MoaTrek Guest Interview with Photographer Chaz Anderson - SoundCloud Graphic

Photography in New Zealand - Interview with Charles Anderson

American photographer Charles Anderson travelled around New Zealand in March & April in 2019 on a MoaTrek Small Group Tour and took hundreds of wonderful photographs all over the country. This is an audio interview with Charles in which he talks in depth about his trip from a photography perspective, he tells us the stories behind his favourite photos, shares his tips on what gear to bring and explains his techniques for getting photographs while being part of our Kakapo 21 Day North & South Island Tour.

The full interview is just over an hour and you can listen by clicking here on the SoundCloud file below. There's also a full transcript of the interview here on this page below and we've inserted the pictures he's talking about into the interview at the appropriate time so you can follow along.

Andrew: Now, as I said, we'll definitely put some photos up there. You obviously like taking photographs of people as well.

Charles: Well, I consider myself an introvert that's converted to an extrovert. I can kind of use photography as a way to work my way into talking to people, it brings me out of my shell a little bit. I see somebody that's interesting. You know, I can give you a few examples. But I walk up to them, I introduce myself, I have a bunch of business cards that I hand out to people that has my name and my contact information. And one of my photographs on one side, and my reference to my blog. And I say, "Hey..." A lot of times I tell them I take pictures for Google Maps, which I do as a hobby. And that kind of breaks the ice.

I found that people in New Zealand a ittle bit more reserved. They don't like people sticking cameras in their faces. But if you kind of hold the camera at your side, and kind of introduce yourself first. Once you kind of break that introduction, they open up to you. I was able to ask a lot of people a little bit about themselves, and then eventually ask them if I could take their picture. A lot of times I would talk to people not even ask to take their picture because I found it more interesting than it was actually taking their picture.

Andrew: Yeah. We'll go and talk about some of those photos in just a second. But I wanted to ask one question. Before you came or, you know, when you came to New Zealand, did you have a specific kind of photography goal in mind? Or an end product in mind? What were your thoughts around there?

Charles: What I found that...based on my travels in the United States the kind of pictures I take, I take a lot of different type of pictures. I do landscape, I do street photography, I take pictures of interesting things that I find interesting to me. And my goal has always been to be able to share with my son and to share that with my family and friends on Facebook. So that was always my goal to kind of tell my story. A little bit about my story and my travels, that people would find interesting, rather than just sending a bunch of pictures and not saying anything about what it was. 

So I'll usually put a little description that went along with the photo when I was sending an email to my son, which he enjoyed. He's very good about emailing me right back. He would then, in turn, share that with his girlfriend, and then, in turn, share that with his mother, my first wife. So it was always kind of interesting to get his feedback and let him know what I was up to, what we were doing on the tour and where were we going next. And some of the things that I found interesting. If you kinda look at my photos as a whole, some of my galleries, I kind of got into this where I'm not just taking pictures and throwing them up on a gallery, kind of putting a theme together a little bit, maybe tell a little bit of a story.

Andrew: Yeah, I can definitely see that. Okay, excellent. So let's have a look at some photos. And as I said that you sent me some photos yesterday, and I have actually looked through all of your photos multiple times. 

Charles: All close to 900 photos, those are just the photos posted on my blog. I mean I took a lot more pictures, but most of them were not very good.

Andrew: That's the way isn't it? Take 1,000 and get 100 keepers. And you sent me I think half a dozen, four or five yesterday. Do you want to tell us about a couple of those? Like...

Charles: If you look at the one picture of Auckland.

Andrew: Yes, I've got that one. And we'll put that on the page. 

 

Chaz's favourite Auckland photo - the Wynyard Quarter

Auckland Skyline from the Wynyard Quarter - Chaz Anderson

Charles: I was very pleased that I added a couple of days to my tour at the beginning. And I had a couple of days that I added at the end when I was in Christchurch. So I added almost four days. And being able to arrive in Auckland early in the morning gave me an extra day. And then we had a built-in layover in Auckland so Paul could have a day off. So I ended up with about four or five days in Auckland which I found very interesting. Being your largest city was very cosmopolitan to me, the people were very unique. It was easy for me to get around. Our hotel was near the harbor. 

But I love to walk and I walked down this... Oh, I guess it used to be a train track it went into some silos and they had restaurants along there. Was border to the harbor there on both sides and near the harbor. So it was an easy walk. I think I must have made that walk maybe three or four times.

Andrew: Yes. It's called the Wynyard Quarter that area.

Charles: And that area towards the end, they had an elevated platform almost like the outline of a building or shed or warehouse and you could you climb up the steps. And I obviously gave you a much higher view. I must say the weather was very nice when I was there. So I got this great shot looking into the city, see the skyline there. You actually see people walking in some of those very colourful I guess they were gas tanks or petrol tanks that people had painted. So I thought that was very nice. I thought the picture came out really good.

Andrew: I'm looking at it right now. I love that. I know exactly the point you mean, it's a great little walk down on the waterfront there across that bridge. And over to that, it's called Wynyard Quarter. It's kind of one of the newer part of the waterfront in Auckland. 

Charles: And there was a lot of things going on there. There were restaurants, the area was very clean. It was a very enjoyable trip that I guess I made about three or four times. I took a couple of night pictures there too so it was very enjoyable for me.

Andrew: Yeah. And there's a photograph... I'm pretty sure it's Auckland of... I think it's the Winter Garden in the Auckland domain?

 

Chaz's Auckland Winter Garden Photo - the Mysterious Woman

Unknown walker in the Auckland Wintergarden - Chaz Anderson

Charles: Yes, that was taken in the Winter Garden. I had walked up there from my hotel which is up the hill. And I was gonna go to the museum that's past Winter Garden. So I went into Winter Garden and this was a walkway around part of the garden there. And I was interested in that [inaudible 00:16:43]. I guess that's what you call it and the vines growing on the brick. And I kept looking and trying to compose a picture and it wasn't quite working very well for me. So I kind of stood back awhile and this woman came walking around the corner and walked towards me. A lot of times people will stop and they'll say "Excuse me I'm in your picture." Or say "Don't take my picture." 

But she kept walking towards me. And I just got her I think at the right time. Her look you can't see her face there's a lot of shadows going on there, and those white statues of two female women and all the background. It really came out... I thought the picture came out one of my best, and I think was one of my favorite shots I took in New Zealand. And the funny thing about it is she kept on walking, she didn't say anything to me, I didn't say anything to her, she just kept walking past me. So it turned out to be I think a pretty interesting shot.

Andrew: Yeah, no, I'm looking at it right now. I know that spot in the Winter Garden. And that's right up near the museum. And you also get really beautiful views of the whole Auckland the Hauraki Gulf, the islands from up the top there, don't you?

Charles: Yes, it was a beautiful... I spent the better part of a half a day up there. Had a nice lunch and did a lot of the Winter Gardens and then went to the museum and spent some time looking at the history of New Zealand at the museum. Of course, we had a great view because you're up way high on the hill. It's interesting the pitch too where they play cricket.

Andrew: Yes, cricket is always a funny one when we see...when we pass by a cricket pitch with visitors from America it's always a funny one. There are similarities to baseball but not all, not exactly the same. And you've got a photo here from Queenstown, and you know, a lot of people kind of know the name Queenstown and there's a lot of photographs of Queenstown. Can tell us about this photograph down by the lake in Queenstown, and any others around Queenstown that you took and how that was for photography?

 

Chaz's favourite Queenstown photo - Lake Wakatipu

Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown Gardens - Chaz Anderson

Andrew: Yes. 

Charles: In Auckland, there's Queen Street, it has all the retail shops?

Andrew: That's right, the main street.

Charles: It was rather long, it starts close to the harbor and went way up the hill. I knew that would be an interesting place to go and do some street photography. This group had broken down their camp, they were sitting on a sidewalk there. And they must have been playing but I missed them. But they were still standing there talking and putting their gear back together. And I sat down on the bench, you know, maybe a few feet away from them. They didn't seem to pay much attention to me. And I must have taken about 50 shots. The woman was my primary focus. She seemed to be the center of the activity. One of the gentlemen I think was her boyfriend.

But I thought the way their clothes were, their conversation, the beautiful jewelry store behind them, the colors, it was coming out really good. And so I just sat down on a bench of course people were walking in front of me. So I had to wait and take some pretty good pictures. And then when they started to disperse, she went over and sat a bench across from me. So I went over to her and introduced myself trying to convince her I wasn't a stalker. And I said, "I took quite a few pictures of you and your friends. I found you guys as a group very interesting." 

And I showed her my camera so she could see them. She told me that she was from Spain. She loved my pictures. And we exchanged email addresses. And when I got back a few days later, I was able to download the pictures and do some editing. And I sent her about maybe 15 shots to her via her email. So that was kind of interesting. I think her name was Sophie. I think it was Sophie, kind of found her interesting, and the group as a whole they were doing some pretty interesting things to take pictures with. This was one of my favorite pictures.

Andrew: Yeah, that's the great thing about Auckland, it's very colourful with people. Did you hear back from her?

Charles: No, no. I kind of get used to that. A lot of people say they interested, I'll email them pictures. I did have some technical difficulties one of the hotels that we were staying at the Wi-Fi was very slow. Auckland was great. But we had moved on from Auckland. And so I told her, she had to wait a couple of days more. And she acknowledged that she received my email. When I sent her the pictures, I didn't hear anything back from right. We sometimes don't expect to hear back from people. 

Andrew: You probably need to follow her on Twitter or Instagram to get a response.

Charles: Yeah, I probably do. 

Andrew: Right, great. Thank you. So before you came out to New Zealand, is there anything you can tell us about how you got ready for the trip you know, from a photography perspective?

Charles: Well, it wasn't very hard for me, because I'd already been traveling for two years across the United States in a car. So I pretty much knew what camera I wanted to bring. I brought my iPad, my iPhone and that was pretty much it. I don't shoot with a tripod very rarely. I have a Sony RX100 VI camera that's very small. It's a little bit bigger than a cell phone. It takes wonderful pictures. It's highly rated. I did a lot of research on it. In fact, this version, the VI, I started out with a III and I've kept upgrading every time they upgrade. Because it's really a great camera. For someone that wants to take professional grade pictures and doesn't wanna lug around a big camera. 

So when I started traveling three years ago, it was great for me, I take my big camera, a lot of my camera gear my tripod, throw that in the trunk of the car. But when I wanted to go out in like when I spent a week in Las Vegas, I can carry this camera with me. The pictures download very fast at night onto my iPad. I can edit with my apps, and then send out emails and post to Facebook that evening or late that evening usually. So it's a great camera and I've really enjoyed working with it. 

But I would walk around a lot of times with a strap around my wrist and always have my camera ready to take a picture. And if I was you know, doing something, I could put it in my back pocket it would fit in the back pocket of my jeans or my front pocket. Of course, I carry a backpack which would have my phone, my book, my maps so I wouldn't get lost and my iPad. So a lot of times if I stopped and had a coffee break, or a lunch break I can look at my pictures on my camera and then if I wanted to I could download some of them when I was taking a break.

Andrew: Okay, so you're...

Charles: I travel very lightly when it came to photography. Because with my apps and editing some of my photos, I was always kind of pleased with the end result. Which is the goal of me sharing my pictures the end result. So that was helpful to me just to be able to travel lightly.

Andrew: So that camera...could you tell us the name of that camera again?

Charles: It's a Sony RX100 VI. Roman numeral VI. I'm holding this up I don't know if you can see this. 

 

Chaz's Camera - Sony RX100 VI

The Sony RX100 VI Camera

Andrew: I actually can't, your video is frozen I can't see you but it's...

Charles: It's a very small camera. It's about the size... it's a little bit smaller than an iPhone. And it's a little bit thicker. It's about twice the thickness as the iPhone. It zooms and it takes excellent pictures.

Andrew: Oh, there we go. Now, that's better. Now I can see you now. Can you hold that... Oh, so it's very... I see. It's very compact. I mean, that's the great thing of... I remember first taking photos in the outdoors kind of 10 years ago, and having this big brick around my neck. Okay, so that's... And so basically that's your main camera and you've got you said your iPad. Did you have to carry any spare memory chips or anything like that or?

Charles: If you're downloading every day, it's not a problem. But I don't erase too many pictures. I kept all my pictures on the memory stick. And I bought an extra larger capacity memory stick, and I have backups. I usually carry about three batteries with me. Sometimes I can go through three batteries in one day and recharge at night. So I have all my equipment laid out, all plugged into where they need to be plugged in every night.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay, so, that's a good tip. So you're traveling light, you've got spare batteries, you may have a spare memory card. Are any other advice, you'd give to an amateur photographer, planning to visit New Zealand who wants to take a lot of photographs?

Charles: Well, I think you need to find something that is interest to you. Like people find what they call their niche. I have a friend who's a professional photographer, he's followed my work over the years. It hasn't been until recently he says that I've become a photographer, which I thought was a good compliment. He says, "You found something that is reflected in your photos." He said, "You found your niche, or you found your passion." So I hope when people look at my photography they kind of get that feeling. 

I met a lady that was on our tour she was on the second half of our tour and she also was a photographer. And she carried... I think she had three cameras and a tripod. And I was trying to get her to tell me really what kind of photography she took. And kind of got she was a little bit reluctant to let me know exactly what she liked. So I don't think I had that problem I pretty much tell people what I like to take pictures of. 

And I don't try to pigeonhole myself into one aspect. But I know some things I don't think I'm very good at. Like I wouldn't do wedding photography. But I have gone to weddings and done what they call B-roll extra shots that the bride and groom might find interesting that the professional photographer is not taking. 

Andrew: Right. So you've explained about the camera and the gear that you bought. Was there anything that you didn't bring that you wish you had? Or was there anything that you did bring but didn't need from your photography gear?

Charles: No, I don't think so. I had pretty much what I wanted to do. Now since when I've gotten back to the States, I went out bought myself another Sony camera, that gives me a little bit more flexibility because it has interchangeable lenses. So I thought my next road trip in the United States I would take that camera also and take my RX100. But I think if I was traveling back to New Zealand, I would still travel with my iPad, my iPhone, and my RX100. Because like I said before, not to repeat myself, I was happy with the end result.

My pictures, I think are not always technically correct. They're not always the sharpest pictures. But hopefully, they convey something that that you don't see sometimes when you see someone who's a professional photographer who gets paid.

Andrew: They certainly did. And so did you take any photographs at all with your iPhone just out of interest?

Charles: Maybe just a few. When we're on the bus, a lot of my bus mates had small cameras and everyone was taking pictures with their iPhones or whatever phone they had with them. So I thought it was kind of interesting. Occasionally they would take a picture through the window. But most of the time I had my camera in my hand, or in my lap. So my thing was, when we made a stop and say it was a little lunch stop and everybody was rushing off to go find a place to eat lunch. You're familiar with that. I would skip lunch and go look for a place to do photography. 

And I had quite a few people that were with me traveling with me and with our tour group said that they saw things in my pictures that they didn't see. And I said yeah, you were eating lunch, I'm out looking for things to take pictures of.

Andrew: Yeah, you know, like that empty swimming pool, in Kaikoura. That caught my eye.

 

Chaz's favourite Kaikoura photo - the Condemned Swimming Pool

Damaged swimming pool in Kaikoura

Charles: I thought it would be interesting because it was, you know, earthquake damage. Right there where a major earthquake had happened and it was quite evident from walking from the hotel, down the street. And I walked a couple of miles, in fact, even talked to a gentleman who owned a small hotel there. I think he thought I was trespassing but I asked him if I could take some pictures. He said that was his hotel, it was converted into condos. But he couldn't... was declared... What do they call that?

Andrew: Condemned. 

Charles: So just by me walking down the street, I was able to talk to someone who had been there during the earthquake, was able to share with me what it had done to their town. And they had to close off all the major roads in and out of town were blocked. And it was very interesting to talk to him, which his hotel, in fact, was almost right across the street from that public swimming pool.

Andrew: Yes, I know the place, yeah.

Charles: They had major cracks.

Andrew: Yes. Same thing happened in Christchurch after that earthquake, all the swimming pools in town, all the school's pools were closed. That's the backstory, of most things that you don't realize. So can you tell us a bit about like your routine for taking photographs while you are on the tour? So like you mentioned before about skipping lunch, walking around. Was there anything you did like, you know, early in the mornings, or in the evenings? You know, from the accommodations, etc? How did you go about... what was your MI, if you had one? MO.

Charles: You know, I wasn't getting too much rest but I wasn't one to say well, I just gotta get up early morning to get the sunrise. I never skipped breakfast. So whenever breakfast was, I was usually there early. And then I would wander around a little bit until Paul told us what time it was we're supposed to board the bus. And I knew from the itinerary, what we were gonna do that day. So I think it was important to dress properly you know, the correct shoes. And I always had my backpack filled with extra water and snacks. If I did skip lunch, so I didn't starve myself, with my camera. 

And I always check my camera make sure it was clean. And I had the batteries all charged. And of course every day or every two days, you're packing and unpacking in your hotel room, so you had to be sure you didn't leave anything behind. And then, of course, we rotated seats on the bus. So it was always nice to be able to have good conversations with your travel mates. That was a big part of the day and sometimes eat breakfast with whoever it was the early risers with me. So that was pretty much the way I planned my day was just make sure I had everything with me, and everything was in working order. 

And the big thing was checking my emails if they had good Wi-Fi at the hotel. In most cases, we did. Because of the difference in hours, the time difference east coast, United States, and Auckland I had to wait sometimes to get replies back. 

Andrew: Of course. 

Charles: People that were on Facebook or my son via email because he would usually send emails from his work.

Andrew: Do you remember any of the like, for example, going out from any of the hotels like the couple I'm thinking of in particular. Well, there's Mount Cook of course, you're right there in the middle of the mountains. You know, Punakaiki the very last stop on the beach. Kaikoura's another one, Tongariro. Were there any, you know, photos or any kind of little excursions you took from there that resulted in some memorable photos for you?

Charles: Yes, obviously being aware of where we were, I had done in fact, a little email about this. I had taken the itinerary and marked both in my book and then my map, every place that we were staying. Because I was interested in how we were getting there, how the bus was traveling, and what part of the country we were. We were on the West Coast, East Coast where all these hotels were. I did a lot of googling of the hotels and actually went to their websites and looked at some of their photos. 

So where we were going to be staying, were we on the water, which is important. The place I can't remember the name where we stayed at a hotel, it was like on a peninsula. I took a great picture from the air. It's where the treaty was signed.

Andrew: Yes, Waitangi Bay of Islands.

 

Chaz's favourite Bay of Islands photo - Waitangi from the air

Aerial photo of the Waitangi Copthorne and bridge

Charles: Yeah, Queenstown. But when you wanna take photos of landscapes, you don't have really much time that's set up. A lot of people like to carry a tripod set up, wait for the right lighting early in the morning or late at evening, what they call the blue hour or the golden hour. We're on a tour and it's high noon, you take the picture, you hope it comes out. But a lot of times, it's not the most ideal conditions. 

So if you had a professional photographer, more than likely he wouldn't go on a tour. He would go on his own or hire a guide and say, "Okay, I'm gonna go here. I wanna take this picture at sunset. And I'm gonna camp out here all day and come back the next day, or the next day, or the next day, or the next day depending on the clouds, the sun, the skies, all those things that go to take a good landscape photo."

So you just gotta take what you take and hope it comes out good and make the best of it. Sometimes I wish I had a little bit more time. I'm kind of quick photographer, I don't take a lot of time. I see something I like I kind of set up a little bit take the picture move on. But sometimes you wanna spend a little bit more time. Not having constraints of the tour, or being part of the herd and everyone trying to get back on the bus at a certain time.

Andrew: We don't call them herds, goodness me, [inaudible 00:43:16] tours. How about in places like, as I said before, Mount Cook or Wanaka or Punakaiki? Because those are places where we actually do spend one or two nights there. Did you get anything? How did you go in those spots?

Charles: I think I did pretty good. Because I was able to scout out the area. And I think there was one place where they had the hot springs and the hotel was pretty close downtown. Had some beautiful parks and the springs are hot.

Andrew: Rotorua may be or Franz Josef? Rotorua probably.

Charles: There's a beautiful church there.

Andrew: Oh, yes, Rotorua. Yes.

Charles: People were telling me about how beautiful this church was.

Andrew: I know the one, yeah.

 

St Faith's Church in Rotorua

St Faith's Church at Ohinemutu Village, Rotorua

Charles: Interesting story there if you have a minute I'll tell you the story about this guy.

Andrew: Tell us about him because you got three or four of him and his friends haven't you?

Charles: Him and his wife. This was in Wellington, that main street there where all the retail shops are at close to the hotel. Had already gone to the beehive and was working my way back towards the harbor. I glanced over this little side road and I saw this guy who was all dressed in white and his wife, which I found out later was his wife, was putting black mascara on his eyes. I said, "Well, I'm gonna double back across the street and talk to them." And what they were they are street performers and they were human statues.

And so I talked to him, his wife, she was too busy putting on makeup and stuff. So they had all these old clothes and he had a top hat. She was all dressed in white and she was finishing up his makeup. And so him and I had an interesting conversation about his background. I think he was an actor. He's a business person. He actually had a business card. We exchanged business cards. But then they moved across the street and it was I guess a busy area, it was busy when they set up and got into their routine. And I walked over and they were acting like statues. not moving and people were putting money. 

So I walked around. I showed him my camera. I said I'm gonna take a few more pictures. And took a few more pictures. And then he brought character he gave me the nod like he said, "Have a nice day, Charles." So I thought that was kind of cool. Then he went back into character as frozen as a frozen . I thought that picture came out really well. Just one picture I think I sent you of him kind of glancing up.

Andrew: Yeah, well I'm looking at it right now.

Charles: Kind of wondered who this guy is and what he's doing but he was a street performer, he was being a human statue

Andrew: Where was he from?

Charles: He was from that area, Wellington. He was from Wellington and I asked him, he said he did that three, four days a week. He had other jobs. I think he was a part-time actor. He did a little bit of everything. Him and I did most the talking, she didn't say much. So I thought that was kind of interesting. Once I approached him and said, "Hey, what are you guys up to? Who are you? Here's who I am, can I take a few photos?" He said, "You can take all the photos you want to."

Andrew: Excellent. Yeah, that one certainly stands out. That one certainly stands out. Is there anything else that you'd add Charles if you had a 30-second elevator pitch to someone who wants to take photographs in New Zealand what would you say? It's a tough one.

Charles: Well, I've done a lot of talk. The only thing I can say, from a standpoint of being a photographer is that it's my desire to come back to New Zealand. I thoroughly enjoyed myself when I was in New Zealand. I thought the tour was an excellent tour. They gave me opportunities to meet people both on the tour and off the tour. It gave me a variety of different places to visit, which I enjoyed doing. In turn, that gave me quite a bit of opportunities to go off on my own and take photos of things that I enjoy taking photos of. And it's a little bit of a hit or miss sometimes whether or not anything is gonna come out any good.

And that's your desire as a photographer, is you capture something that someone can look at, and find some curiosity about, or enjoyment about. I mean I've looked at other people's work sometimes as well, this really doesn't do anything for me. But I've been really, really overwhelmed by the response that I've gotten from MoaTrek, yourself. People that were on my tour, and some of the emails I've gotten, my family, my son. It's helped me I think, as a photographer to get a bit more confidence in what I'm doing. And of course, if you see my website I'm off in all kinds of different directions with the work that I like to do. Some of it is a little bizarre sometimes. But it's fun.

Charles: If I could contact my ex-wife today, I would tell her, that I think all my work is wall-worthy. now.

Andrew: Wait until we publish this online and you've got 10 million followers and then contact her. One issue, there's one image I remember the first image I saw of yours. And it was that image you took if you remember that homestead in Canterbury that you know, you stop in for lunch and there's the wonderful people there Ian and Diane.

Charles: Yes.

Andrew: But the image that I saw was you had put her through some filter or some tool. We'll put it on the page but can you tell us about that one. You know, the one I mean?

 

Chaz's Photo of Akaunui Homestead in Canterbury in Pixlr

Akaunui Homestead & MoaTrek Coach Pixlr Image

Charles: Yeah, I have an app that I use sometimes if a photograph comes out a little bit too harsh, if I didn't have the right aperture setting, the picture comes out harsh and I really like the composition of the picture, I put it through an app I have. I think it's called Pixlr P-I-X-L-R I think is the one I use, and it will colorize the picture. And you can pick the degree and sharpness, it's a little app. I don't spend too much time editing photos, but every once in a while I'll run something through that because I thought it was interesting. 

Well, I enjoyed that part of the tour. I was fascinated with our host. We had a wonderful lunch. The house was beautiful. I walked on that house and took quite a few pictures of the dogs, our guest, the beautiful gardens they had there. And when I walked around to the front of house where Paul had moved the bus, we came in on the side, we disembarked, we went out to the tables had lunch. And I think he kind of moved the bus around to the front of the house. And we were actually on the back of the house. I'm sure you've probably been there where the pool's at and then there's a little pond there. The tables were set up. 

So I walked around the front house to see what was there. And of course Paul he had... the bus was parked right there and the house was right there. And I said I gotta take this picture, I'll take a quick picture because no one was in it. We hadn't gotten back on the bus yet. So I thought that was a pretty cool picture. So I ran through that little app and did some colorization of it a little bit. I think that came out pretty nice.

Andrew: And it was very eye-catching. And as I said that was the very first one I saw of yours. And I forget who someone emailed it to me, and I as soon as I saw it, it caught my eye. And that's what kind of started drawing me into your photos.

Charles: Some photographers don't like if you edit pictures too much.

Andrew: Of course, yeah.

Charles: I kind of have this balance sometimes if I like a picture a lot and I think I can edit it just a little bit to make it a little bit more interesting I do it just for fun, just I like to do it. That was one of my favorite pictures also.

Andrew: Yeah. well, thank you, Chaz. And as I said before like we all were just so taken with your photographs. I myself have looked through them all, many, many times. And I know everybody Miles and Ena and Alisha and Tanya, everyone that you spoke to, you know, got so much pleasure out of them. So, you know, thank you so much for coming and visiting us. Thank you so much for joining us on the tour. And I know that your guests, your fellow travelers would probably say thank you for the photos too because we're seeing some people, you know, on your galleries and commenting online and stuff. So yeah, thank you. And thank you for today.

Charles: My pleasure, anytime.

Andrew: So that's our interview with Chaz. And I hope you all enjoyed it. We certainly enjoyed...I enjoyed the chat and have really enjoyed looking at all Chaz's photographs. And now I know even a bit more about the stories behind them, they mean even more. So that's us. From Chaz and I, we'd like to say thanks for listening, and we're moatrek.com, New Zealand Small Group Tours. 

And MoaTrek is a family-owned New Zealand business been running tours all around New Zealand since 1971. And we're all about discovering New Zealand, traveling around New Zealand in small friendly groups. Fully guided with our Kiwi guides, staying in nice comfortable places each night, enjoying great food and wine. Getting out enjoying the best New Zealand countryside on short walks and you know, really fun, you know, activities. And just having that real trip of a lifetime with like-minded people here in New Zealand. So to find out more, have a look on our website, it's moatrek.com. And we hope to hear from you soon and see you down here in New Zealand soon. Cheers.

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