My husband & I engaged James to help us create some beautiful, keepsake photos to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.

We live in Wellington so all initial communications were done via email.

Right from the start I had a good feeling... James was truly lovely to deal with - there was a warmth and genuine sincerity which came through on each and every occasion that we exchanged emails.

James recommended a HELI SHOOT and we were not disappointed. We were flown to a beautiful mountainous area close to Mt Cecil. Despite the wind (which actually added some drama & movement to the end product) James captured a phenomenal collection of truly beautiful, romantic photos.

The terrain & views were beyond breathtaking... and James captured it all. The end result being an exquisite collection of precious, beautiful photos ... what he produced for us went way beyond our wildest expectations.

I cannot speak highly enough of this amazing, wonderful photographer. He is not only warm, kind, relaxed and a genuinely lovely person - but also an immensely skilled, professional and incredibly talented photographer.

With much appreciation, James... we couldn't be happier.

Sarina & Russell.

James was our pre-wedding photographer and he was just too awesome to put into words. Pure passion for great photos and service second to none, helping us out every step of the way!

James was the only photographer who was kind enough to cater our demands. My wife and I were so happy with his services. I would highly recommend him!

My husband and I would highly recommend James! He is an excellent photographer. We can tell that he is so passionate and dedicated with his work. His team went above and beyond to provide us an amazing shoot and stress free wedding. We received a lot of compliments with our pictures. Thank you so much James. May God bless you.

Such a wonderful experience- I was blown away by Jame's responsiveness, professionalism, all within a week! Every part of the wedding was perfect- I'm beyond happy with how it all worked out- What a thrill!

It was a great experience getting my post wedding photoshoots done by James. He knows all the best spots and he knows how to make us naturally smile in front of the camera. I normally get a bit of nervous when someone else takes my photos but I could just enjoy while taking photos by James. I would definitely do it again with James when I revisit Queenstown. Highly recommended ★★★★★

Only good things to say about James - amazing pre wedding photos on Queenstown and wedding photos in Auckland. Always professional and organised making things as less stressful as possible. Would highly recommend to anyone wishing to invest in photos that will be special for life.

James is very professional and very talented.

We are from Auckland that is why we only communicate via emails and he responds quickly, answering all our questions and queries. He is very good at what he do. Even though meeting him the first time the day of the wedding itself it feels like we have already met before because he is so easy to work with. He made us very comfortable all the way through.

His photos were brilliant and we love our highlight video. We would definitely recommend James. Hopefully will meet and work again in the future.

Thank You again James we truly enjoyed our time working with you.

James is a master of his art! We did a Heli-Elopement wedding package with James and he created and captured a truly fantastic day for us!

The photos and videos are stunning and the day had a relaxed, down to earth, fun vibe, as we had hoped for. I'd highly recommend James to anyone wanting to elope in one of NZs most beautiful locations!

James is definitely one of the best photographers around.

From the point of initial contact, to the post production process, he has been absolutely flawless.

James kept us engaged and made the entire photograph session lively.

The photos he took are stunning and we now understand why so many other people have referred us to James for quality photos.

We wholeheartedly recommend him to anybody thinking about it.

James made us feel so comfortable during the photoshoot, even though we’re not used to being in front of the camera. We felt so relaxed and had such a fun time, and the photos are stunning! So in love with the photos - will treasure these forever!

My husband and I had our international twedding cancelled by Covid twice before we planned an alternative winter wedding in Queenstown with only a couple of months up our sleeves.

James was responsive and gave us a great deal compared to other photographers in the area. I was worried the price might reflect photo quality but I was luckily very wrong! I couldn’t be happier with our photos and I’ll treasure them forever.

James suggested an awesome helicopter company for the Heli shoot and took care of all the bookings for that. We even did a last minute bridal party photo shoot because we had some spare time and he suggested we go as the lighting was good! New Zealand is so small and it was just the icing on the cake when we found out that we knew a couple of people completely randomly, and that we lived in the same suburb in Singapore!

Thanks James for being awesome, my maid of honor looked at the photos and was absolutely stunned and is already planning to book you for her own wedding!

Matt and I had an engagement shoot with James at Skipper’s point just before sunset in the winter time. James was absolutely lovely to deal with and the photos were stunning. It was our first time doing a photo shoot and we didn’t really know what we were doing, James have really good instructions so that the light and poses were just right. I also have quite chocolate coloured skin, with my partner being quite pale and the photos brought out the best in both of our skin tones.

We would highly recommend James to anyone in Queenstown looking for a photographer to capture the natural beauty here.

James Hirata is an incredible photographer!

James did our engagement/ pre-wedding photography session, as well as captured our wedding day, and we absolutely loved the result of his hard work and talent! He has a knack for capturing sophisticated images, as well as a keen eye for detail and documenting priceless moments.

He's never made us feel awkward during a shoot, instead made us feel very comfortable, even though my husband and I are not that keen to be in front of the camera.

Thanks James for sharing your talent with us! Would definitely recommend you to everyone!

James is extremely professional and very responsive when we were looking to book our post wedding shoot.

He provided us with suggestions of the type of photos we should be looking at and was very reasonably priced.
My wife and I were quite awkward with the poses and with the day being very windy, he guided us to achieve the best photos. We were also extremely happy with the quality of the photos, and how flexible he was to accommodate all our requests including capturing photos on our Polaroid camera.
I would recommend him to anyone who wants to have amazing photos with beautiful views and personalised experience.

Thank you for making our experience worth while!

Great photography service with clear and professional directing for stunning shots. James' ability to frame the newlywed couples to harmoniously merge with New Zealand's stunning landscape is one of a kind. Highly recommended!

My fiancé and I would highly recommend James, he took us to some amazing spots for some truly amazing photos! He was super professional and went above and beyond to provide us with an awesome and stress free experience! We have truly gained a friend in James.

The best Astro photoshoot my wife and I had! Even had chance to capture the shooting star behind us.
As soon as I put James's astro photo on my instagram, I instantly got questions flying into my DM asking where and who the photographer is.

In fact, this is my second photoshoot with James. I want to come back to James for occasional l photoshoot because he is passionate, creative, knowledgeable and friendly. James ease the photoshoot tension, well guided photoshoot, and full of ideas.

In one word. AMAZING.

If you are looking for genuine photographer fun to work with, James is the one. Thank you James.

James was lovely on our wedding day, he was easy to work with and understood what we were looking for on our special day.
There was help with local make up artists for the wife and spare dresses and props for a "just in case".
The work that James did for us involved a lot of great locations in and around Queenstown. If we would have had more time available we would have also loved to of gone up to Wanaka and Tekapo.

The night photos were excellent, and I would recommend to anyone to get in touch with James as the go to professional photographer in NZ.

If you are looking for perfection in your wedding photos, you’ve got to have James as your photographer! His craftsmanship and attention to detail in his work is phenomenal and having James as our photographer was the best decision we made for our wedding.

What I love the most about James is his professionalism and his passion towards his work. Before the wedding I asked James Hirata Photography for a special request to secretly capture the moment of my proposal. Despite the odd request to hide in a dark bush late at night, James captured the moment beautifully beyond my expectation. Me and my fiance were touched by his work that I had James to cherish the moment of my pre-wedding and the wedding day. Highly recommend to have James Hirata photograph your most important moment in your life.

My wife and I had a great experience with James.

He photographed our wedding and also did engagement photos for us. Very professional about his work and also very friendly. He made us both comfortable doing the engagement photos and had us naturally laughing and smiling for each shot.

Our wedding photos are also amazing and we are so happy looking back and being able to remember that time. He is able to capture people's emotions really well and I highly recommend him! 😁