Stunning new imagery of the Bay of Islands, NZ

On a recent trip to Cape Brett, photographer Garth Badger took the incredible photos below on his Samsung GS7, switching from his usual in-studio subject matter and instead showcasing the beauty of the Bay of Islands in a way not often captured. We had a chat to him about how he found the camera and the future of photography...

When did you first get involved with photography?
About 15 years ago

When did you decide it was the career for you?
I was in a job I didn’t enjoy and had a moment of clarity - it finally dawned on me that to succeed in life I was going to have to do what I loved for a living. I realised that I should be a photographer.

How did you find it switching from your usual camera equipment to a phone for this shoot and the fashion shoot in our latest issue? It must have been very weird at first!
It was a little but I shoot on all types of cameras so not too strange, it was such an easy camera to learn to shoot on that I could focus mainly on the subject and lighting which is key.

Is the quality really on par with one of the huge professional SLRs?
Painters don’t have any need to compare their brushes just as photographers should choose a camera that is the right tool for the job. It's apples and oranges. 

Why did you use the new Samsung over your camera for these images?
Firstly it’s lightweight so ideal for hiking. It’s water resistant, which meant not having to stash it inside my pack or in a plastic bag (my friends brought their big cameras and didn’t get as many shots because they need to down pack every time they wanted to get a shot). The image quality was amazing and the battery lasted really well. The ability to do panoramas made it so easy to create a great set of pictures with variety.

Now that it’s possible to get such incredible quality from a phone, do you think it has or will change the photography field at all?
I think every new development in technology changes the photography field and certainly there will be more and more amazing work shot on phones. Its an exciting time for photography where we have technology actually influencing and enabling creativity and a pace the world has never before seen.  

What advice would you give to someone wanting to start a career in photography?
I think the best thing you can do is just shoot as much as you can, shoot as many different subjects, lighting and creative ideas as you can. Once you have your shots don’t feel the need to show everything you take to the world, editing your work is one of the biggest skills to learn and you should only reveal the very best to your audience.

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