Off to Patagonia

Indian Girl in Diwali Crown, Auckland

Hello Blog.
Sorry it as been so long since I have written something in you. Its not that nothing has been happening. Rather, its the reverse. Too much has been happening and it has prevented me from keeping you up to date. I do apologise.
I have recently returned from New Zealand where I spoke at the Annual Photographic Society of New Zealand Convention, which was held in Auckland. It is always an honour to be invited to speak at these conventions - flown over, chauffeured around and given some lovely accommodation. I was on the same bill as Australian landscape legend, Peter Walton - a photographer I have been wanting to meet since I was 17. What an honour to be on the same bill! I have recently interviewed Peter Walton for Total Image but i have yet to finish the interview. Perhaps I should have done that as we had breakfast together at our motel! On Saturday afternoon I went out with the club to photograph a very pretty young model named Madison, and then to be driven around with Peter Walton to shoot some landscapes. On Sunday I closed the convention with the second part of my lectures and was taken that afternoon to photograph the Diwali. Diwali is an Indian celebration filled with colour, costumes, culture and perhaps the prettiest girls I have ever seen gathered in one place. I photographed one young lady in the audience whose eyes were amazing. A moment later her father approached me. Naturally, as you can imagine, I thought I had some explaining to do! However, he very kindly asked me if I could photograph her away from the crowd as he wanted a lovely photograph of his beautiful daughter in her cultural costume. Being the wonderful human being that I am, I obliged of course.
While there in Auckland I also ran two photography workshops. The Monday saw me somewhat tired but waking to a beautiful day, ready to teach a group about wedding photography. The day went well and our two models, Michelle and Rob,were fantastic fun to work with. They are a couple so their interaction was fun and natural. Oh, and they could kiss on cue! Actually, they didn't even mind! Funny eh?
On Tuesday I ran my Creative Flash Photography Workshop and that was very well received by the group who attended. Flash can be a very confusing thing for many photographers and the workshop was an eye opener for them. I do love teaching, and the rewards for it are never just financial.
I recently received an email from one of the attendees, whose words were particularly kind. He said "Hi Shelton,we met when U were in Auckland and I attended the 2 sessions U conducted, remember? I meant to mail u earlier, but didnt get down to doing that, sorry. I read you're blog very often, and I've joined you're 5minutephotographer. I've also gone ahead and bought the reflectors and the triggers & receivers U showed us to use!! Now I need to practice and I'll send U results of what I've done.
I must thank you for being the wonderful teacher you are and more important, for being such a nice guy. All of us did learn a lot about photography, and I must say I learnt a lot about communication, reaching out to people from you. It makes a difference with people photography!!"

Well,..what can I say? How very kind!

However, after a tiring two days, it was time to go and photograph thousands of nesting Gannets for a bit of a change.
But today, I am off to Patagonia. I am leading a photography tour there and I am looking forward to it very much.I don't consider myself a landscape specialist, but this is a region of the world any photographer would love to get a lens into. So bear with me dear blog and dear readers. I will return forthwith with some great stories to tell you! Look out here and at my photography tutorials website...
See you when I get back!