Street Photography in Napier New Zealand

During our fall 2018 trip to the North Island, my wife and I spent about an hour doing some street photography in Napier, New Zealand. The city suffered a catastrophic earthquake on 3 February 1931 which killed 256 residents and injured thousands. It remains as New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster in history.

Significant rebuilding followed the earthquake resulting in a plethora of Art Deco architecture in the core of the city. This article features a wide variety of street photography images captured hand-held during a rainy afternoon in Napier.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 10 mm, efov 27 mm, f/5.6, 1/500, ISO-800

If you want to see what Napier looked like immediately after the earthquake, a brightly painted alleyway (pictured above) will take you to some historical photographs…

Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 10 mm, efov 27 mm, f/5.6, 1/800, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 10 mm, efov 27 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 10 mm, efov 27 mm, f/5.6, 1/640, ISO-800

People who enjoy architectural photography should definitely consider a visit to Napier if they are on the North Island. The following images provide a sampling of the buildings and street views that you will experience in Napier.

Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 12.1 mm, efov 32.7 mm, f/5, 1/1600, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 22.9 mm, efov 61.8 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 60.4 mm, efov 163.1 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 22.9 mm, efov 61.8 mm, f/6.3, 1/500, ISO-800

To help deal with the rain, I shot many of my images while standing under overhangs. I was regularly across the street from my subject building and used longer telephoto focal lengths to capture my images. When possible I waited for cars and pedestrians to pass by before creating my images. Some of the downpours are noticeable in the images in this article.

Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 11.5 mm, efov 31.1 mm, f/9, 1/320, ISO-400
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 10 mm, efov 27 mm, f/9, 1/200, ISO-400

I worked very rapidly in the rain, capturing a total of 235 photographs, as I tried to keep my camera gear as dry as possible. This meant that I was constantly pulling my camera out from under my waterproof jacket and often shooting without checking my settings for each photograph. Unfortunately this resulted in some of the setting dials on my Nikon J5 getting inadvertently moved a number of times. This produced some unusual EXIF data as many of you may have noticed.

Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 46.1 mm, efov 124.5 mm, f/10, 1/160, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 10 mm, efov 27 mm, f/8, 1/320, ISO-400

Despite the challenging conditions I still enjoyed my soggy afternoon in Napier.

My eye is always draw to architectural details when I’m out doing street photography as seen in the following images.

Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 77.8 mm, efov 210 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 33.6 mm, efov 90.7 mm, f/5.6, 1/125, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 100 mm, efov 270 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 40.6 mm, efov 109.6 mm, f/10, 1/400, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 16.1 mm, efov 43.5 mm, f/9, 1/200, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 31.9 mm, efov 86.1 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 64.1 mm, efov 173.1 mm, f/5.6, 1/125, ISO-800

As regular readers will know, I also like to photograph shapes and patterns. I captured a few images of this nature during our rushed, hour-long visit to the Art Deco area of Napier.

Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 20.3 mm, efov 54.8 mm, f/5.6, 1/1250, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 60.4 mm, efov 163.1 mm, f/5.6, 1/160, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 54 mm, efov 145.8 mm, f/9, 1/250, ISO-800

Napier New Zealand is a colourful city that is rich in history, and a gem for fans of architectural photography.

Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 10 mm, efov 27 mm, f/5, 1/200, ISO-800
Nikon 1 J5 + 1 Nikkor 10-100 mm f/4-5.6 @ 38.8 mm, efov 104.8 mm, f/5.6, 1/15, ISO-800

If you enjoyed this article and are interested in viewing more New Zealand information and photographs, you may enjoy our eBook, New Zealand Tip-to-Tip, which is available for purchase and download at a cost of $12.99 Canadian.

 

Technical Note:
All photographs in this article were captured hand-held in available light using Nikon 1 gear as per the EXIF data. All images were produced from RAW files using my standard process of DxO PhotoLab, CS6 and the Nik Collection. I used perspective control adjustments on many of the photographs in this article.

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