I’m Daniel Murray, a landscape and adventure photographer from the South Island, New Zealand. I’m incredibly fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful and wild places on the planet. Here on my website you can browse my images, buy prints for your wall, read my photography guides, and find out about the workshops I run. Hope you enjoy your visit!
![Over the next few posts I’d love to tell you a little bit more about Epic South Photography Tours. I’ll explain some of the journey which led me here. Some of the blood, sweat and tears which goes into launching a business like this. And where things might go from here.
Let’s start with ‘how did I get here?’. As some of you already know, photography isn’t my full-time job and has always been something I’ve mostly squeezed into my weekends and holidays. In spite of that, my overwhelming passion for landscapes and the great outdoors has allowed me to pursue photography as a serious side hustle.
Things got a lot more serious in 2017 when @purephotoadventures.nz was launched and I co-led my first ever workshop. Over the next few years we ran 15 workshops & tours focusing on the South Island, until that pesky virus came along and dramatically changed everything. Ultimately that led to the sad decision to wind it down, but I’ll remain forever grateful for the good times and everything it taught me about running a successful workshop business.
Fast forward a year or so and two separate opportunities came my way, pretty much out of the blue. Firstly, I was contacted by @photopills , who were keen to run their first ever expedition in NZ. After nearly two years of planning I had a blast co-leading that trip with @marcograssiphotography last June, and am super excited about co-leading another two expeditions this year. The second opportunity was with @joshuacrippsphotography , who I’d known via Instagram for a long time but first met in-person in a random encounter in Fiordland while I was running a purephoto workshop. I co-led my first trip with Josh in October 2023, another one a year later, and have a further two lined up over the next year. Josh runs absolutely amazing tours, it’s a such an honour and a privilege to help him out.
So after nearly a decade of running workshops I decided it was time to take things to the next level: Epic South was born.
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