Taranaki , New Zealand Over the years, my experience of hiking has somewhat changed. At one point in time, I remember that it was all about the challenge of getting to a destination and proving to yourself that you could do it. Along the way, you could tell a good story with some 'white lies' of exaggeration as a social lubricant during party conversations or embellishing stories in photographic captions. Then at some point in time, when work became too stressful to bear sitting at home, hiking became the ultimate outlet, an escape. I remember donning the sweat stained headphones, loading the discman with a favourite mix CD with 140bpm tracks and generally 'going' off while walking and making sure noone was watching. The passing environment didn't mean anything , the process and the time away was all important. Then photography came into the fray. The headphones were lost and the destination became the target for an image in mind. Along the way other scenes were analysed and if the conditions were not good, there was a degree of disappointment that the photographic goal was not achieved. Currently, I like to think that I'm taking the positive aspects of each of the above and at some stage in the future, it won't matter if this scene was whited out, I won't need 'escape' music and I won't be aiming to get to location within half the time recommended on trail signs. I did however , enjoy the conditions to this location at Pouakai tarns thoroughly and hope you enjoy the image too :) Incidentally there were 3600'ish steps to get to this spot ........sadly, I really did count ..... [Web Gallery] [Facebook] [Instagram] [Flickr]
Burning Brush
