Tunnels
A few more shots from a last weekend at Fort Balance…
Fergus lining up a shot.
Nikon D90, Sigma 12-24mm Lens, ISO 200, Torch.
Fort Balance At Night
10 minute exposure at Fort Balance. This is the last shot Rollei took before having a bit of a malfunction which meant the 20 minute exposure didn’t come out 😦 Might be time to send Rollei away for a bit of a service.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Explorer Self Portrait
A bit of Urbex from yesterday…
Nikon D90, Tamron 12-24mm Lens, ISO 200, Torch.
Rollei At Work
Rollei doing what it does best amidst the ruins of Fort Balance
Nikon F5, 50mm f1.8, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner
Fort Balance Revisited
This was straight after we had come down from Kau point… Fergus and I were already pretty tired from climbing up cliffs and down into underground passages but decided to go to Fort Balance which was just round the next point. We have been there before but not for a couple of years. We drove round to where the gully was and parked the car and then proceeded to follow the track up the hill… Unfortunately it was the wrong track and we ended up climbing through bracken for 45 minutes before coming out way too high up and being blocked going down by a large and vertical cliff. Luckily the was an unmarked radar station of some sort which had a road up to it that we could go down to the fort.
When we got there there was a couple of people taking photos there already and I think we gave them a bit of a fright since technically it is still military land and it probably didn’t help that I was wearing khaki cargo pants that were a bit military looking 🙂
Anyway as it turned out the light was pretty much at its best just as we got there even if we were a bit worn out…
Fergus finally got himself a TLR… Still haven’t seen the shots out of it but here is hoping that it is good 🙂
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Fort Balance Retrospective
On the front of Fridays Dominion Post there was an article about the military wanting to sell off the land that a number of the historic fortresses are on. A few years ago I decided to go and investigate all of the old forts and battlements around Wellington and found this one while looking for something else… I think these were taken around 2008… I have kept meaning to try and get actual permission to go back since this one and a couple of others are on Military land but have never got round to it… Possibly because I have no idea where to ask 🙂
Here are some shots of Fort Balance which was built in the 1880s. There is a good article HERE which details most of the history of the fort.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, ISO 200.
Balance by Torchlight
Fort Balance, Wellington
Nikon F5, Ilford Delta 3200 film, f1.8 30 secs with fill light from torch
Pre WWII gun emplacement… Abandoned by military, Adopted by graffiti artists.
Part of a series I am currently working on about abandoned gun emplacements around Wellington.
Darkhalide Photography 
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