Photo Tips: Best Landscape Locations in New Zealand

In this, the final part in our Best Landscape Locations series, James Ostinga asks four photographers to name their favourite destinations in New Zealand for landscape photography. He speaks to Mike Langford, Jackie Ranken, Tom Putt and David Evans.

01 PARADISE, OTAGO, NZ
Mike Langford: Paradise is a valley about 70km to the northwest of Queenstown. It’s surrounded by mountains and covered on the lower slopes by native beech trees. The area doubled for Isengard in The Lord of the Rings and was home to the Narnians in the film, Prince Caspian.
I’ve been visiting on and off for the past 30 years but since moving to Queenstown from Sydney five years ago I’ve been going up there almost every week. The place is always different. Some days it’s blowing a gale, others it’s heavy with rain but always there is an atmosphere that you can feel and that makes you want to be making photographs.
I took this photograph [pictured below] in early August. There was no snow on the ground when I arrived but by the time I left two hours later there was 10cm on the valley floor. In the forest the snow was falling through the holes in the canopy like icing sugar covering the few branches exposed to the sky. It was beautifully quiet and peaceful and somehow that comes through in the photograph.
The trick to photographing scenes like this is to expose for the subject, not the overall scene. Here, the overall exposure was a good stop or stop-and-a-half darker from middle grey. (Middle Grey or 18% grey is how the camera’s auto exposure would have exposed the scene.) Make the subject look the way you see it, not how the camera sees it. In this case, if the camera had been set to auto it would have produced a much lighter image – but not what I wanted.
www.mikelangford.co.nz

02 FIORDLAND, NZ
Jackie Ranken: My favourite place to photograph is the Fiordland areas of New Zealand’s South Island.? This area has more rainy days than sunny. In fact, Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand. Up to 250mm of rain can fall in a day creating dramatic waterfalls that cascade off sheer cliff faces that rise steeply to 1200 metres.
The best time to be there is just after rain when the waterfalls are full, the ground is saturated and shiny and the clouds have some form to them. In my experience spring and autumn are generally the best seasons.
I love playing and experimenting with different viewpoints. In the monochrome image of Milford Sound with figure and tree [pictured below], I was laying on my back on the ground. The wide-angle lens makes the tree blossom up and out above me.
When the figure appeared in frame I knew I had something special. The figure brings with it a sense of scale and a sense of ‘being there’. The umbrella symbolises rain and provides a contrasting hard shape to the surrounding soft tones.
www.jackieranken.co.nz

03 ROUTEBURN TRACK, NZ
Tom Putt: I’ve walked the Routeburn Track twice now (it takes three days) and each time I go back there’s so much to photograph. From the magnificent turquoise waters of the Route Burn on the first day, through to the alpine meadows above the Routeburn Falls and the spectacular views across the Hollyford Valley, the Routeburn Track is a landscape photographer’s paradise.
Other key spots along the track are Conical Hill which, on a clear day, has magnificent views to the Tasman Sea; Lake Mackenzie with its amazingly green water (great for a dip if you’re brave enough); and the dense beech rainforest along the track on the last day.
I’ve been in January both times and the weather has been glorious – fine days with fantastic sunsets. Around winter there’s snow and blizzards and some parts of the track are very exposed in bad weather. The track and its huts are open all year round, however the walking season is November to April.
www.tomputt.com

04 THE SOUTH ISLAND, NZ
David Evans: A Maori guide in New Zealand once told me that sandflies were put in New Zealand by a higher power to remind its inhabitants that heaven on earth can’t exist. Indeed sandflies are just about my only complaint with this photographers’ paradise.
I had the pleasure of visiting NZ over a number of years to shoot a panoramic coffee table book. Mostly travelling by campervan – a wonderful way to see the country – it was just about the best project I have worked on.
It’s difficult to pick favourite places on the South Island, but if pressed I’d say the areas surrounding Queenstown and Wanaka. I also enjoy the starkness of the plains and mountains around Lake Tekapo. A last minute decision to visit out-of-the-way Karamea on the far north part of the west coast was rewarded with unexpected images of the other-worldly limestone arches of the Oparara Basin, deep in the beech forest.
www.davidevansphoto.com

This article first published in the April-May 2010 issue of Digital Photography + Design. To purchase a PDF of the complete issue click here

What’s your favourite landscape photography location? Tell us about it – and what makes it so special – in the comments section below.

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