Introducing the New CameraTalk Team

Mark Chamberlain LPSNZ (Editor)

I am a relatively new member of PSNZ, joining three years ago after being washed up on the shores of Aotearoa, following a long career as a Petroleum Exploration Geologist in Southeast Asia. I came to your country with my beautiful Thai wife, Kanchana (Took), and we both love the outdoor life and landscape photography opportunities afforded by New Zealand. We consider ourselves very lucky to be in such a pristine, beautiful country.

My photographic interests are in travel photography, inspired by my thirty-year plus, nomadic life, living and working in Asia and Australia – including long stints in Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand. My photography objective is to tell stories of transient cultures, religions and lifestyles in Southeast Asia. My wife and I are building a small travel photography business. Once COVID-19 issues have passed, we hope to run small workshops for photographers in northern Thailand and other extraordinary regions of SE Asia familiar to us. Meanwhile, here in New Zealand, I spend much of my spare time improving my landscape photography skills. For me, photography is a journey of self-improvement, and I am happy to be contributing something to PSNZ.

Lindsay Stockbridge LPSNZ (Subeditor)

Photography began for me with a Kodak box camera, initially snapping the family cat or my sister in her pushchair, but it soon gravitated to photographing trains. Now, all these years later, I find myself subediting The New Zealand Railway Observer as well as CameraTalk. I have no formal qualifications in the editorial field, but I’ve picked up a few skills that help me in this work.

Serious camera club involvement began in the late ‘eighties when I came to Whanganui, and PSNZ membership soon followed. I’ve attended many regional and national conventions, working on the organising committees for about half a dozen. I’ve also enjoyed working as club treasurer in Whanganui for several years.

Soon after joining PSNZ, I became a member of Print Circle 7, beginning a long association with the Society’s print circles. These days I maintain a degree of oversight over our eight active print circles, two of them just new after a recruitment drive at the convention. We still have a few vacancies!

As a railway buff, I just had to join the convention field trip to Ferrymead Historic Park. Exploring and photographing railwayana ‘around the back’ was going fine until a belligerent (almost), barrelchested, blue-overalled man with baritone intonations suggested that departure from the premises would be well advised. I acceded to his request, but only after I’d taken a last, lingering shot of a railway wheel...

Prue Scott (PSNZ Councillor for Publications)

I am a freelance writer/ editor who works to fund overseas travel. Being in a new country inspires me, and I can while away for whole weeks just looking at the life around me. However, I must temper that enthusiasm with the reality: I admit to being an undisciplined photographer who desires to be more controlled, hence my membership of both the Auckland Photographic Society and PSNZ. It is far too easy to take far too many shots without giving them the required thought.

I favour reflections, intentional camera movement (ICM) and Italian architecture, but I will always try something new. I have a newfound appreciation for those who can deliver a good bird shot - my first attempts were hilariously bad. My Lightroom and Photoshop skills could also do with some serious study. I relish my membership in both organisations; I get to learn new skills and see the work of some excellent photographers.

My background includes radio in the good old days when it was modelled on the BBC, with time in Auckland, Palmerston North (hometown), Christchurch and Wellington. From there, I leapt into public relations as a writer and then account handler. Some other assignments followed, and I eventually landed in Auckland. I jumped ship from my then-employer and became a freelance writer and Editor.

Desirous of continuing my travel plans, I tried to convince various potential employers that I could work offshore. No, they all replied, you need to be in the office. Enter COVID-19, and the world changed.

Interestingly, my freelance clients didn’t bat an eye when I spent three months in Lucca, Italy, in 2020, when I said I’d be heading off on 2 March 2020 for eight months of writing and photographic fun in Europe. We all know how that ended; I got eight months in Lucca, photographing laundry hanging opposite my apartment building, the sky (there’s nothing like Tuscan blue), the buildings and, when we were allowed out, the glorious sight of lush spring grass on the city’s ancient walls, lines and trees bursting into leaf. I was enchanted by this bright blue/green world and plan to return for more photographic expeditions.

Ana Stevens APSNZ

(Graphic Design Editor)

My photography journey started around 2011 while taking photos of my children and making snippets of our everyday family life. I think I was desperately trying to slow down time and make those moments last forever.

I am another relatively new member of the Christchurch Photographic Society and PSNZ. Even though I was not expecting my involvement with the societies to build up this quickly, I do enjoy it and I hope I do it justice. With an academic background in marketing communications, my work consists of developing marketing and promotional mix strategies. Along the way, I picked up graphic design skills that will now be monumentally tested working on CameraTalk layouts.

I enjoy portraiture and fine art photography genres, aiming for thought-provoking portraits and leaning towards minimalist landscapes that accentuate colours, textures, or shapes. I love to study and explore new photographic and postproduction techniques and I favour working on personal projects, creating portfolios and sets that complete an idea or a theme.

I’ve been told that my photography style is “moody and gloomy”. I hope that, one day, these words could translate into “pensive and emotive”. These descriptors are well aligned with my ultimate aspiration as a photographer and sum up all of my artistic ambitions.

Photography Demonstrating the Impact of Human Beings on, and their Interaction with, Our Planet

The Whanganui Salon is back in 2021 and is an opportunity to use your photography to shine a light on issues of national and global significance. This year’s Salon has three categories:

1. HUMANITY AND THE NATURAL WORLD

2. THE WORKS OF HUMANKIND

3. LIVING IN A CHANGING WORLD The overall Salon Winner will receive the very first Vonnie Cave Medal - in recognition of the outstanding contribution Vonnie Cave MNZM Hon PSNZ FPSNZ has made to photography in Whanganui and nationally over her lifetime. The Salon Winner will also receive a $1000 redeemable voucher from our lead sponsor, Progear Photographic, while the Category Winners will receive gifts donated by Wellington Photographic Supplies and Print Art.

The Salon is open to all photographers living in New Zealand, with entries accepted from 27 July (closing on 24 August). It’s time to show us those meaningful images you have been taking over the past few years.

You can read more about the Salon here: http://www.whanganuicameraclub.org.nz/ whanganui-salon-2021.html