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Outdoor Photography & Kepler Challenge.

5 September 2021 By paulpetch@me.com Leave a Comment

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.

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.

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. 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.

 

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© Paul Petch . Call Paul on 0210 336 047

paulpetch@me.com