A four-day photography workshop based in Rotorua, in the central North Island, photographing geothermal landscapes and forest waterfalls with tutor Ken Wright. Rotorua gives you two subjects that ask very different things of you: the saturated colour, mineral texture and drifting steam of the thermal fields, and the long-exposure discipline of moving water in deep native bush. Three nights based at the Distinction Rotorua Hotel means we can return to a location when the light is right rather than passing through once, with the quieter middle of the day used to review images and work through processing. We visit two of the region’s major geothermal parks, Lake Tarawera and the redwood forest, and photograph Tarawera Falls and a series of smaller falls through native bush. Groups are no more than five.

Water in Motion

Ken’s own photography is built on slow shutter speeds and moving water, and this workshop is where that knowledge gets handed over. We photograph a range of falls and river landscapes, from a river that emerges straight out of a rock face to small cascades deep in the bush, working on how to read the volume and character of the water in front of you and choose an exposure that keeps its texture rather than smoothing everything to the same white blur.

Steam, Colour and the Inner Landscape

The thermal country gives you colour and form found nowhere else in New Zealand, and it rewards a longer lens as much as a wide one. Alongside the big view you will work on isolating pattern, texture and mineral detail within a wider scene — the inner landscape — and on using steam as a compositional element rather than an obstruction. It is the fastest route to images that do not look like everyone else’s.

LOCATIONS

We are based in Rotorua for the whole workshop, with everything within comfortable reach. We visit two of the region’s major geothermal parks, chosen for their variety of thermal features and photographic access — colour terraces, silica flats, mud and steam. Away from the parks we work the lakes and forest, including Lake Tarawera at dawn with the mountain behind it and the towering redwood forest with mist moving through it. On the waterfall side we photograph Tarawera Falls and the river above and below it, a warm thermal stream running through native bush, and a small number of other falls and cascades a short walk off the road. The exact order is set by the weather, the water levels and the light — we follow the conditions rather than a fixed schedule, and that judgement is part of what you are here to learn.