We left Christchurch a little after 6.30am on Friday, knowing it would take at least 6 hours to get to Queenstown for the convention. We took 10.5 hours to get there with numerous photographic stops on the way.
Murry Cave (PSNZ President) officially opened the National Exhibition and we were free to wander around the exhibition and PSNZ Honours sets. That evening we were privileged to hear from Andris Apse talk on his landscape philosophy.
Saturday came and we were shown images by Graeme Murray who has clients such as Red Bull on his list. His extreme sport imagery was very impressive. Johannes van Kan entertained us with his talk on wedding photography and how memories are provoked by photographs.
We welcomed new PSNZ president Peter Robertson at the AGM and after lunch we headed off in various directions to workshops. After dinner, the FIAP awards, Honours Ribbons, Medals and Trophies were presented and we saw the accepted digital images from Natex.
Sunday was a day for field trips and we went off in bus loads to a variety of locations – Skippers Canyon, Deer Park Heights for Landscape, the Jump Park for action shots, a Bar Shoot for portraits, Shotover river, Thurlby Domain for portraits, Arrowtown photo walk for photojournalism and Food Photography at the Hilton, the Chinese Village in Arrowtown, the indoor cart racing for action photography, vineyards for portraits, as well as Deer Park Heights, Skippers Canyon and the can-can girls in Arrowtown.
Thurlby Domain with Tim Hawkins
Models in the Chinese Village Arrowtown with Jackie Rankin and Mike Langford
The weather held, a flyboarding demonstration was arranged on the lake.
Fly Boarding demo #FlyboardingQT
The CR Kennedy Honours Banquet & Honours Awards was held at the Millennium Hotel where those who had gained their PSNZ Letters were awarded their distinctions.
Monday came early for some (after the banquet) and while the ANZAC parades were not part of the programme, some ventured down to the lakefront at 6.45am. Mike Langford shared with us some of his images and explained why he shoots in jpeg and raw. Nick Rains showed us that even before the invention of photoshop, that images were being manipulated and we saw various examples of these images.
The Jack Sprosen audiovisual winners were shown and their awards were presented before we heard the closing address and finished with a BBQ lunch.
Personally … “What a weekend. The colours were stunning and the weather was perfect. The fieldtrips, workshops and speakers were first class and the laughter was loud. It was a great time to rekindle friendships and meet new friends all with a common interest. The Queenstown Photographic Club did such a fantastic job at organising the convention making sure all ran well. The behind the scenes work would have amounted to a phenomenal number of hours and I would like to thank them all for giving their time over the many months leading up to the weekend. Jo Boyd, Jason Moss, Lara Moss & Lynley Foote and your helpers … Well done to you all.”
Stunning Colours in Arrowtown