Wanaka's magnificent landscapes offer many opportunities and challenges to a photographer. High glaciated mountains, rugged sculptured hills and smoothly delineated outwash terraces contrast sharply with the rushing braided rivers. The constantly changing lake surfaces and cultivated farmland provide mind stretching scenery.

To that mix add the ever changing mountain lights, the brilliant autumn and spring sunrises, the winter snow cover, the occasional foggy day, the immense variety of cloud patterns and shapes and the sudden southerly winds and you have a photographers paradise.

Autumn is the most colourful time of the year when the soft Central Otago shades of greys, browns and greens give way to the rich golds, oranges and even scarlets of the introduced trees assembled in the valleys. The township of Wanaka is especially rich in the colours of its parks and lakefront edges.

Many visitors to Wanaka are content with capturing images on the lakefront but the easily accessible areas of Glendhu Bay, the Matukituki Valley, Eely Point, Beacon Point, the Clutha River above Albert Town, Dublin Bay and Lake Hawea all provide exceptional landscape photography experiences.

Those photographers interested in alpine or macro photography have excellent opportunities in late spring or early summer when the ski roads into the mountains give access to large areas of lichens and mountain plants.