NZIPP PRO REPORT - June 2018

PRO Report BE INSPIRED, BE SUCCESSFUL, BELONG

NZIPP MAGAZINE JUNE 2018

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NOT A MEMBER OF THE NZIPP YET? As an NZIPP Accredited Professional Member you have the support, networking opportunities and camaraderie of your peers within the photographic profession. Becoming a recognised professional also adds to your credibility with clients.

Belonging to an institute that represents all areas of professional photography in New Zealand, with our focus on education, advice and a wide range of membership benefits, will help you improve the success and vitality of your business.

Your Accredited Professional Member benefits will include: · · · · · ·

Epson / NZIPP Iris Awards (member rates); Infocus Conference (member rates); Meeting and Networking opportunities; Professional development; Membership discounts; PRO Report eMagazine.

Come along to the next regional meeting in your area and check out what becoming a member is all about!

Contact: info@nzipp.org.nz

NZIPP MISSION STATEMENT To champion, embrace and communicate excellence and professionalism in photography.

CONTACT NZ Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP) P.O. Box 133158, Eastridge, Auckland 1146, New Zealand w: www.nzipp.org.nz e: info@nzipp.org.nz

We welcome your feedback and thoughts. If you have something to say, send it through to: info@nzipp.org.nz

Cover Image: Image © Albert Ng

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PRO Report is a publication of the NZIPP © NZIPP 2018. All rights reserved.

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CONTENTS 06

Honours Council Report Kaye Davis talks IRIS Awards and why we should challenge ourselves

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Accreditation Programme A reminder about the NZIPP Accreditation programme and the contacts for those seeking Accreditation

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Member Story This month the spotlight is on Albert Ng. Albert shares his photographic journey and what inspired him to become a wedding photographer

Regional Updates Waikato Bay of Plenty Wellington

Central Districts

Canterbury Westland

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Events & Useful Links Get Clicking to follow us on social media and the NZIPP’s Pro Report

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Regional and National Sponsors Special thanks to our Regional and National Sponsors who continue to support us in so many ways

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EXECUTIVE UPDATE

Honours Council Report Kaye Davis, G.M.NZIPP, M.AIPP II, MCGD, Accredited Professional Shar Devine, M.NZIPP, Accredited Professional Paul Daly, F.NZIPP, Accredited Professional Harry Janssen, F.NZIPP IV, Accredited Professional

The countdown is well and truly underway for the 2018 Iris Professional Photography Awards. We are really excited to have Nikon as Major Sponsor for this year’s event with an amazing prize up for grabs for the 2018 NZ Professional Photographer of the Year - is this going to be you?

A few important dates to remember that are fast approaching for this year: •

Online Entry Registrations close at 4pm, Wednesday 20 June 2018

Last month Shar Devine and Paul Daly led two successful Facebook Live sessions on the New Zealand Iris Professional Photography Awards Facebook group.

People were able to submit questions, via a comment, around any aspect of entering the awards. If you missed these and still have questions, we would encourage you to join and post these on the Iris Awards FB Group for someone to respond. This is also a great place to get updates and tips on entering, as the awards approach.

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Physical Prints & Book Entries must be received by 4pm, Monday 2 July 2018

Also on the New Zealand Iris Professional Photography Awards Facebook group we are sharing images and stories from previous entrants, so keep an eye out for these.

Remember too, that many of the answers to questions can be found in the 2018 Call for Entries document.

While it takes a bit to read through it all, the answers are usually there. We can’t emphasise enough the need to understand the rules and criteria for entering. Each year we unfortunately have to disappoint people who haven’t followed the rules correctly, by disqualifying entries. So take some time to familiarise yourself with the document.

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And then comes the judging!

We do hope you join us for some, if not all, of the judging: Thursday 5 - Saturday 7 July, Shed 6, Wellington Waterfront. The Iris Awards judging is an amazing place to be if you want to learn and be educated about photography and the photographic print. To get the full benefit of entering, or indeed learning about photography as a whole, attending the judging is a must. This is an opportunity to see the images up close, and believe me there is no comparison viewing an image on screen vs in print form. It’s also an opportunity to be truly inspired and amazed by all the work, to talk with judges and other photographers, and to pick their brains and get valuable advice.

For most, it can be very daunting going up to a person you don’t know, who has judged your work, and asking them “how might I have improved my image?”, but most (if not all) are only too happy to provide insight and guidance - it’s all about learning and growing and we are all here to help each other.

And, as well as any of your own hashtags, remember to use and follow this year’s NZIPP and any sponsor hashtags on all of your social media posts: #irisawards2018 #infocusnz2018

Remember too, we all started at the beginning at some point. For those who you see as successful, that success has come from many, many years of hard work, practice and constant learning. So, as a challenge, take yourself out of your comfort zone when at the awards and approach one of the judges and ask that question you are longing to ask!!!

While at the judging (and after the event) it’s also a great opportunity to share the event and all the happenings with your clients, family and friends. Create short video clips, Facebook Live clips, phone shots and selfies, share the live-stream judging links, invite people to the judging and the Iris Awards exhibition (in-person, through the live-streaming or your mobile video feed), send out links to the Iris Awards online gallery and the NZIPP Public Facebook page, tell stories to your audience about the event and what it means to you.

#nzipp This is all about promoting professional photography to a wider audience, as well as bringing greater recognition to the NZIPP brand and all the sponsors who support NZIPP and the event. There will be no better time to do this!!

With Online Entry Registrations closing soon, we want to wish entrants all the best and no matter the outcome hope that the learning gained through entering has been of huge value.

See you in Wellington, let’s make this event the best yet!

On behalf of the Honours Team, Paul Daly, Harry Janssen and Shar Devine.

BONUS 25mm F1.7 Lens

H-H025E

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WWW.INFOCUS.ORG.NZ #infocus2018

y t i s er v i D f o s ee r g e D A Dozen

WWW.INFOCUS.ORG.NZ

INFOCUS 2018 SPEAKER LINE UP JULY 8TH & 9TH. SHED 6, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

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NZIPP ACCREDITATION

Accreditation Programme Sarah Beaufoy M.NZIPP, Mel Waite F.NZIPP & Shar Devine F.NZIPP Accreditation Coordinators

ACCREDITATION

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We are very passionate about NZIPP and adhering to the professional standards of the organisation and industry as a whole. It is important for you to become accredited; it is a recognisable professional business standard and is valuable for your ongoing growth as a professional photographer and NZIPP member.

As a guide we would expect that members have a vast portfolio to select from when submitting. You would consider getting assessed for Accreditation after completing at least; 30 weddings OR 45 portrait shoots OR 45 commercial shoots as the lead photographer. For any questions please contact your Accreditation Advisor or the Accreditation Coordinators.

PRE-ACCREDITATION CHECK

Please remember before you can submit for Accreditation you must speak to an advisor. If you don’t have one already, simply email us or contact your Regional Chair, who will help find the right advisor for you. For those already on the path to Accreditation, remember your Accreditation Advisor is there to help you; they have been chosen because they have great knowledge and skill and have a good understanding of what the judges are wanting to see in a submission.

While they can’t guarantee a successful submission and we can’t make you use their advice, listening to their feedback, recommendations and suggestions will not only help your chances of a successful submission, it will also strengthen your photography practice overall.

2018 ACCREDITATION DATES 3rd August, 3rd November.

For any questions please email: nzipp.accreditation@gmail.com

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The strongest path to assured success, is together

ACCREDITATION HOT TIP

Make a mock folio submission for showing your Accreditation Advisor. This could be an A collection and a B collection.

Put in a variety of competent work within your genre which reflects your style and creativity.

2018 IRIS AWARDS

JULY 5TH - 7TH. SHED 6, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

Call for Entries out NOW Click Here

© Marina Mathews

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MEMBER STORY

Albert Ng F.NZIPP Accredited Professional www.albertngphotography.com

I was (and I’m still) not a good writer, it’s always been a struggle between Chinese and English, and that is one of the main reasons I turned to photography. I was born and raised in Hong Kong, I decided to follow my Dad when he moved to Auckland in 1992 and now call this place my home. I stepped into the photographic world when I was around 10 years old. The world of photography was introduced to me by my Dad when our family was out and about with his Petri TTL SLR in Hong Kong. Dad bought me a Kodak Ektralite10 110 film camera when I turned 11. From then on, instead of picking up a pen to write, I picked up this Kodak Ektalite10 to complete many school projects, and I still keep this camera in my draw.

My real photographic journey began when I started studying a one year full-time photography course in Hong Kong. I gained not only photographic knowledge but knowledge in photojournalism, videography and graphic design. Photographic science and the discipline around composition in graphic design kept me very interested. However.. I really enjoyed spending time sniffing the stop bath smell with my mates in the darkroom.

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After I completed this one year photography course, I got a job in the largest television broadcasting company in Hong Kong, as an electric field production assistant. My duties were very basic, and included assisting production crew members during filming on locations. My vision was broadened and I became more disciplined. I learnt the importance of all the fine details within television drama productions. I started doing freelance weddings and portraits, and found it good money, but did not enjoy photographing weddings at that time.

After moving to New Zealand, I decided to get myself a secondary skill and gain more knowledge. I chose to take up study again but this time in mechanical engineering instead of photography. I had no idea what mechanical engineering was about when I enrolled, but I had a rough idea of ‘mechanical cameras’, so somehow I linked ‘mechanical’ and ‘camera’ together and was hoping I could be a camera or photo lab technician after all. After three years my engineering study was complete, I gained the diploma as well as a range of new skills and perspectives from engineer drawing, AutoCAD & CNC. Yet, I still did not enjoy photographing weddings... but it gave me extra money.

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© Albert Ng

© Albert Ng

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© Albert Ng

© Albert Ng

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When I got married I made a mistake at my wedding.

Not that I got married to the wrong person... I didn’t know much about weddings although I had photographed them many times before and had a very tight budget, so I asked a photography friend to take our wedding photos for us. I paid him peanuts and we received a handful of ‘okay’ photographs. After this I finally realised I had not valued wedding photography and I was not serious enough in this art… what I wanted all along was to make extra money. But now I had a new perspective.

Since then, wedding photography has become my main area of photography. I started putting all the discipline, senses, perspectives and compositions, that I had learnt, together from engineering and graphic design into my wedding photography, I started enjoy photographing weddings and continuously pushing my limit. “Kaizen” is a Japanese word meaning continuous improvements. It is widely used in manufacture environments. The world’s best car manufacturer Toyota uses Kaizen a lot.

© Albert Ng

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There are no similarities between wedding photography and car manufacturing but the Kaizen philosophy can still apply, as long as my team and I keep on pushing ourselves to be better and review what we can do to improve.

I have been a volunteer photographer for The New Zealand-Japan Society of Auckland’s Haere Mai Taiko Team since 2011 (Taiko – Japanese drumming). I first met the team back on 8 May 2011 in a fundraising concert ‘Wings of Hope Japan Relief for Japan Tohoku earthquake and tsunami’. I fell in love with the team’s performance right away, especially their energy and speed. I also saw there were opportunities for me and my team to learn from them. I therefore volunteered myself and my team to be their photographers. We have learnt a lot from them. Photographing the team’s drum beating speed in low light situations is always challenging but satisfying, especially when we get them right. We have perfected our skill in low light situations/ most photographic situations and most importantly in wedding photography.

© Albert Ng

© Albert Ng

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© Albert Ng

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© Albert Ng

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© Albert Ng

© Albert Ng

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Apart from wedding photography, I love to photograph people, landscape and travel. Like all parents, I photograph our children a lot and thank them for helping me win me a couple of Iris Awards over the years. I love to travel with the family and our kids inspire me a lot, just like one of my travel photographs that received a bronze award in Iris Awards 2016.

We travelled mostly to domestic destinations in New Zealand and to Japan to visit my in-laws. New Zealand is an awesome country for landscapes, and Japan has plenty of elements for street, travel and city scape photography. Yodobashi Camera stores are the must-go sightseeing spots.

Over the years, I have been very lucky and received photography awards from Kodak, NZIPP, AIPP & AsiaWPA. The image of our boys having a shower has earned me an award in three professional awards at the Kodak Gold Awards, NZIPP Iris Awards and AsiaWPA IWP Awards. The image of the wedding couple at the hotel window and the image of a couple in Arrowtown, each earned me awards in NZIPP and one in AIPP. This image was a challenging image to capture. I was on the roadside opposite to the hotel, feeding hundreds if not thousands of mosquitos during the shoot.

A wedding photographer is not only a person who picks up a camera and takes photographs at a wedding, but a photojournalist, portrait photographer, landscape photographer, team photographer, lighting technician, wedding planner, and project manager. He or she has to put on all these shoes on the wedding day. Wedding photographers have to be in control but be able to go with the flow. Being in control does not mean we have to boss people around and fully direct the couple and guests what to do, but to understand the environment we are in, be prepared to change and be able to make quick decisions and actions.

I want to say thank you to my family, especially my wife who has done all the hard work at home and looked after my young boys while I was out and about photographing weddings. Without them I could not achieve what I have achieved. Of course a huge thank you to my Dad who was my first photography mentor in my photographic journey.

Having a road facing room to photograph was not just good luck. My clients and I went together to a meeting with the hotel wedding coordinator to discuss the flow on the day, and we requested the hotel to allocate a road facing room for us as the 1st step for this creative shot.

Š Albert Ng

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© Albert Ng

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© Albert Ng

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REGIONAL UPDATES

Waikato Bay of Plenty Region Words by Sarah Alloway

On Tuesday the 8th of May was the Waikato Bay of Plenty NZIPP monthly meeting. It was held in Tracey Scott’s studio in Rotorua. We were lucky enough to have Harry Janssen talk to us.

Harry talked to us about the IRIS Awards and his involvement (which is a LOT). Harry also gave us a background view of his career to date and it was both interesting and inspiring, and it was good to hear that he struggles with his work just as much as the rest of us. He actually first joined NZIPP back in 2008, entered 3 images, and got 3 bronzes. Now he is one of 2 Grand Masters in New Zealand. He talked about how much he loves digital photography and how it keeps moving which is exactly what he likes to do.

He then talked to us about the judging scoring system at the IRIS Awards and also about updating the software system. They have spent hundreds of hours trying to get it organised to recalculate people’s points according to the new system. The new judging process is now delayed until next year as it has not been a simple process and they wanted to make sure they get it right.

Also informative was Harry’s discussion on common problems with IRIS entries and he talked to us a bit about the category name changes. He mentioned images being the wrong size is a common problem so MAKE SURE you have it right! The new family category was a big talking point at our meeting and it was agreed that this new development has the potential to be very helpful for portrait photographers to be more recognisable as professionals.

So a big question was why have the qualification names been changed. There have actually been lots of complaints about the name “Fellow”, in terms of meaning nothing to the general public. Also points have been devalued in order to bring up our system to international levels. It has to be really hard to achieve Master, which will make the term so much more prestigious.

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Harry then talked about the benefits of entering the awards for individual businesses. He emphasized the importance of really “milking” the awards for your business; get as much media exposure as you can out of it, that’s what they are for. And of course not to be ignored is the personal development one can gain from printing & mounting your work and having it critiqued by internationally recognised judges.

Some pointers we were given for creating and entering images: 1.

Try and develop a radar for stuff that makes you really happy or sad; photograph this. Then enter it!

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Make sure you know how to shoot and light your image before you do it.

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Print images WEEKS before you send them off.

Pin them up, walk past them; you notice things. Tracey Scott mentioned she blocks out an entire week to spend on her award images.

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Use your cell phone or whatever to photograph your own textures; photograph your own birds, leaves, etc.

To finish up the evening, members were able to show IRIS Awards entry potentials to Harry and all the attendees, and receive critique. We all got a lot out of this and I am sure it was very useful for those trying to narrow down their images. Overall it was a really inspiring evening for all involved.

© Hillena Parsons

© Hillena Parsons

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REGIONAL UPDATES

Wellington Region Words by Chelles Roberts-Garthwaite

This is only my second year of entering the Iris Awards (and I had a very eye-opening first year last year), so I took the opportunity to attend the mock judging for the Wellington area. With prints in hand I was determined to learn from the insight of our panel of experts and my fellow entrants, and I must say I certainly did!

I’d never been to this type of thing so was intrigued to see what it was all about. We were set up in Mel Waite’s studio and it did remind me of the judging rooms from Iris. Easel at the front, lights lighting up said easel, the judges’ positions at the front and rows of chairs for the hopefuls to absorb the wisdom that was about to be imparted. After a quick rundown of how the afternoon would proceed, and the timer set, we were into it.

Our judges were Mel Waite, Ian Rotherham, Jason Naylor, Jo Frances and Catherine Cattanach. For me, their initial response to each image was the most interesting. I’ve always thought a skilled image ought to invoke some sort of strong first response and then capture the viewer for long enough to ‘get it’.

Thankfully one of mine did get a little ‘oh wow, that’s different’ and went on to receive some good and constructive critique, giving me some homework to go on with. I was so intrigued by the smallest details that the average person (and I) would miss that our judges latched on to. Things like eye catchlights and reflections, burning and dodging, and tight cropping. My favourite bit of advice was ‘if the category allows you to edit, then edit the bejesus out of it’ which loosely translated to “be brave, because you’ve got three minutes and one shot to impress the judges, kids!” Such gems!

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I was so awestruck by the imagination, techniques and quality shown throughout the three-hour session. The amount of skill and talent I watched on that easel was just so inspiring for a new kid on the block. It helped me with my resolve to get the best I could out of my images when I got back to my editing desk. I do have to say though, some of the most valuable time was spent talking to other members, getting hints on trusted places to get my printing done, matting styles, wisdom on paper choices and general shared nerves about the judging. It was rather reassuring that not only the ‘new kid’ was feeling nervous about all this.

Mock judging is such an invaluable opportunity to get warmed up and tweak your work. I think I’ll be a permanent feature for these events, as they are such an incredible resource. That is the one thing I am starting to tap into: the great wealth of knowledge there is within NZIPP. All you have to do is step out and ask for advice and guidance. I’ve been photographing for over 20 years with a provincial newspaper, weddings and family portraits, but it wasn’t until I stepped into the world of NZIPP that I became inspired to the more creative side of photography and drawing on my arts training.

I want to genuinely thank those who gave us their time, knowledge and experience, as your words of advice and encouragement have spurred me on to take image-making even further, and I’m sure it has done the same for my fellow hopefuls.

© Chelles Roberts-Garthwaite

© Chelles Roberts-Garthwaite PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

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© Chelles Roberts-Garthwaite

© Chelles Roberts-Garthwaite

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© Hilary Troup

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REGIONAL UPDATES

Central Districts Region Words by Jenny Hampton

With everyone busily preparing their images and prints for this year’s IRIS Awards we have had a very quiet month in the Central region. We’ve had a couple of great coffee mornings and on the 26 May we held our first Newborn Health & Safety Workshop in Taranaki with Lizzie Gilmour.

Although I’m a portrait & wedding photographer, I haven’t done much work with newborns so I thought I’d attend Lizzie’s workshop mainly because I was interested in the golden hour family shoot at the end. Well, I got more than I bargained for! Lizzie had organized a Nurse who specializes in working with babies in neo nates to speak to us about handling tiny babies and first aid for newborns. They demonstrated what to do in certain potentially hazardous situations. It seemed a little overwhelming but also really brought home the responsibility and importance of knowledge and education, along with thoughts about adequate insurances as a business owner.

Next, Lizzie had organized two families to come in, the first a family of three; Mum, Dad and their 14 day old baby. Lizzie’s gentle and efficient workflow was a great learning experience topped off by her constant and informative narrative the whole way through.

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I was really impressed by her focus on correct positioning of the baby and their safety throughout the shoot. The second family had Mum, Dad, Big Brother, Grandma and their new 3 week old Baby. Again, Lizzie’s efficient and easy going workflow was great to observe, worked really well and made for a stunning set of images for the family.

The afternoon was topped off with a short drive to Lizzies ‘secret location’, one of Okato’s beautiful beaches, where she conducted a family shoot with a Mum and her two daughters in the golden hour.

As someone who went along ‘just for the bit at the end’, I am really glad I attended. I learnt a lot about photographing newborns – much more than I expected and I’d recommend that everyone attend the next workshop even if it doesn’t seem like your thing – you never know what you’ll learn and how many great people you’ll meet.

© Helen McDonald

© Helen McDonald

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© Helen McDonald

© Lizzy Gilmour

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REGIONAL UPDATES

Canterbury Westland Region Words by Juliette Capaldi, M.NZIPP Accredited Professional

Coming up in Canterbury Westland region:

Monday 25th June – Midwinter Christmas Social Come along to our Midwinter social evening at Winnie Bagoes at 153 Madras Street from 6pm.

Let’s leave the cold and wet of the outside behind, have a catch up, and a bit of a yarn about what our entries are or are not going to achieve this year. Or why we didn’t enter!

Great pizza on offer…and even better company!

Everyone welcome.

Friday 13th July – NZIPP Coffee catch-up.

9:30 to 11:00 at Coffee Culture Merivale.

A perfect fix for “Post Iris Blues”, we can talk about what went on, what we achieved, and life post Iris Awards 2018. Or just have a chat about what is going on with everything else not Iris! Everyone welcome.

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Monday 23rd July – Social Media event “How to win at Social Media” Rescheduled from April, we are good to go. Details coming soon, bookings on Eventbrite.

Saturdays in September – the first ever NZIPP Canterbury/ Westland Bootcamp….our biggest and most exciting event ever.

If you can, we recommend blocking out your Saturdays in September now, to be able to take part in this event….details coming soon.

So lots coming up to look forward to. Late May our region were lucky to have Jackie Ranken and Mike Langford with us for a print critique afternoon. We learnt all manner of tricks from squinting, turning upside down, trying black and white, and of course cropping.

And there was a lot of cropping going on! Jackie and Mike were as always very honest and helpful, giving tips on ways to improve how we present our work, which is relevant to both potential Iris images and client work. We really appreciated their time and advice.

© Craig Bullock

© Craig Bullock

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© Craig Bullock

© Craig Bullock

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© Craig Bullock

© Craig Bullock

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