My flying tripod is a 1945 bi-plane called a Stampe, much like a tiger moth. The pilot sits in the back with space for one passenger in the front seat. There is no canopy, you can smell the oil, hear the wind rush past the wires holding it’s two wings together, and feel the throb of the Gypsy major engine as this gentle lady takes to the air.

My father Richard Nell is the pilot, he calls us the shadow hunters. We fly late in the afternoon, as the sun drops toward the horizon the shadows stretch out to reveal a unique landscape that delights my sensibilities.

I wanted to photograph straight down onto the ground, where there is no up or down, no vertical or horizontal. I wanted to create abstracts, “Aerial abstracts”, showing pattern, texture, line, form….strong compositions that challenge the viewer to understand what they are seeing as well as delight in using their imagination and be taken somewhere they hav’n’t been before.

To achieve this I asked Dad to perform a loop. While upside down I am looking up and looking straight down .

This image was made soon after takeoff from Goulburn aerodrome. The next day the burnt p[art of the paddock had been plowed in.

Tracks along a fence. Lake George, NSW.

2018 Walking over this black sanded beach in The catlins I stopped to study the lines made by some kelp that had washed up.

Shooting with my monochrome picture style and zooming in close helped me to abstract the shinny surface of the kelp from the sand. Then with my 100-400 mm lens I made this spiral multiple exposure by moving the lens around its collar.

These windswept trees found in The Southern Tip of New Zealand’s South Island have so much character. I left the empty space above the tree top to make the head of the tree stronger.

2005 Before Canon launched it’s 5DMKIII I was unable to make my digital multiple exposures in camera unless I shot with film. So in this case I played a little in the computer to hone my skills for when I could make them in camera digitally.

The most important thing for me was to evoke a feeling and emotion with this image. This part of the forrest on Queenstown Hill is quite spooky.

2005, 120 Film. Mamiya 7

When I look at this print which hangs proudly in our home I think of the day it was shot. We were with a good photography friend called Richard White and had taken him into Skipopers Canyon for a day of photography. He was shooting on a 4x5 field camera (large format film camera) and had also noticed this cloud developing above the mountains. But my the time he had set up his camera and focused the cloud had disappeared.

I have never seen a cloud like this again, it was magical.

I have travelled through the Nevis valley many many times, but on this day the faces in the rocks were so visible.

This is an image from 2003 when Mike and I first moved to NZ. It is a copy from a darkroom print. At the time I was shooting on an old Lubitel 120 film camera. Making multiple exposures to film. The Photograph was made in Milford Sound and Mike Langford is the man under the Umbrella.

This is the original and first Rankenhand image that started the #Rankenhand hashtag. The camera was on a tripod and set to a ten second timer so that I could get into position to was using my hand to stop the suns rays hitting the lens.

When it came to processing , I could have cropped the hand away but instead left it in and made it more obvious.

An in-camera Multiple exposure.

A silhouette of a worker carrying cut off banana fonds to the rivers edge.

My son James posed for me to make this in camera multiple exposure of his face over an unfinished carving of a Buddah.

In camera multiple exposure.

An image made while travelling as a passenger in a car. I call this technique #Driveby. This print has had a layer of Encaustic wax applied over the top. While the wax was still warm and soft I applied a series of vertical lines and filled those lines with black indian ink. This was then wiped off leaving traces for the viewer to enjoy.

An in-camera multiple exposure of an old flour mill found in Gore, Southern New Zealand.

A layer of encaustic wax over the top made if feel more ancient and about to fall down.

In camera multiple exposure.