At the start of April I was honoured to be one of the guest speakers at the Photographic Society of New Zealand’s National Annual Convention down in Timaru. There were seven different speakers, all giving talks and workshops on our chosen field of expertise. Here’s a brief run down of who did what;
Matheson Beaumont, one of the founders of the PSNZ set the tone for a fun convention when he gave a witty and engaging opening address on the Wednesday night which included a look at his photographic history and an abundance of beautiful images from his 60+ years of photographing the Southern Landscape. Ex-pat Kiwi girl, Melanie Burford , who is currently working in America on The Dallas Morning News was talking about photojournalism in the digital age, and showing some of her beautiful and emotional images, including images that were included in the pulitzer prize winning portfolio by the staff at the Dallas Morning News, documenting the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.
Christchurch photographer and Photoshop Guru John Doogan was showing some of his awesome landscape and travel photography and doing what an Adobe Photoshop Ambassador does best by putting on an impressive display of computer wizardry – inspiring stuff. Wellington based commercial photographer Robert Catto talked about low light photography, and showcased his vibrant and lively recent images taken at the New Zealand International Arts Festival. He also treated us to a look at some of his personal work taken using his lensbabie, and Hasselblad XPan camera. Gottlieb Braun-Elwert talked about his landscape and natural history photography, and Welsh natural history photographer Ron Davies, who specialises in Audio Visuals showed several of his award winning entries.
I was speaking on Weddings and Portraits, and also showing a bit of my art/personal work. It was the first time I’ve spoken to such a large group, so I was more than a little nervous, but ended up having a great time! The below shot is a set up one when I was doing a tech run (don’t worry Mum, I wouldn’t actually speak to a group of 250 with my sunglasses on my head! 
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We all had great fun, and managed to find the time to party too!
The lovely and talented Melanie Burford (and me, but you knew that!)
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Lance and Mel “shaking it” on the dance floor!
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The guest speakers and the fabulous Focus Aorangi Camera Club Committee take time for a group hug during our shoot day in the old district of Oamaru.
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Lance and I even got to have a day to ourselves to explore Timaru, and the lovely Caroline Bay at dusk;
It was such a great trip, with lovely people and lots of laughs. Thank you to the team at the Focus-Aorangi Club who did such an awesome job of putting on the convention! Fabulous!
