New Zealand: another look at Little Manly Beach
Five years ago today I spent some morning time—in fact the last morning in New Zealand on that first trip—at what turned out to be one of my favorite places for abstract photographs, Little Manly Beach on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula north of Auckland.
You’re looking at some of the beach details that fascinated me.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
These could have been taken here. I love looking for abstracts and patterns on the beach.
Heyjude
February 27, 2020 at 6:11 AM
Glad to hear it. That’s yet another incentive to visit Cornwall.
Steve Schwartzman
February 27, 2020 at 6:22 AM
Oh, the wonders of the macro cosmos which you captured so well, Steve!
Peter Klopp
February 27, 2020 at 7:54 AM
Wonders indeed. I was sorry that circumstances got in the way of revisiting this place on our second visit to New Zealand.
Steve Schwartzman
February 27, 2020 at 7:59 AM
The colors and textures are lovely.
circadianreflections
February 27, 2020 at 8:08 AM
You can imagine my excitement at finding so many forms and textures to photograph.
Steve Schwartzman
February 27, 2020 at 8:33 AM
I can!
circadianreflections
February 27, 2020 at 9:05 AM
I’d first been there late the previous afternoon, when the sun was already low, and took what pictures I could. Then I went back the next morning for another chance with the light coming from the opposite direction.
Steve Schwartzman
February 27, 2020 at 9:08 AM
How cool that you were there long enough to figure out the best lighting and get another visit there in the better light. Sometimes we just don’t have that chance.
circadianreflections
February 27, 2020 at 9:10 AM
I’d also planned to return right before the end of our second trip two years later, but torrential rains intervened and made that impossible.
Steve Schwartzman
February 27, 2020 at 9:32 AM
You never know how the light or weather will be. No place is the same twice is it? I’m glad you got to go back the first trip for these images.
circadianreflections
February 27, 2020 at 9:41 AM
No, no place is ever quite the same. Sometimes that proves a disappointment, and other times the opposite happens. That’s especially true with wildflowers: a site that looks fabulous one year can be blah a year later.
Steve Schwartzman
February 27, 2020 at 9:52 AM
So true!
circadianreflections
February 27, 2020 at 10:50 AM
Beautifully textured photos–I like them!
Tina
February 27, 2020 at 9:10 AM
Let’s hear it for textures and shapes!
Steve Schwartzman
February 27, 2020 at 9:27 AM
Most marvelous abstracts.
Michael Scandling
February 27, 2020 at 10:29 AM
I guess that means I’ve earned an MMA degree.
Steve Schwartzman
February 27, 2020 at 10:42 AM
Fact.
Michael Scandling
February 27, 2020 at 10:43 AM
I really like all the structures you captured here.
rabirius
February 28, 2020 at 11:38 AM
It was an excellent place for forms, textures, and colors.
Steve Schwartzman
February 28, 2020 at 11:44 AM
Looks like I get to be the first to say that number three looks like a fish. Of course maybe it went without saying and i spoiled it. Lots of nice abstracts.
Steve Gingold
February 28, 2020 at 4:13 PM
I guess everyone else was floundering around but you came right out and said it.
Steve Schwartzman
February 28, 2020 at 4:39 PM
What I take to be algae in the last photo seems so light and delicate; it resembles green spider webbing. In the photo just above it (my favorite) the orange patch suggests splotches of iron, like those that I found at Monument Rocks in Kansas. The combination of rock and growth in the first photo’s especially pleasing. It could be nature’s version of Millefoglie — it looks like there are enough layers.
shoreacres
February 29, 2020 at 5:56 AM
I also assume the green in the first and last photo is algae. Green spider webbing would be something to see.
Your reference to Monument Rock again renews my interest in going there.
With millefoglie you’ve reminded me of an incident from the first time I was in France, in 1985. In a pastry shop I learned that a certain pastry was called millefeuille, literally ‘a thousand leaves [layers].’ I made a joke by telling the clerk something to the effect that that was too many and I only wanted a few. (After 35 years, I don’t remember my wording in French.)
Steve Schwartzman
February 29, 2020 at 7:26 AM