Winner of the animal section of the 2014 Tuhura Otago Museum’s photography competition Simon Larkin, of Wanaka, said he had no idea he had captured what would be the winning image until he looked back through the photos on his camera.
Then living at Queensberry Hills, between Cromwell and Wanaka, he had built a hide to capture the antics of hawks on his land. Being a responsible landowner, he had been shooting rabbits and realised leaving them where they dropped attracted hawks.
Despite hawks’ apparent disdain for vehicles they would fly off at the first glimpse of a human so he built a hide and waited. And waited.
"It was one of those ... you just happen to be clicking at the right moment. I was really lucky, it was so quick."
They say you make your own luck and Mr Larkin’s patience contributed to his.
It was not until he looked at the frames from burst shots that he realised he had captured one hawk completely upside down. It was so startling he thought he might be suspected of digitally manipulating the image.
However, he had plenty of shots — "of wing tips" — either side of the winner to prove the picture’s veracity.
Having such a great image inspired him to enter the Tuhura Otago Museum’s photography competition and winning his section inspired him to do more with his photography.
While he is still taking photos they are mostly architectural today.
The Tuhura Otago Museum’s photography competition exhibition is on again this year featuring every overall winner from the past quarter-century.
The exhibition, 25 Years Captured, is the biggest it has ever been and a tribute to the work of Otago’s talented photographers.
Tuhura marketing manager Charlie Buchan said this year the exhibition opened before submissions to the 2024 competition closed. People had until May 27 to enter this year’s competition, and the winning images would be added to the display from July 6.
Exhibitions and creative services officer Shanaya Cunningham said since the competition’s inception, almost 35,000 images had been submitted and the standard of work had always been extremely high and it took truly exceptional work to stand out.
The Museum regularly introduced new categories. This year’s pop-up category was seeking black-and-white submissions.
Another new addition is the Tuhura school photography prize. Entrants under 12, across all four categories, would have the chance to win annual passes to Tuhura Science Centre.
As well as stunning photography, 25 Years Captured will feature some of Otago’s famously beautiful wildlife in cases, touchable sheep for young visitors, a selfie wall, a special film by NHNZ showcasing the wildlife around the Otago Peninsula, and the world premiere of short film Return of the New Zealand Sea Lion, by Jacob Emerson.
