Christchurch Outdoor Sports & lifestyle Photographer

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Ultra Running Photographs from 2010 – 2014.

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It’s a shame to have my early work that documented the New Zealand & Australian ultra running scene from 2010- 2014 hidden away on my hard drive. So with a new blog, I’ve decided to share the images as I’m super proud of them. During this period I spent a fair bit of my time, energy and money traveling around the country capturing imagery for ultra running events, and some running brands. Looking back, this series of images is more personal work than commercial, but taught me a lot of skills that I still use today. They were captured in colour, but I have a fascination with monochrome so that’s that. I had some opportunities though to work with athletes such as Anna Frost, Grant Guise, Matt Bixley, and Anton Krupicka and events such as the Tarawera, Northface 100, and the Northburn 100. I wish I had made the opportunities back then blossom, but in all honesty I was new to commercial image making, and did not really have a clue what I was doing on the business side either. Even smart phones and social media was new to me a decade ago!

These days I’m comfortable when it comes to business, and I guess it’s true what people say, things really do take time to master. Over the few years of shooting ultra imagery I was also published across multiple trail running magazines in NZ, Europe and Australia, which was great. After the long distance focus I then moved onto more commercial orientated sports work with brands such as Nike, Fitbits, Salomon Running, Blackcaps, and shorter distance events. As for future long distance running image making, I guess you will have to watch this space. Rest assure though, that if I do return to the ultra running scene, I’ll be shooting it with passion, vigour and a new developed aesthetic!

If you want to see me back out on the trails, drop me a comment below. I’d really appreciate that! The images as a complete set are not what I would call technically perfect like a lot of my future/ current work, but they are emotive, and at the time went against most other event photographers style, and that’s what make the collection special to me. Did I have a favourite event? I guess the Northburn 100 was my most liked adventure with my camera. The whole location was (is) just epic and so so rugged, and event organiser Terry is one in a million too. Top bloke. Obviously all the events that have made it through the past decade are much bigger, more commercialised and hugely popular now. Do they have the same magic? Who knows.

I’m not a Facebook user, so I’d really appreciate it if you could share to your page? Please use the sharing buttons on the right side. If you do download images of yourself and friends, please can you credit me, give me a share, add a link back here, or tag me on Instagram. Thank you.

Here are just a few images from the full set that you can view over here.

 

Selwyns Portrait at Waikuku Beach.

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Selwyn is a super talented and intensely passionate fellow. Majoring in Film making at Ilam, he’s also an actor, advocate of Mens mental health and numerous other worthwhile endeavours. You guessed it, we met at Ilam back in 2018, and Selywn just turned 21 and reached out to find out how much I charge for portraits on film. He wanted a set of images that would capture this very special milestone in his life, and also a printed gift to his Mother.

We met at Waikuku Beach, that’s about 30 mins outside of Christchurch and what a spectacular place to take it all in! There is sandy beach as far as the eye can see as well as forest, sand dunes and marshland full of bird life. We were also blessed with a spectacular sunset that seemed to radiate 360 degrees. We captured another set of images on film too.

I’m not a Facebook user, so I’d really appreciate it if you could share to your page? Please use the sharing buttons on the right side. If you do download images of yourself and friends, please can you credit me, give me a share, add a link back here, or tag me on Instagram. Thank you.

 

Outdoor Photography & Kepler Challenge.

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Flashback. It’s 2017 and after moving back to Christchurch from central Auckland, I had to simplify my life. As well as being a parent, I had the Good People Run brand and a successful Auckland City based photo tuition business taking up all of my spare time outside of my commercial work. It was the point in my life that I had to admit I was doing too much and that things had not worked out as planned. I closed the Good People Run doors, folded the tuition business, and faced life post Auckland. There was also my mental health that after years of neglect had become problematic and needed attention. In essence I had to start over again from scratch, and my outdoor portfolio came to a natural halt.

That was now five years ago, and for most of that time I’ve been a bit of a recluse as I worked out what to do next. During this time I slowly focussed on re-building my photography business in both Christchurch and Auckland, and enrolled to study a photography degree, where I’m now just 3 months away from graduation. I’ve worked part-time commercially the whole time to pay for the studies, and after a good think about where to in 2022, I’ve decided to now focus my energy back to commercial outdoor image making part-time once again. For a lot of my work I shoot outside, but I guess I want to have a portfolio showcasing my full skill set to include not just portraits, but sports and outdoor brands too. I’ve decided to literally bring Outdoor Photography back from the ashes moving into 2022 alongside my more workplace/ business focussed work, and I’m really happy to be focussed once again on the genre of photography that I love most. Being outside.

The last outdoor sports shoot that I did before taking some respite, was for the infamous Kepler Challenge in 2017 as an official photographer. I’ve had a fascinating relationship with the Kepler event as a runner, and completed the 60km challenge in a day, for three consecutive years from 2009 – 2011. I’ve always wanted to capture the event from a photographers point of view and jumped at the opportunity. I’ll never forget it. I drove my camper van to Te Anau, and was graced with a chopper ride to the Hanging Valley Hut right into the mountains before the route towards the descent into the forest. The wind was so strong that day, and on the way up that it made me very nervous. The pilot knew exactly what he was doing though, and at several points of the flight he literally hugged the mountain side to avoid the wind currents I guess? Regardless of his skill, it was still terrifying being blown around in such a light weight machine. Exiting the chopper, myself and other image makers, were greeted with gale force winds, rain and freezing temperatures. I’m pretty accustomed to the New Zealand mountains, but on this day the weather was some of the worst I’ve experienced. I was equipped well for the day with multiple layers, down jacket and waterproof gear, but my camera equipment got so saturated that both lenses (wide and zoom) started to malfunction. I’m assuming it was because water had got into the contact points of the lens and body. In reflection, I had let my lens sealing perish over the years, and with such strong winds liquid was forced past these seals. I ended up capturing most of the high mountain running on my 16-35mm as it was the only only lens that worked! After a full day shooting along ridges upto 1300m +, it was time to head back down the mountain.
The flight was even more perilous this time, with the chopper being pushed aggressively from side to side as we plotted our route back. Once again the pilot looked outwards and this time towards the forest below at lower altitude. It looked like he was watching for tree movement and working out where to fly from there. We made it back and I was gobsmacked at the conditions we had just experienced. Can you imagine what it was like above the forest line for the runners?!?!

2022 will be exciting for me as I look back to where I started, but also where I’m going with my work as an outdoor photographer. A lot has changed in my life and work, and I look forward to making images with you, your brand or event with a style that even after all this time stands apart from other image makers. See you out there! Bookings are limited though, so please contact me for details.

This set of images have sat on my hard disk for 5 years, so this is the first time I’ve published the set. They are not perfect and clearly affected by the extreme weather conditions, but it’s good to share the feelings of being on a mountain top in horrific weather as an athlete. I’m not a Facebook user, so I’d really appreciate it if you could share to your page? Please use the sharing buttons on the right side. If you do download images of yourself and friends, please can you credit me, give me a share, add a link back here, or tag me on Instagram. Thank you.