I’m a follower of Jesus, and this drives me in the paths I choose in life. Work as an aid worker for an international charity supporting the emergency relief work we provide to people affected by wars and disasters. I’m a Kiwi but have moved all over and am now thoroughly placeless. A textbook TCK with all the associated perks and problems. I spend my life in the limbo of departure lounges.
I’m currently based out of Melbourne, where I’m married to a beautiful wife, A., and have a gorgeous 6-year-old step-daughter, M.
As a traveller I’ve been to an even 50 or so countries so far, so plenty more to go. Wanna see ‘em all before I die. I love the outdoors, and the wild places of the world. There appears to be a direct relationship between my level of happiness and my distance from urban centres. I’m a mountain junkie, and anything to do with them. Skiing remains my number one passion, but I love hiking, rock-climbing, mountain-biking, even a spot of white-water kayaking. Lately honing a nascent passion for scuba diving, which doesn’t have a lot to do with mountains but which opens up a whole new dimension of our beautiful planet, and I’m also learning to kite-surf & snow-kite, when wind and circumstances permit.
I’ve been using an assortment of Canon cameras over the last few years, with early work on a Canon T70 35mm, transitioning to a Powershot G6, then my first DSLR a Canon EOS 350D. Since that died I’ve upgraded to a Canon Powershot G9 (compact with a sweet underwater case), an EOS 400D, and now an EOS 5D which I love dearly. I shoot in RAW format and process using Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Lightroom, using Apple computers (I am also a self-confessed iPad addict). I love landscapes and wide-angles, but crave to be a better photojournalist and portrait photographer. I am rarely out without my polarizer. As a rule I like my shots to closely reflect what I saw with my own eyes, rather than heavily processed images that stray too far from reality.
I like my cinema poignant. I like my music eclectic. I like my cheese fondue. I like my feet bare. I like my air conditioning off and my windows down. I like my friends and wish more of them weren’t so far away.
More Altitude. Annapurna South (7,219m) in the background. Annapurna Sanctuary @ 4,200m, Nepal.
Please see a much fuller gallery of my photography here, where you can also purchase prints.
If you want to reach me I can be contacted via email at: morealtitude [at] hotmail [dot] com
Or you can follow me on Twitter, where I hang out most days, via @morealtitude
*Please note that all photos and text on this site are Copyright MoreAltitude and All Rights Reserved unless otherwise indicated. Please do not reproduce or use without permission.
WanderLust 
Hi! It is very interesting to be able to conciliate a good work with trips. Which is the institution you mentioned? Exists possibility of ingress on that institution?
Congrats for the very nice photos
LOVE your site. Hope you’re doing well, and soaking up more of our God’s awesome creation, and capturing it for the rest of us to enjoy 🙂 Would be so awesome to catch up with you someplace somewhere.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful adventures. Discovered you via a few stunning images on flickr, I hope you don’t mind another reader. 😉
The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is interested in using one of your photos. The museum, a non-profit institution in Detroit, Michigan is creating an educational website on W. African history aimed at 5th graders and their teachers.
http://flickr.com/photos/90865307@N00/282695095
The image would be embedded in flash at 72 dpi and would not be separately capturable or downloadable. It could be downloaded as part of a lesson plan.
Would you be willing to give us permission to use this photo? We would properly credit you.
Wow. You seem like you have quite the life. And the beautifully stunning photographs to prove it! How did you decide to do this? To be bouncing around the globe on such glorious adventures! It truly seems you love what you do and it’s so refreshing. Keep it up!
Hi Kristen and thanks for dropping by and leaving a few words, it’s always lovely to hear from folks. Yeah, I do love what I do- most of the time- I still seem to find myself bound to an office desk a substantial amount of my time, but try and make the most of it when I’m not. International work’s sort of in the blood, Dad worked for the UN so it was a pretty natural progression. Don’t think it doesn’t come at a cost though- it’s pretty hard to maintain good close friendships when your second address is an airport waiting room. :o) Keep dropping by and thanks for sharing your encouragement.
Hey! Great site, I’m a fan =)
Besides your amazing photography skills, you are also a great writer, you know how to drive a person well into reading your experiences without sounding like a highschool teenager’s diary. It’s hard to come by with such skills (only found a few on wordpress so far). You’re great, I cannot wait to hear more from you.
Ash
Hey Ash, thanks so much for your kind & enthusiastic comments, I really appreciate them and it’s always great to know people are enjoying what I put up here. You’re welcome to drop by any time, and when I get the opportunity I’ll look forward to browsing through your work as well. Take care mate.
Dear MoreAltitude
We are four students from the university in munich. We study art & multimedia design and wanted to ask for a permission to use your desert image (105-gilded-sand.jpg). It’s non-commercial and just for a video-project. You would be mentioned in the credits.
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Anne
Hi Anne,
Thanks for your message. You’d be more than welcome to use the image as you’ve described. Thanks for dropping me a note. If you click on the image you’ll be able to access a slightly larger version of the shot which might be more helpful to you for your presentation.
All the best,
MA
Hi there
I’m a feature writer at the Dominion Post newspaper in Wellington, and I’m putting together some of the articles we’re running over the summer. We’d really like to use a campfire pic we found of yours on flickr to illustrate an essay one of our writers has written about her profound love of campfires. Could you drop me a line at Kimberley.rothwell@dompost.co.nz or phone me on 04 474 0138.
Many thanks
Kimberley Rothwell
Thanks Kimberley. I have sent you an email to the mentioned address.
Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to write such informative, insightful posts! Great pictures too. Really interested in your aid work.
Many thanks,
Anna
Thanks for your kind and encouraging message Anna. I’m glad it caught your interest. Thanks for taking the time to browse and comment.
Wanting to get permission to use one of your pictures I found on flickr of Haiti. I’ve teamed up with a local printer and we are going to design and print a postcard titled “Haiti Disaster Relief – How you can help too!” with a list of all the local organizations taking donations and supplies to aid Haiti. We are going to distribute the postcards out to local businesses to give to their customers.
Hi Sue. Please drop me a line at morealtitude@hotmail.com to identify the photo, and discuss who you are working for, expected circulation, and what location you’re based out of. Thanks very much, and for your efforts too.
Hi,
We have connected on flickr but I found your blog looking for deeper info on Haiti. Nice blog. I’ll be back especially for updates on Haiti.
Be well, Melody
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Great blog…I would love to hear more of your unique perspective…best
FE
I have only gone through a few of your posts so far and plan to look at them all at some point. Your photos amaze me and just imagining what it is like to experience all that you do stuns me. I hope I will get to see as much as the world as you have in the years to come, as soon as I figure out what direction I will take in my life. Here’s to hoping you have many many more amazing experiences and take many more pictures so I have the pleasure of seeing different places in the world through the eyes of someone else.
Hi,
I found your photography through Flickr while searching for desert photos. These are amazing! I’m preparing a sermon for this coming Sunday, Feb 27 and would really value the opportunity to incorporate some of your photography in my storytelling. I’m exploring the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and their two sons in Genesis 21. It’s a story about “a boy named laughter and a boy named ‘God hears.” (I checked out the meaning behind the names.) Would you be willing to provide access to some of your photos, I would give full credit to you as the photographer.
Thanks for considering!
David Balzer
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Hi David, sorry for the delay in replying I have been out of communication. You’re more than welcome to use some photos to support your sermon if you’re interested- feel free to download any that take your fancy or let me know if there are specific ones you’d like at screen resolution. Thanks for your interest.
hi, found you as i was looking for aid organisations that do have access in Haiti, found your blog to be very interesting and informative, would love you to look at the web site i have attached…you will get n idea of what we are about, our greatest frustration is getting connected to the right people in aid organisations to get our product listed and into the warehouses , we took our ‘septic system’ into Banda Ache afer the Tsunami hit with Oxfam, trained the local engineers on the ground to use the system but have found it difficult to get information over time as to how the system is working etc
We also have a humaneterian arm- made up of 4 christian directors, we are currently negotiating with ausaid to get our product into Haiti which would be for the aid camps and the rebuilding phase
if you have any sugestions/ tips/ contacts etc we would really appreciate it, if you would like to chat to us re the product please feel free to send me an email and i will get my hubby Raymond who is the technical brain to give you a call…keep up the great work you are doing, it is encouraging to hear people who love Jesus been involved in Aid organisations as we believe you can make the extra difference….all the best Sharon
i am mesmerized by your photos, keep them coming! great works! 🙂
Cannot figure out where to find a contact email for you on this site or redbubble. I have a question about 1 of your photographs which I can ask in detail in email. Thanks, Shawn
Hi Shawn, thanks for your message. I will contact you by email with my details. Thanks for dropping by and for your interest.
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Hi.
I drop by every now and again, interested in your photos and journey. I really appreciate the nd400 shots, thanks to you I have started experimenting with that filter too, really enjoy it.
Best,
Phil.
Many thanks for dropping by and for taking the time to leave a note Phil. It’s very much appreciated. I’m glad you’ve decided to play around with the neutral density filters- they take a bit of work to get going, but they’re a lot of fun, no? 🙂 All the best with your journey too and have a great day.
Somewhere you had a photo of a beach, straight on, midday shot done with the nd400. Can you remind me of the link? thanks, Phil
Is this the photo you had in mind Phil?
http://morealtitude.redbubble.com/sets/120116/works/249858-13-crayola-exposure-queensland
It was taken on a beach in Queensland along the Sunshine Coast. I’m not sure if I published it on my blog- if I did it’s well buried. Maybe time to dig it up again… 🙂
yeah, brilliant. That’s it. to get 40sec exposure at that time of day you must have really brought the aperture down. Here’s one I tried:
Nice work- great water texture and I really like the use of a stationary object in the foreground to contrast with the movement behind. That’s the juxtaposition I used with my lighthouse shots recently which worked well with the star-trail effects- and to contradict that, what I feel I should have done with my Wineglass Bay long-exposure beach shots- as a result I feel they look a little blurry and aimless. Good trick to bear in mind for long exposures.
FYI I find that when I leave the shutter open for a long time, it tends to extenuate sensor and lens dust (not sure why)- so you may need to pay extra attention to specks and dirt. I spent AGES cleaning up a couple of my pics recently for that reason. Not sure why the long-exposure makes it worse, but there it is.
And yeah, to get that 40-sec exposure I was stopped all the way down to f/22 AND I had it stacked with a polarizer- which actually makes all the difference. It’s a brute to set up right, but once it’s done, you can get some cool effects.
Look forward to seeing more Phil.
🙂
Enjoying your blog and images, keep up the good work. Do you know Clare S.? She recommending me to your blog. I wanted to pass on a couple of links you might be interested in.
For photography, a good friend who does photojournalism for humanitarian efforts: Don Mirra (www.donmirra.com). He’s trying to publish a book of pre-earthquake stories and images from Haiti right now. I think you’d dig his work and enjoy his friendship.
On being a Christian Global Citizen, a foundation named after my late wife that I serve as a Board member might interest you: The Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship. (www.kristafoundation.org) I also publish a journal through them called The Global Citizen: a Journal for Young Adults Engaging the World through Service.
Finally, on being a blogger. I’ve recently started my own at http://www.stayingfortea.org. I’d be honored if you ever decided to take a look.
Be well.
Thanks Aaron for your message, enthusiasm and support. I had a quick glance over your blog and you’ve got some really interesting material that I’d like to spend more time exploring- thanks for connecting and thanks for the links. I’m looking forward to checking them out in more depth and will take a look at Don’s work for sure. All the best with your ongoing work and project, and I look forward to connecting more into the future.
Cheers mate.
Hi it is so great to found somebody who love Jesus and has a similar life style! Keep continues! The best wishes!
You have the kind of life that is worthy to mankind. I’m hoping that my son, who is now a first year med student, will be able to experience having to travel contributing to people around the world, once he finishes his study.
Hey man, congrats on being freshly pressed today. I’ll echo what everyone has said here, you’ve got some great photos. Consider me a new subscriber and fellow follower of the way. I’m also partial to the wide angle and looking to become a better photojournalist and street shooter. Any time you plan to be in Cambodia, drop me a line at timothyirobertson.wordpress.com
-Tim
I really like with the way how you lived your life. It must be amazing having great experiences and journeys like that. Hopefully someday i’ll be able to lived mine like yours too.
Hi, i’m Novri from Medan – Indonesia. Just like yourself, i really addicted to photography especially photojurnalism – human interest, and landscapes. But i’m still an amateur, not yet a professional like you. I had visited your personal photography website at http://morealtitude.redbubble.com/, and i found out that you did make many great photographs indeed. They are so awesome and give a meaning – especially for the human interest photographs, as well as the landscapes too. Great skills, nice post proccessing – just like it needed neccessarily, and very well composed. Great work indeed my friend.
If you do have a time, please visit my blog and found out all my photographs at wordpress and at other links to my websites.
Hopefully everytihing are even more greater for you my friend. Best regards and have a nice day !!
Hi! Found the writing and the pictures really interesting. Keep it up! I do process documentation for not for profit organisations in India and that gives me a chance to travel. It certainly is the best part of our job! And now i am getting inspired to brush up my photography skills !!!
morealtitude,
I read your series on becoming and aid worker, and I would really love to have your opinion on whether or not I have what it takes to have a humanitarian career.
My reason for wanting to work in this field is because I am so compassionate and empathetic. I find aid work to be the highest calling in life, and I see it to be the most fulfilling type of work. I mentally place myself in the bodies of poverty-stricken people, and I am convicted to help.
However, I am extremely shy; you could call me the epitome of an introvert. I don’t want to work one-on-one with people, but I would love to assist them in a significant, in-direct way.
As I am not really interested in any college majors (or specific careers), I’m having a hard time with picking a sector. I just know that I don’t want to do anything other than the alleviation of poverty.
I would love an email or a follow-up comment. I just need a little help with guidance.
Thank you for your time,
Shane
Hi! Found your blog whilst searching for temple silhouettes. Your photography is absolutely breathtaking! My husband and I set up an NGO here in Cambodia 5 years ago, teaching primary teachers in rural schools in 4 districts. I was wanting to get the students at one of the schools to do two art works using a temple silhouette as the background – one for them to keep and one to send to one of our corporate donors as a thank you to hang in their foyer. Is there any chance I could print off the palace silhouette photo to use? I would send you pics of the finished artwork of course! Hope you don’t mind me asking. Don’t like to just use other people’s work without permission. All the best – I’ll definitely be following your blog from now!
Kate