My Photography Journey

As my long-suffering children and grandchildren can attest, I’ve always been interested in taking photos. It’s an interest born from watching and helping my father develop photos in his makeshift darkroom in the 1950s and 60s. A keen amateur, self-taught photographer, Dad graduated to movie cameras that, back then, we were amazed by. As a family, we were excited by the return of each 8mm movie film and never gave a second thought to the fact that the images were grainy, and randomly jumped from one family event to the next. Dad’s movies captured our whānau stories in the same way his earlier still photos had. I still have many of those photos.

My own journey has been a point-and-shoot process through those children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren portraits, family events, and travels in Aotearoa and overseas, with the results printed and carefully saved in photo albums. I never thought of myself as a photographer. Like Dad, I was just recording our stories.

Jump forward to 2021, when I moved from Auckland to Bluff at the very bottom of the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand and began exploring the stunning terrain and scenery. I live at the foot of Motupōhue/Bluff Hill, where Foveaux Strait enters Bluff Harbour leading to the busy South Port, and where I can see Ruapuke Island, the place my children’s Māori whakapapa/genealogy has brought them back to. Fishing fleets, oyster boats, cargo and passenger ships go right past my front door, and the next stop due south is Antarctica. I picked up my phone and started taking photos - of everything!

Very soon, the phone was no longer enough. Now, I’m on to my third Sony camera, all the gear that goes with them, dozens of master classes, and as many one-on-one photography workshops, tutorials, and tours as I can sign up for. Photography has become my passion!

This website shares some of my images with you. If you want to enjoy them as I do, they are available to purchase as unframed prints or canvases.

As a tribute to Dad, and to differentiate it from my education consultancy work, I am using my maiden name, Ann Webb, for my photography.