New Zealand | Chapter 1

So, it's taken me forever to blog the pictures from New Zealand ... between moving, and working on new shoots, these personal images got a little buried.

Getting there was a long flight, and I was a little worried, since the weight limit for carryon's was 5kg, and my bag with my camera gear and laptop was 19kg. Oops. The people were all sweet about it though, and let it slide when I told them what was in it.

New Zealand is a truly incredible country. I was so stoked to go there, and it did NOT disappoint. Not only was the weather gorgeous (except the couple rainy days), but the people were super cool. It was a little dodgy having to learn how to drive on the left (not knowing any of the rules of the road), for the first time, in the biggest city in the country. But it just made the adventure that much better.

After the wedding, a few friends and I just rented a car and drove around the amazing South Island, camping everywhere from Nelson, Wharariki, Haast, Queenstown, and back up through Christchurch.

I'll save the wedding photos for the next post, this weekend. Enjoy...






The aptly named "One Tree Hill".




This area in NZ, called Pupu Springs, apparently has the 2nd clearest waters in the world. The first is the water in Lake Vostok, under the ice in Antarctica. It was absolutely crystal clear ... so cool.






There really are THAT many sheep down there. They probably outnumber people like 20:1...


Feeding the weka's ... funny little dudes.












I'm not really that into landscape photography, but seeing places like this, it's impossible not to just shoot it.






This is how photographers camp ... laptops and camera gear everywhere!




Never seen so many stars in my life. For the curious, I used the 24mm f/1.4L lens for a lot of the trip, and it especially rocked for the star pictures. It let's in so much light, and is still pretty wide, which makes it a seriously versatile lens.


I figured, "They're just kidding, right?", and wandered on past it, and proceeded to climb up some slickrock bluffs, and then nearly got rimrocked (when you climb up something, but can't climb back down), and then nearly fell into the rushing glacial river :). It was pretty fun.


This was the only penguin I saw the whole trip, sadly.










Bungy jumping in Queenstown was so sweet! Man, what a rush, jumping headfirst off a bridge, and having the rope stop you right as your head dips into the river 160 feet below you. That's me above...

up, up, and away...

So, in the midst of trying to pack for travelling, and pack so I can move out of my apartment and (hopefully) into a new townhouse ... I somehow am blogging twice in one day. It's a Christmas miracle :)

I leave tomorrow for Los Angeles, and then the next day jump on a 12.5 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand, and then down to the town of Nelson, on the South Island. It really hasn't even hit me how excited I am. I get to shoot the wedding of some awesome people (one of whom is like a brother to me), in one of the most incredible places on the planet. As if that wasn't enough, I have the blessing to be able to coast around New Zealand for a couple weeks, and then head up to relax on the beach in Fiji, before coming back to good ol' rainy Seattle :).



Just over 16,000 miles of flying ... let's all pray for an aisle seat!

I will try to blog as I'm there, but I'm really not sure when/where I'll have internet access, since we'll be travelling most of the time.

If anyone from NZ happens to read this, call me or email me, and let's kick it while I'm down there.

Hope everyone had a brilliant Christmas, filled with family and fun and love and all that good stuff. Spending time with my family is always so much fun, and we got a kick out of this next image ... time flies! My boots from age 4ish, and now, at 24.

Kara, Gavin, and fam | portraits

Kara and Gavin asked me to come create some portraits/lifestyle images of their beautiful family (dog included, of course :) ), a few weeks back. We were blessed with perfect weather and had a great time shooting. It's always fun when I get creative freedom when I shoot, to capture people and families as they really are, not in cramped, static poses ... and when they get to show off their character. Thanks, guys!

p.s. When I said I had fun news, "in a couple days", I had no idea it would turn into like a month. My bad, I suck at blogging sometimes! Anyhow, the news is that I leave soon (tomorrow) to shoot an awesome destination wedding in a country I've always wanted to visit, since I saw Lord of the Rings.

First, some of the images from Gavin+Kara+fam's shoot.