Life is supposed to be interesting, supposed to be exciting, an adventure but usually it is always pretty good but gets generally into a comfortable groove. Then the world changes, it changes everything and makes you think, mostly about what’s important. Your family , your health and your wealth and you find your focus changes, and or its changed for you. Sometimes things are outside your control ( well almost) . I had owed what I considered the perfect dog many years ago, a beautiful Lab/shorthaired pointer. After Nina, owning a dog wasn’t on the radar. Taking on a dog is having a co-dependent that you have to give all your time to, love them as much as they will love you. For me there was always too much else going on. After Covit lockdown I came across a lovely 6 month old pup who just fitted with my sense of what a dog should be, intelligent and damn attractive. It ended up that the owners couldn’t keep it which was a pretty tough decision for them, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She is now part of the Dainty family.

Life has changed, I’m not as free anymore to disappear for the weekends on my motorcycle, or photographic trips but life is enriched and New Zealand is in a new normal, so am I.

There is still photography and motorcycling but how its all going to be fitted in will be the new challenge, maybe a sidecar?

The old story is the harder I work the luckier I get. Photography is no different, but sometimes it isn’t working harder it is overcoming the difficulties. Of the last couple of weeks I have been tested by this.

1- Lake Erskin - I was invited and teamed up with Roger Wandless ( https://rogerwandless.co.nz/ ) on this overnight trip to a small mountain lake in Fiordland. Only accessible by helicopter, its a lake with mountains on 3 sides, 30m of rock and enough flat land for 2 tents then a straight drop down to the valley floor. A recent dusting of snow and a clear night meant freezing conditions. Its been a while since I’ve camped out in these conditions so it was a panic finding all my winter gear. Having the right gear is a must, ice was forming on the tents as soon as the sun went down and was also forming on my down jacket when we were sitting around over the meal, so the urge to get up in the middle of the night to take pictures wasn’t the easiest choice, lucky for me I have a 57 year old bladder.

The location was breathtaking, one part of the hardship was the pressure one puts on themselves to get the perfect image in a short space of time, something more than the straight grand landscape. Everything I lined up I felt that I was just doing the cliche views or repeating my same old stuff. Quite often nature decides if you get that image or not, it is in charge of the X-factor but in the end I’m pretty happy with the images.

2- Crayfishing - I had been asked to get a picture for an upcoming book on the Fiordland Coast by Peta Carey, she wanted images of a friend of mine Pete Young who is the skipper of a crayboat with his son as crew. Its a difficult place to get to and juggling my day work and photographic projects don’t always work out. It is getting to the pointy end of the book production so everyone pulled out the stops with help from Southern Lakes Helicopters I got over there for a couple of days. I don’t do the sea very well so spending the whole day out there on a small boat and a reasonable swell was always going to be a challenge. I really struggled with the picture taking, They are working very quick to get the craypots up on deck and sort the fish, the females, the large, the ones with missing bits went back, pots re-baited and back in the sea in the right spot. All the time close into shore so no time to set up any image, just keep clicking and looking for the elements to come together. In the meantime I can’t stand on deck with out being chucked around so its sit or brace myself onto something, always looking for something to grab onto and yes there was a bit of my navel trying to exit my throat. It wasn’t until the evening that I could review some of the images to make sure they are at least sharp and with a sigh of relief the effort was rewarded.