Rod Hill's Red Bull Illume category-winning photo of Okere Falls kayaker River Mutton at Huka Photo / Rod Hill
Rod Hill's Red Bull Illume category-winning photo of Okere Falls kayaker River Mutton at Huka Photo / Rod Hill
Rotorua's Rod Hill has recently returned from a photography experience of a lifetime in India, where he "shot up a storm" at an extreme whitewater kayaking competition.
Rod won the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2021 - Energy category in December 2021 with his photo of Okere Falls kayaker RiverMutton in action going over Huka Falls.
This resulted in a prize of a Leica camera which he absolutely loves, hard drive technology, an A1 print of his photo, various lots of clothes, and the big prize of a trip to somewhere you wanted to photograph with all expenses paid.
Rod Hill shot from India. Photo / Rod Hill
Rod chose to travel to India to take photos at the Megha Kayak Festival, an experience which he returned from mid-October.
He says the category winners for Red Bull Illume were announced live on Instagram from the United States, so he was sitting in his lounge at 8am when he found out.
He is super proud of this achievement.
"I love travelling, I have travelled extensively, and India is my favourite. It was really fun."
While on his trip to India and the Megha Kayak Festival, Rod took just under 9000 photos.
"You've got 100 kayakers there at the festival ready to race and it was some really picturesque stuff."
A photo of Rod Hill's during his trip to India. Photo / Rod Hill
As well as the festival, he spent a week travelling around Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), visiting the likes of the mangroves forest which he says was amazing.
"I've been photographing for a really long time. I like to get that one shot that explains everything.
"It's like hunting, and trying to chase to get that one photo where everything lines up."
Although Rod teaches chemistry at John Paul College, he is always willing to help out the photography department when it takes students down to Wellington.
He says photography is a lifelong passion of his, and travel photography is still his favourite.
This year Rod was also a finalist in the New Zealand National Geographic Photographer of the Year 2022. He says when he found out he was shocked and surprised.
Rod does a lot of photography with local kayakers River Mutton and George Snook. Looking ahead, they plan to get more shots done at Okere Falls soon.
Some of the kayaking action Rod Hill captured in India. Photos / Rod Hill
He also hopes to go down to the South Island to take photos at a couple of extreme kayaking races.
Red Bull Illume is an adventure and action sports imagery contest. The Image Quest 2021 was the sixth edition, bringing together amazing work of photographers and content creators from around the world.
