My New Zealand Photography Journal
It took me 30 years to journey to New Zealand.
At 18,695km away, and the antipodal point to my home country England, United Kingdom, some might say it’s no surprise I hadn’t set foot on NZ soil yet.
In this journal post, I’ll share with you a little bit about where my passion for the natural world began and how and why I started Lou Lou B Photo - and my New Zealand photography journey - many years later.
Before New Zealand: A life of travel
In January 2007, I set off on my first backpacking adventure, first to India and Sri Lanka - it had it’s ups and downs in the beginning but I quickly fell in love with the freedom of adventure. I learned quickly to follow my gut and listen to my heart.
The call of the wild
Headed north through South East Asia, starting in Singapore, I got as far as southern Thailand and turned back. Something was calling me to return to Malaysia. Turns out it was a little slice of jungle paradise. It soon became my home, the local guides who ran the camp, the cicada, the gibbons and the hornbills became my family, waterfalls were my shower, the river rocks and hikes into surrounding caves and forest were my playground. I learned a lot in those months spent living closer to nature than I’d ever done before.
Back ‘home’
Moving back to the UK to continue my art course felt more of a culture shock than a return home. While I continued to study art and design, all my projects focused on nature, inspiration constantly drawn from those days and nights spent in the jungle. I moved on to University and got a degree in Textile Design.
Every summer I travelled. Long haul flights always seemed like the most exciting option. One summer, I ended up living and working in Guatemala, learning Spanish in the afternoons and volunteering with a women’s back-strap loom weaving co-operative in the mornings.
A passion for New Zealand water photography
I’d studied film photography for a year when I was 17 but I never found anything that interested me enough to document. When I travelled, that changed. It was on that first trip in 2007 that I picked up a small point and shoot camera and fell in love with documenting the destinations I visited. I really sucked back then, but we all have to start somewhere, right?!
At uni, I picked up a love of analogue film cameras and spent the hours in between class and working, photographing fashion, my textile work and my friends. I invested in my first digital SLR on my third big overseas trip (end of my first year of uni) and fell in love with the freedom that manual settings gave me.
Here are a few shots from a fashion show at the V&A, taken on film on an automatic film SLR and a manual SLR. And yes, I juggled two film cameras at this fashion show and ended up dropping one and breaking the latch that held the back door on - an accident that later lead me to unintentionally discover how rad light leaks were!
After uni, I ended up working in the travel industry and adventured more to new destinations. You can check out a few of my travel shots in the travel section of my gallery.
In January 2016, I swiped right for a beautiful Kiwi skater boy. One date in Clapham Common skate park teaching me to ollie, over a year living together, European adventure holidays, numerous London brunches and eight months travelling together through India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Philippines… we arrived in New Zealand. <3
Settling down in New Zealand
When we finally arrived in New Zealand August 2018, I felt the powerful energy of Aotearoa. And I knew why I’d never been here before. In terms of settling down - a concept that had never before interested me - Aotearoa made me feel ready to do just that. The longer I spent in the country, the more I felt the magic of being able to live so close to nature, like I had done once upon a time in the jungle.
So, that’s really where LouLouB Photo began; moments falling in love with nature living in the jungle, all those years of travel right up until the day I arrived through NZ immigration, documenting worldwide destinations, learning to be humbled by the powerful yet beautiful natural world, and the years at uni spent playing around with analogue film cameras, helped fuel the passion to practice my craft.
When I decided I wanted to up my photography to the next level, I knew I’d have to choose a specialist subject and stick to it to really push my skills. So I chose the one I had become most enamoured with since leaving the UK and learning to surf during our eight month journey to New Zealand - the ocean.
The future of Lou Lou B Photo
Learning to live presently and slowly means that I have no specific plans - just to keep doing what I’m doing and working with what nature throws me - to show you the beauty of the natural planet and the adventures accessible within it, while offering prints for your space. I find the state of the planet overwhelming, and much spoken about climate change, which only perpetuates my anxieties in life (anyone else get that?). I aim to use my photography to bring the beauty and calmness of nature into your lives, facilitating an experience or moment in nature through photography and make my contribution to communicate the worth of nature over stuff to promote a more ethical culture across the globe wherever I can.
I hope you enjoy this little piece of photographic paradise. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions or contact me or get the TLDR on me here. 👋
Photo credit: Victoria Rose Sheridan