Through THE LENS

THE CHATHAM ISLANDS are well known as a photographer’s paradise, but they can also be quite daunting: getting there, getting around, knowing where to go and at what time can be a real mission, let alone concentrating on the camera and getting it right. Luckily, people like Lesley Whyte are there to make it easier.

Lesley is an award-winning photographer specialising in story telling and street photography, and for the last ten years she has been running photography retreats to some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most stunning locations. But her connection to capturing images goes back much farther than that.

“Photography has been a part of my life since I was a teenager and was given a Rollieflex camera,” she says. “I converted the family bathroom into a darkroom, with film hanging from the shower rail! Then life and a family came along, and when I got back into it seriously everything had changed - it had gone digital obviously, and it was a really male dominated scene. So I started Women in Photography for people who had been like me, wanting to learn more and not get looked at as if I was asking a stupid question!”

“When I got back into it (photography)seriously everything had changed - it had gone digital obviously,and it was a really male dominated scene.”

The result is gals-only photography retreats that are pretty much door-to-door, including transport to selected locations, accommodation, meals (and wine - an essential part of the photographic process!) and most importantly full instruction in how to get the best out of your camera. And the best part is that it culminates in finished A3 prints on proper photographic paper stock (which explains why Lesley has quite a bit of luggage on our Air Chathams flights!).

“We’re only for beginners and intermediates,” Lesley says, “small groups, usually between six and ten, and we do everything from learning how to capture your images right the way through to making A3 prints of those images.

“I don’t think women approach photography differently to men, but they are more social and less competitive about it! When we are out photography is very inclusive, there is a lot of support and building of confidence.

“The greens (on the Chatham Islands) are not the same as on mainland NZ, the landscape is rugged and challenging.”

“The greens are not the same as on the mainland, the landscape is rugged and challenging. People love to photograph broken buildings and wrecks, and we get to go to places that you can’t go to without the consent of the locals. The guys at Port Hutt actually love to see us and there is a lot of banter there, and we get to go onto private property to photograph old houses, and of course the seals and the German missionary ruins. We do incorporate the usual tourist things, but we also get off the beaten track to some very special places. And we are always finding new ones - we work really closely with Toni from Hotel Chathams, and if we see something we’d like to get close to for photography she will know who to talk to and sound them out.”

Finding prehistoric shark’s teeth on the beaches and photographing them - we really do leave only footprints and take only photographs.

That local knowledge - as well as having someone to keep you headed in the right direction and your camera settings correct - makes for some stunning photography. But happenstance and chance have always played a big part in great images, and it’s no different on the Chathams.

“The weather is incredible,” says Lesley, “and the light can change from one minute to the next so you really have to be ready. But that challenge is the best way to master photography, and experiencing things like that iconic New Zealand scene of a flock of sheep cresting a remote gravel hilltop road - something we don’t see so much on the mainland. Or the classic Chathams experience of finding prehistoric shark’s teeth on the beaches and photographing them - we really do leave only footprints and take only photographs.”