Every two years the Marlborough Camera Club organises a weekend away at Lake Rotoiti St Arnaud. This year it was on the weekend of the 14th-16th June 2024 staying at the Lake Rotoiti Lodge. It is also open to other camera clubs in the top of the south and there were a small number of members from the Nelson and Motueka clubs.

Late afternoon on Friday the 14th of June I travelled the 100kms to St Arnaud via State Highway 63 from Blenheim, it was raining throughout the road trip. The weather forecast had the rain clearing overnight.

As the rain had cleared by Saturday morning, I headed down to West Bay for some landscape photos of the lake, there had been a small amount of snow on the tops of the mountains overnight.

I then went around to Kerr Bay where I spent the next three hours on my hands and knees photographing fungi. To be honest I didn’t have to walk too far along the Bellbird Track as there was a large patch of fungi approximately 50m along the track.

To put it into context most of the fungi were between 10-20mm high. I had my camera on a small flexible tripod, so my camera was close to the ground. Using my TTArtisan 40mm macro lens, I also found it easier to connect my camera to my phone via Wi-Fi to control my camera with the Sony Imaging Edge App this was to avoid touching the camera. It was also an easier way to review my images.

Click on the images below for full size.

After lunch I went down one of the tracks by the lodge only to find one fungi and then the showers of rain came in, so I decided to go back to the lodge where I spent the rest of the afternoon talking with other members and also reviewing and processing images.

On Saturday evening we went down to the Alpine Lodge for dinner and then we went down to the jetty at the lake for some Steel Wool Photography.

Steel Wool Photography is where you have an egg whisk attached to a chain and you put kitchen steelo pads into the egg whisk. The steelo pads are then lit with a nine-volt battery and then spun around in different patterns creating sparks. Using a slow exposure in camera you get some amazing light painting.

On Saturday evening there was a slight breeze which created some ripples in the water so the reflections weren’t as clear as we would have liked.

It’s a fun activity to do and a way to get some creative images.

Click on the images below for full size

The rain came back on Sunday morning, so didn’t venture out. Some braved the weather but were back at the lodge a short time later. We spent the rest of the morning talking and cleaning up the lodge.

After an early lunch we all said our goodbyes and headed back home.

The weekend was what you made of it. Good freindship, plenty of photography opputinities and fun activities.

Overall it was a great weekend despite the weather.