I won NZ Photographer's Documentary Essay competition with a documentary capturing the unique character of the world's highest freestanding mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, standing tall at 5895 AMSL. The full essay can be seen in issue 16 pages 12-17 of the magazine - and more images are shown in the exhibition titled >>Meet Kilimanjaro<<.

Photography often seamlessly merge a subject, photographer and gear. On this journey they were very distinct:

• the subject - how to capture her beauty?
• the photographer - stubbornly ignoring gradients, lack of oxygen and layers of clothing; and
• the camera gear - being tested in rain forest through to ice caps in the space of 4-5 days.

All images were taken on a climb of the mountain guided by Harold Lazaro, a lead guide from Team Kilimanjaro, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the mountain.

At the national New Zealand Art Show 2010 (formerly knows as the 'Affordable Art Show'), I will be amongst the exhibitors. Hopefully, my prints will find a new home (or homes) to spread some joy :)

The show is held in Wellington at the TSB Arena with show days from Friday 30 July to Sunday 1 August, which is open to the general public by ($10) admission with children going free. Stop by!

For more information visit the NZ Art Show's website.

The NZ Photographer looked into the topic of in-camera motion blur and an image taken on the Canon 100% Pure Photography trip with Tourism New Zealand made the cut. An alpine flower on the Hump Ridge Track blooming out for attention...

 

If you click below, you will get the full five film sequence. Enjoy!

An article on mUmBRELLA sets the general plot out quite neatly. However, for those more visual - here is the deal:

Armed with Canon cameras, ample of raingear and merino long johns, the group of four sat out on a journey of a lifetime from Dunedin moving on to Otago Peninsula, Stewart Island, Southland finishing in Fiordland. A selection of my images is now showing on Canon’s The Peoples Gallery – check out the exhibition ‘Tourism New Zealand: 100% Pure Photourism!’

We stumbled across a Kiwi feather (!), a Kiwi poo (!!) and Kiwi foot prints (!!!)... but no Kiwi. Pretty good stuff, tee hee! Okay, so we did not get to meet and greet the elusive Kiwi bird! Gladly, that is not where it ended. Amazing wildlife was coming up. We got really close to some pretty amazing wildlife - in particular: Yellow-eyed penguins / hoiho (the world’s rarest penguin); hector dolphin (the world’s rarest dolphin), royal albatross (the world’s largest bird), hooker sea lion (the world’s rarest sea lion); and the fur seal.

If you have limited time, in my own personal opinion (I am not getting paid to say this!), I found these outlets offered some good photography opportunities:

• Elm Wildlife Tours;
• Monarch Wildlife Cruises; and
• Ruggedy Range Wilderness Experience.
  
  

I have been fortunate to win the Canon 100% Pure Photography Competition run in Australia and New Zealand in association with Tourism New Zealand!

• The brief: it had to be 100% pure (!), which meant absolutely no post-production was allowed.
• The look: The Canon judges looked for a creative approach to the brief.

• Jules Lund, Aussie Getaway host and talent photographer;
• Yours truly, photographer and owner of FreeFlyWall;
• Neerav Bhatt, The Road Less Travelled; and
• Clive Copeman, local photourist guide.

Here is the winning image: