South Temple

A few days into the Ruataniwha backcountry, up the South Temple valley toward the hut, out looking for deer and tahr. No client, no brief, just a trip into the kind of country that made me want to shoot in the first place, with Cactus gear worn the way it's meant to be, not styled for a camera but actually lived in.

There's no shot list for a trip like this. You climb, you glass, you wait, and the mountain hands you something or it doesn't. The snow came in on the last day and made the whole thing, gear worn hard, a hut going quiet, light I couldn't have planned if I tried. The honest version of a place always wins.