Personal

At the start of July, I took a week off work and went up to the Coromandel for a bit of a break. The last few months have been unbelievably busy, and it was a great opportunity for me to recharge my batteries and get some rest. We were based in the Coromandel township, and drove to the different places around the peninsula each day. Our accommodation was a Farm House owned by a guy named Rick, and the pig above was one of the many animals we got to hang out with during our time there. She is a Kunekune pig and she was amazing.

We did all the generic touristy things like going to Cathedral Cove, and Whitianga, but we did get to spend some time doing some more relaxed activities. We spent a bit of time at the Whitianga museum where I got to do a little bit of research for one of my projects, but other than that, I was really good and took hardly any work with me! The weather wasn’t amazing, as it is the middle of winter here in New Zealand, but it was still a great break with lots of sleeping in and eating.

Today my website underwent a bit of an overhaul. In the midst of frantically checking links and file paths, I took a trip down memory lane while looking for images to include in my portfolios.

Three years ago I took my very first portraits for an online photography competition I wanted to enter. I didn’t win, or get a placing, but I did get my first opportunity to photograph something other than landscapes and flowers. The competition brief was to produce an image that could fit the theme ‘science, technology and society’. My work collegues quickly volunteered themselves and their families as models, as I began to experience a whole new level of generosity and support that has become so critical to my work.

When I look at this photograph it feels like it was such a long time ago, and yet it perfectly represents the journey I have been on since then, even though, in the grand scheme of things, it has only been 3 short years. I remember taking this photograph and not really having any idea what I was doing and it’s only now that I truly appreciate the incredible generosity of someone giving up their time to let you have a go at something.

Photography for me was a distraction from other things I didn’t want to deal with any longer. I had burnt some bridges a couple of years earlier, and attempted to immerse myself in new things to fill the large hole that had suddenly appeared in my life. I threw myself into it wholeheartedly because I had nothing to lose. It was just something I was trying out in my spare time and because I had no emotional investment in it, it meant that I had no fear to hold me back. I wish I could create this freely across all mediums.

If you leave this post with anything, I hope it is a gentle reminder to give things a go. Even if (or especially if) you don’t think it will lead to anything. Photography has had such a profound affect on my life, taught me things I would never have otherwise had the opportunity to learn, and has made my life infinitely richer. It’s hard to imagine my life without it.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has allowed me to photograph them or helped me out in some way over the last three years, I could not have done it without you.