Superyacht photographer Jeff Brown has grounded himself firmly back home in Katikati, give or take the occasional trip overseas to take photos of ''floating palaces''.
Jeff is co-founder of London-based Breed Media, which specialises in superyacht photography. He is recruited by boat builders, owners and charter companies to take stunning photos of luxury yachts — a vocation that has taken him all around the world.
Even Jeff is surprised at the trajectory of his professional life.
Aerial photography.
''If you'd told me at Katikati College I'd be taking photos of the most luxurious boats in the world, there's no way I could have seen that coming.''
Jeff focused on graphic design as he thought its principles could be applied to any creative job. He was right, and Jeff applies these skills to photography.
Jeff was offered a job in graphic design before finishing art school. A few jobs down the line, he was working for Robert Gleed and they formed a media company together — mostly filming superyachts — before starting Breed Media.
A Zeelander yacht.
The pair have been in the industry since 2003. Seeing the America's Cup in New Zealand uncovered a niche market.
''When it was here in we thought 'wow, these superyachts are amazing, I wonder what they do for marketing?'
''All we saw was these crappy little marketing pamphlets; you have got these beautiful palaces and you want to charter them and all you have is these little A4 fold-outs.''
So they put a helicopter in the air, filmed the action, put it on a DVD and showed the owners.
''It sort of opened our eyes to this superyacht world.''
Lana, Imperial Yachts, Malta. This photo was his first front cover of Boat International.
They were recruited by leading superyacht magazine Boat International and Jeff, who had moved more into photography, had his first cover in 2007.
''The first lesson we learned was the boating industry is like a club where they all know each other, so we had to stick at it and in 2007 I moved to London, as we were starting to fly overseas.''
Jeff has had more than 250 covers on worldwide magazines since then.
He's back home in Katikati south with wife Juliana and daughter Savannah, 5.
The family decided they'd return to New Zealand when the pandemic hit and work ceased in London. They arrived before the country shut its borders.
Breed Media continues with a team of people. Jeff says he's ''slowing down'' and has only gone on trips to Costa Rica, Panama, Seattle and twice to Brazil this year.
Coming home to Katikati was always part of the plan.
''I'm really happy to be home. Getting paid to take photos and to travel is also what I like doing so, yeah, it's kind of great.''
