About You
We want to start things off the right way and centre this experience around you.
Every couple’s story is unique and their celebration is a reflection of their bond, their love for each other and the values they live by.
Before we introduce ourselves, our care is to make sure that you’re in the right place before you put your next foot forward. Your values and desires are where we’d like to start. If you…
…want to be able to relax and be present for your special day…
…want to intertwine your love for the great outdoors into your celebration in some way, even if it’s discrete…
…enjoy the idea of experiencing something new just as much as re-visiting a special place close to your heart…
…value amazing scenery and the peace and quiet you can only find in nature….
…consider photography to be one of, if not the most important addition to your day…
…then we believe that this is the start of our connection with you. If these are the kind of thoughts and feelings that really resonate with you then we’re confident we can add something special to your celebration.
About Us
We’re Kahli and Leo and we make up the team behind Wild Alpine Image Co.
We’ve built our lives together centred around spending time outside, travelling to new places and treating the mountains like family. Originally from Australia (Kahli) and England (Leo), we met in 2009 and have been living, working and travelling between Canada and New Zealand for a decade. With different professional pathways, gathering many transferable skills across cultures along our travels, we finally decided to bring our strongest attributes together to create Wild Alpine Image Co.
In our personal time, you’ll find us in the mountains enjoying everything from hiking to snowboarding and when we do have to stay inside, you can bet we’ll be planning our next big trips with a hot tea and some chocolate.
Journeying toward our own exchange of vows allowed us the chance to shape our own elopement, in our own adventurous way. We arranged everything ourselves (even the paperwork) and exchanged vows on a remote, heli-accessed area in the Southern Alps in New Zealand.
It’s serendipitous to reflect on our special day and to be able to draw from that experience to help other couples create their own personalized celebration. To be able to empathize with you from our own experience is what makes us different and able to approach telling your story in a truly unique way.
Our approach is simple. Our style is real and raw. We focus on the landscape, the light and the natural elements, bringing them together to surround your love story.
We’re excited to meet you and tell your story in a way that words can’t.
What makes us, us?
Adventurous wedding and elopement photography certainly isn’t new and if anything is becoming more and more popular. That said, we believe there’s a few things that sets us apart.
Firstly, and quite ironically, we actually eloped together via helicopter in New Zealand when we lived there and arranged everything ourselves, even the paperwork. We did this long before we decided to photograph weddings together and it has proven to be incredibly valuable in terms of being able to communicate with our couples from a place of personal experience instead of hearsay and typical advice you’ll hear from wedding vendors.
Secondly, our photography goes beyond letting the landscapes do the talking. Kahli is a landscape and astrophotography specialist (loves the Aurora!) and runs photography tuition workshops around the world and so having an educator on the team is massively helpful when is comes to creating an artistic vision for our imagery. It’s with this outlook that we can cater to the adventurous outdoorsy images and blend them with creative, artistic images in our versatile and carefully curated galleries for our couples.
Thirdly, it’s our knowledge of the mountains that is priceless. We’ve walked well over 2000kms of unique trails in the Rockies without counting any repeats. It’s this experience out on the trails that our couples can draw from. We know the colours to expect in the wildlflowers in different areas, where to find the best seasonal changes in foliage, when to go to certain areas with deeper snow packs, the best summits for sunrise vs sunset...you name it, we know it. Don’t be fooled, whilst super useful, Google doesn’t know everything and we believe there’s a lot of value in working with locals.
Finally, we work hard and we cover ground. Of course it’s a given that we need to be hiking fit for our adventurous celebrations and we’re no strangers to 35kms+ days carrying camera gear. However, for our more traditional full day weddings, we’ll often walk 20kms+, which is pretty impressive for a couple of hotel rooms, a ceremony and a reception! Why is this important? Well, it’s a reflection of our work ethic in how we observe your day and our belief we can always do better. It means we’re always moving and searching for your next moment through the lens and this work ethic shows in your final gallery.
Kahli
Co-Founder, Photographer & Creative Director
Kahli is the Aussie component of the team! She exists to be outdoors and has a fantastic, contagious no-nonsense approach to life. With a background and education in graphic design and photography, she’s a natural behind the camera.
Kahli continues her own photography business working primarily shooting landscapes and with clients such as National Geographic Travel, Parks Canada and Travel Alberta, high pressure shooting conditions combining people and Mother Nature are all in a day’s work.
She is passionate about teaching others to get the most out of their time outdoors and is able to contribute to the photography community through her photography workshops all over the world from Iceland to New Zealand, Scotland to Canada and her personal favourite, Antarctica!
Leo
Co-Founder, Photographer & Logistics Director
Leo is the British team member! His perpetual patience and experience with helping people in the mountain environment are what makes the day feel relaxed and laid back.
With a background in the education, certification and management of snowsports professionals he’s a wizz when it comes to helping others succeed. A bit of a legend on a snowboard, he’s worked on mountains around the world and represented New Zealand internationally on snow in Bulgaria of all places.
Whilst an inbuilt compass keeps him moving in the right direction, Leo has honed his skills behind the camera over the years under Kahli’s guidance and has developed his own unique style along the way.