They say a photograph is worth a thousand words. Ken Wright says a photograph is also worth a lot of waiting, angst and frustration. And then more waiting – in this case two years.

Two years ago the Papamoa lensman was chatting with Gary Borman, head ranger at McLaren Falls. 'He came up with the idea of creating a 180 degree panorama of the park during autumn.”

Photographer Ken Wright goes the extra mile for the best shot. Photo by Bruce Barnard.

It was inspired by chance. Gary had stumbled across the seasonal landscape from farmland on the other side of Lake McLaren.

It's not a view accessible to many. And he decided he wanted it captured in all its autumnal delight, in the seasonal palette of red, yellow, purple, black, orange, pink, magenta, blue and brown.

It would be a unique image – a panorama of the park's entire lake frontage.

It hadn't been done before. But there would be complications like access, weather, light, angles. Like everything. That all had to come together. It would be complex.

'And it's not just one photograph. It's 20 photographs stitched seamlessly together to give the impression of one photo – imagine 20 sheets of A3 paper overlapping each other by half, left to right.”

Last year there was a window of opportunity and the photographer and the ranger gave it a crack. 'You set out and by the time you get from Papamoa to McLaren Falls, the weather has turned. It just never worked out.”

The project stalled. But the will didn't.

Gary would phone Ken. 'It's now, it's now and I would have to say ‘I can't get there now'.”

And did they ever think ‘stuff it – this is too hard'.

'Yes,” says Ken. But they only thought it.

He made numerous trips to the park. 'It was hard finding the perfect angle to shoot from without ending up with a redundant foreground.” The photographer was back on the job.

And for every problem there is a solution. The only way to get the shot was to climb into waders, anchor his tripod in the silt floor of the lake, weigh it down and shoot as low to the water level as possible.

One moment it was a 'bit of pissing around” and the next it was 'a nightmare”.

Ideally there would be no wind, there would be a blue sky with fluffy white clouds and a mirror surface on the lake. It was too much to hope for.

'You would be halfway through shooting the 20 images and the wind disturbs the water so you have to scrap it – reflections in some pictures, none in the others.”

The lake's too exposed.

'Or a storm goes through one day and the next half the foliage has gone from the trees.” Nature conspires against the photographer.

'Or a thumping big cloud would come over and block the sun from behind…so one second, full sunshine on vivid yellow trees and the next they look like s***, dull as anything.”

But time, patience and skill overcomes.

The finished canvas, the 2300mm by 450mm photographic vista was eventually stitched together and now hangs in the McLaren Falls visitors' centre – just under the 180 degree black and white canvas of the falls themselves.

Of course another work of the artist, of our photographer Ken.