It was just another family day out at the beach, but Oamaru photographer Rachel Wybrow saw something special in the moment and captured it on camera.
The shot of her son won her a 2014 Kodak Professional Gold Award.
Mrs Wybrow (32), a self-taught photographer, was one of just nine in New Zealand to be awarded gold in 2014.
She also picked up a silver award for an image of bride Amanda Ley, taken at a Methven wedding earlier this year.
Mrs Wybrow was introduced to photography at school, where she learned how to take pictures and process them, but she never took it any further until her son Toby was born and she started photographing him while she was a stay-at-home mother.
''I just combined two things I loved - Toby and photography,'' she said.
Her career ''snowballed'' after she took her first wedding photos, for a friend's sister's big day.
She established Rachel Wybrow Photography four years ago and has built up a strong portfolio of wedding, portrait, newborn, family, maternity, commercial and event photographs.
For Mrs Wybrow, each photography job is different, and that is why she loves it.
She has a fascination with eyes and loves capturing those moments that go so fast they are sometimes missed.
She is also passionate about postprocessing and spends a lot of time at her computer editing.
''That's where you can make [photos] really amazing,'' she said.
She said she was ''really happy, really excited'' to win two more awards in 2014, adding to her collection of two gold awards for individual portraits in 2013.
Mrs Wybrow grew up in Oamaru, but left when she was 18 with her now-husband Brad Wybrow.
They lived in Melbourne for about four years before moving to the United Kingdom.
They moved back to New Zealand eight years ago and opened Amen Super Store, in Oamaru.
''When we came back we were actually planning on moving to Wellington, but we stayed here, decided to set up a business, then have Toby,'' she said.
She enjoys being surrounded by ''so many creative people'' with ''so much going on'' in Oamaru.
