Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
How do you photograph a dawn chorus? That was one of the challenges on my first ever Catlins Photography Workshop this past week. How do you capture the sound of the earliest rising birds and the haunting shrills as they layer on top of each other like a well-rehearsed looping musician? Even I had no idea how that might look.
St Clair author and photographer Barbara Newton was up for the challenge. We spent four days exploring a few corners of the Catlins and wrapping our heads around shutter speeds, apertures, ISOs and just how to capture that feeling of wind in a forest, the first rays of sunlight on The Nuggets and the power of a river carving a path down a rocky face.
Barbara's already an accomplished photographer so that meant we got to dive deep into some pretty cool concepts with photography and to take the time to wrangle them into some nice frames. We had a lot of early starts and late finishes as we chased the best light, and in between, we stayed at a beautiful homestead high on a hill overlooking Surat Bay and Pounawea. Chef Rachael made sure we ate like royalty, too.
I was really happy with my inaugural workshop in the Catlins – and discovered a few things to make it even better but we're definitely going to repeat this one. You can book our 2026 Catlins Photography Workshop with me right here.
We also have a big photo expedition to Indonesia in the works for 2026. If you want to tick the trip of a lifetime off your bucket list, then here's the link to learn more about this one.
See you at the beach, Derek
PS How incredible is it right now for Otago Rugby? Even if you're not a die-hard rugby fan, the Otago Spirit cleaning up the FPC Championship was next level. Then the boys followed suit and secured the Ranfurly Shield (and a heap more trophies) before locking in an NPC semi-final at Forsyth Barr Stadium against Bay of Plenty this Friday (October 17) at 7:15pm. It's time to start showing our appreciation – book your tickets and fill that stadium with blue and gold!
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: