Over the last 3 years I have been travelling North America and the South Pacific expanding my portfolio. My travels have brought me across the northern United States and Canada with prolonged stays in Nova Scotia and Vancouver Island, as well as most recently a year in New Zealand with short trips to Australia and Fiji. Back in Canada, I now plan to start displaying and marketing my photographs. The first step in this process is the newly launched www.gaviganphotography.com. I hope to use my website to introduce my work to a wider audience. I am also planning to apply for AFA funding to be used for further travel, once I have established myself in the industry.

Vision, Timing, Knowledge. This statement is what guides me through each photograph I take. In keeping with this my goal in photography is to capture the pure unaltered beauty of nature in each image. The photographs in this series were captured during my year long stay in New Zealand, during which, I was able to see a vast majority of both the north and south islands. New Zealand also known as Aotearoa, has some of the most breathtaking and magnificent panoramic scenery, however I found the smaller more intricate details most fascinating. Natural tourism is thriving in New Zealand, so the last thing I wanted to do was take the same photos taken by every tourist. The photographs that I am handing in for submission are unique and one of a kind, this, I feel is what defines me as a photographer and sets me apart from the rest.

NZ is a lush and vibrant country full of colorful plant life. Every step you take you'll find a new reason to stop and focus on the little details that make NZ so special. My submission is full of detailed images of plant life, rushing rivers and of course the very symbol of NZ - the fern. I hope that my photographs will convey it's splendor and beauty, and I encourage the viewer to visit NZ.

The title of this series is - 'A closer look at Aotearoa'. Each photograph in this series tells the story of the time and effort put into capturing the image. These scenes have not been manipulated in any way, they are as they were when I happened upon them. I do not practice rapid fire multiple exposure photography and therefore do not take more than 3 frames of any one scene from the same angle. I use a Canon FTb 35mm camera, and all photographs were taken with a 28mm lens. No filters or external light sources were used.