Certificate in Photography in Tauranga

The first assignments are about controlling the camera, and the Mount is the Tauranga classroom. Main Beach at sunrise gives you a moving subject in the surf and a fixed one in Moturiki Island: shoot the same wave at 1/1000 and at two seconds and the shutter-speed lesson is done. Walk round to Pilot Bay in the evening and the harbour goes flat and gold, which is the aperture and depth-of-field exercise with boats and the bridge as subjects. The base track around Mauao links the two and gives you coast on both sides.

For composition, climb Mauao. The summit puts the ocean, the harbour, the port and the whole city in front of you, and the assignment about simplifying a frame becomes about choosing between them; go at dawn, when the light is soft and the track is quiet. Stay on the tracks; Mauao is a significant maunga. Pāpāmoa Hills gives you the same exercise with Mauao itself in the distance.