Four days in winter. New Zealand.
“For this trip, we were centred around the Queenstown region, which is in the South Island of New Zealand. Where I grew up in France, its 45 degrees latitude north. And coincidently, Queenstown in New Zealand is at 45 degrees latitude south. So there is a bit of a similar vibe to the two locations.”
“Although the light is similar, I wouldn’t say that the landscape is the same. Obviously both place have lots of trees, rivers and snow capped mountains. However, in France the mountains are covered in thick forests and they are massively taller. The peaks around my house in France are between 3,500 and 4000m above sea level, whereas the mountains in NZ are a bit smaller - aside from Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring. What is completely different about New Zealand is that the mountains rise out of the landscape, whereas the mountains in France just get gradually bigger.”
“The other major difference are the rivers. New Zealand has these wonderfully wide rivers that just run through the valleys, whereas France has narrow rivers deep down within gorges. And New Zealand still feels like it existed before people. Whereas the French Alps are covered with villages along every road you take. If I was going to choose another place in the world that feels like the South Island of New Zealand, I would probably have to say, Iceland.”
“New Zealand is one of those countries where the road trip is epic, just as it is in Iceland. There’s something spectacular to see around every turn. When I shoot my travel films, I think it’s important to also shoot the road trip. I always trying to link the places we shoot with car shots of us getting there.”
“I simply love this country. It truly has everything to offer from skiing, hiking, to spectacular scenery and the cold. Everyone who knows me, knows that I love the cold. It seems cliche to say, but I feel alive when the air is crisp and the temperature is near freezing.”
“My wife and I have been to New Zealand many times. And so for this trip, we spent 4 days around the mountains surrounding Queenstown as well as visiting the Mt Cook National Park and Tasman Lake. And because there are less people on the roads there, it really does feels like you have all these open roads to yourself. New Zealand has amazing roads in my opinion. For example, the road to Mount Cook is 52kms of the best roadway you could wish for.”
“Because I was travelling light on this trip, I took the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K with an MFT Lumix 12-35 f2.8 zoom. I kept the rig simple with just a top handle, no external monitor and only the internal LP6 Canon batteries. I also shoot stills, so I had a Canon EOS R and a 5D Mark IV with me, so it made sense to use the same batteries.”
“I get asked about battery life all of the time on my YouTube channel. Because I shoot mostly 10 sec clips of each location, I can go a whole day on a couple of batteries. For this trip, the only extra thing I added to the rig was an ND filter. So my rig was deliberately light on.”
“In my opinion, the Lumix 12-35 zoom is a great combo with the BMPCC 4K. Because I shoot landscape photography as well, I tend to frame my films in the same way I frame my stills shoots. I always try to shoot wide with landscapes. And if there are people around, then I place them smaller in the frame to show how big the place is, or how high the mountains are.”
“I am like a small kid when I come to New Zealand. My wife is always laughing, because when I'm in shooting mode, I just go from left to right and up and down. I am always looking for the perfect composition that makes me the happiest.”
