69th National Convention

By Richard Passey

We have a great convention lined up for you, with the two following speakers as well as Rachel Gillespie, Brigit Krippner and Annette Johnston FPSNZ to enlighten you.

Kris Anderson

Australian Master of Photography Kris Anderson’s passion for storytelling resonates in his work. With a background as a musician and performer, he built up his career photographing actor and performer headshots, theatre advertising and production images for theatre companies. After many years as a generalist, his love of the performing arts and contacts in the industry led to his specialty field of performing arts photography.

He also has a strong body of work in illustrative photography that frequently explores narratives concerned with modern life, mental health and the impact of technology. He often uses composites to depict these themes in a dramatic way.

A Master of Photography with the now-defunct Australian Institute of Professional Photography, Kris is the 2019 AIPP Queensland Professional Photographer of the Year. His illustrative compositions have earned gold awards at state, national and international levels, and in 2017 he was recognised as the AIPP Australian Illustrative Photographer of the Year.

Kris is one of the four founding artists of The Creative Mix, a fine art print store using images from a collective of photographers and artists selling high-quality prints.

He is also an experienced photographic judge at an international level. He has judged print awards for the AIPP in Australia, the NZ Institute of Professional Photography Iris Awards in New Zealand and the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International awards in Las Vegas. Kris is also a proud EIZO Ambassador.

Kris will be holding a breakout session on how he puts a shoot together and how he processes this to get the end result. There will be limited spaces for this.

Simon Runting

Be prepared to sit a long time in wet and muddy conditions to get the best shots of birds, according to one of New Zealand’s top bird photographers, Simon Runting.

With waders, camouflage net and wet weather gear, Simon goes to extremes to get his breathtaking images. He will construct hides or put his camera on a specially constructed raft to get down to the same level as the birds in their natural environment.

With a background as a news photographer on Fleet Street more than 40 years ago, Simon emigrated from the UK to New Zealand and now specialises in commercial and industrial photography as well as his renowned nature images.

He puts a lot of effort into preparation, including studying the birds’ behaviour and patterns of movement to find the best backdrops to photograph them against rather than randomly walking about. His award-winning images have gained recognition in many international competitions, including winning the nature section of the 2020 Sony Alpha Awards.

Simon is sought after as a guest speaker and runs nature photography workshops. Find him at https://www.instagram.com/simonbirdphotography/.

What a great weekend it is going to be!