Field Journal - New Zealand

In this video, I take my family on a winter road trip through New Zealand to chase one specific photo I’ve had in my head for a while: mountains photographed from the water. We travelled through some of the most beautiful places on earth, from Wanaka and the Cardrona Hotel to Twizel and Mount Cook National Park, with cameras, kids, rental-car chaos, cold water, bad GoPro angles, and a few very questionable travel moments along the way. New Zealand in early winter is an absolute photographer’s paradise, and this trip was about trying to document the journey while also creating a landscape photo that felt a little different from the usual mountain shot. The main goal was to get into the lake with my underwater housing and photograph the mountains from water level. I wanted something dramatic, cold, and slightly ridiculous — which meant getting in freezing water, disturbing the surface for a bit of foreground drama, and hoping the sunrise would give the scene enough glow to make up for the lack of snow on the peaks. This is part travel film, part family road trip, part behind-the-scenes photography adventure, and part reminder that trying to make art while travelling with kids is basically an extreme sport. From Wanaka to Mount Cook, this is a very imperfect but very real look at chasing landscape photos in New Zealand. If you’re into travel photography, landscape photography, New Zealand road trips, underwater camera setups, or just watching a bloke freeze himself in a lake for a photo, this one is for you.