That brief moment, just before sunrise, when it’s no longer night – but the day is still yet to arrive – that was the moment when I captured this view of Hooker Lake, in the foothills of New Zealand’s Mount Cook. Standing at 3,724m (following a rockslide which lost 40m in 1991), Aoraki Mt Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, set amongst the collection of peaks which make up the Southern Alps. As with most […]
Travelling around the US, it was great being able to pick up an early copy of National Geographic’s “Greatest Landscapes” book – published this month, featuring my shot of the stunning lone willow tree that sits in Lake Wanaka, New Zealand – before I head back to London. Released in the UK on 17th November, this 400 page book features some of the most dramatic and iconic photography from all around the world, and it’s a […]
Over-used by cliché wedding photographers, over-“influenced” by millions of instagrammers and over-sold around the world by tourism boards, this once peaceful hiking trail and overlook across Lake Wanaka has sadly now become a magnet for “look at me” shots worldwide. Beautiful though it is, Roy’s Peak has fallen victim to the same challenges faced by “that Wanaka tree” and many other tourist traps nearby – the result of huge popularity following the publishing of (what were […]
It’s the shot I thought had got away – the image of New Zealand’s Aoraki Mount Cook and its surrounding range, dusted in snow, with glacial icebergs floating in the river before me. Only 3 weeks prior, our initial trip to Hooker Lake ended in disappointment. The trek to the lakefront was filled with slips, slides, falls and bumps as the ice underfoot made a (normally easy) walk that little bit more interesting. Despite the clear […]
Persuading me to leave a 5-star hotel and “rough it” in a Jucy campervan for a week or two while tearing around New Zealand’s south island is no mean feat, but just over a year ago now it was done – and with some great photography results to show for it. This year, based on that success, was the return. With a lot more clarity on our route, more flexibility in our approach and with Jucy […]
For all the weather forecasts and cloud cover tools that exist out there, one element of each day still remains completely unpredictable to all of us photographers: Sunset. We might proclaim “it’s going to be a good one tonight” or “there’s on point, nothing’s going to happen” with a knowingly convincing tone every now and then, but the truth is nobody can really say what will happen in the sky from one evening to the next. Our […]
Seeing the northern lights (aurora borealis) in the sky above us is becoming an increasingly popular to-do list item, but despite being fortunate enough to have seen them a few times now, the lure of seeing the southern lights (aurora australis) during our time in New Zealand was just too tempting to ignore. We’d been lucky so far, really, when it came to night sky photographs. While not my favourite subject, hunting for the right location, angle, […]
With lots of exciting news coming up, I’m delighted to finally be able to announce a new (amazing!) option to my workshop line-up for next year. Working directly with the team at Phase One, not only will I be running a direct workshop on New Zealand’s south island, but in June 2016 we’ll also be offering a longer, enhanced, PODAS (“Phase One Digital Artist Series”) trip this winter! The PODAS workshops really are something else […]
Well, *I* was back for winter – I’m going to guess the willow trees themselves didn’t go anywhere since I was there last year! For those who remember my shots from last winter – “myst” and “the three witches“, you’ll recall that we were pretty much fog-bound for the window we had to shoot. This time, with the flexibility of our “Jucy Casa” home on wheels, I was determined to get a shot showing the true […]
The bitterness of the cold winter mist across Lake Wakatipu in Glenorchy is the strongest memory I have of taking this photograph. Granted, it’s turned out better than I could have hoped for given my initial trip to these famous willow trees the night before – but wow, the weather really made me work for it. “Myst” – print available to buy now The shot above, “myst” was actually taken around 7:30am, just before sunrise, and […]
Every now and then, I’m surprised by the reaction to a photograph which I didn’t think was that great when I actually took it. This image, “Alone“, taken at Lake Wanaka on New Zealand’s South Island just outside of Queenstown, turned out to be one of those shots after I uploaded it onto a few social media platforms… Some trips just aren’t destined to go the way I had them planned in my head. Flying to […]
