I originally started traveling to New Zealand for commercial photo and video work. Visually, there are few place on earth that exude the beauty of that place AND it has the benefit of being opposite seasonally (opposite hemisphere) from most of the brands/agencies etc that I work for. Great 6 month lead time for campaign creation, media buying, etc. It’s geographically very dense with variety as well. It’s a home run for productions. As such I’ve been heading down there to shoot campaigns for many years.
It was in these travels for commercial work that I fell in love with the New Zealand landscape and started a personal project aiming to capture that beauty from the air. Nothing too serious…more casual initially. But in the past 3 years it has grown more serious with each return. I’ve learned that mountains and landscapes can often photograph a lot like people. They have moods, personalities, essences. Capturing those has become the goal of my Aerial New Zealand project.
At the beginning of this Chase Jarvis RAW vid, you’ll see the door come off of the helicopter, you’ll see my shooting rig, and some safety measures…but the real fun begins after that where we’re buzzing above the Southern Alps of New Zealand, up canyons, and across deltas making pictures–both still and moving. Flying around in a helicopter above what I’d argue is one-of-if-not-THE most beautiful landscape in the world is humbling and stunning and so many things at the same time–not to mention just effing cool. I hope you enjoy the vid. There’s a handful of still images from the end of the video after the jump…
I’ve had the good fortune of shooting out of helicopters for more than a decade…and can say that I never get over how fun it is. Having probably taken 100 or more rides, it never gets old. I’m grateful to have worked with some of the best pilots in the world as well. In this video, Alfie (Queenstown Heliworks) works his magic. Thank you Alfie.
Needless to say, if you ever get a chance to fly, you must absolutely grab that chance.
Check out the images below, but also feel free to check out a bigger gallery selection of images from this project here.
Happy to answer any aerial photography questions you might have in the comments. Thanks for spending some time with the video.
The first mountain shot is epic. I have no other words to describe it.
Kia ora Chase,
Fantastic shots, I want to second what Adrian Malloch has said above it’s fantastic to see someone putting their own spin on a landscape that has been the subject of so many amazing photographers over the years. The crazy thing is that this is just the tip of the iceberg here in NZ I think you could shoot almost endlessly here.
Have you had any thoughts about running some sort of photography workshop in NZ the next time you are here?
Inspiring! Thanks for sharing.
The second photo on this page – the darks around the river / glacier are probably post processed? Or was the image already taken like that?
The first image is stunning great work Chase!!
Nice work. And good to see another personal project. I find that it’s the personal project, that both gets me a lot of my clients, but they also keep the spark alive for me. Although not a lot of them make it to public view, doing them keeps me alive with inspiration.
Keep it coming 🙂
Chase, awesome stuff, thanks for posting.
I did my first shoot in a chopper a couple of weeks ago. I had to do a night shoot of Melbourne city. Pushed my 5DII to 6400 ISO and used a 50mm 1.4 @ 1/320. My results are ok but just wondered if you had any advise on how to handle these difficult situations ? Gyro (expensive) ?
Got one amazing shot with my fisheye 2.8 @ 1/60 with sharp results ? Not sure how ?
Thanks so much, Brett.