I had the pleasure of photographing a week-long healing yoga retreat at Tauhara Centre, Acacia Bay, Taupo — Heart of Freedom with Ben Ralston, Kara-Leah Grant and Helen Thomas. 

My job was to capture the essence of the retreat as it unfolded for future marketing. Much gratitude to everyone at this retreat for allowing me and my camera to be so very present.

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In Kara-Leah, Ben and Helen's words:

We engaged Catherine Adam to shoot our first Heart of Freedom Retreat at Tauhara Retreat Centre in Taupo in May of 2016. This week-long retreat was an intimate gathering of people coming together to get to the roots of trauma through a combination of yoga with Kara-Leah Grant and afternoon group work sessions with Ben Ralston.

Prior to the retreat, we'd struggled to describe to people the work we'd be doing. Trauma work? Shadow work? Afternoon group sessions? It was a really hard sell. We knew that we needed to capture some evocative images that could convey what words failed to do. However, we also knew that the retreat was going to be deeply personal work, and incredibly intimate. We needed to find a photographer who could capture the small moments which reveal so much in a sensitive and unobtrusive manner. It was no small ask.

Enter Catherine. Recommended by a mutual friend, I was sold when Catherine and I first spoke on the phone. She was passionate, enthusiastic, excited and also had a nuanced awareness of what was required without needing to have it spelt out. I booked her without even looking at her work based on that interaction. 

Catherine came and participated whole-heartedly while also keeping a photographer's keen eye on every unfolding scene. She knew which moments we wanted captured and over the course of the week nailed everything. She was sensitive, attuned, intuitive and worked without any instruction. She knew what was needed, what she was doing and she just got on and did it.

Post-retreat, Catherine was extraordinarily quick to deliver all the photos and videos in a highly efficient and organised manner. The images themselves... outstanding. So much better than we'd even hoped for. The next retreat will be so much easier to promote because now we can show people what it's all about.

I highly recommend Catherine for any photographic assignment, especially one that requires a great degree of sensitivity and understanding.