When the renowned German-born climbing guide returns from a trip in the mountains, hunters sometimes ask him if he has seen any "sign".
"I say `What sign?' I don't go looking for it.
It's coincidental if I see a chamois dropping or the footprints of a tahr," he said.
Mr Braun-Elwert says everyone who goes into the high country sees that environment in a different way.
He once guided a man who wanted to launch himself off a mountain with a paraglider, and was struck by the way his client was looking around him.
"He was looking at the clouds and the air movements so that he could choose where to launch from That was quite an eye-opener to me."
When Mr Braun-Elwert is in the mountains, he has several "sets of eyes".
Sometimes he has a climber's eyes, searching for a safe route upwards.
At other times, he has those of a skier, looking for the best line through the snow.
Since 1981, he and wife Anne have owned the Tekapo-based mountain-guiding company Alpine Recreation.
His profile on the company's website lists 26 ascents of Aoraki Mt Cook, eight ascents of Mt Tasman, and a remarkable record of climbing achievements in the Southern Alps, Europe, and North and South America.
He lists Prime Minister Helen Clark and her husband among his regular clients.
He also has the eyes of a conservationist, who for 30 years has watched an accelerating recession in the glaciers of the Southern Alps, has seen the damage done by weeds and rabbits in the Mackenzie Country, and has been an outspoken critic of the tenure review process for high country pastoral leases.
Less well-known is that he has the eyes of an outstanding nature and landscape photographer, as anyone who saw his presentation at the New Zealand Photographic Society's convention in Timaru last week would testify.
He says he has been "fascinated" by photography ever since his father gave him an Agfa Click camera for Christmas when he was 11 years old.
Last week's presentation showed the four seasons of the high country through all his sets of eyes - hundreds of images taken over 20 years, most taken while earning his living as a mountain guide.
The self-described "enthusiastic amateur" photographer says he has forgone countless wonderful photo opportunities because of his responsibility for the safety and enjoyment of his clients.
"Just a few days ago there was some beautiful light - a slight drizzle, and the light was just coming through the fog, and the tussocks had little droplets on them and started to sparkle.
"It was just fantastic, but I couldn't sit down and take my camera out and let the clients wait because it was cold.
"I can't just stop and park them on the sideline and say `Wait for half an hour in the rain until I've set up my tripod'.
"On the other hand, I wouldn't have got into those places without the clients.
I have the privilege to be able to get to these places where very few other people can get to.
"It's a Catch-22."
But he grabs his opportunities when he can.
"Sometimes I plan it a little better and say `We're going to have a really nice rest here and you can have your lunch', and I just crawl around on my stomach and take some photos."
Mr Braun-Elwert may not be a hunter, but he says every serious photographer has a message, and their camera is a weapon to spread that message.
Many years ago, he went climbing with good friend Craig Potton, now a leading New Zealand landscape photographer and a long-time conservationist, and asked him how they should "get the conservation message out".
Mr Potton told him there were two ways: the first was to bring people to the high country and show them the threats to the environment.
"That's what I'm primarily doing as a mountain guide.
I see it not just as a way of people having a bit of recreation and entertainment, but they come to the national parks and go away with a powerful message," he says.
By taking Miss Clark and her husband ski-touring, he has the opportunity to send a message to a person with the means to effect change - something he is "very proud" of.
"I feel that it has had some sort of effect.
Helen Clark is a very strong advocate to do something worldwide about climate warming.
She has seen it first-hand.
"Helen is a very keen skier and last year was the first time we had to cancel her skiing holiday because of lack of snow, and she was quite saddened by that."
Recently she emailed him from abroad, asking about the chances of a skiing trip this winter.
He had to reply that it was unlikely; that over the summer, the recession of the glaciers had been "catastrophic".
"She couldn't believe it.
So I said `When you come back, you can see it for yourself'.
"A day later she was in Beijing talking to their premier about global warming."
The other way to promote conservation, Mr Potton told him, was to take the natural environment to the people in the form of pictures.
"That is what Craig has done, and as a sideline I've pursued that way as well."
Mr Braun-Elwert says when he exhibits his photographs, he tries to strike a balance between showing the beauty of the high country and the threats that it faces.
"If people don't love something, they're not prepared to protect it.
If you love your children, you put an umbrella of protection over them."
The great shame of photography, he says, is that it does not provide a living.
"I'm almost 60 now and want to ease off a little bit from the hard-edged climbing trips and carrying really heavy packs and enjoying some of the more gentle features of life, and I would love to do more photography, but it doesn't pay."
He submits photographs to calendars, books and picture libraries, earning "a little trickle of income that always justifies buying new lenses", he chuckles.
And so Gottlieb Braun-Elwert, part-time photographer, looks at the mountains through many sets of eyes, shooting on the run when and where he can.
But all the time, he is in his favourite part of his adopted country.
"The Mackenzie - for me, it's the light, the tussock, the high mountains, of course, and the bush.
It's just a wonderful place."
- This story first appeared in The Courier on April 17
