NZIPP PRO Report February 2016 by NZIPP NZ Institute of Professional Photography

Report BE INSPIRED, BE SUCCESSFUL, BELONG

NZIPP MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2016

KATHERINE WILLIAMS ANNOUNCES THE INFOCUS AND IRIS AWARDS DATES / MEET THIS MONTHS MEMBER PROFILE JO FRANCES-MOORE / AND HARRY JANSENN GIVES US A LOOK INSIDE HIS COMMERCIAL CAMERA BAG

NOT A MEMBER OF THE NZIPP YET? As an accredited member of the NZIPP you have the support, networking opportunities and camaraderie of your peers within your industry. It also adds credibility for your clients that you are a professional photographer. Belonging to an institute that represents all areas of professional photography in New Zealand, and through our focus on education, advice, and a wide range of membership benefits we will help you improve the success and vitality of your business. Your accredited member benefits will include: · · · · · · ·

Epson NZIPP Iris Awards (member rates) Infocus Conference (member rates) Meeting and Networking opportunities Professional Development Membership Discounts PRO Report eMagazine Scholarships

Come along to your next regional meeting to check out what becoming a member is all about! Contact info@nzipp.org.nz

MISSION STATEMENT To champion, embrace and communicate excellence and professionalism in photography.

CONTACT NZ Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP) P O Box 133158, Eastridge, Auckland 1146 New Zealand W: www.nzipp.org.nz E: info@nzipp.org.nz

We welcome your feedback and thoughts. If you have something to say, send it through to:

Cover Image: Image © Jo Frances-Moore

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

info@nzipp.org.nz

28 CONTENTS Executive Updates 05 Presidents Report 07

Directors Report

Honours Council Report

NZIPP News 10 NZIPP on Facebook / Q Submission Date 11

Veterans Project

Regional Updates 12 Waikato/BOP Region 14

Wellington Region

Member Profile 17 Jo Frances-Moore ANZIPP Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s In My Bag...? 28 Harry Janssen FNZIPP Photo Competitions and events 32

Auckland Festival of Photography / Portrait Awards 16

Corporate Members 33

Thanks to our Corporate Members

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IRIS AWARDS INFOCUS WE LLINGTON 2016

THE

SAVE DATE

16-20 J U N E

2016

SHED 6 W E L L I N G T O N

EXCITING SPEAKER, PROGRAMME AND AWARDS ENTRY DETAILS COMING SOON! WWW.NZIPP.ORG.NZ

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EXECUTIVE UPDATE

Presidents Report Katherine Williams FNZIPP

You’ve been waiting with baited breath, and there’s been a whole lot going on behind the scenes to secure the perfect venue for New Zealand’s premier professional photography event. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be able to announce the Iris Awards and Infocus Conference 2016, hosted by the NZIPP. It’s happening right in the heart of Wellington in the windy city’s newest waterfront venue and transformed old harbor board shed known as Shed 6 from Thursday 16th to Sunday 20th June. Prepare to have your heart racing and bite your nails down while listening to your prints being judged and you’ll learn and grow from watching 3 days of live photographic print judging across multiple genres at the Iris Awards. If you’ve never entered before, don’t hesitate as there’s no better time than now to get involved and push your creative growth to the next level. Enjoy touching, feeling … and of course buying the latest gear at the trade show, talk to the experts… they are a friendly and knowledgeable bunch! Be inspired, get informed and kick your business into shape with two packed days of speakers, workshops and live shoots at the Infocus Conference. We love to socialize and network too, so there’s plenty of fun to be had with the social calendar all concluding when you kick up your heels, dine, dance and party at the Iris Awards Gala Dinner! Plus, while it’s all happening you’ll be seconds away from great coffee, restaurants and bars with the great buzz of the waterfront area surrounding us. All within easy walking distance from the capital’s central business district and downtown hotel area.

2016 is going to see an increase of marketing channels with the goal of achieving greater exposure for the public to view the incredible work of New Zealand’s talented professional photographers. Hosting in Shed 6 provides us for the first time a fantastic opportunity for the NZIPP to promote the Iris Awards exhibition to the public on a more prolific way than ever possible previously coming up to the event and showcase New Zealand’s professional photography awards in the easily accessible Shed 6 arcade – a fantastic opportunity for your work to be seen! The photographic trade show is also free to everyone on Saturday 18th June and will be well worth checking out. There’s more… following successful additional events held last year in Queenstown, we will be extending this program to run a series of events a little different to what is on offer throughout the conference program that will be available for anybody to book in too. A big thank you goes out to the Wellington City Council who have assisted with additional support for us to make this awesome event happen at Shed 6. Speakers and more information on the event will be on it’s way soon, in the meantime open your diary and book in the dates – June 16th to June 20th. Iris Awards and Infocus Conference is for all professional photographers and curious minds of photography in New Zealand, you don’t have to be an NZIPP member to come… we’d love to have you join us! Can’t wait to see you there.

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EXECUTIVE UPDATE

Directors Report Gino Demeer FNZIPP

In recent times I’ve been thinking about why being part of the NZIPP has had such a positive effect on me and my business, and to be honest I can’t really put my finger on it. These days there’s so much information online why would you ever want to pay and join something when information is readily available and free. That probably applies to most industries, if you have a question you can always go online to get the answer. But if that were really the case we wouldn’t have a need for schools or universities, as I’m sure it would be much cheaper putting all that content online and not bothering with teachers and buildings. However that’s not the case, and I’m sure that will never be the case. Bear with me here as I will bring this back to the NZIPP shortly. One reason that would never happen is the majority of people like to be around other people and that creates an environment of learning and motivation. Now to bring it back to why I think my NZIPP membership has had such a positive effect on me, and even though I can’t say exactly why, I do have a pretty good idea. I tend to go to most of our local meetings 80% plus I’d say. I even go to meetings that don’t really relate to me or my business, the reason I do this is because I enjoy the company of other photographers and I enjoy hearing what these other photographers get up to, there’s always something that will interest me. The NZIPP has also been a conversation

starter for me, I’ve been able to meet and have conversations with so many different photographers from all over the country, some have wildly differing opinions to my own. But that doesn’t matter everybody does things a little different. A casual conversation in person is so much more rewarding than watching a YouTube video on how to light an apple on a white backdrop. This has also been true of my suppliers, without the personal interactions that the NZIPP has facilitated over the years it would difficult to replicate that if you where trying to create those connections on your own. None of what I have mentioned here can be quantified with a dollar figure however to me this alone is worth the price of admission. As the old adage goes “you only get out what you put in” except in this instance you get way more out than you put in. And it’s really simple, all you need to do is get involved i.e attending meetings, social functions, our annual conference, taking part in events like the RSA project and getting involved in committees. Being part of this community has been so good that I don’t really want to lose that and believe me when I first signed up to the NZIPP I was more than happy not to renew my membership the following year, but sticking with it has been one of the best business decisions I’ve ever made.

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EXECUTIVE UPDATE

Honours Council Report Kaye Davis GMNZIPP, MAIPP II, MCGD - Chair of the NZIPP Honours Council On behalf of the Honours Council Team; Blair Quax, FNZIPP, Accredited Wedding Photographer Esther Bunning, GMNZIPP, Accredited Wedding and Portrait Photographer Paul Daly, FNZIPP, Accredited Commercial Photographer.

The Value in Belonging Our history is a rich and valuable source from which we can gain insight and inspiration; on which to act, make decisions and find grounding. From the early beginnings of an organisation that represented all NZ photographers, amateur and professional, the NZIPP organisation (then known as the New Zealand Professional Photographers’ Association, NZPPA) was first founded back in 1938. The aim being to function as a central point, be a collective voice for and represent the best interests of all professional photographers in NZ. While the profile of what constitutes a professional photographer has greatly changed (number of male photographers vs female photographers, full time vs parttime photographers and/or photography as a primary vs secondary income), the overall aim of the organisation hasn’t. As an organisation we would ideally like to represent and be there to support all professional photographers in NZ. Though this may be seen as an ideal it is not an unreasonable concept. Remember, the bigger the collective the stronger that voice can be. However, the dilemma in achieving this is in meeting the needs of the diverse range of individuals who make up the profession and ensuring that the benefits derived from being a member are there and are seen to be valued. While most of the population photographs on a daily basis, with whatever means at their disposal, the challenge for professional photographers today is in standing out and standing above in regards image quality and professionalism. In taking the profession of photography seriously, being a member of the NZIPP is probably a no brainer. It’s not

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about elitism it’s about making the professional stand out in the crowd and embracing an organisation that prides itself in being the only professional photographic body in NZ that sets standards in both photographic and business practice, through both its accreditation system and the Iris Professional Photography Awards. Membership also brings the security of knowing there are always others there to support you, in any number of ways. Having that formal validation, and recognition as a professional, is not only an achievement to be proud of, it also provides security and assurance for clients. To further strengthen the value of being an NZIPP member, this year’s Iris Professional Photography Awards will be introducing a revised tier system for entry fee rates. While rates for NZIPP Accredited Members remains the same as in 2015, there are additional tiers and increases to fees for those who are not Accredited Members. This move has been about redefining value, closing some loopholes and setting rates based on the more realistic cost of running the awards. If you have a passion for photography and the profession of photography, invest in yourself and your business through becoming recognised as an Accredited Professional and making the most of what the NZIPP has to offer. There is still time to do this before entries open for the 2016 Iris Professional Photography Awards, so take the first step towards Accreditation by contacting Gina – info@nzipp.org.nz

IRIS AWARDS EPSON/NZIPP iris professional

photography awards

IRIS AWARDS EPSON/NZIPP iris professional

photography awards

2016 CALL FOR ENTRIES COMING SOON!

2 0 1 6

Keep your eyes out for the new look branding (and brand standards) for this years Iris Professional Photography Awards. A VERY big thanks to Blair Quax and Harriet Hall for pulling this together!!

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NZIPP MEMBER NEWS

NZIPP on Facebook / Q Submissions

Find NZIPP on Facebook

Next Q Submission Date

Make sure you ‘like’ NZIPP on Facebook to stay up to date on all our latest news. Click this link now: https:// www.facebook.com/NZIPP/

Thursday, 3rd March.

If you’re an NZIPP member and you’re not already part of the NZIPP regional Facebook groups, check out the links below and send us a ‘join group’ request....

Digital submissions for wedding and portrait categories are allowed for this round. For more information please contact Tracy Stamatakos directly at tracy@ oneblacksheep.co.nz

For more info go to www.nzipp.org.nz. Login into the members area and you will find details under the Members Info tab.

• NZIPP - Auckland/Northland Region • NZIPP - Waikato/BOP Region

All post submissions to be sent to:

• NZIPP - Central Districts

Tracy Stamatakos

• NZIPP - Wellington Region

92 15th Avenue

• NZIPP - Nelson/Marlborough Region

Tauranga 3112

• NZIPP - Canterbury/Westland Region • NZIPP - Otago/Southland Region

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COMMITTEE UPDATE

Veterans Project Tony Stewart FNZIPP

Late last year I took over from Terry Wreford Hann as Veterans Project Co-ordinator, and I have the job of overseeing the next phase of the NZIPP - RSA WWII Veterans project. So here’s a quick note to keep you informed of where we are at. The project has now wrapped up in terms of the photographing all known WWII veterans, and all free prints have been posted out. Whilst this did take longer than anticipated, we were able to fulfil many ongoing requests that came in (often at a dribble!). To all our volunteer members who helped, thank you! The Queensberry workspace site has been updated, and remains the first point of reference for anyone wishing to view our collection and / or order additional prints. http://nzipp.queensberryworkspace.com/ galleryslide/97498565c222d7d372/list As many of you will be aware, quite a number of our veterans have now been lost to the ravishes of old age. Perhaps this is indeed a timely reflection of what we have achieved, and the value of rolling out the project when we did. NZIPP is serious about trying to gain more exposure of brand NZIPP. There is still potential to gain ongoing exposure from this project for NZIPP. This will result in greater publicity for our members and sponsors. There has been so much positive feedback for this project so far, that we are indeed very encouraged to try and take it as far as we can (where-ever that may be!). It is probably a good reminder to participating photographers, to please ensure that any material shot as part of this project is retained, and not displayed and/

or disseminated. We are planning to gain ongoing media interest with this work in various capacities, and hope to retain our body of work as one unique collective - rather than individual images leaking here and there. Please do not release any images without checking with us first. I will be investigating how we can best update the proof book, and to make this available to NZIPP members, RSA branches etc. Watch this space, as I know there have been a few people asking if they can get copy of the collection, similar to that proofed in the initial RSA proof book. So from our valued NZIPP community, this is what the project needs at the moment: - That any requests, queries, & media contact now be directed to info@photoshots.co.nz , as the main project co-ordinator. - In the event you may have any ‘forgotten’ files on your machine, or you have had any ongoing correspondence with veterans and/or their families (i.e. they told you they haven’t received prints, have wrong spelling etc), THIS is now the time to be in touch before our next phase. - If you have any contacts, leads, or in-roads into places such as Waiouru Army Museum, Auckland War Museum, Te Papa, National Portrait Gallery… please let me know. These may prove valuable. - The big one, any ideas about how you would like this work shared nationally, please let me know. This will be our next focus.

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REGIONAL UPDATES

Waikato / BOP Region Words by Kim Howells, MNZIPP

It was a fabulous end to the year for the Waikato BOP Region, with yet another amazing Christmas Function! Team Pink (Mark McKeown, Suzanne Todd-McKeown, Sarah Beaufoy, Alana Dresner) organised a night of fun, beginning with The Amazing Race. Each member was placed in a team, each team with a different colour setting the dress code. Teams met in Mt Maunganui’s Coronation Park, where following a brief, their first Amazing Race task was to locate a gnome in their team colour. The park came alive with colourful and often strange beings running round madly competing (and cheating) to find their assigned gnome. Once found (and recovered from sneaky sabotaging competition), teams followed their next clue to The Pizza Library, where they had to perform strange tasks like eating a slice of piping hot pizza as fast as they could, and posing without moving around some statues while each team member ate. The next clue took teams to Mount Mellick Irish pub, where they had to “guzzle” and solve a “puzzle”. Then onward to the final “pit stop“ – while dancing the congo – to the Mt Social Club. A fine night with fabulous food and entertainment was had by all. Congratulations to the award winners of the evening: Best Dressed: Craig Robertson Hall of Fame: Craig Robertson Dedication to the Cause: Sarah Beaufoy

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Outstanding Contribution to NZIPP: Nicola Inglis Pinnacle Award: Tracey Robinson NZIPP Waikato BOP Image Awards: 1st Claire Birks, 2nd Cassie Emmet, 3rd Sarah Alloway A big thank you to everyone who organised and attended the evening, particularly our sponsors – CRK, Canon, Carters, Snapshot, and Queensberry, who sponsored fabulous awards and prizes. A change of leadership for 2016 sees Mark McKeown Chairperson and Suzanne Todd-McKeown - Secretary, resigning from their roles to focus on their joint business. We thank them for the hard work and energy given to our region. An interim committee has stepped in with Sarah Beaufoy as Acting Chairperson, Collen Kiddie as Acting Secretary. We look forward to confirming a new leadership team at the AGM in April. UPCOMING MEETING 9 February 2016 - We will meet for dinner will from 5.30pm at Onyx Café & Bar, 70 Alpha Street, Cambridge, and follow with the meeting and Open Mic Business Q&A Night with Richard Linton.

Images by Mark McKeown, Michal Pinkerton and various NZIPP Members

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REGIONAL UPDATES

Wellington Region Words by Mel Waite MNZIPP

Images ÂŠ catherine Cattanach As January and February can be such a busy time of year for our members with wedding season in full swing and school holidays on we don't tend to run any meetings but boy were the Wellington members busy! Check out a very small selection of the beautiful, stunning, amazing work they have created just in the last 2 months. Our next meeting will be on tuesday the 29th of March and will be a collaboration with Ink printing looking at what can be done with printing technology and how to get the best of your your images, if you are in town feel free to join it.

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Image © Jane Nelson

Image © Nick Servian

Image © Jane Nelson

Image © Anna Munro

Image © Nick Servian

Images © Anna Munro

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MEMBER PROFILE

Jo Frances-Moore ANZIPP www. jofrancesphotography.co.nz

Image © Jo Frances-Moore How long have you been a photographer? Was it portrait photography that got you hooked at the start of your career? I have been a professional (mostly full-time) photographer for 13 years. Although I briefly did weddings, it’s portraiture that I’ve always loved. Specifically I love photographing relationships and the connections between people. You run Jo Frances Photography with studios in Auckland and Wellington. Can you tell us a bit about your business? I set up Jo Frances Photography in Wellington 13 years ago and Jo Frances Photography Auckland around 6 years ago. I originally set up Jo Frances Photography Auckland (JFPA) as I was ready for a new challenge. All my family live in Auckland and I thought working part time up there was a great excuse to go and see them. The business grew quite rapidly and soon enough I found that working in two cities was more work than I wanted, so I sold JFPA to Sarah Nutt two and a half years ago. Over time Sarah is changing JFPA to represent her own

personal vision. Although we still have a lot of contact and bounce ideas off each other, JFPA is run as an entirely separate business with quite a different look to the work represented on each website. What has been your most successful marketing platform? Do you advertise in magazines/attend expos? Over the years I have probably tried a wide range of marketing ideas and have definitely found the most successful marketing platform is through the word of mouth and repeat clients. The least successful marketing that I have tried is print media, such as magazines, etc. What are the ingredients for success with photography? I can only speak to what ingredients I believe are important as a portrait photographer. Obviously lighting, posing and composition are all very important but personally I feel the ability to connect with others and understand both how they see themselves and how they want to be seen is crucial to creating meaningful portraits. And being great with children and willing to be silly is essential to photographing families! PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

How would you describe your photographic style and how it has developed over the years? I aim for my photographs to be intimate and honest, often playful and revealing, and hopefully they invoke an emotional response. Well I do have a style that I really love, I first and foremost see myself as a service provider and I strive in my work to make images for my clients that are meaningful for them and not just for me. So while I love peeled back, black and white, often nude work, I am also happy to include silly hats and goofy props if that is what my clients desire. Over the years, I think (I hope) my work has become more refined and less gimmicky and certainly my ability to use light and Photoshop to complete the vision I have in my head has improved. The images that I loved taking at the beginning of my career are not so different to what I love creating now so in a way I see myself as having gone in a bit of a circle from intimate B&W work, through a bit of a colourful, prop filled stage and now back to the more simple forms that I originally loved. There must be quite an art to photographing newborns. Do you have any tricks to capture a magical shot? First of all I’d like to say that I don’t just photograph newborns! They account for around only 15% of my client base, I love to photograph family’s of all ages and do not consider myself as just a newborn photographer. In saying that I do love photographing newborns and I think the trick to doing good newborn photography is to be patient, and to really try and see the family in front of you and to represent the story of their lives at

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this moment in time. Over the years I have begun to feel more and more strongly that newborn photographers should worry less about getting the baby to sleep and more about capturing the uniqueness of each baby in each family! What has been your most memorable shoot and why? I’m sure this question would get a fairly similar response from most photographers! I usually really love the shoots I have just finished! Lots of shoots stand out for me, but the ones that get me buzzing are the ones where family’s really share with you how they feel about each other, and feel safe and free enough to really show that in front of me and my camera. One shoot that comes to mind is one I did for a 96 year old and her son and daughter a year ago. At one point in this shoot I asked the daughter to look at her Mum and think about how much she means to her. It felt like a wave of love swept through the room and both my assistant and I were moved to tears it! The woman has passed away since then and her daughter has contacted me to tell me how important and special those last photos of her and her mum are to her. Knowing that I have helped create something so meaningful to this family and that the photos will become part of their family story, feels pretty magic.

Images ÂŠ Jo Frances-Moore

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Image ÂŠ Michelle Phillips

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What is your favourite image you have shot recently? Can you describe its creation in regards to location, lighting, composition etc… and what the image means to you? My favorite photographs seem to be the ones I have just taken, one that I particularly love from a recent shoot is of a pregnant couple cuddling. It’s a simple image taken with studio lightning in my studio just before Christmas. What I love about it is that it perfectly captures the story the woman in it told me about her and her husband. She contacted me just before Christmas asking if I could fit her in for a pregnancy shoot as she wanted to gift a photo of herself pregnant to her husband for Christmas. Through our communication she told me about how she had had a difficult, and at times scary, pregnancy and that her husband had been an amazing support throughout the process. I suggested that rather than having a shoot and gifting him a photo, that she bring him along and I create some work of them together. We created a photo that really captured the way he supports her and they loved it and bought a big image of it for their wall. Again, the fun for me is knowing that I’ve made something that tells a story for my clients, in a beautiful way. Your amazing image of a breastfeeding mother which won silver at the Epson/NZIPP Iris Photography Awards went viral on Facebook. Were you surprised? What sort of feedback have you received? Yes I was surprised by how many people saw this image and commented on it! However breastfeeding is currently a hot topic, and it depicts a less romanticized view of breastfeeding that a lot of mums can related to. The bulk of the comments on it were of the “ouch! - Been there!” variety. The feedback on my Facebook page was about the image rather than me as a photographer, and while I have received quite a few requests to use the image I don’t think it has lead to any actual bookings. It’s not the type of image people are banging down my doors to receive! Image © Jo Frances-Moore PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

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What gear do you most enjoy using at the moment and why?

I use a Canon EOS 5D mark 111, which I’ve had since they first came out and it has served me well. I do 95% of my work in the studio and my Canon 24-70 1:2.8 L series lens rarely comes off my camera. I am definitely not that motivated by the gear! I admire photographers that can put a lot of thought into lighting and equipment while shooting but I’m definitely more geared towards interacting with my clients and getting the small ones doing what I need them to do! I tend to use whats working for me until it is no longer working for me and don’t give the gear too much of my headspace. I use a mixture of studio and natural light within the studio depending on what type of image and feel I am trying to achieve. I like using both and don’t have a preference to one or the other and I tend to keep my lighting relatively simple. What advice would you share with aspiring photographers? Research the market and try to create something

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original. Develop your people skills, as well as your technical ability. Know that to be a financially successful photographer you will need to be a good business person more often than you will need to be a great artist. If not a photographer you would have been? Well I originally wanted to be a psychologist and I did a Masters degree with that in mind. I played with photography while at Uni and in the end my lovely Hubby convinced me to give up my community development job and just have a crack at being a photographer. I suspect I would have been a terrible psychologist at I not the most patient person and I bore easily! You won the 2015 Epson/NZIPP Iris Professional Photography – Classic Portrait Photographer of the Year (huge congratulations from the NZIPP!)…What have you got coming up in 2016, that you are super excited about? Last year was a big year for me, I turned 40, went back to work full-time since my son was born and won the title

of the Classic Portrait Photographer of the year. This year I intend to cruise and take it easy, making more time to spend with my family and generally trying to live a less stressful existance! I have three children and like all working Mums, I’m constantly trying to find the balance between my work and the rest of my life.

I would say that winning the title was a a massive surprise for me and not something that I had in my life plan let alone my 2015 plan! It’s taken a bit of getting my head around and at first I felt a bit stressed about the need to “make good” on it. Thankfully some people much more sensible than me have told me to chill out! So although it was (is!) a massive honour and obviously very exciting, its not changing how or why I run my business. One lovely upshot of it through is I am finding enquirers are now more likely to just accept my pricing than tell me I am too expensive! I’m guessing that its creating a perception of increased value and that makes running a business easier!

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WHAT’S IN MY BAG

Harry Janssen FNZIPP www.harryjanssen.nz

Good heavens, what’s all that stuff we are humping around on a photoshoot. I always want to be ready for the next natural disaster, I can’t decide what I may need on a shoot, so I take everything. Leave some item at home and you will need it for sure. Take everything and you shoot the entire job with one camera, one lens…done! I was asked to write this month’s episode of “What’s in my bag”. I want to start off with a bit of history, just because… When I first started working as a professional photographer, the gear I used most of the time was a twin-eyed Rolleicord and a Metz flash with a big battery pack swung over one shoulder. In hind-sight a little scary, no back-up gear at all. I remember I was TOLD that I could use 9 rolls of 120 film to shoot a wedding, strictly no more than that! 108 Shots all up, amazing. I used to get heavily told-off if I managed to screw-up only one of those 108 shots. So gear-wise in that time; not so much. But soon I got sent out to shoot commercial stuff. I remember going out on the job with a huge aluminium case with Horseman Cameras and lenses. Also a monstrous tripod that weighed like a ton of bricks. Broncolor lighting if there was power available, no battery powered lighting available then. One job that I remember was some big orchard picking machine that I photographed outside with a temperature of about -15 C. Ever grabbed a tripod with a temperature like that? Don’t do it! Or try to operate the finicky controls of a Folding View Camera with frozen fingers? And still no back-up gear. Oh well, those were the days. I included

this piece from the past to draw a comparison between then and now. Am I wrong to think that we are carrying so much more stuff now in the digital age? Let’s take a huge leap forward to the present day. Today I stuff all my gear in LowePro bags. Camera bags are a bit like shoes, they have to be of quality and comfort otherwise they will just not last. I’ve got a wardrobe full of camera bags and they are all the wrong ones. My current camera bag is the LowePro Vertex 300 AW. This backpack type of bag has many zips and pockets to store all those little bits like memory cards, filters, cables and releases, straps (which I hate with a passion) and bottles of water. I like the Vertex bag, it holds all my gear comfortably but more important to me: it is comfortable on my back even with all gear packed into it. The weight is evenly distributed over the shoulders and waist. Craig Robertson will give me a hard time again if I mention the total weight of my camera bag; nearly 15kg. I guess he’s trying to convince me in to buying some of his favourite much lighter mirrorless Fuji cameras. I know he’s got a good point….. Someday Craig….maybe. As a commercial shooter, I shoot nearly all of my work from a tripod. I think it makes you work more diligently; setting up shots more carefully. I’d rather take more time getting the shot right than shooting heaps and hoping there is a good one in the masses. I still have that 108 shot syndrome today I guess. It also leaves my hands free to rearrange things in the shot. I use a Carbon Fibre Sirui R-4203L 3 stage tripod. It doesn’t have a centre column Image © Amber Griffin

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Images ÂŠ Harry Janssen

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because it tends to make stuff less stable therefore defeating the entire purpose of a tripod. Same reason for the 3 leg extensions instead of 4. The fourth leg gets too thin and flimsy, sacrificing stability. On top of the tripod I use a Sirui K-40X Ball Head. The Sirui is very light and extremely sturdy. To mount my cameras on the tripod, I use Really Right Stuff L-Plates. These things cost a bit, but are a heaven’s sent. Mike Hollman introduced me to the Really Right Stuff and I was sold straight away. Now I have separate L-Plates on all my cameras. The advantage of the L-Plate is that the lens position doesn’t change if you swap from horizontal to vertical shooting or vice versa. It doesn’t make much sense to have your camera hanging off the side of your tripod when shooting vertically. Especially when using heavy cameras like my Nikon D4, it makes for a very unstable set-up. With L-Plates, the camera always sits dead square on top of the tripod. The camera L-Plates and tripod use the Arca-Swiss compatible quickrelease system. Moving on to the cameras and lenses. I don’t really have that many lenses. First of all, there’re 3 cameras in my bag: Nikon D4, Nikon D3 and a Nikon D80. The D4 and the D3 are my day to day work horses. Often I shoot with both; I hate swapping lenses. The D4 usually carries the

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Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED Lens, it hardly ever comes off. I do probably 70% of my work using this fantastic lens. For product photography and corporate portraiture I use the Nikon AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED Lens. Again, I totally love this piece of glass. If I find myself in tight corners when shooting architecture type stuff I use the Nikon 20mm f/2.8 AF prime a lot. To top it off I also have an AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.55.6G ED VR. A wonderfully versatile and compact lens with a large zoom range. I know many use the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens but for me personally, I couldn’t quite get there because of the cost versus usage factor and even size. OK, so the 28-300mm is not an f2.8 lens but with the D4, I can easily turn the ISO up a few clicks if need be without sacrificing the quality. Works for me! For the more “action” type of shooting I often use both cameras at the same time, I don’t like lens swapping. As I mentioned before, I also hate camera straps with a passion. To avoid neck pain and headaches I use a double harness from CarrySpeed. It looks a bit full-on but who cares? It is very comfortable even with 2 heavy cameras. If you suffer headaches after a shoot, it is most likely because of the camera strap cutting circulation in the neck area.

The Nikon D80 is a full-time infrared camera, just for fun. It creates outworldly images and I have earned 5 Silver Distinctions so far using this little marvel. I have another LowePro bag Nova 5 AW which I take to all shoots. It contains a bunch of speedlights, radio triggers, soft boxes, batteries, torches, cables etc. Also in the boot of the car always present; foldable ladders, a bunch of light stands and booms for the speed lights. Masses of clips and clamps to hold things up, to holds things away and to keep things from flapping about.

photographic and design work on a 27” iMac and on my MacBook. There is an older Powermac G5 dedicated to just running iTunes, I can’t do anything without music in the background. Oh and did I mention coffee? I have huge amounts of hard drive storage space and I follow Nicola Inglis’ advise about “The Three Legged Stool” to the letter. Meaning I keep at least three copies of any file at any time. Instead of thinking that you are safe, gearwise…..think: “What is the weakest link in my business?”

Duck-tape! Yeah I know it is spelled wrong…I like this better. I have a small nothing fancy studio with 5 Bowens studio lights and 2 constant lighting heads. Swarms of soft boxes, reflectors, back ground rolls of paper and what have you. I don’t have portable battery powered lighting, I have somehow managed to do without. I love natural lighting and I go to great lengths to shoot without artificial lighting. All I use here and there is a little blip from my speedlights. A MacBook Pro plus external drives and tethering stuff, but I don’t use it very often. I find it too cumbersome on location. I do use it in the studio, especially when clients want to be present for test shoots. I do all of my PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

Image ÂŠ Claire Birks

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

“

I’d rather take more time getting the shot right than shooting heaps and hoping there is a good one in the masses.

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PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITIONS AND EVENTS

Auckland Festival of Photography

Portrait Awards 16

2 - 24 June 2016.

LensCulture Portrait Awards 2016 is our 3rd annual competition to discover the very best contemporary portrait photography from all cultures around the world. We believe portraits are the most fundamental type of photograph â&#x20AC;&#x201D; helping people to understand and celebrate human connections on a universal level. We encourage anyone, from anywhere, with a new perspective on the modern-day portrait to enter.

A city-wide contemporary art and cultural event which takes place within Aucklandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s major galleries, project spaces, non-gallery venues and public sites during June each year. The programme includes a mix of emerging and established artists and comprises existing works and creation of new work. The annual Festival is produced by the Auckland Festival of Photography Trust. http://www.photographyfestival.org.nz

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Deadline: 8th March 2016.

https://www.lensculture.com/portraitawards-2016?utm_source=emailcpc&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_ content=PCI&utm_campaign=PA16-PCI

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A special thank you to our Corporate Members for their continuing support:

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NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY