Earlier in the year I was honoured to be asked by Nikon to be a part of their iconic futures campaign, these west coast NZ portraits are 1 of 10 sets that I shot for this. We were posed with the question “what is our one hope for the future of New Zealand, my answer was centred around understanding and marriage equality. If you’re interested in seeing the whole campaign as well as checking out the other nine photographers involved you can see it here.

Now onto Patty! I’ve known Patty for a few years now, she’s a talented photographer and cinematographer and someone I consider myself ridiculously to call her a friend. She is ray of absolute sunshine and the kind of person you always feel a million dollars when you’re just in her orbit. Patty and her partner Sam stepped in front of my camera and we went out for an evening at one of my favourite West coast beaches to create this set of images. These two have so much chemistry and it was a joy to photograph – we spent most of this session in fits of laughter and although I had planned for a warm summers evening, the cloud and fog really added to this session.

I speak about this a lot but if you’re a photographer reading this – go and photograph your friends, your family – even if it’s not for a campaign. This session reminded me of the importance of preserving the people I love too and how much I treasure the images made.