Above the Horizon

Give a blind man a camera ...

It’s the little things. Beginning several days ago, those of us that meet at the same spot in town to catch the staff vans to Cardrona for the work day could look each other in the face as we chatted. An odd thing to note, I admit, but it means that it was light outside. The dark days of winter here in Wanaka are very dark, and when the season begins in June our early morning pickup feels more like the dead of night. This week, on the heels of several days of shockingly beautiful weather, all of us marveled at the amount of gorgeous early morning light casting pink and orange hues on the Buchanan Range of mountains visible across Lake Wanaka. This week, the staff vans crested the long, windy road to Cardrona just as the sun popped above the horizon. It literally and figuratively sheds new light on a place that is genuinely extraordinarily beautiful even in the darkest days of winter. The whole staff has been in great spirits as a result, and our guests are more dumbfounded than ever by the views. And the birds are singing …

Like a few other places where I’ve been lucky enough to have spent time with and without my ski boots on, Wanaka makes amateur photographers of many of us and is a magnet for exceptional artists. Much like Santa Fe, New Mexico, the beauty of the Southern Alps and the quality of the light and air here stirs even the most jaded folks into fits of artistic expression. Luckily, while most fail to find the right words or the right technique and skill to capture the essence of the place, there are a few genuinely world class artists who call the place home and who successfully express the essence of this remote little spot on the globe. I’m very fortunate to know or to have worked with a few of them who travel the world pursuing their craft but who call Wanaka home.  In a blessed result of the advent of social media, a few of my favorites are kind enough to share some of their work with the wider world on a regular basis, capturing those images and feelings that I fail to while I’m here in New Zealand, and providing regular reminders of the stunning nature of the place while I’m home in Vermont. I try to stay away from being brazenly commercial here on my blog, but these folks are definitely worth a little time and a lot of oohing and ahhing.

Among the more celebrated of the photographers who call Wanaka area home is Camilla Rutherford. Camilla’s an award-winning and hard working young photographer who has somehow managed to create an immensely successful career that seamlessly blends her commercial work doing photo shoots for catalogs and magazines with her amazing gifts as an artist. Camilla’s regular facebook posts are most impressive given that they’re only a small sampling of her work. She can be found at  https://www.facebook.com/camillarutherfordphotography and http://www.camillarutherford.co.nz/.

Anthony Hansen is a long-time ski industry film camera guy and a true Kiwi local with amazing palmares through his career in film that are too long to describe here. Ant is a fixture on the local scene, including great work with some of Wanaka’s signature events – Warbirds Over Wanaka (http://www.warbirdsoverwanaka.com/), the World Heli Challenge (http://worldhelichallenge.com/) and others. Ant’s work can be found at http://www.facebook.com/wanaka.tv and http://wanaka.tv/.

My good friend John-Jo Ritson is a classic case of someone who arrived here to snowboard and teach snowboarding and discovered that he has a real talent as a video story teller, both commercially and otherwise. Getting to watch John-Jo’s work develop over time has been a real gift, and I’m genuinely excited that he’s finding success in his career behind the camera. His company is called Flashworks Media and his work can be found here: http://flashworksmedia.com/; and https://www.facebook.com/CreateWithFlashworksMedia. For a great little slice of his work, check out the short film of our mutual friend Biff Russell telemark skiing, playing the blues and just being Biff: http://vimeo.com/60938997.

Queenstown Wanaka 360 is in part the brain child of my friend and great snowboard coach Keith Stubbs. Keith’s been working hard on this business and its site for a couple of years now, and it’s become a cool blend of artful commercial photography work and NZ resort updates and information, and the photo pano’s are awesome: http://www.360queenstown-wanaka.com/.

Last on this list but not least and definitely not the end of what could be a long list of talented people is The Picture Lounge. The Picture Lounge is a gallery space and business opened a few years ago by photographer and graphic artist Christopher Thompson specializing in local NZ work. My disclaimer here  is that I don’t know Christopher and I’ve never met him, but his shop would be the first place I’d send someone looking to purchase local photos to help fuel their daydreaming problem. Don’t go there unless you want to insure you have trouble focusing on your work in your office. http://www.thepicturelounge.co.nz/; and https://www.facebook.com/ThePictureLounge.

And now, I’m going to head back out in the sunshine of a spring day in Wanaka and marvel at all of the natural beauty that I fail to capture, daily.

My work day on August 24th began like this at Cardrona Alpine Resort ...

 

... and ended like this along the lake in Wanaka.