Colin and I chatted over coffee in his studio in the most recent addition to his home in Ngaio. It was added in 1908 to the original cottage, built in 1895. “The back of the house is to the road as it was built originally facing the railway station.” An ideal studio with large spaces and very tall ceilings.

Colin is now mostly a people photographer – in all aspects from weddings and families to corporate and government events. The previous night he had covered the 40th celebration event for architect Ian Athfield, “… a big lighting challenge that required subtle additional lighting and utilised the low light capability of my Nikon D3.”

Colin relishes situations that call for lighting control that lifts results from the adequate to the amazing. Mixing creative flair with a deep understanding of photo technology helps him get results and fast. His background experience gives him a unique perspective.

Twenty years as a photographer with the RNZAF, covering the ceremonial events, the remote peace-keeping locations, civil emergencies, air-force life and technical. It covered almost every form of photography known, every format, every process. Colin’s assignments took him to the extremes of climate and activity. “I spent almost 4 months on the ice in Antarctica and a little later was in Cambodia covering army engineers on landmine clearance, then on the Mekong River with the navy in their inflatables. At that time there were always bodies floating down.” He remembers clambering into an Iriquois helicopter that was heading out on patrol over Cambodia. “I began putting on a flak jacket but was quickly instructed to take it off and sit on it because any bullets will be coming up through the floor!”

Colin’s start in the airforce was a life-defining experience too. At 16 he left the family farm in Southland to train in avionics at RNZAF Woodbourne near Blenheim. “Within 3 weeks I had a massive stroke that resulted in airlift to Wellington hospital with the expectation I wouldn’t survive. I slowly regained everything and on light duties returned to Woodbourne where I continued with avionics until the end of the following year when I transferred to Photography at Ohakea.” In the early recovery period Colin had difficulty walking in a straight line “… so they didn’t want me on parades – which was a bonus.”

RNZAF photography training had a depth not equalled in the theoretical and practical application of the science and craft. Signing on for his 20 year tour of duty equipped Colin with a rich experience and along with many of his compatriots, a springboard into civilian careers. Over the years I have worked alongside and known many of them now active in the wider industry.

The RNZAF tools of trade began with Speed Graphic – a 5X4 camera system – and included over the years Ricoh rangefinder 35mm, Mamiya C330s, Mamiya RB 67s, Hasselblad 503s and Nikon 35mm.

“The most difficult thing to do was photography air-to-air during aerobatics – it was extremely physically demanding and draining. Fighting G forces, everything becomes heavy, holding up the camera – in those days an RB, the weight of your helmet, your arms, concentrating on the task as well as trying to remain conscious as your blood goes to your feet.”

Helicopters feature too while doing vertical shots over Great Barrier Island with a Hasselblad 503. “I was leaning out holding the camera which had a bar with two handles. I was so far out to clear the skids that another photographer had to sit on my legs. I did have a safety harness thankfully. I exposed a frame each time someone slapped my back. At 10,000 feet it was very cold and combined with the forward motion by the end of the job the lefthand side of my face was battered and bruised. The next day I drove to Palmerston North to photograph fellow photographer Mike Provost’s wedding looking like I had been in a fight.”

The last phase of Colin’s RNZAF career was in PR and publicity, based initially in Auckland then Wellington. “Still a wide range of tasks, travel to places such as London for ceremonial events and many hours in the back of Hercs to places such as Somalia to cover UN Peacekeeping activities, and into the Pacific after cyclones. Then Government House for investitures.”

When he left at the end of his contract in 1992, Colin had laid the groundwork for his own business. He had qualified and joined the NZIPP, bought his own kit including lights, a Bronica ETRs system for 120 and remained on Nikons for 35mm as he had used them for most of the last few years in the RNZAF.

The Nikon F90 became the film workhorse and as digital began to arrive he started with the Fujifilm S1 as it took the Nikkor lenses and then moved through a series of Nikon digital bodies – D70, D70s, D200 and more recently the full frame D3, “… that returns all my lenses back to their original values, as I know them.”

With his wife Elena and two children, Colin has found the perfect haven to practise his craft and live a much quieter life within a full family environment.

www.colin.co.nz

This article is from The Photographer’s Mail issue #182.

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