corwinprescott

New Zealand!

Added 2016-05-19 20:00:37 +0000 UTC

I don't really know where to start with this one guys. Two years ago I discovered the photographer Cam Attree, a year ago Nicole made a trip to Australia and they set up a shoot, somehow over the course of there shoot us all doing a workshop in New Zealand came up, winter of last year everything was finalized, and this January we planned everything out.

Fun facts its cheaper to drive across the United States, buy one way tickets from LA to Sydney to Melbourne to Queenstown to Tokyo to Seoul and back to LA than it is to buy round trip tickets from Philadelphia to Queenstown, New Zealand, and so that is how this massive trip was planned.

I always opt for more experiences and more time away than less and less.

I'll be covering everything from Philly to New Zealand and a bunch of posts (I'm still working my way through a massive pile of editing), so for now let's talk about New Zealand.

Holy shit what a whirlwind! Nicole and I landed in Queenstown, NZ picked up a Jucy Van Camper and tore off to Milford Sound. Milford is one of New Zealand's most photographed and most visited spots with good reason. Its one of the most beautiful places I have stood and watched the sunrise. A gloomy cloudy day that many would be disappointed by I stood on the beach at low tide blown away. We'd driven 6 hours through the night to get there on time knowing we wouldn't be able to shoot nudes as the tourists flock to this place, but just wanting to see it and maybe capture a landscape, and we did.

Next we had decided we wanted to see Lake Tasman at the base of the Tasman Glacier, an 8 hour drive. On our way we stopped and hiked a couple of Kilometers on an amazing trail in Fiordlands National Park to shoot our first couple photos for We Were Wanderers. Fun fact this incredibly dense forest was the setting for Fangorn Forest, home of the Ents, in the Lord of the Rings movies. It was by far one of the most beautiful and least walked trails I have ever been on. Mostly we were hiking up a slow moving stream, but then we came upon this beautiful spot where the light fell just right for a few photos, and the ground was dry.

The next morning we woke an hour before sunrise and hiked out to the base of the Tasman Glacier in Mt Cook National Park. The tour buses were already arriving, so we decided it would be best to do landscapes given we were on a pretty tight schedule in order to get back to Queenstown for the workshop.

Another long long drive and we arrived in Greymouth, so that I could take the sea star photo I had dreamed off since I first found out about Motukiekie. Accessible only at low tide its a 6km hike round trip along one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. When you arrive you are greeted by one of the most amazing 10 legged sea star colonies in the world. While we waited for the tide to fully recede we managed to shoot a few nudes in a sea cave along the beach. Then in between waves we hopped from rock to rock out to the sea stars and shot until the sun was gone.

After our little road trip. We spent the next week in Mount Aspiring National Park with Romi Muse, Sylph Sia, Darby Breckderry, Floofie and my co teacher Cam Attree.

The workshop was one of the most intense weeks of creating I have ever experienced. We all pushed ourselves harder than I think we ever have. Everyday we were up before sunrise shooting in extremely cold temperatures, and dealing with swarms of Sand Flies (New Zealands even more annoying version of the Mosquito). By the time the workshop was over we were all covered in bug bites from the unrelenting bugs. I'm amazed by how much the models pushed themselves for the photographers in attendance. As a general rule I don't ask models to do something I myself wouldn't, and you couldn't have convinced me to take all of cloths on and pose with that many biting insects constantly around.

For me, aside from creating the photos, the most exciting part of teaching the workshop was how much it pushed me to think about my work as a photographer, and my thinking when I'm shooting. Having a small group of photographers looking to me for guidance really pushed me to think about why I am shooting this particular way and honestly I think it made me a better photographer for it. Explaining what I am thinking, and then helping my students capture the best possible image they can helped all of us grow day in and day out. My goal when I'm teaching something like this is really to make sure that the people I am teaching are getting the best image and my own work is secondary, and I love it.

The locations for our workshop were Mt. Aspiring National Park, Moke Lake, Lake Wakatipu, Chasm Glacier, and Skippers Canyon. It was such an honor and a privilege to get to work along such a talented group, and I can't wait until the fall when Romi, Nicole, Cam and I will be heading to teach in Iceland with Svala Johannsdottir!

For these photos I used pretty much every lens in my kit...except the Canon 24-70mm which basically see's absolutely no use anymore. I feel like at this point the 17-40mm is a better wide angle, the Sigma 50 and 85mm are better standard and medium-telephoto lenses and the 70-200mm is a better telephoto zoom. Really I am just hanging onto it in case my 17-40mm fails on a shoot, so that I have a back up.

I realize that this one was a long one, but thanks for sticking with me, and thank you guys so much for supporting me! It is massive projects like this that I definitely wouldn't be able to do without you!

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