Photography and short-form video for events, cafés and restaurants, and running events. I’m out on the Port Hills with a camera most weekends anyway — this is the same eye, pointed at your thing.
Events · Cafés · Running
Jay D Vera
Most weekends I’m somewhere on the Port Hills — Godley Head, Taylors Mistake, Scarborough Bluffs — running the trails and filming them for my Join me… series. Nobody asked me to make those. I make them because I like the problem: how do you make someone feel a place they’ve never stood in? Get that right and everything else is just settings.
The other half of me is ten years running creative and e-commerce brands, and that’s the part that taught me the difference between a photo that looks good and a photo that gets used. When you tell me you need something for Instagram this week, I know what you actually mean — frames you can post on a Tuesday without redesigning your whole feed, and a clip that holds a thumb for three seconds. Pretty isn’t the goal. Posted is.
On the day, I’m easy to have around. I won’t take over your service, your race or your run sheet, and I won’t make anyone stand still for twenty minutes. I read the room, stay out of the way, and come back with more than you expected — plus straight answers, a price agreed before we start, and your photos back while they still matter.
That’s the whole pitch. If it sounds like the person you want behind the camera, I’d love to hear what you’re planning.
Take one or take both. Most people take both, because the same afternoon that fills a gallery also fills a month of reels.
High-resolution, colour-graded stills — the kind that work just as well at the top of your website as they do in the feed.
Edited vertical clips cut for Reels, TikTok and Facebook — paced for the platform rather than trimmed down from a long edit.
Start with the reels — they’re the clearest sense of how I see a place. Then the stills: the frames you’d actually post, not the ones that only look good on a photographer’s website.
A mix of running, hospitality and everyday Christchurch — all shot, cut and posted by me. See the rest at @jay.d.vera →
jay.d.vera Rooms, plates and the light that makes someone stop scrolling — laid out ready to post, not just handed over as a folder of files.
View this post on Instagram →
jay.d.vera Stays and places worth the drive. Same treatment for an Airbnb or a hotel: shot, laid out, and ready to go up.
View this post on Instagram →Swipe through either one. Want a full gallery from a shoot like yours before you book? Ask in the form below and I’ll send one over.
fromNZ$399
Standard package · incl. GSTThat’s the standard package, and where pricing starts. Bigger events, longer days and extra clips are quoted on top — tell me what you’ve got in mind and I’ll come back with one fixed number, same day, in writing, and it doesn’t move afterwards. All prices NZD, GST included.
Fill in the form below with the date, the place and roughly what you’re after. If you’re not sure yet, say that — “not sure” is a perfectly good answer to every question on it.
Personally, not through an assistant or an auto-responder. You get a straight answer on availability, a fixed price for what you’ve described, and a question or two if I need them.
We lock the date, agree a backup if it’s outdoors, and I turn up. Your edited photos and clips land within the turnaround listed for your category.
No brief needed and nothing locked in by sending this — it just starts the conversation.
It depends on the shoot. Running and sports events come back fastest — usually 24 to 72 hours, because those photos are worth the most while the race is still being talked about. Cafés and restaurants are 2 to 4 business days, and larger events 3 to 5. If you need something sooner for a specific post, say so when you enquire and I’ll tell you honestly whether I can hit it.
Yes. Anywhere in Christchurch and Banks Peninsula is included in the package price. Further afield in Canterbury I add a small travel cost, quoted up front before you commit — never added afterwards.
You get full rights to use the edited photos and video for your own business or your own family — website, social media, printed menus, posters, ads, all of it, with no expiry and no extra licence fee. I keep the copyright, and I’d like to be able to show a few frames in my own portfolio. If a shoot is private, just tell me and it stays private.
During the day, yes: I read every enquiry myself and reply within 3 to 6 hours. If you send one at 2am you’ll hear from me in the morning, not at 8am on the dot minus six hours. And if I’m mid-shoot when your message lands, the reply comes as soon as I put the camera down.
Yes — that’s the normal way I work, and the starting package includes both. Taking both does mean slightly fewer stills than a photo-only booking, because some of the time on site goes on filming, and I’ll be upfront about that trade-off when we talk.
For outdoor shoots we agree a backup plan when you book — either a rain date or an indoor alternative. Races run rain or shine and so do I. There’s no rescheduling fee if the weather is the reason.
Great photos deserve better than a Facebook page. White Cloud builds websites for Christchurch small businesses — same person, same standard, from NZ$299.
See the websites →
