Camilla Stoddart Photography

Just before leaving for the UK (where I am now for a month) I had a fashion shoot for Christina Perriam Merino new 2011 winter range. We had the very talented Julia Atkinson of Studio Home Online styling the shoot, Kelly Anderson on the make up and a beautiful autumn Central Otago day. Christina’s Merino label is inspired by the merino sheep grown at her family  farm of Bendigo Station. She has developed a stunning range of clothes sold on line and at the Merino Shop in Tarras. Using some of Bendigo’s paddocks and old sheds, The Point Farm and Ardgour Road we had a ton of brilliant locations to chose from.

I really enjoy doing fashion shoots, for something different and a good challenge. Here are some of my favorite shots from the day

Last weekend was the first weekend of clear calm skies in quite some time. My boyfriend decided to take me away to a place that  we had both driven past hundreds of times on our way North, and never taken the time to visit. Mt John Observatory is one of the worlds best places to star gaze. NZ’s largest telescope, and a number of astronomical studies happen here, looking out over the aquamarine Lake Tekapo. There is very little light pollution, and NZ has incredibly clear, unpolluted skies making it perfect for checking out the unknown universe. We had chosen a cracker of a night, with no moon, and the day after a strong Southerly wind (which clears out the atmosphere apparently!), the skies were unbelievable. We departed at 9.30pm on a tour with Earth and Sky up to the Observatory.

Lake Tekapo under the Milky Way, taken with Canon 5d Mk II, 14mm 2.8, ISO 800, f2.8 for 30 seconds

I LOVE taking photos of the stars, and as soon as I could I set up to take this quick shot. 30seconds wasn’t quite enough time to capture the full extent of the sky, but this shot isn’t too bad. Shortly after taking this shot I met with Earth and Sky’s astro-photographer. He told me about the special high tech tracking mount that they use up there for taking shots of the stars. This large tripod has a machine that makes it track, so very slowly to keep up with the earths movements. If you take a long exposure of the stars, (longer than about 45 seconds) the stars start to leave trails in the sky. This is the earth moving, and how I get those photos of the star trails. It is hard to get a crisp shot of the stars, each one sharp and bright with a short shutter speed. With this machine, the camera will track with the stars, allowing you to shoot long exposures, allowing your camera to gather heaps of light leaving each star sharp.

The Milky Way with a slight Aurora. Taken with Canon 5d Mk II, 14mm 2.8, ISO 800, f4 for 5 mins

This was my first shot using the tracking mount. I was thrilled to see the red glow that you couldn’t see with the naked eye. It was a slight Aurora… I have been desperate to see and photograph the Aurora for a long time. I was so excited to be able to use this machine, but I didn’t have very long to experiment and play as our tour was leaving. The only trouble with this tracking mount is that you cannot combine shots of the sky with earth in it, as if you are following the stars, the earth will become blurry in the shot. I tried another 5 min exposure with the earth in it, trying to get more of the Aurora.

Looking South, the red glow is the Aurora. As you can see the earth silhouette is not sharp. But the stars are! The white ‘clouds’ are in fact star clusters…

The next day we took our time on the drive back to Wanaka and did a wee tiki tour past Mt Cook, Lake Ohau and the Clay Cliffs. It was such a stunning day, and it was so great to take time on this drive, to stop and take photos, and explore.

Aoraki – Mt Cook in all her glory… I will never tire of taking photos of this beauty

Mt Cook in the far distance taken from the canal roads, glassy and still

The road to Lake Ohau

Having been to Ohau many times in the winter to ski, it was wicked to drop in to the lodge in the autumn and hang out at the glassy lake. Ohau is a favorite spot of mine. The skiing, the lodge and the lake make it an awesome place to hang out.

Lake Ohau

The Clay Cliffs at Omarama – driven past SO many times and never stopped to check them out. Very cool….

Back at my boyfriends farm, the sun was setting and the light was amazing. I took some last shots of the day…

This was taken with my Leica D-Lux 5

Last shot of the day of Merino Sheep…

Last week I did a photo shoot for Lake Wanaka Tourism at the breathtakingly stunning Wilkin River and Siberia Valley. Wilkin River Jets took us where we needed to go with their jet boats and helicopter, you cant really fail to have a good time with a jet boat and a chopper! I had been looking forward to this shoot for a while and finally the right, clear sunny day was apon us and with a flurry of last minute organising to rally up the models, clothing (thanks to Icebreaker for supplying clothing) , food and a game plan we were ready to do it… With a good crew of people up for modeling, Darvs as our easygoing heli pilot, Danielle and Hayden behind the wheel of the jet boats, blue skies, everything was teed up to be a cracker of a day…

Wilkin River jet boating…

We started the morning of with a quick scout around the mountains in the bird and took a look at some of the glaciers, the famous Lake Crucible and the recently burnt down Siberia Hut (very sad!) With the door off the chopper it was time to shoot the jet boats as they raced up the Wilkin River. Shooting photos from a heli will never get boring, I just LOVE the shots you can get with wings! Such a fun shoot chasing jet boats, so very James Bond.

The amazing Lake Crucible, which has floating icebergs from the glaciers in spring, they had all melted leaving the black pool that looked just like a witches cauldron! Maybe that’s why they called it Lake Crucible!

James admiring the view from the heli, looking out to Lake Lucidious

Wilkin River Jets (a whole lot of fun)…

I just LOVE the colour and clearness of the water in NZ…

Negotiating some shingle and shallow waters…

Rest stop next to the native bush and sandflies

After the jet boat shoot, we took some shots at the Top Forks Hut and the Kirin Forks Hut, before regrouping down in the Siberia Valley. From here I took shots of the beautiful walk over the pass, through the native bush, back to the Wilkin River to get picked up by the jet boat.

Iona and Tim admiring the view looking back down into Siberia Valley

Raewin and Geoff walking through the lush NZ bush

Luckily when we got to the pick up point the jet boat was only 5 mins away, as the sandflies were some of the most ferocious I have ever experienced! I will leave you with this shot of the collection of sandflies that had gathered on my camera bag strap. These little nippers were rife… I have to say they are my least favorite part of NZ. But still not as bad as the Scottish Midge…

Motatapu Triathlete swimming through glassy Lake Wanaka

I was asked to shoot the Motatapu Triathlon on Saturday, by race organisers Iconic Adventures. This is the first ever triathlon held as part of the massive Motatapu Race, which thousands of cross country mountain bikers and runners compete in each year, through a stunning piece of private land from the shores of Lake Wanaka through to Arrowtown, near Queenstown.

The triathlete option was open to a very limited number of people, as it was the first year of running. The race started with a 2km swim in Lake Wanaka at the stunning glassy Glendhu Bay, followed by a 47km cross country mountain bike ride through the Motatapu to Arrowtown, finishing up with a 15km run on the Miners Trail…. I shot photos of them doing their swim, as well as the 2000 mountain bikers leaving for the race. Just thought I would show you a few photos…

Triathletes getting ready

Warming up…

Er… what way was it??

And they’re off!!!

Glass…

Ever wanted to go on a bike ride with 2000 others?

A client of mine, Lake Wanaka Tourism, has commissioned local filmer Tim Pierce to make a series of short films on people who live and work in our wonderful wee town of Wanaka, NZ. This months film was on myself. Tim has done an amazing job, check it out here.

After a devastating week for New Zealand with the Christchurch earthquake claiming many lives, destroying homes and business and leaving many too terrified to go back, it was hard to think about anything else. But on Saturday saw the famous yearly mountain bike, BMX, motocross and freestyle motocross competition in Southland, nicknamed as the X-Games of NZ, 2011 Unit Farm Jam. Brothers Kris, Dan and Brett Frew organise this festival of wheels each year on their parents beautiful farm near Winton. It all takes place on sculpted dirt jumps, built meticulously over the years by the Frew brothers.

I headed down on Friday, for practice day to shoot photos for a few editorial commissions I have on the event. Friday saw an interesting day of clouds coming and going, and fun light to play with.

The sheep of the Frew’s farm graze beside the moto x course.

With the light coming and going I played around snapping shots of the incredibly talented mountain bikers and BMX guys… They practiced hard all afternoon and only stopped when it got too dark to see.

Cool sky…

As the clouds thickened before sunset, I realised that we were not going to get a good sunset for the FMX (freestyle moto x) shoot. None the less the helicopter with its belly load of filmers and photogs buzzed around the evening gloom trying to shoot images of Levi Sherwood, Nick Franklin and Josh Sheehan amongst others doing amazing stunts on their motor bikes. After the sun had truly gone, without giving us any colours (slightly disappointing!), everyone chilled out by the wool-shed eating snarlers of the BBQ and yarning about the days activities, while a few interviews took place for Red Bull’s filmers.

The Red Bull Hummer and crew watching BMXer Anthony Neapolitan get interviewed for Red Bull

The sheep yards

After shooting some photos in the dark, I slept a comfy night in the back of my truck and woke at sunrise. I had arranged to shoot a portrait of the Frew Family first thing, that I needed for one of my editorial commissions . A glorious blue skied morning greeted us and the light was fabulous, showing off Southland at its best.

The day kicked off with the freestyle moto x and the large crowd that formed to watch, were not disappointed.

The Moto X course

Josh Sheehan won the FMX

After the Pit Bike race and FMX it was time to do to the quieter side of the paddock and watch the push bikes. A huge crowd watched as some incredible tricks were performed over the dirt jumps. Conor MacFarlane won the mountain bike competition with an incredible mixture of tricks performed over the big line. Including a front flip (so very hard to do on a bike!) off the board walk. Unfortunately this didn’t end too well with poor Conor breaking his collar bone. The BMX was just as impressive with some mind blowing stunts going down… It all ended pretty sharp though with another nasty crash reminding the crowd that it aint as easy as these pro’s make it look and the s**t can hit the fan oh too quick. Its a fine line…

The crowds watching the bike park.

The amazing array of jumps and different lines a rider can take at this beautifully crafted dirt park.

After a very long day, and a tired eye and wrist, it was time to get on the road back to Wanaka. I’m sorry that I cant show you very many photos, I am needing to keep a large amount aside. Thanks so much to the Frew’s for another incredible year at the Farm Jam. These boys put so much hard work into this event, and no-one left disappointed…

I would like to finish this post by expressing my heart felt thoughts and prayers to all those affected by the Christchurch earthquake. I have many friends up there and its going to be a long road back to normality…. You have us all with you every step of the way xx

Last week I was fortunate enough to be asked on a trip to Fiordland National Park. This wasn’t going to be the usual touristy sight seeing,  leisurely cruise round the world famous Milford Sound. I was going to photograph some BASE jumpers soar off the biggest vertical cliff in New Zealand, the Kaipo Wall. The 4300ft (1300m) vertical drop spans 1.3Km high by 1.8km wide….This cliff is a monster, but a very beautiful one. The crew I was with were very experienced BASE jumpers. Kiwi’s Alan McCandlish, Benny MacPherson and Aussie Jason Cyran (Triple J) had ‘opened up’ (been the first to do) this jump back in 2008 and they were with us to do it again. On the drive to Milford JJJ and Alan told me incredible tales of their first jump of the Kaipo and how beautiful it is. I was so excited but ridiculously nervous to shoot their jumps from the top. With not the best head for heights, I would have to concentrate hard on not falling off the edge and getting the shot!

Milford Sound under the stars

We arrived at about 10pm, and after shooting some photos of the stars, I went to bed in the back of my car to have a rather restless nights sleep (not as restless as those going to jump the next day I should imagine!) Thoughts were racing through my mind on how I would shoot the jump, how I would not get in the way, how I would not fall off! I had a rope and harness I could tie myself off on, but the boys said there isn’t much to tie onto! I would just have to wait and see and do my best to get the shot safely. With the sun, rose the infamous West Coast sandflies, and after a lot of organising and planning amongst the biting little flies, we were in a chopper flying our way to the top of the Kaipo Wall.

The view up Milford Sound as we took off

From the chopper…

Swiss jumper Alex Polli stoked on his very scenic heli ride, as well as being dropped off on top of a terminal wall.

We got dropped off in between a 4300ft cliff and a huge crevasse on the glacier, we moved quickly over to the rock edge, as it wasn’t too good an idea to hang about on a glacier. The boys were fizzing with excitement and immediately climbed up the ridge to where the exit point was. Named ‘Benny’s Ledge’ by the boys this was the place where the guys with wing suits would exit. Prue and Ted, who were going to track (using their bodies without wing-suits to fly) decided to go a little lower.

The boys climbing to find the exit point. To my left there is a 4300ft drop… Climbing around these rocks was a little scary to say the least!

Looking for a place to shoot was not easy… It was incredibly hard walking around up there, mainly because I knew there was certain death to one side of me and partial certain death to the other (the possibility of falling into a huge hole in the glacier)  I didn’t have too long to look for a good spot as soon the guys were ready to jump. And when a BASE jumper is ready, you cant ask them to wait so you can get the shot… They are in no state of mind to be hanging around to wait for the photog!

Prue Beams, Alan, JJJ and Benny looking down the Kaipo Wall, sussing the exit point

The Kaipo Wall

The valley where the guys would be landing. The guys in the wing suits landed all the way down by the first set of trees.

To give you an idea, look how tiny they are, this is taken at full 300mm zoom. Can you see the two canopies? Ted Rudd and Alex Polli had jumped together…

After Ted, Prue and Alex had jumped from just below Benny’s Ledge and I got some cool sequences of them (which I cant show you!) , JJJ, Benny and Al were ready to jump from Benny’s Ledge. I had a small amount of time to re-locate and shoot their exits. Without much time to compose a good frame, I was a bit disappointed with my wing suit shots… It is incredibly hard to portray the magnitude of what they are doing in a single frame.

Jason Cyran (JJJ) exits in his wing suit.

After all the guys had jumped, I was left up on the top there with Prue’s husband, Dennis, who wasn’t jumping. We waited for our pick up and the reality of what I had seen sunk in. It was so very cool watching these massively skilled athletes soaring through the sky like jet planes and landing safely more than 1.5km away.

The flight out. Fiordland’s incredible landscape

We touched down safe at Milford airstrip and there was a lot of hugging and celebrating on the successful jumps. Everyone was pretty ecstatic…Soon all the canopies were out and repacked meticulously, making sure that every last detail was perfect. With BASE there is no reserve shoot, so you need to make sure your canopy opens perfectly, or its game over.

Tedd Rudd packing his canopy

The crew hanging out at Milford Sound

Before I started the long drive back to Wanaka, I shot a few photos of the guys chilling out down by the waterfront and the iconic Milford view. Shortly they would be leaving to jump another cliff, Terror Peak… With no space in the chopper for a photog, it was my time to go home… I had got what I came for, and watched one of the most incredible mind blowing sports out there, so I was very content. I do want to go back though and shoot some more…

The weather has not been the most settled this summer, and when I saw a couple of fine days lining up for the end of last week, I decided to do something that has been on the list for quite some time. I managed to recruit a couple of good friends to accompany me on my mission. The mission was to climb Mt Roy, a 1580m peak, which looks over our township of Wanaka, and sleep out at the top. From this very popular tourist walk you get 360 degree views of Lake Wanaka, Mt Aspiring and the Southern Alps. I wanted to shoot photos of the sunset, the stars over Wanaka and the sunrise the next morning. The weather was still and calm, and the skies blue. Perfect.

With my rather heavy F-Stop camera bag laden with camera, lenses and tripod, as well as water and food, sleeping bag and roll mat, extra clothes and essentials, it was a fair old slog up 1300 vertical meters to the top. However the views were not to disappoint.

Looking up over West Wanaka to the Matukituki Valley and Mt Aspiring

Wonderful friends, Roo Stanford and Iona Sanders ponder over the spectacular view of Lake Wanaka

We reached the top and found a good place to sleep, and had plenty of time to take in the sunset before it got dark.

Watching the sun go down over Mt Aspiring.

Roo watching sundown.

A cheeky sheep came to watch too…

After the sun went down, we settled into our sleeping bags and chatted while the stars slowly appeared one by one. At about 10.30pm almost all the stars were out and I started to shoot photos of the night sky over Wanaka. I love shooting photos of stars, your camera can always see so much more than you.

Stars over Wanaka

1hr exposure

After playing around for a good hour shooting 30 sec – 2 min exposure shots of the night sky, I then set up a long exposure shot over Wanaka, pointing South East in hope that I would get the Southern Celestial Point, and get some shots of the world spinning. I went to my sleeping bag with an alarm set for an hr later. I love shooting long exposure shots as you never know what you are going to get. At 12.30pm I stopped the shutter. This is the result. I just got the Southern Celestial Point in the shot, I need to point it more South next time! Time for bed…

I woke to my alarm at 6am for the sunrise, and sat bolt upright. Huge disappointment met my sleepy eyes, as we were submerged in thick cloud… Thank god we didn’t get rained on, but it was really average that I wasn’t going to get sunrise photos. After a muesli bar and an ‘Up and Go’ for breakfast, we began to walk down. All of a sudden we were out the thick layer of clouds and a miracle happened. The clouds were breaking and the sun began to stream through, revealing Wanaka, waking up in the morning sun. It was so incredible.

Sun cracking through the clouds over Wanaka

We walked back down the long hill, and was back in Wanaka by 9am. It was an awesome mission, and so stoked we got a cool sunrise after all!

Just thought I would pop up a few shots quickly on how beautiful Central Otago is looking at the moment. The summer has been wetter than average, and things are looking more luscious and green this summer than they have in years.

Bannockburn Vineyards – Central Otago

At the weekend I headed to The Point, my boyfriends farm in Tarras. We went and spent a night in their hut they have near the top of the high country farm. The view from there is spectacular, looking back over towards Wanaka and the Southern Alps. The rain was pouring down over the mountains.

Looking over towards Wanaka and the Southern Alps

I decided to play around with doing some HDR (high dynamic range) images. This is when you take a series of images, at different exposures, and put them together in photoshop to form one image. It gives a ‘hyper real’ feel to the photo… I have to say that I dont like the effect. It is a bit of a trend at the moment, but I find the images to look to ‘photoshopped’ and they become digital art rather than photography. Here are my results below

HDR image of Central Otago, using 3 photos at three different exposures.  I don’t like it….

HDR image 2… better but i still don’t really like! its too ‘fake’ looking…

Aah back to the single frame classic image. I much prefer!

This shot was taken the next morning from the top of the Farm (1700m) You can see Lake Wanaka and some of the township. Beautiful… I think that HDR is pretty specialised, and can be useful in some situations, but I wont make a habit of shooting this way at all! Tonight I am off to hike Mt Roy, and sleep out at the top so I can shoot some photos of the sunset, stars over Wanaka and sunrise… Ill keep you posted on what shots I get. Thanks for reading!

Last week mountain bike film maker Pieter Reichwein got in touch to say that pro mountain biker Conor Macfarlane from Queenstown had some features he wanted to shoot in Bannockburn, just outside of Cromwell. I arranged to meet the boys for a sunset and sunrise shoot to get the best light possible. Bannockburn is in the heart of Central Otago, with clay crumbling gorges, mounds and cliffs, perfect for interesting natural bike jibs. The evening was beautiful and we started to shoot. Conor had a multitude of different ideas, from wall rides, hand plants and cliff drops. I struggled at first to get what I was looking for but I started to work with the light and dust back lighting Conor, and began to get the results I was after.

Conor riding into his hand plant jib for the first time

The crew walking up to the next feature in the evening light

We walked up to a new area, and I noticed how beautiful the light was, streaming through the trees. I took some shots and then asked Conor to ride down as fast as he could towards me, past the thistles, leaving a trail of dust. I just LOVE moments like these, unplanned and not preconceived. This is my favorite part of photography…. Moments that just happen like magic, and you are there to shoot.

Conor

Conor walking back up for another shot

Conor’s wall ride

Shots always take a lot longer to shoot than you think. It takes quite a few times of the rider doing the trick until I find a spot to shoot from that I like. Trial and error plays a big part in setting up a mountain bike shoot for me. I experiment until I feel I like what I see… The light began to disappear fast and before we all knew it the sun had gone for the night behind the hills. This is the hard thing about shooting sunset. The golden light lasts a very short amount of time, and you need to be ready, as the sun wont wait….

Luke McCombie dropping in

Conor doing a flair on the small hip jump

After the sun had gone Conor and Luke McCombie started to session a hip that they had made. Conor was soon pulling flairs (inverted spins) and I shot a few frames. I struggled to make the jump look big, and even though what they were doing was very skilled, it looked small in single frame. On film it would look sweet, but stills didnt work so well. I tried to find interesting angles, but in the end I just gave up and watched these boys incredible skills with bikes.

Sunrise. The next morning we met just after 6am to start shooting. First was a step down that Conor wanted to back flip. The sun was still behind the Central Otago hills as we set up the shoot. This was another hard one to make look big. I struggled to find a good angle. I finally got one frame of Conor just after the sun crept over the hill that I am pleased with. I cant show it to you though! Here is one from warm up. All done with the help of my Elinchrom Ranger Quadra flash set off remotely with the skyport system. Couldn’t shoot mountain biking without it…

Conor hands free

After a decent session on the step down, we headed over to a cliff drop that Conor wanted to do a 360 off. The light was fantastic and I got some frames I am pleased with.

The boys sussing out the cliff  drop.

The last shot of the day was to be a line, steep as hell. Conor scaled up the sheer Central Otago crumbling face without hesitation and dropped into his line. 3 times he rode down this face, faster each time. Skills….

Conor scaling his line.

I definitely got some frames that I am happy with from the two shoots, its fun shooting natural hits, a bit like back country skiing, it gives more opportunity to get creative…