While taking a picture of some surf lifesavers to illustrate the poor swimming weather we had been having, I noticed their reaction and quickly swung around to see a cheeky sea lion had popped up to tell them off for walking along its beach.
To me, citizenship events often seem to be about a new start for families, and the children involved make it special. Four-year-old Izamariam’s spontaneous love-heart sign lifted this image.
Determined Taieri Gold player Ollie Batt, 6, sprints towards the tryline to score against Kaikorai at the Taieri 7s.
I spotted a picture of a sea lion and her pup on a Dunedin Instagram post, no location given. I managed to work out the general spot from the hills that appeared in the background of the post and drove around St Kilda until I found her (Mika and her pup). We published a photo, but kept the location secret to protect the mum and her baby. They were well looked after by the residents of the street and the Department of Conservation.
I’ve never had much luck with aurora photography in the past, but my phone was alerting me one Sunday after a long weekend shift and I reluctantly dragged myself up the hill from where I live to be greeted with a spectacular painted sky. It really needed a human in the picture to provide scale and context. In their absence my little Subaru ute filled in, to good effect I think.
Chinese New Year and fireworks at Lan Yuan, the Dunedin Chinese Garden. I was invited to a non-public spot to get a reflection shot. The most difficult part of this image was waiting for the water to calm down as spent skyrockets fell around me, creating ripples on the surface and ruining the shot.
Emma Smith, of Riverton, reacts to the crowd during the judging for the Fashion in the Field event at the Omakau Trots.
