Castle Hill: A Great Workshop

By Sara Varenne

A windy gravel road, 10 km after the Castle Hill turnoff, took us to Forest Lodge, nestled in the Craigieburns. Views from the windows of the main living area, over the ranges lying in the distance, were superb. A good start!

To get to the heart of the matter, James introduced the workshop with considerations about what could work and what wouldn’t when we aim at monochrome landscapes.

On Saturday morning, at 6.30 am with a favourable weather forecast, the 20 keen photographers headed to the site of Castle Hill, where hundreds of weathered, sculpted limestone rocks are scattered among golden tussocks. Sunrise was not remarkable, but never mind. After a few moments of frantic research for the ideal spot to put my tripod and the perfect rock to photograph, I just had to accept what James had told us. It is a challenging place to photograph, and it takes some time to find one’s bearings in the vastness, the business of the place and just relax.

Twenty of us, including tutor James Gibson APSNZ EFIAP/b and Nicole Tai, the workshop organiser, assembled on Friday night around glasses of wine and delicious pizzas. Each person introduced themselves to their neighbour and then we took turns to talk about the other member of the pair. What a great and relaxed way to get to know each other. Most of us seemed to expect a new motivation and to find inspiration from this workshop. All in all, everyone expressed a willingness to grow as a landscape photographer.

Two hours later, after breakfast, we all gathered in front of the screen. An interesting session about the basics of composition was illustrated by James’ own pics. It was put to the test in the vicinity of the lodge with the mission to take pictures of lines, textures, symmetry and repetition, a fun way to train our eyes to find those essential elements of composition in an image.

Invigorated by a substantial lunch, we took our photographic gear and headed towards the nearby carpark at “Hogs Back”, a track that allowed the keen walkers to reach the summit overlooking the valley. Some of us chose to go down Tims Stream for the triple challenge given to us: taking a short, a long and an intimate view of the landscape.

Of course, as the day drew to a close, our next photographic session was to lead us to the sunset place. I was not overly excited at this prospect; the weather was dull and grey, and the clouds were packing up rapidly. Anyway, FOMO was the strongest, and I joined the group. We headed towards Lake Pearson on our way to Klondyke Corner. Ultimately, we stopped at Bayleys Spur above the many channels of the braided Waimakariri River. In a long line along the narrow carpark, a dozen photographers tried to make the most of the majestic landscape in front of them.