Excio Journal Volume I Issue 3

VOLUME I ISSUE 3

OCT 2021

P H OT O G R A P H E R S F O R A B E T T E R W O R L D

EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

Our journal is dedicated to talented photographers to showcase and celebrate their passion, creativity and commitment.

The world needs more people like you.

Excio Photo Community

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EDITOR’S WELCOME He aha te mea nui o te ao He tangata, he tangata, he tangata What is the most important thing in the world?

It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.

Maori proverb A warm welcome to the second issue of our ‘Photographers for a better world’ Excio Journal. The first issue was an outstanding success and was well received by our members in Aotearoa and abroad.

You might ask what makes our journal stand out when there are so many other magazines around and literally anyone can now launch their own publication from the comfort of their home? At Excio we believe in people and human power to change the world. It is not about the photographs that our members create, but why they do it. It is not about what aperture they used or the shutterspeed, but what story they have to share. It is not about those who think they know everything and have nothing to learn, it is about those people who are always finding something new and interesting and are not afraid to say they are on a steep learning curve.

In this issue, we are talking about the power of photography and what role it plays in the 21st century with Michael. We chase light in landscape photography with Meghan and join Peter on a journey to Khumbu and learn how he is doing good in the region through advocating and raising awareness with his book. We also have an amazing human, Monica, who is a professional photographer and coach sharing with us her secrets on how to build self-confidence. We all have that tiny voice in our heads that says “Maybe these images are not good enough?” so make sure you share this issue with your photographer friends as they all need to hear what Monica has to say so they can start building their confidence the right away!

I can honestly say that the last three months were anything but easy for us Kiwis. But in all the uncertainty and difficult times, it has been truly inspiring to see the continuous flow of creativity, resulting in new photographs and projects by our members. If you ever lack inspiration or think no one needs to see your photographs, just check the free Excio app, visit our “Photography With Impact” gallery, or join the discussions in our membersonly Facebook group to keep yourself inspired. We also have photo challenges for Excio members and plenty of new articles on our Blog.

No matter where you are - whether still stuck in lockdown or enjoying the ‘new normal’, alone or with your friends and family, we hope that this issue of the Excio journal will be a bright and welcome distraction and will inspire you to create more photographs with the goal to make this world a better place.

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Ana Lyubich Co-founder, CEO of Excio

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 06 16 28 36 38 48

Excio Journal

‘Empty Quarter’

Volume I Issue 3

by Michael Cowen

Cover Photo Michael Cowen

Chasing Light

by Meghan Maloney

Publisher Excio Photo Community

What’s Good For Khumbu

by Peter Laurenson

Website www.excio.io

Building self-confidence with Monica Ferguson

To purchase images visit www.excioshop.io

Our Stories

Enquiries hello@excio.io

Sharing skills

Production Paper used for printing this journal comes from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations and is FSC (R) certified.

Print copies are available for purchase at www.excio.io/journal

All rights reserved © 2021 Reproduction of any material appearing in this journal in any form is forbidden without prior consent of the publisher.

Disclaimer: Opinions of contributing authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the journal.

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PHOTOGRAPHY WITH IMPACT For every 100 views of our online “Photography With Impact” gallery we make $1 donation to a charity. The best photos Excio members submit to our regular challenges appear on the gallery page to create a real positive impact in the community.

Visit here: www.excio.io/gallery

From the top left to the bottom right: Lex Rudd, Ann Kilpatrick, Amol Nakve, Alicia Joubert, Noelle Bennett, Karen McClay, Sara Petercokeleyson, Paul Belli, Darcey Philp, Cynthia Stoks

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‘EMPTY QUARTER’

BY MICHAEL COWEN

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Michael Cowen loves many genres of photography including landscape, travel, and social documentary. Born and raised in New Zealand and living in the United Arab Emirates since 2006, he has tended to focus on landscapes as this genre offers both a safe manner to practice photography in the UAE, and offers health and well-being benefits that come from getting out into nature.

His passion for photography and life has seen him travel around the world in search of beautiful locations, seasons, and light. His style can be said to be minimal, calm, and artistic but with a complementing emphasis on politics and ethics, particularly in terms of bringing public awareness to issues that confront our time, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. He works in Abu Dhabi on Environmental strategy and has recently completed a doctorate from the University of Manchester, in the area of post-structural philosophy.

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MICHAEL, YOU'RE CURRENTLY WORKING ON A BOOK ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHILOSOPHY... TELL US HOW YOU THINK THOSE TWO DISCIPLINES ARE RELATED? What a wonderful first question! For many, philosophy is irrelevant in 2021, but I regard both photography and philosophy as very important subjects. We need them both more than ever!

But, the answer to this question depends on how one sees both photography and philosophy. In my opinion, photography has been plagued with a schizophrenic existence. On one hand, it was born out of science as a technique for

capturing the real (i.e. straight photography), photography as objective; On the other hand, it was born out of art as a technique for expressing the subjective (i.e. pictorialism and photo successionists), photography as aesthetic. So right here, photography is sitting on a fault line that has divided the discipline of philosophy and practitioners of photographers for more than one hundred years. That said, I prefer, just as this marvellous Excio platform does, to move the philosophical discussion from scientific and aesthetic concerns to ethical concerns! To do this we are not interested in asking what something is but how it functions, and how we can use photography to do social good.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE POWER OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND HOW WE CAN USE IT IN THE 21ST CENTURY - IS THERE A WAY TO MAKE PEOPLE PAUSE AND THINK ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS THEY SEE? If you have read any John Berger, or others, since we moved from the age of the novel (and text) in the 19th century to life in the age of the image in the 20th and 21st centuries, photography has been fundamental in that shift.

Photographs no longer accompany a written piece, the written piece is read through the

image – text supplements the image; and the image frames the text.

At one time, when an image was viewed, it contained the notion of objective truth and something that we can trust. We’ve come to accept that through both straight photography and expressive photography there is ample room for the image in front of us to be positioned, doctored, framed, cropped, edited, composited, etc. So the naive acceptance of the position and power of the photograph has been eroded to such an extent that as readers/spectators we now view all images with a healthy amount of scepticism. But as Ansell Adams said, “A photograph is usually looked at

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– seldom looked into.” The public trusts less the photograph; and the public seldom study them closely, so, it is certainly challenging to “make people” pause and think about the photographs they see.

Post-modern philosophers, such as Deleuze, Baudrillard, and others have been extremely harsh on the photograph/photography and its power to do anything. For most of these philosophers – the photograph makes a cheap reproducible copy of the reality in front of them.

Essentially, photography is only a medium that represents reality and fixes identity. This claim and the implications have been the focus of my recent meditations. However, I do believe that the photograph has the power to influence and

shape our lives for good. I think this fixing of the photograph’s place in the world by postmodern philosophers is quite a startling error. I want to argue that instead of looking at the photograph as somehow a copy attempting to fix identity – the photographer is always and necessarily operating from a position – positionality. This positionality is in both the perspective sense in space, and historical sense, in time; the space and time of an eternally changing world. A world that needs both photography and philosophy to cast a critical eye, to help us make sense, and to help us create a better world. So, do I believe that there is still hope, to influence people to pause and think about the photographs they see. Remember, it is not the camera that thinks

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but the photographer. Therefore, as thinking photographers, we should choose to be ethical photographers – not only in terms of practice (e.g. not damaging nature or human lives in the process) but also ethical in terms of outcomes. At the same time, we must learn that in a world with a much wider public sphere of political struggle (be it Twitter; Instagram; or other platforms), our images can be on the front line of these societal and cultural changes. We all need to come to grips, that as photographers, we have become both instruments and vehicles of power, and we may become targets of ridicule and trolls.

We must be ready to fight for what we believe, rather than be the passive armchair philosopher/ photographer. While I have focused largely on

producing beautiful landscapes images, I also have tried (via the accompanying text) to bring attention to climate change and protecting biodiversity (this was the subject of my first selfpublished book). More recently, I have done short collections on ethical subjects such as plastics in the environment and effects of industrialisation.

These are my callings, but the issue for you could be anything: nature, the climate, gender rights, black lives, poverty, freedom and violence etc.

The photograph or set of photographs (more likely) still has the power to make the viewer think.

Sadly, most social media platforms are not helping the viewer to pause and think – but perhaps this is where exhibitions, books, and platforms like Excio can contribute to the solution.

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YOU HAVE TRAVELLED A LOT AROUND THE WORLD PHOTOGRAPHING VARIED LANDSCAPES - WHERE ARE YOUR FAVOURITE LOCATIONS AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS REGARDING TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY POST-COVID? My favourite locations to photograph are at two climate extremes - the icebergs of Greenland and the “Empty Quarter” desert of the United Arab Emirates. In recent years I, as have many

landscape photographers, chased some of the most iconic locations in incredible seasons and lighting conditions! However, given how voracious the micro-second consumption of the image has become, I believe that many of us suffer from a kind of image fatigue, a fatigue of the cliché. This in turn may cause the contemporary photographer to have a bit of an existential crisis. So, with the help of COVID19 lockdowns, I came to realise that instead of chasing the cliché, my favourite place and subjects for photography are probably within 100km of where I live. These are the places

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and subjects I know the best – and therefore photography from these places and subjects has more chance to be unique and relevant.

WHAT IS NEXT FOR YOU IN TERMS OF PHOTOGRAPHY - WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON? The summer heat in the UAE is too intense, if not dangerous, to be wandering around the deserts of the empty quarter. So, these past few months I have ventured out early mornings into Mussafah

Industrial City, some 20 km from where I live to photograph the effects of industrialisation. You can check out my Instagram Highlights for this collection of images.

At the same time, I’m working on a second photo monograph - on Philosophy and Photography.

Some of my thinking is included in the above questions, but it is proving to be a challenging project as I want to share images and text; but in such a way that works for both – that is to say, without one overpowering the other. I still have quite a way to go to find this balance.

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Finally, I have begun some new work on mixed media where I’m bringing together my photography with digital and traditional painting.

The idea is to play with representation and abstract expressionism within the same process but still around the objective of output that is directed at the ethical project, while using art and photography as the medium to achieve that end.

Thanks again Excio for this opportunity to share my thinking on the relevance of photography.

Good light to all the members.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL COWEN excio.gallery/michaelcowen

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CHASING LIGHT

BY MEGHAN MALONEY

HOW DID YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY JOURNEY START? My journey has definitely seen a few twists and turns. I got my first DSLR back in 2011, aiming to capture family moments when my kids were little (they’re 15 and 12 now!). We were living in Wellington at the time, and as my kids grew, this transitioned to shooting more landscape scenes including long exposure seascapes around the Wellington bays. The goal to be able to print larger images led to my first full-frame camera purchase, a Nikon D800, in late 2014.

After we moved to Cambridge in 2015, I had a bit of an internal tantrum wondering what on earth I could shoot as we were now an hour from the beach in either direction. But I quickly

realised that Cambridge is central to many great locations, and after a family trip to Rotorua in 2016 where I took my first ever astrophotography shot, I found enjoyment capturing the many lakes and rolling hill countryside in the Waikato.

In 2017, I switched to a Sony A7RII and loved shooting with a lighter kit that had much better technology. The more trips I took around New Zealand sharing these images on Instagram, the more opportunities came my way which has eventually enabled me to turn my passion into more than just a hobby. I decided to pursue photography full-time in 2019, and since then I have gradually transitioned away from my role as a corporate accountant. Being selected as a Sony NZ advocate in early 2020 was a great boost, enabling me to run workshops and events as a brand ambassador. Although becoming

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fully self-employed last year wasn’t the most ideal timing with COVID hitting, I have been able to run most of my photography workshops in between the various lockdowns over the past two years so I’m very grateful for that.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT IN PHOTOGRAPHY AND WHY? I really enjoy the teaching side of photography. I get an incredible sense of joy and achievement seeing people learn new skills and become more confident with their camera and settings, creating images they never knew they were capable of. That’s particularly true when I introduce the concept of using filters in landscape photography, often people are blown away by the difference adding a polariser or ND filter can make to a scene. I’m not a particularly technical photographer, I far prefer the creative side, so I really enjoy taking complicated concepts and breaking them down in simple ways so that people can easily understand them.

I’m also head over heels in love with New Zealand. We live in the most beautiful country in the world with the most incredible variety of scenery that’s hard to beat, and even if the borders were open, I’d still prioritise exploring more in NZ over anywhere else in the world.

Visiting places that have been on my bucket list for such a long time is a real thrill. This year I was fortunate to be able to walk the Milford Track with my husband and friends in April, and I also spent 3 days on a cruise with Real Journeys in Doubtful Sound in August just before the most recent lockdown. These two trips have been some of my favourite moments to capture, and I enjoy documenting and sharing my travels afterward via blog posts in the hope that fellow Kiwis might be inspired to experience them too.

There are also locations around the country that I’m drawn to visit time and time again to capture under unique lighting conditions or in different seasons - Nugget Point lighthouse being one spot that I’ve visited five times over five years despite it being the opposite end of the country to where I live. It was fantastic to finally get the timing and conditions right to shoot astro there back in June.

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AS YOU RUN WORKSHOPS YOU CAN'T AVOID GOING TO SOME SUPER POPULAR PLACES, WHAT WOULD YOUR ADVICE BE TO FELLOW PHOTOGRAPHERS REGARDING HOW THEY CAN CAPTURE THE SAME SCENE IN A NEW WAY? While it can be helpful to look at images before you go somewhere new to get an idea of what might be possible, it can also hamper creativity if you become fixated on achieving a particular composition. The lighting and weather conditions you’ll experience are unlikely to match for a start, and different seasons change the look of a location entirely. In some locations, access might be restricted by a viewing platform or natural barrier so the compositions may be limited, so the trick is to use the light on the day to your advantage, or potentially use a different focal length to other shots you may have seen. Think about the height at which you are composing your shots and how you can incorporate an interesting or different foreground if using a wide-angle lens. More often than not a better

composition will be from down low rather than just standing at a comfortable head height.

Since we can’t predict what the weather will do (wouldn’t that be nice!), even with the best planning sometimes you are forced to shoot at a location in less than ideal conditions, so it’s about getting creative and finding ways to make the scene work for you. Often that’s where I’ll get out the telephoto lens and hone in on details when the wider view isn’t so appealing.

WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH TO RESPONSIBLE PHOTOGRAPHY PRINCIPLES? As a Nature First member, it’s my aim to abide by their key principles both in my own travels and when running workshops. We have a huge responsibility and opportunity as photographers to leave no trace when we have been somewhere, and where possible leave it better than how we found it, which might include picking up any rubbish found at a location. I also feel a responsibility as someone with a reasonable social media following on Instagram not to share

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locations where there are sensitive environments involved or locations that have the potential to be damaged if an uptake in visitors occurred.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUR YOUNGER SELF JUST STARTING PHOTOGRAPHY? Learn smarter! I’m a self-taught landscape photographer, and I’m quick to admit that I don’t know everything. I’m definitely still learning as I go, but I love that there is always more to learn.

That thirst for knowledge is what drives me to keep learning, and then ultimately share that learning with others in my workshops. However, I have no doubt I could have progressed more quickly if I had attended in-the-field photography workshops when I was just starting out, or when I wanted to learn more advanced techniques instead of just eventually figuring it out for myself by trial and error.

WHEN YOU CAN'T RUN WORKSHOPS OR GET OUT WITH YOUR CAMERA (E.G. DURING LOCKDOWN), WHAT PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECTS DO YOU WORK ON? Lockdown always gives me a chance to catch up on neglected admin, whether that’s adding new images to my online print store, writing and delivering new online course content, or keeping in touch with my email subscribers with photography and travel tips. I love writing and I enjoy creating blog topics that others will find useful, whether that’s how to plan a landscape shoot for success or how to use a polariser for best effect. But that’s not to say I don’t miss outdoor adventures when we are in lockdown.

After going 35 days without picking up my camera, I was having severe withdrawal symptoms, so it felt great to be able to go on a hike and explore a new waterfall last weekend. Spending a few hours outdoors was just what I needed.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MEGHAN MALONEY excio.gallery/meghan

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WHAT’S GOOD FOR KHUMBU

by Peter Laurenson

‘Photography for good’, ‘Photographers for a better world’ both are worthy sentiments but if I pull them into my own personal context, can I honestly claim to be on board? In my own head, do my true motivations align with those of Excio or am I outwardly associating myself with such a movement in an attempt at post-rationalisation?

Or worse, like the tobacco and booze companies last century (before they were forced to desist), cynically associating themselves with sports; or Lotteries doling out funds to worthy causes while being perhaps the leading marketer of gambling in our land – reputation laundering!

I know, cynicism can be unpalatable and destructive – as I approach sixty I’m increasingly

aware of the dangers of ‘grumpy old man’ syndrome. There’s no point in getting bitter and twisted in old age is there? There lies one of the reasons that I’m a photographer – because it makes my heart sing, even after decades of shooting... which brings me back to my little bout of introspection.

When I started taking photos, and this still mostly applies, the reason I kept shooting was down to the pleasure I get from getting out there, applying and honing my skills, processing the RAW files, sharing them with others in various ways, and just personally reliving the experiences I’ve captured.

Adventure, creativity, recognition, happiness.

‘Photographers for a better world’ though? Well,

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I do enjoy it when my images inform or inspire others – that fits doesn’t it – at least a little.

Thankfully, there is one thing I’ve done in my life that, when I look myself in the mirror, head held high, I genuinely believe qualifies me to associate with photographers for a better world without harbouring any dark secrets. You may know that I created a book about a very special place that epitomises, or is a microcosm of, most of humankind’s challenges and opportunities in this globally warming, pandemic threatened century with its extremes of wealth and poverty.

The place is Khumbu, the region to the south of Mount Everest in Nepal, home to the Sherpa people.

My book is titled *KHUMBU Gateway to Mount Everest Pathways to Kinship* and my story encompasses seven trekking journeys spanning more than thirty years to Khumbu. It is also about a journey to kinship between a Kiwi family and a Sherpa family; a journey through tourism expansion, the emergence of guided climbs to the summit of Mount Everest, economic and technological development and environmental, cultural and political change; and a journey shared by a father and each of his three sons.

And while I didn’t consciously intend it to at the

outset, my story also carries a message that is well-timed as we slowly work our way to the far end of the Covid tunnel.

My 220 page book contains over 200 images and about 45,000 words, so it’s impossible for me to outline the whole story in an article like this and nor do I wish to – hopefully, this brief account might be enough to encourage some of you to want to buy a copy. That, by the way, is not a profit motive seeping out. Unless you hit the big time like J.K. Rowling, in this era of instantaneous digitalisation and ultra-fast global connectivity, for most there is but a pittance to be made in print publishing. I confess though, to relishing the satisfaction of seeing some of my best images come to life on the printed page – for a photographer that’s hard to beat.

At one point I considered promoting the notion that a percentage of every book sold would go to helping my Sherpa friends but I soon realised that that would be, if not reputation laundering, then at least marketing puffery. If the entire initial print run of 1,250 copies sells out I’ll just about break even – that is if you ignore the decades of time and effort I put into creating my book.

It’s certainly not about the money, but if the initial print run sells out, then a second run may

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eventuate, which will allow a wider audience to enjoy the magnificence of Khumbu, while considering the poignant message the book contains.

You see, as I became more aware and concerned about the environmental and social challenges humankind faces, an unexpected bonus for me was the dawning realisation that getting my book out there really just might add a positive drop to the ocean of positivity and effective action now needed. Along the way I learned that while strong images can inform and inspire, when combined with incisive writing, they can work even harder, enabling readers to go well beyond the visual grandeur of Khumbu and its inhabitants.

In this digital era, I have fully embraced the opportunity to stitch image sequences together to create panoramas. Some 50 of these feature in my book and, as a mountaineer, I believe panoramic format images often do justice to vast alpine landscapes far better than the constraints of the traditional 3:2 format.

With the arrival of Covid-19 last year, I worried that the pandemic would inevitably delay the

completion of my book. My plan was to take my partner Cathy to Khumbu in April 2021 as she's yet to visit our Sherpa friends. I was planning my final chapter to cover that visit, with a working title of ‘Closing the loop’ to round up my Khumbu journey. But it soon became apparent that travel to Nepal was not going to be an option for the foreseeable future as lockdowns and border closures came into force.

However, Covid-19 turned out to work well for the project. Firstly I used the seclusion of the initial nationwide lockdown to build the maps and select and consistently process images from 32 years of photography (spanning film, slides and pixels, and five different cameras!), so that when viewed in the same book, they all have a cohesive feel. Secondly, Covid-19 became an unexpected 'circuit breaker' that provided a poignant point to end my story – much better than my planned conclusion.

As events unfolded last year, it dawned on me that, just as Covid-19 had become a ‘circuit breaker’ on humanity’s fossil-fuelpowered, insatiable consumption and shameful wastefulness, even since the evidence of our planet’s human-induced warming has become

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indisputable, Covid-19 had also pushed pause on what was looking like death by unrestrained economic endeavour for the essence of Khumbu.

Therefore I titled the final Chapter ‘A New Dawn’ since that is indeed what we all now face.

You can see more of my Khumbu images at excio.gallery/occasionalclimber-khumbu and www.occasionalclimber.co.nz/browse-images-2/ roof-of-the-world

Whether this new dawn is luxuriant and restorative, or bleak and destructive, depends upon us all. The choices we make will determine the global outcome, and the same can be said for Khumbu.

My hope is that KHUMBU Gateway to Mount Everest Pathways to Kinship will prove to be an example of photography for good, by helping to inform and encourage readers to make those choices that will sustain and nurture the unique and very special place called Khumbu that I have come to know and love. And what applies to Khumbu could be applied anywhere, if we care enough – I urge you all to use your photography (+ writing) for good!

To buy a copy ($69.99, postage free within New Zealand), go to http://www.batemanbooks. co.nz/shop

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER LAURENSON excio.gallery/occasionalclimber

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BUILDING SELF-CONFIDENCE with Monica Ferguson

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EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021 Can you relate to this? I’ll start my business, when…

I’ll put myself out there, when… I just need to do some more study and then I’ll be good enough.

Once I have a logo then I’ll feel professional and I’ll start telling people about what I do.

Here’s the thing. When you look back at old photos of you now, what do you think? So often it’s a moment of shock where we realise we weren’t the Shrek-like creature we imagined ourselves to be. In fact, we were so much more than we ever thought we were. How much did we hold ourselves back believing that we weren’t good enough though, only to discover later that we were wrong and we are actually the worst judge of our own character/ worthiness/attractiveness/talent? What about your work? The work that you told yourself wasn’t good enough. I bet you (exactly like me) can now look back at work you originally labelled amateur or unworthy of being showcased and see that it was actually really good. So what’s the problem then?

It’s our mind.

It doesn’t make sense that we would have all of this talent, this passion and this desire for no reason. Something that is SO important for us to understand here is the role of our subconscious. Our subconscious has one focus, our survival. Its sole job is to protect us from potential hurt and harm and keep us alive. One of the greatest ways it does that is by keeping us in our comfort zone. If we never grow or stray from the familiar zone, our mind never has to worry because it knows how to look after us and it knows what to expect. So what happens when we start straying from the norm? We decide we want to go for it and all of a sudden we are met with fear, anxiety and resistance, right? That’s our mind doing a phenomenal job at keeping us in the comfort zone where it perceives we are safe. It has nothing to do with our worthiness or our abilities.

Read that last one again. The stories you tell yourself in this space matter!

Going deep into our inner world and our beliefs are imperative for us to be able to expand out of our comfort zone and achieve the things we desire.

The truth is, your talent, ability, size, age and so on has nothing to do with this. That voice in your head that feels afraid is actually trying to keep you safe because everything the mind does has a positive intent. I invite you to reflect on these next few questions and just notice and observe how it feels in your body and what your immediate thoughts are without any judgement.

• Do you feel worthy of money?

• Are you good enough?

Now. If your answer to any of those was no, I congratulate you on your honesty! From here, you get to work on that belief and shift it. I encourage you to sit with these questions and dig into them.

You don’t feel safe? Ask, why not? Trust that first picture or word or feeling that comes up, that is your subconscious speaking to you. So often we are running on old programmes that used to serve us, and while those beliefs used to help us, they are no longer useful for where we want to go. I had an unconscious belief that it wasn’t safe to be seen because I might make someone angry. This was a belief I formed as a young child while living in a violent home, it was a strategy to protect me.

I hadn’t updated my belief as an adult though so while building a business that required visibility I kept running into brick walls because my subconscious mind (which makes up about 95% of my mind) was desperately trying to keep me safe and alive. Make sense?

Our key to success as photographers is mindset.

95% of our mind is at the unconscious level so that’s why addressing our limits and fears is so so important because if we, for example, don’t feel safe to be successful, or good enough to put our photographs out there, our unconscious mind (all 95% of it) will self-sabotage us in an attempt to keep us safe.

Even if we *are* taking all the action, our mind, if it doesn’t feel safe, will stop every attempt to move beyond our comfort zone.

Once you have taken some time to delve into your fears and old limiting beliefs, you can then become the photographer you want to be.

Do you have a clear vision for what you want?

Do you have a vision board? Your mind needs a direction for motivation so get clear on what you truly desire. What do you love to photograph? Do you have a clear financial goal? Or a goal of being published somewhere? Or making a difference for your favourite charity? Make that vision clear and then ask yourself the following. What is the next best thing I can do to make this a reality? The first ideas that pop up are your first action steps.

• Do you feel safe to be seen?

You are so worthy of your dreams. You are talented.

You are so special. No one else can do it the way you do it and when you decide to make it happen, you will. It’s that simple. You are exceptional, and I 100% believe in you and your ability to create everything you desire.

• Do you feel worthy of success?

A massive high five from me, Monica

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OUR STORIES Photographs and stories form our members as exhibited on our Excio app.

Selected from more than 25,000 photographs currently on display.

Hatupatu 2013 - 2021: The Hunter, the Warrior, the Father, the Ambassador. I followed this bird from the time he was a chick when he was released from Rotorua Museum by Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust as part of the “On The Wing” project. For 8 years, I was part of and witnessed his life, his loves, and his 13 chicks. He will always hold a special place in my heart as I am sure he will in many hearts far and wide. Fly strong in the afterlife, Hatu and fly proud because you were an awesome bird and an awesome ambassador for your species.

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PHOTO BY KURIEN KOSHY YOHANNAN excio.gallery/kurien

EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

Taking the time to talk to people, strangers to you as you are strangers to them. Listening to them and seeing what others don’t. Getting their story etched into your mind and blasted through the camera lens so the image tells the story to the viewer. That is how I like to tell my story.

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PHOTO BY MARK CHIVERS excio.gallery/markc

EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

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EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

We were walking along the Tirohanga Track in Picton when this wee guy appeared in front of us. He wandered down the track a little way in front of us and then stopped and posed. It seemed churlish not to oblige by getting the camera out and taking his photo. I hope he would have been pleased with the result!

PHOTO BY NOELLE BENNETT excio.gallery/noelle

I love the simplicity of this lockdown photo, searching for inspiration in a garden that hadn’t quite sprung to life. There is always beauty in nature in its every form!

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EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

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EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

A 1 hour hike with a 10kg bag up to red tarns track of Mt cook national park earlier this year. It was a very gloomy day, my friends started to lose patience waiting for the sunset glow as the clouds were getting thicker and thicker but I didn’t want to give up as I have been here quite a few times and been surprised all of sudden. Bad weather can give you big surprises and bang, it happened this time again! Worth all the effort.

Lockdown provided some time and opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and photograph something I can’t connect with... flowers. I Love the flow of ICM so I combined that with the flowers in the garden. I’m happy with the result.

PHOTO BY RINA SJARDIN-THOMPSON excio.gallery/rina

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PHOTO BY JANA LUO excio.gallery/jana

EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

The other day I went for a walk around Lyall Bay. I love walks on Wellington’s south coast and always take the camera. Looking north the sky got darker and darker but the sun was still managing to shine on the water. The combination of a moody sky and the light on the water was spectacular. I think I captured the atmosphere. Not long after taking the photo, there was a sudden hail storm but I was home by then.

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PHOTO BY PETER MAIDEN excio.gallery/peter

EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

I am happy it is spring again so I can get back to capturing photos of these wonderful creatures. I really like the challenge they present us while taking their photos. I really like the composition of this photo. I recently got myself a macro lens and love taking photos of the honey bees with it.

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PHOTO BY LUKE GOODALL excio.gallery/luke

EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

The Khufu ship is an intact full-size vessel from ancient Egypt that was sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2500 BC. The ship is now preserved in the Giza Solar boat museum. The ship was almost certainly built for Khufu (King Cheops), the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Like other buried Ancient Egyptian ships, it was apparently part of the extensive grave goods intended for use in the afterlife, and contained no bodies, unlike northern European ship burials. Khufu’s ship is one of the oldest, largest, and best-preserved vessels from antiquity. It measures 43.6 m (143 ft) long and 5.9 m (19.5 ft) wide. It was thus identified as the world’s oldest intact ship and has been described as “a masterpiece of woodcraft” that could sail today if put into a lake, or a river. However, the vessel may not have been designed for sailing as there is no rigging, nor for paddling as there is no room.

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PHOTO BY DENNIS TOHOVAKA excio.gallery/dennis

EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

I’m a fan of street photography but it’s not my genre at all – I’m generally too nervous to photograph people on the street. But when I saw these construction workers resting in an alcove with their eyes glued to their phones, I had to ask them if I could take a photo. They were a little surprised but happy to oblige and went back to viewing their phones while I took a few quick shots.

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PHOTO BY LORRAINE NEILL excio.gallery/lorraine

EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

SHARING SKILLS Many Excio members provide photography services to share their skills. We’re excited to profile the range of talent available from our members in our Journal. If you have a photography service which you would like to share, as a member you can submit your 100 word profile to hello@excio.io.

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EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

facebook.com/ptphotoweekends

meghanmaloneyphotography.co.nz

cejphoto.com

excio.gallery/rina

excio.gallery/meghan

excio.gallery/cejphoto

If you are wanting to learn to use your camera in a more social, convivial situation than a traditional workshop… ‘Picture This Photography Weekends’ is for you.

Challenge yourself to take your photography to the next level!

Jam-packed with fun and learning, my private and group workshops will teach you the best settings for different lighting, easy ways to improve your composition, and how neutral density filters will enhance the images you capture. You’ll also discover easy Lightroom and Photoshop techniques to turn your RAW files into stunning landscape images.

Charlotte is a photography educator, full-time professional photographer and Photoshop expert. She practices #photographyforgood by helping photographers gain skills and confidence through workshops, tuition and mentoring. Her day job requires her to capture a wide range of subjects and styles from covering corporate events all the way through to scientific macro. Her passion is portraiture and she has developed her own fine-art style, working with local models, makeup artists and stylists. Charlotte is a columnist for NZ Photographer Magazine, an Ambassador for Lensbaby, was part of the 2021 Tonic Workshops for NZIPP, and is a mentor on behalf of PSNZ.

If you are more experienced and just want to shoot in the company of other photographers…. ‘Picture This Photography Weekends’ is for you.

If you want to go to some of NZ’s most epic locations… ‘Picture This Photography Weekends’ is for you. I’m a full-time NZ landscape photographer, Sony NZ advocate, If you want 2 tutors who are and Kase Filter ambassador, hosting industry savvy and actually work landscape photography workshops within it on a full time basis, whose in amazing locations throughout work speaks for itself and you don’t New Zealand. I also regularly run mind a bit of banter…. ‘Picture This interactive online learning sessions, Photography Weekends’ is for you. and it’s my great passion to help photographers pursue their passion Join Neil Protheroe and Rina and embrace their potential.

Sjardin-Thompson for a weekend away.

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EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

facebook.com/ SoulfulMemoriesByParmeetSahni

www.capturenewzealand.co.nz

ethnoflora.com

excio.gallery/parmeet

excio.gallery/phillip

excio.gallery/ethnoflora

Soulful Memories’ specialty is portraiture, the ability to capture special moments and personality of the client through photographs. The importance of the comfort a client needs is very crucial to me and the joy I feel creating Soulful Memories is priceless.

Back in 2005 when I founded Capture New Zealand there were no other New Zealand professional landscape photographers offering scheduled multi-regional, multiday programs and so I was privileged to be the proverbial crash-test dummy. Pioneering is as exciting as it is daunting, but with the generous backing of the New Zealand landscape I continued developing experiences which delighted and astonished well-travelled international photographers.

A photographer and a botanical horticulturist with 20 years experience, Dave Davies established Ethno Flora to deliver the highest standards in all your garden.

Fast-forward to today and I am just as passionate about inspiring photographers to break out of their comfort zone and finetune their craft as I was sixteen years ago. With international adventures still off the table, why not take the opportunity to join me and capture the majestic landscapes of your own backyard - you will be surprised at what is out there!

EthnoFlora is a trustworthy and professional company that respects you and your privacy.

Photography helps me slow down, pay attention and observe life more closely, to see the beauty and story in simple things others pass by or take for granted. The innocent smile of a lovely baby, intertwined hands of a pair, the togetherness of families – each tell a story.

The “magic box,” as some have called my camera, continues to lead me to people and lands I have only dreamed about.

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Dave not only knows everything about plants and photography, but he can also help you design the landscape of your dreams.

His team has a wealth of knowledge and experience in garden maintenance, fruit tree pruning, and plant health is guaranteed to meet you and your garden’s needs.

EXCIO JOURNAL | ISSUE 3 | OCTOBER 2021

erimagingphotography.co.nz

podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/ world-dominationid1457647332

www.artbyjlm.com

excio.gallery/vicky

excio.gallery/monica

excio.gallery/artbyjlm

ER Imaging Photography specialises in unique agriculture and NZ Scene photography for both personal and commercial use.

My idea started as photography and a legacy to my little brother and grew to include a podcast and a coaching business, all targeted at helping creatives believe in themselves and their craft, to get out into the world and make a difference.

The natural world and wildlife conservation provides endless joy and despair, beauty and devastation. I strive to advocate for our endangered species and ecosystems and through my art I explore wildlife advocacy through creative interpretation.

The ability to escape into New Zealand’s world-renowned natural landscapes and culture with my camera is something I have always appreciated.

Privileged in having access to such a diverse range of scenery and people, my passion for capturing and sharing these stunning experiences with others has only developed. Being a selftaught freelance photographer, I have acquired my skills through practice over a period of more than twelve years, passion being my core motivator.

My photography reflects my personal interpretation of life, how I view both the world we live in and the people who live in it.

I believe that our work as creatives is literally life changing. The power we have to freeze moments in time, and show someone their beauty is phenomenal and needs to reach people. I am committed to helping people overcome their fears of not being enough and thrive.

Check out my podcast to be empowered!

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Photographs are just the first step in my creative process.

Using Photoshop, I digitally blend and mask layers of photographs, graphics, scanned ephemera and textures, lighting and colour adjustments, and digital brushstrokes to form images that are more like a painting. Some images may involve only a couple of layers, whereas others may involved hundreds.

My art is held in private collections in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States.

ABOUT US Started in New Zealand in 2017, Excio has grown into a global community of passionate photographers who are committed to making a positive change in the world. We help our members display, publish, showcase, share and sell their work based on our “FairShare Photography” concept.

At Excio we strongly advocate for responsible photography principles. We are official partners of the Nature First organisation. We are committed to supporting important local initiatives and charities, including Trees That Count. We make donations with the sale of every photograph made through our Excio image library.

CONTACT US

BACK COVER

hello@excio.io www.excio.io www.excioshop.io @excionz

Jo Wright excio.gallery/pixierose

THANK YOU