Over the next few days I am going to be giving you a glimpse of my convention experience. For many getting to the convention involved road detours around floods, long exhausting waits at airports and lots of rain getting in the way of travel plans. Die-hard convention goers never let a little bit of rain stop them having fun!
The event started with the VIP showing and opening of the Canon PSNZ National Exhibition where there is an amazing number of images on display. Congratulations to all who received awards in the exhibition, the standard of work is extremely high and a credit to us all as PSNZ photographers. Also on display are the honours sets. Again stunning work and well deserved distinctions to all the photographers who have their sets displayed. Never entered Natex? Give it a go next time, its a great opportunity to see your images displayed alongside other members and there are many awards to work towards.
The ‘Official Opening’ started with a surprise comedian and a lot of laughs, before Brian Cudby – Patron of APS – opened the event. Peter Robertson – President of PSNZ also said a few words before we were all enthralled by the first speaker – Pete Rees. Pete talked about the language of picture making and I personally found it a very interesting talk. I am attending his workshop tomorrow morning so am looking forward to going into more in-depth detail of his processing techniques, and his vision for his images and how he achieves that vision using post processing.
The trade stands were busy this afternoon and I have been tempted with some amazing gear and even some chocolate Easter eggs! Whoever came up with the chocolate idea is on the right track from my point of view! I had a play with one of the mirrorless camera and have decided this type of camera needs more investigation.
One of the raffles was drawn and many prizes won. Congrats to the winners! Also a couple of spot prizes were also given out this evening (wearing yellow as can be seen in this image was a winner here).
It has been awesome reconnecting with people who I only ever see at the conventions and I look forward to spending the weekend with these amazing creative people and sharing just a little bit of that with you.