Forget elephants or tigers - Queenstown-based multi-award-winning photographers Mike Langford and Jackie Ranken have made a business from running four-wheel-drive photo safaris and photography workshops.
In 2004, the couple decided to leave Sydney, where Mr Langford was doing commercial photography and Ms Ranken was teaching fine art photography, and set up a business.
Their chosen destination was Queenstown, for a variety of reasons.
As well as the spectacular location, it was a tourist destination, had an international airport and there was a "replenishing market" every day.
There was a constant influx of "people with really good cameras and they don't know how to use them", Mr Langford said.
The couple have several businesses with the umbrella company being the Queenstown Centre for Creative Photography.
As well as their photo safaris, they also hold monthly workshops in locations including around the Queenstown area, Fiordland, the West Coast and Mt Cook.
At the end of the day, participants download their images, critique them as a group and learn from mistakes.
It was about taking the budding photographers back to basics, keeping it simple and teaching them to "turn on the brain" before picking up the camera, he said.
Today's tourists were all about going places and achieving things, like travelling to Tuscany to learn to cook.
That sort of tourism was on the rise.
They wanted more than to "look and leave", rather they wanted to learn, Mr Langford said.
The business was expanding internationally - the couple have held workshops in Fiji and Hong Kong.
Another is planned for Bali, Indonesia.
"People don't care where you live these days, they just care where you can operate your workshops from," he said.
Winning awards was important for the profile of their business and they both had won a host of awards.
Originally from Christchurch, Mr Langford has spent 30 years working as an international commercial and travel photographer.
Both he and Ms Ranken have won New Zealand Professional Photographer of the Year and Ms Ranken was the only photographer to have won that award and Australian Professional Photographer of the Year.
They were both among only seven Canon EOS Masters in Australia and New Zealand. Ms Ranken was the only female.
The biggest challenge was keeping up to date with the latest photographic equipment, but they managed to do that, Mr Langford said.
He described Queenstown as "the best place in the world" to set up a business: "It's gorgeous.
We wake up every morning, look out the window and go 'Isn't this heaven on Earth'."
Their "backyard" was "just phenomenal" and they were surrounded by a versatile environment to photograph in close proximity.
It was a niche market they catered for, supplying what was essentially a boutique product.
They achieved the balance of both work and lifestyle, he said.
On days off, they headed out to do their own photography, which was when they got the chance to extend their skills.
