PXL - Simon Waterhouse » Photography

15 minutes with Te Radar

Simon Waterhouse — Thu, 26 May 2011 22:41:13 +0000

Way back in February I had an opportunity to spend a bit of time with Andrew Lumsden, A.K.A “Te Radar”. Radar is, (by his bio) “an award winning satirist, documentary maker, writer, stage and screen director, and amateur historian”. Add to this, “hilarious” and “all-round-nice-guy”. 15 minutes wasn’t nearly long enough, but I did manage to squeeze of a couple of quick shots in Riccarton House and Deans Bush.

Shag Rock – Post Earthquake

Simon Waterhouse — Tue, 17 May 2011 22:16:10 +0000

One of Christchurch’s iconic natural landmarks collapsed in the February 22nd earthquake. In the last couple of years, Shag Rock had shed a few kilos as part of a natural erosion process, but during the earthquake, it collapsed to less than half of its former size. Last week I headed down to the beach at sunset to shoot some landscapes, and lucked out with a perfect sunset. Here’s what I got.

Coffin Bay National Park, South Australia

Simon Waterhouse — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 03:31:38 +0000

Over Christmas, I spent 2 weeks in Australia visiting my family who all live in Adelaide. Adelaide if often the hottest city in Australia at that time of year (commonly exceeding 40degrees), so fortunately my family had arranged for us to spend a week on the coast in Coffin Bay National Park, on the Eyre Peninsula, some 10hours drive from Adelaide. The national park itself features massive sand-dunes, coastal scrub, more wildlife you can poke a stick at and some truly stunning beaches. The peninsula forms an inlet with sheltered warm water with no waves. As a contrast, the south-western side of the peninsula is open to the elements of the southern ocean, and features dramatic surf beaches, scenic cliffs and plenty of wind. Check out the photos of this beautiful part of Australia.

Bivouac Sale Flyer – February 2011

Simon Waterhouse — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 03:16:26 +0000

I recently completed the graphic design for the sale flyer and associated newspaper advertising for the Bivouac Summer Sale. Bivouac is a nationwide outdoor clothing and equipment retailer. I also supplied the background image, which features my partner Dani, and was shot in 2007 at Wharariki Beach, near Collingwood, Golden Bay. The brochure is A4 folded to DLE, with the middle of the front page becoming the front of the folded DLE Flyer.

Paynes Ford!

Simon Waterhouse — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:10:41 +0000

Without a doubt, Paynes Ford, near Takaka is one of my favourite spots in New Zealand. Here, beautiful Golden Bay weather meets awesome limestone walls and idyllic river swimming – plus add in the notoriously laid back Takaka pace of life. Paynes Ford is a bit of a hot spot for sport-climbing, so to me this equates to the perfect holiday location. I was lucky enough to make three trips to Paynes Ford in as many months. The first two were just fleeting three-day visits, but the last was 12 days of solid holiday. Check out some of the photos from the trips below!

The Wedding of Chris & Anna

Simon Waterhouse — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:43:41 +0000

I don’t shoot alot of weddings these days, which is probably a good thing. Weddings can be pretty full on and stressful, so shooting less means when I do shoot a wedding, I enjoy it alot more. In November 2010 I photographed the wedding of Chris & Anna, which turned out to be a lot of fun. They tied the knot in a tiny chapel in Little Akaloa on Canterbury’s Banks Peninsula – we photographed some bits and pieces in the bay, and then Chris surprised the wedding party with the arrival of two helicopters to collect them (and the photographer) and drop us on the spectacular heads of the Akaroa Harbour. Below is a very small selection of the images I took.

Audi Ice Experience Video

Simon Waterhouse — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:44:45 +0000

How many jobs entitle you to travel to the adventure capital of New Zealand, and shoot video of luxury german cars power sliding in the snow? Well… not many, thats for sure. Lee Howell of Kaptured Photography and I were comissioned by Audi New Zealand to photograph and video an extraordinary event known as the ‘Audi Ice Experience’. Lee was focusing mainly on stills, while I was shooting exclusively video. Needless to say, I was excited to sink my teeth into this project and produce a show piece I could be proud of.

Hosted at the Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds, near Wanaka, the Audi Ice Experience is a driving event like no other in New Zealand. Participants learn advanced driving skills on snow and ice on top of the Pisa range, at this world class testing facility. The landscapes of Wanaka and Queenstown are diverse and picturesque, and lend themselves well to creating amazing imagery. Add in a dozen immaculate late model Audi Quattro A4, A5, S4 and S5′s, and its hard to produce something ugly!

Check out the video we produced, and head over to Lee’s website to see some stills from the event.

Christ’s College DC-3 Advertisment

Simon Waterhouse — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:53:33 +0000

You wouldn’t normally be able to walk off the street into a restricted Air New Zealand hanger, so just getting access to do this photoshoot was half the work. The Southern DC3 Charitable Trust own and operate an original 1947 DC3, which is now based out of Christchurch. Christ’s college have an association with the Trust and wanted to create some imagery for advertising that related to the long history of the school in Canterbury. Enter 12 Christ’s College students of varying ages, an historic aeroplane, a photographer and assistant and this is what you get!

(Click on any image to view larger)

More images inside…

I was fortunate enough to also be asked to design the advertising, which is featured in the current (October) issue of Kia Ora Magazine (Air New Zealand in-flight mag), and also a coming issue of North & South Magazine. The photos came out great, and Christ’s College was so pleased with them, they’ve extended their use into other avenues of advertising and publicity.

New Industrial Architectural Photography

Simon Waterhouse — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:15:28 +0000

A month back I was commissioned by BSW Architecture of Auckland to photograph an industrial building they designed in Christchurch. Daily Freight is part of the broader Main Freight business, but is in itself a large enterprise. This custom designed/built building features a terminal with rail access as well as modern and comfortable office facilities. The size of the building makes it difficult to photograph, but the many aspects of the design also presented some challenges for interesting architectural photography. I ended up making two trips to take photos (as well as another trip that ended in disaster – but that’s another story!) One late afternoon and the other early morning. The early morning shoot ended up delivering the goods (pun intended).

Portraiture Photography with Anna

Simon Waterhouse — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:08:04 +0000

Anna is an extremely talented musician and singer in Christchurch – I was fortunate enough to be asked to supply some portraiture photography for her. One of the images is now being used on posters around town to promote a gig she’s performing in. You can hear some of her music on her myspace page.