Northern Regional Speakers – 2008
Peter Walton
Peter Walton was 12 years old when his father bought him a Kodak Box Brownie. It was to prove a milestone in his life. He became passionate about the magic of photography
By his mid teens he had bought himself an advanced 35mm camera and began spending his school holidays hitchhiking thousands of kilometres taking pictures along the way. By his mid twenties he had become an accomplished amateur landscape photographer.
Eventually Peter turned his hobby into a profession and by 1982 owned a successful commercial studio in South Melbourne. Together with three associates he was kept busy with fashion, product, car and food photography assignments for major advertising clients.
All the while his personal passion remained landscape photography, which he pursued during his limited spare time between paid jobs. The technical skills gained from his demanding studio work served him well out in the “real world” and he was able to cultivate several major tourism clients. This eventually led to numerous overseas assignments, including a corporate calendar project for Malaysia Airlines. This won an ASEAN tourism award and led to additional work the airline in several countries.
The studio was sold so he could focus on his passion. When the digital revolution arrived in the early 90's Peter was the first Australian photographer to offer stock images on CD, and one of the first to have a stock photography website
Over the years he has photographed several coffee table books. These include “Tasmania”, “Red Centre”, “Landscape Australia”, now in its second printing, and the recently reprinted Reader's Digest book “Australia's Most Scenic Drives”. To photograph it Peter and his wife Margaret drove almost 100,000 kilometers around Australia.
His love affair with photography remains as strong as ever. As well marketing his stock image library www.australianscenics.com he continues to photograph around Australia and has plans for more overseas assignments.
Peter also enjoys teaching and sharing his knowledge with other photography enthusiasts and has plans to lead extended field trips and photo workshops. The first of these was to Tasmania's beautiful Tarkine area in April 2008.
When friends ask if he ever plans to retire, his answer is “Never”.
From landscape photographer to digital painter
Peter Walton is a quiet achiever. For many years his iconic landscape images have been widely used by Australian designers, advertising people, calendar companies and large corporations, including Australia Post who have used them on stamps. Reader's Digest's best selling coffee table book, "Australia's Most Scenic Drives" was photographed entirely by Peter and his wife Margaret.
Until recently Peter's images have not been offered for sale to the public. Now, after three years working on a unique technique, he is finally making them available, but they are in a completely new and different form — digital paintings.
Using a magnetic stylus and graphics tablet linked to his computer, Peter painstakingly transforms his trademark compositions into paintings by the application of thousands of digital brushstrokes. The final work is output onto artist's canvas using archival stable pigment inks. The result is an image of extraordinary beauty that will last for well over a lifetime. This unique art is now being offered for sale in limited editions of 100.
In Peter's own words
"I am privileged to have seen and photographed most of Australia. The light colour and texture of our beautiful country is a joy to behold. With my camera I've captured a literal record of what's out there. Now, I'm interpreting my inner feelings and responses to what I've seen. Much of the inspiration for this comes from the great masters of landscape painting, the rest from the sheer enjoyment of the experience. The transition from lens to paint seems like a musical journey — my captured images serving as the score, while my paintings represent the final performance. Through them I feel I'm sharing the experience with people who respond to the landscapes I love".
Biography From: www.peterwalton.com
Shelton Muller
Shelton Muller is a well-known figure in the Australian photographic arena. He has worked as a professional photographer since the 1980’s, and has photographed almost every conceivable subject in that time!
His clients include some of Australia’s largest corporations and publications. His love of photography continues.
In 1996 his career began a new path when he became the editor of what became Australia’s highest circulation photographic magazine, PhotoMaster. Since then he has become publisher and editor of his own publication, Total Image, which is still Australia’s highest circulation photographic magazine.
Shelton is also sought after to write for other photographic publications both in Australia and overseas. He lectures regularly for photographic associations, businesses and clubs and his entertaining, outgoing manner continues to attract audiences and photographers eager to learn.
Shelton also enjoys leading international photographic tours and workshops and has done so in Egypt, Vietnam, Peru, China and Cambodia. Apart from this, his passion for photography remains after 25 years with a camera in hand.
Biography from: www.photographybyshelton.com
Shaun Barnett
Shaun Barnett is a freelance writer and photographer and one of New Zealand's most respected tramping authors. He is a previous Editor of New Zealand Wilderness Magazine. From September 1993 to August 1996 he was Conservation Officer, Wild Animal Management, Department of Conservation, Hamilton. Currently he is Editor of the Federated Mountain Clubs bulletin.
He is the author of numerous books with particular reference to the outdoors and natural New Zealand. He has had over 450 articles published in popular magazines including NZ Geographic, GEO Australasia, Action Asia (Hong Kong), Forest & Bird, The Listener, North and South, and NZ Wilderness. Most articles have focused on conservation, outdoors people, history, travel or tramping.
Awards:
- Montana Book Award 2000 (Environment Category) Classic Tramping in New Zealand
- Winner of Photojournalism award NZAC national photo competition 2007.
- Booksellers Award 2007 for Tramping in New Zealand.
He is an accomplished photographer and judge:
- Judge, NZ Alpine Club
- Wellington section photo competition 2006, 2007, 2008
- Judge, Wellington Tramping & Mountaineering Club 2006, 2007, 2008
- Winner of Photojournalism award NZAC national photo competition 2007.
Michael Schneider
A Free Lance photographer for the New Zealand Geographic Magazine.
Starting out in a commercial E6 photographic lab and then moving on as an assistant to a commercial photographer, Michael learnt the trade by working in such areas as product, architectural, corporate and public relations photography.
Moving out as a freelance photographer, where a passion for wildlife and nature developed into a decade of natural history work for the NZ Geographic Magazine focusing on close-up and technically challenging projects.
With a desire to incorporate studio quality lighting, and to put the viewer eye-to-eye with the subject in its natural environment; Michael developed specialist one-off flash lighting systems for macro and close up photography which gave performance and flexibility not available with any commercial systems.
Now fully digital and mainly doing commercial work, the DIY spirit is far from dead. Challenges from commercial and personal projects, now keep his creative spirit alive.