Coming Soon...

My tour of Southland and Otago's photourist hotspots with the Jules Lund crew was done at a hectic pace, much of our destinations off the grid as far as uploading updates goes. Even when we were within 3G range, we were running and gunning too hard to share much from the road.





Now I'm home, I'm taking a look through some of my stuff, already reliving the great time we had. I'll be posting some of it soon but first I'd just like to thank all the folks who made it possible - Heather Mollins and Tourism Dunedin, Tourism New Zelanand, Venture Southland and Canon Australia. My special thanks goes to all the local operators who made our trip so amazing. Their dedication to providing a great experience as well as protecting and enhancing our precious natural assets was inspiring. It makes me proud to think that our international visitors can have these great experiences packaged in such a warm, personal Kiwi touch.



Lastly, what a revelation Jules Lund was. I'd never even seen the guy on telly before, but I gather he's quite a star back home and deservedly so. I used to front TV many moons ago and know it's not as easy as it looks. Jules is a real pro. Always working, wonderfully energised and up for anything, he's a natural presenter. He is also a gifted photographer. For a guy so eager to learn from others, he sure has a lot of skill and a great eye. To see such dedication and talent in a guy who is also genuinely unaffected by the TV biz, approachable, modest and warm, well it just lead me to the conclusion that the rest of us mortals must band together to take him out. His pathetic attempts to light paint "NZ" on our night in Mason's Bay homestead were the only thing that made us take pity on him. Otherwise we'd have clubbed him to death with our long lenses and left his youthful, well-proportioned body in the dunes.

Right, unpacking to do and many Gigs of pix to look at. But first, my Saturday violin lesson.

Off the grid

Bad weather, a madcap schedule and remote locations have kept me off the grid on our little photo safari. Rest assured were getting great stuff from awesome locations. And then there's the food. more later.

Day One: Great Success

The pace is hectic, and its late, but here are a few shots from the trip so far. Can't let you see the A shots I'm afraid, but these give you a taste of what we're up to. We ditched the sunrise, but conditions improved rapidly once we got out on Otago Peninsula and it became another great day for photography here in Dunedin.



After a little mountain biking, I took the team to my favourite ruin, while the crew filmed us shooting and swapping tips. Here's the stills crew: Camilla, Neerav, Jules and the one looking scarily like my Dad, well that's me.



After an elegant repast at Larnach Castle, we departed with Elm Wildlife tours to spend some times with the Yellow eyed penguins and Hookers Sealions that call our little patch of the Peninsula home.





This morning feels like a week ago. Batteries charged, shots downloaded. Time to pack for the big adventure tomorrow. And that picture tells me I've got to get some beauty sleep.

Flying to Stewart Island tomorrow, so it may be a day or so before I report back. Should have some fun stuff to share by then.

Southern Safari

Day one of our 100% Photgraphy Southern Photo Safari! We're supposed to start with a sunrise at St Clair, so I went down yesterday for a little recce to see what we could do. The weather is not cooperating, so the sunrise was subtle and fleeting.





Conditions like this force us to be creative, so I don't really have a problem with taking the gang out for this kind of thing. But now it's raining and I've heard we've scratched the beach shoot. Probably a good idea. I'll find out what the new plan is over breakfast. Improvising! I love it. It's going to be an exciting day.

I'd Like To Share Something With You

It's this:



There's such a growing interest in photography these days that I've decided to advertise the fact that I run workshops and guide photo safaris to help people make pictures like this. This shot is one I took up in Coromandel, but there's so much to share right in my own back yard here in Dunedin and the surrounding regions. This has also been precipitated by the trip I'm taking for Tourism NZ et al at the end of the week.

I'm stoked to add that my mate Mike Thorsen is keen to help me in these adventures. Mike's a first rate wildlife and macro photog who also likes to share what he knows. So, I've added this page to my freelance business site, so people know where to find us. Get in touch!

Congrats Camilla!

Canon have just announced the winner of the Tourism NZ EOS Photochain comp. It's Camilla Lundbak. Camilla will be accompanied by Neerav Bhatt and myself on a truly fabulous photo safari at the end of this week, supported by Canon Australia, Tourism NZ, Tourism Dunedin and Venture Southland. Check out Camilla's winning picture here.

The competition judges said "The water, the mountains and the curtain of light seem more like layers in a pop up book." Nice call. Congratulations Camilla, looking forward to helping you capture some more great pictures from my neck of the woods!

Meet Some Friends Of Mine

My upcoming tour of Otago and Southland is to accompany the winner of the Canon 100% photography competition. I'm not sure who that's going to be yet, but I hope they're bringing some thermals. After several weeks of summer temperatures in the high 20's, a southerly blast is now lashing the new scarfies (university students) and fashionistas in town for ID fashion week (which my lucky mate Mike McQueen is shooting).

What I do know is that we'll be accompanied by travel and technology writer Neerav Bhatt. Neerav's a prodigious blogger, and you should check him out here. As well as a bunch of great gear lent by Canon from the trip, we're hoping to get our hands on their new 550D for Neerav to review.

Right now I'm also racing to put together some shots for a little show I'm putting on with Mike, Reatha Kenny and Mike Thorsen. Together we've formed an informal project-based group called The Light Brigade. Reatha has amazing skills at shooting people, some of which you can see here. I'm stoked to add that we've just been joined by my old mate Lindsay (Sid) Somerville. Lindsay's a seasoned pro, and you shouldn't let the fact that he and I have played in a couple of bands together stop you from checking out his stuff.

The little show? More on that later. Meanwhile, here's one of the shots I'm thinking of including.