such a sharp lens!

A lot of the time, good waves around Wellington in New Zealand are hard to come by. But if you are prepared to hit the road & do a little searching, you can certainly score some great waves.

I began watching the swell forecast earlier in the week, & things were looking promising with a fairly intense low heading north off the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Earlier forecasts were for 3-4m swells, but by the time the weekend came around the forecast was downgraded to 2.5m swells. The decision was to either stay in Wellington & hope for waves at Lyall Bay, or head on over to the Wairarapa & try & score much bigger & better surf.

Saturday morning came, & after a early morning check of Lyall, it was clear that I’d be better off heading over the hill to the Wairarapa. I packed the car ready for anything, & started off on the drive that would take just over 2 hours to the first surf break I was going to check out. The wind was blowing quite strongly from the NW when I got there, so I shot some photos & then headed on to the east coast where I knew it would be more protected. As I arrived on the east coast, I knew I had made the right decision. There were a only handful of guys out, & the waves on the point were pretty clean & a good 4 foot plus on the sets.

I ended up surfing a few breaks around that area over the two days, & I shot a heap of photos & some video too. Below is a slide show of just 28 of the photos I shot. You can watch the slide show & click on the photos to be taken to a larger version of it, of you can click here to go to the gallery. I’ll be definitely heading back that way next time there’s swell…

Surf Search Wairarapa | 3-4th July 2010 – Images by Mark Gee

The Gold Coast Australia is renown for its great surf & beaches, fantastic climate & a great lifestyle. It’s also where I lived for a big chunk of my life before relocating to Wellington, New Zealand. So I am fortunate enough to have lived that lifestyle by the beach, & being able to surf almost every day when there were waves.

I returned to the Gold Coast for two weeks there during May 2010 & wanted to capture some of these aspects of the Gold Coast life. My aim was to get up every morning just before sunrise & go down to the beach & photograph for an hour or so. Luckily for me, it was getting pretty close to winter & sunrise was at a some what respectable hour of 6.30am. I’ve done it before in summer, & because there is no daylight saving on the Gold Coast, sunrise is just before 5am!

The weather was pretty much perfect for the whole time I was there with tops around 21 degrees celcius during the day. Even the early mornings were warm enough on some of the days to head out for a surf in just boardies. This was a far cry from the weather Wellington was getting while I was away. I was even getting emails from people in Wellington a little disappointed that I had posted photos on my facebook photography page of prefect weather & pristine conditions on the Gold Coast, while they suffered in icy cold southerlies & driving rain for much of the time I was away. Good timing for me I say!

The only thing I missed & was hoping for while I was there, was more waves. There were a couple of perfect offshore days where the beachies were firing, but I was hoping for more swell so I could get a chance to shoot some decent waves on the points. I did manage to head down to Burleigh Heads to shoot one day when there was a bit of swell, but it was pretty small on the point. However, I did get a few shots, but it would be nice to catch it on a classic day at Burleigh.

There are 53 photos in total. You can watch the slideshow below & click on the photos to be taken to a larger version of it, of you can click here or on the photo above to go to the gallery.

Gold Coast Australia | Surf & Beach Lifestyle – Images by Mark Gee

The last of the afternoon sun shines on Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand

Daylight saving is a great time in New Zealand. On the good days you get this amazing light around 8pm, especially in Wellington as it baths the surrounding hills in this gorgeous golden glow.

The shot above was taken with a 500mm lens from Evans Bay looking towards the cutting at Miramar. The Venture, the boat that was used in the movie King Kong can be seen in the foreground rusting away at Miramar wharf. I think this really adds to the golden glow seen on the hills behind.

Click here or on the photo above to see more images taken around Wellington.