Michael Wilkins
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Panoramic aerial photograph of Lake Pukaki at dusk, glassy teal water sweeping left toward snow-covered ranges, a curved gravel shoreline and tussock headland on the right with an empty lakeside road.

The Pukaki Shoreline

Lake Pukaki, New Zealand · September 2020

DJI Mavic Air 2, 5 millimetres, f 2.8, 1/15 of a second, ISO 210

One curve of gravel does all the work in this frame.

A stitched pano from the drone, hanging over the eastern shore while the last light worked along the range. What holds it together is the gravel spit — that pale curve pulls the eye from the open water round to the tussock headland, with the highway running along the shore behind it, empty. Winter dusk here goes violet before it goes dark, and the lake keeps the last of the warmth long after the land has given it up.