How I got the photo: Takapourewa Night Skies

This photo is the one that started it all. It was my first-ever award-winning shot, and it opened up a world of opportunity and adventure in my photography career.

The location was Takapourewa / Stephens Island, a place that has always held a special fascination for me. This tiny island is home to the largest population of Tuatara in the world, as well as a rare species of frog and countless seabirds.

I was on the island to help count the very rare Hamilton's frog, and we had just finished a long counting trip to the “frogbank” near the summit in the dark of night. As we made our way back down, we emerged onto an open saddle and were greeted by an incredible sight: thousands of fairy prions swirling and swooping through the sky above us.

Despite my exhaustion, I knew that this was a moment I couldn't let slip away. I handed my flash to Tansy and positioned her further down the track, pointing it towards the sky. With no tripod in sight, I rested my camera on my backpack and used a remote trigger to capture the scene. This was the third frame I shot, and it remains one of my favorite photos to this day.

How I got the photo: basketball drone

I took this award-winning (NZ Geographic 2022) drone photo while on assignment for the Nelson Mail / Stuff. The story was about the opening of a new basketball court and playground in Stoke, and when I arrived, I initially shot some standard photos of the subjects posing for a shot on the court. However, I quickly realized that these photos would be quite samey and wouldn't stand out from the rest.

To capture a more unique shot, I put my drone up in the air, hoping to capture a wide shot of the whole brightly colored playground. While the photos came out alright, they weren't quite what I was after. However, while I was shooting my drone, some teenagers started playing basketball on the court.

After getting their permission to be photographed, I shot a series of photos of them playing basketball, with the hope of capturing their shadows in action. Although the time of day didn't quite align with what I was after, I decided to shoot some low and close-up shots of them anyways. When I reviewed the shots, one particular frame stood out above the rest, capturing the teenagers' shadows in an incredible moment of action.

This photo went on to be featured on the cover of the local community paper and became the main image for the online story. It's an example of how sometimes, the best shots can come from unexpected moments and improvisation.

Photographed on a DJI Mavic Air2S with no filters in SPORT mode.

ISO 100, 1/500th of a second, 22mm, f/2.8

Stratford Speedway 11/02/22

The stockcars were action packed, with cars rolling and 55s winning but being relegated due to an issue with the race start.

Glenys Langton from the Toko lions. This is her 3rd season at Stratford Speedway. She was very happy it hasn’t been cancelled due to weather.

Superstocks in the dummy grid ready to head out onto the track.

Although the night started with rain and clouds, punters were treated to a spectacular sunset.

The speedway bathed in the post sunset glow.

Watching the last race of the night.

2022 Photographer of the year

The last year has been a whirlwind of photography for me. I’ve shot for magazines, newspapers and commercial clients all over New Zealand. Most of the work never sees the light of day (outside of where its used) so competitions like New Zealand Geographic photographer of the year are a great way to highlight images that may otherwise not be showcased.

My entries and the images that made the finals this year were a real snapshot of the work I had done over the past year with my church moonrise photo being part of a series that was published in North & South magazine, the speedway story being one I shot for New Zealand Geographic and the basketball photo being one that was shot for the Nelson Mail / Stuff.

Read the article here.

I was absolutely thrilled to have won the Lightforce Aerial category and then to be announced as the overall winner of Photographer of the year was amazing. Winning confirms to me I made the right career choice and that my work is heading in the right direction.

Hidden Taranaki - The best spots so far

Taranaki has many well known spots worth visiting, most of which are fairly easy to find online. There’s certainly nothing wrong with the well trodden path, however I’m always on the look out for slightly lesser known places to adventure. This list is a few of my favourite “hidden” or lesser known spots I reckon are worth a visit in the ‘Naki. I’ll keep updating it as I find more places worth checking out.

Jam Roll Bay

An hours drive north of New Plymouth CBD is one of the coolest spots on the Taranaki coast. The iconic jam roll is a unique geological formation created by an undersea slip rolling layers of mudstone into their “jam roll” layering. The location is also a hotspot for little blue penguins and has a lush waterfall that pours right onto the beach.

Video: Jam Roll Bay From Above

The Mermaid Pool

Only a few minutes drive from the centre of New Plymouth is one of the best coastal swimming spots in the region. Accessible at low tide, the mermaid pool on Pararaki (Seagull Rock) looks and feels like it belongs in a tropical paradise.

Video: Paritutu From Above

Wreck of the Waitangi

To the right of Mana Bay in Pātea is the wreck of the Waitangi. The ship wrecked on the beach on the 5th of May 1923 after trying to cross the bar at the mouth of the Pātea river. Much of the ship was salvaged, including the whistle which was used at the Pātea meatworks for many years. Despite being almost 100 years old, the ship is still visible.

Wreck of the Gairloch

If you’re looking for a shipwreck slightly closer to New Plymouth the Gairloch is only a short drive and walk from Oakura. Wrecked in 1903 on Timaru Reef, the remains are scattered around the bay and become exposed at low tide.

The Gairloch on stormy evening.

Native orchids at Pukeiti

Spring is definitely the best time of year for orchids however there are a range of species that flower throughout the year. Skip past the beautiful planted gardens and into the native bush to start finding some of the real delights. Less showy than the introduced rhododendrons our indigenous orchids take a wide range of shapes from small spider orchids, hanging easter orchids and camouflaged greenhoods.

The supernumerary stacker rainbow

If anyone in New Zealand was going to photograph a rare supernumerary rainbow this year it was probably going to be me. Not through any special talent or skill on my behalf, mainly because Brett Phibbs and Lottie Hedley cursed me with it at the recent Photo Aotearoa workshop in Ngaruawhia.

As part of the workshop we were each given a subject to shoot a photo story on. My subject was Monica Knight, an amazing local farmer living on the banks of the Waikato River. The first photo I snapped with her featured her framed by a rainbow. It was done as a homage to a famous photo of Lydia Ko that Brett shot featuring the golfer framed by a vibrant rainbow. At the photo review that evening Lottie and Brett joked with me that I didn’t need to shoot anymore rainbows over the next few days.

Naturally I proceeded to shoot literally every rainbow I saw and the joke became that I had a rainbow filter on my camera. It got so bad that I named my project “gumboots and rainbows”.

Since the workshop I’ve made a point of snapping rainbows and tagging Brett and Lottie on instagram just to remind them of my new found curse.

I hadn’t even heard of a supernumerary rainbow when I photographed one on the Taranaki coast in early July.

After a quick drone flight off the beach I started walking back to my car when a sudden rain shower drenched me. Just as it passed, a huge bright double rainbow appeared in front of me and I pulled my camera out and snapped a few photos.

As I went to put my camera away I noticed what at first seemed to be an especially thick rainbow further up the coast. Using my 70-200mm I zoomed in and could see that it was actually a band of multiple rainbows unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

A quick google search at home lead me to believe it was a rare supernumerary rainbow. I shared it to social media and it went ballistic.

Within the space of a few hours it had amassed thousands more likes than any of my previous photos and the media requests started pouring in. As I slept that night media requests came in from weather.com (the largest weather website in the world) and a bunch of television stations in the USA asking to share it on their news programmes. Not bad for my first 48hrs in Taranaki!

Three Questions with... Valeriya Horyayeva

Valeriya Horyayeva is a Ukrainian living in Nelson. Before the war she had fantastic life with her husband. She had her own marketing business and fondly remembers many parties with friends. After the Russian attacks everything changed. Her husband can’t leave the country because of war, her business stopped, her friends now are refugees in Europe.

Valeriya came here with her 4 1/2yr old daughter. They are now building a new life and routine, which she believes is important to stay strong and positive. She is currently looking for a marketing job and spends her spare time helping the Ukrainian community. She likes politics because its hard to be silent and she’s always willing to answer anyones questions about the Russian war in Ukraine, like Nelson’s very own Ukrainian ambassador.

What do you always end up talking to people at parties about?

When I’m at a party and people hear my accent and then ask where I am from and then I answer. We begin to talk about my country and politics, And when the conversation ends it finishes with “I hope war will be finished soon and your husband will be with you”.

If you could change one thing here what would you change?

I escaped from war in Ukraine with my daughter, granny and 2 dogs. And now I can’t have my dogs with me here, who are 12 and 10 years old. Because the procedure is terrible - quarantine for 6 month in European country, expensive flight about $2000 and 10 days quarantine here for $2000 per one pet. It’s huge amount of money to have your pet-family member here. So I’d like to change system of bringing pets here. I didn’t plan to immigrate here, but because of danger I had to. And I’m very thankful for this opportunity, but unfortunately I don’t know how it’s possible to leave your pets with someone, who they don’t know, because of the law. They miss me so much and waiting for me everyday near the door, and I miss them also. I hope that we can change it.

What’s something not many people know about you?

I was phd student and my studying was about microfinancing and maybe I will realise my ideas soon ;)

You can follow Valerie on instagram @valerie.konyk

Valerie photographed at Isel Park

Guardians of the Islands

The Tennyson Inlet islands were among the first in New Zealand to be cleared of introduced predators. When this was carried out in the early 1980’s the science of pest eradication was in its infancy and the islands proved to be a great testing ground. Easily accessible from the mainland, the islands offer a range of habitats typical of the Marlborough Sounds.

As the years went on and other Marlborough Sounds islands took the spotlight, the three islands were largely left alone. With a mere 350 meter gap between the closest island and the mainland rats slowly but surely reintroduced themselves and the forest grew quiet once again.

The Tennyson Inlet Islands (Tawhitinui Island in the foreground).

Refusing to let three of last publicly accessible islands in the Marlborough Sounds be overrun by pests, the Tennyson Inlet Islands Trust was formed. Their goal is to remove the pest species and help restore the islands to their natural state. I first became aware of the trust when I kayaked around the islands and stayed at Matai Bay hut in 2019. As soon as I returned from the trip I signed up as a member of the trust.

Awaiti Island, the smallest of the three.

When Beryl Archer from the trust got in touch to see if I was available to photograph the prolifically flowering kohekohe I was immediately keen. After organising a rough plan, we patiently waited for the kohekohe flowering and sea conditions to line up. After a quick meet and greet at Beryl’s place we motored out to the islands for the day.

Beryl anchoring the boat on Tawhitinui Island.

Stepping ashore on Tawhitinui Island the lack of possums was immediately apparent. Although kohekohe exists on the mainland, it’s not common to find an abundance of seedlings like we were seeing on Tawhitinui. We made our way along the ridge to the large kohekohe grove and my jaw dropped. I was expecting a bunch of medium sized trees with a few flowers, like I’d seen before at Cable Bay near Nelson. Instead the trees were gigantic and they were covered from the base of the trunk to the canopy with masses of flowers.

Capturing an image that does justice to what we could see was a real challenge. The dark and dappled light combined with the size of the trees made it near impossible to get the photo I was really after. With Beryl holding my radio controlled flash we were able to get a few shots which lit the flowers, but it still doesn’t compare to the real thing.

Litttle Blue Penguin tracks etched into a rock on Tawhitinui island.

As we made our way back to the boat Beryl showed me something I can honestly say I’ve never seen before. By the shore there was a patch of bedrock with long deep scratches in it. Made by blue penguins over who knows how many years they show the main pathway penguins take onto the island.

On our boat trip back to Penzance we motored around Tarakaipa , the largest of the three islands. Usually seals can be found resting on the rocks, but today none were present. We did however see a great range of seabirds including petrels, gannets and shags.

Beryl Acher explaining their ambitions for the islands.

Three questions with... Anna Dean

Anna is an experienced creative impact producer, in high demand across Aotearoa New Zealand for her uniquely creative approach to marketing and business challenges. At different stages of her career she has been lauded as a 'PR maven', a social media strategist par excellence, a memorable events creator, and a brand specialist.  

As co-founder and co-director of Double Denim she has worked across many high profile campaigns from 2015 - 2020, with major brands such as Powershop, The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, UN Women, MYOB, NZEI, NZ Festival, and Flick Electric among others, while also creating memorable events for the Ace Lady Network around the country.

She was the first New Zealander to be accepted to the prestigious Pixel Lab, travelling to Scotland in 2015, and holds the record for the fastest successful crowdfunding campaign on BoostedNZ. Her work on What We Do in the Shadows and Best Independent Distributing Marketing Campaign 2016 for Hunt for the Wilderpeople. 

She is currently based by the sea in Golden Bay, doing up an historic cottage and learning how to fish off a kayak. She loves politics, pop culture and is increasingly interested in community resilience and Deep Adaptation. 

What do you always end up talking to people at parties about?

One of my favourite pastimes is talking to new people at parties and drawing them into unusual or unexpected conversations, so I find it a little hard to pick one specific topic. Current themes would definitely be along the lines of asking questions around what it means to be as a good Treaty partner as a Pākehā living with all the privileges of being brought up in a settler colony; also what's happening with this 'cultural leap forward' of sorts we've been experiencing with so many Kiwis returning home due to covid, and so many people like me, being priced out of the main centres to buy their first homes. Because of this there's a big shift happening where many systems-change thinkers are arriving in the Provinces (and back into the country), and I'm always up for talking about what this means as this runs up against calcified thinking.

At the moment I'd also talk about Ridley Scot's sci fi series 'Raised by Wolves' which is a perfect meditation on AI, tech and our human biochemistry of belief in a higher power . I'm also waxing lyrical about 'Station Eleven' which should have had much more coverage and attention than Netflix's 'Don't Look Up'. I'm very likely to talk about podcasts too as I'm a total addict.

I'm also likely to ask (depending on the music) how low can that person go in limbo, as I can go pretty low (or used to be able to anyway).

If you could change one thing here what would you change?

I have to say what needs the most change in Nelson City is following the ideas put forward by Rachel Sanson and the group of progressive Councillors who sit around that table. It's shocking to see how out-of-touch and out-of-date so many decisions that come out of Nelson City Council are. I know provincial councils have long existed as an old boys' network with a great deal of bullying going on behind closed doors, but given the challenges and pressures faced by increasing climate collapse, we need our Council to act accordingly and immediately. It's so great to have a young person like Rohan O'Neill-Stevens on council as his generation will have to deal with the fall out of such inaction by the Mayor and her lacky's in their future.

Alternatives to the monoculture of pine forest around our city are needed at once. The recent decisions to replant the forestry blocks were an embarrassment. People from many parts of the world can't believe how behind the ball our 'Clean,Green, New Zealand' reality actually is when coming here. I've had German friends astonished that single product pine forests can still be planted.

Add to that the sprawl happening from Nelson, towards Richmond and beyond, there appears to be no oversight or co-ordination around public transport goals and high density growth between the Tasman and Nelson City Councils. Sadly all over the country there's much sway given to 'innovation' rather than 'integration' in so much planning.

I'm really glad an updated regional arts strategy, being led by Ali Boswijck, is happening for the region though. Each region is really going to need to pick its focus on resilience and sustainability to have better chances in facing the unknowns which lie ahead. Whether that's more viruses or more extreme weather. Given our unique sunshine status, Nelson has an imperative to lead the way in climate resilience and I'm here for it!

What’s something not many people know about you?

The idea of people wearing pyjamas to bed makes me want to gag a little.

I haven't actually ever said that out loud which is why it came to mind. Generally I'm quite an open book and never hesitate to share adventurous tales, particularly embarrassing stories.

Fun fact: both my parents are fifth dan black belts in Seido Karate, something I'm incredibly proud of. When I left home I got to brown belt but have never found a dojo that I felt at home in, compared with the strength and care of Nelson's Seido community, under the guidance of Hanshi Andy Barber.

You can find out more about Anna at www.annadean.co.nz

Anna speaking with Christopher Von Roy at the Golden Bay Vaccine Hui December 2021