1. 38 Post-Courier, Friday, May 15, 2015
I HAVE been reading a book by an
Indian author, Joginder Singh, and
what inspired me was the wisdom
that you can be successful if you
dare to dream, capitalise on your
talents with a sense of creativity
driven by passion, determination
and a positive attitude.
Fifty-five-year-old Colin McDiar-
mid tells me: “Photography, done
well, takes a great deal of skill and
the people that do it well are very
good indeed. Unfortunately, it is an
under valued profession and not
many people can maintain a practi-
cal income from it. If you can then
it would have to be the best thing
you can do!’’
Early this year in February, I was
privileged to be among a group of
trainees and some officers from re-
spective government departments
undergoing professional devel-
opment training at the Victoria
University of Wellington. It was
at that time that I met Colin, who
was working as a photographer for
the university.
Colin had gone to Kelburn cam-
pus to shoot for the powhiri, a
Maori welcome ceremony hosted
by the university. I knew the me-
dia would be present to cover the
story since the program was of im-
portance to New Zealand’s foreign
relations with Papua New Guinea.
And so I was anticipating how in-
teresting it would be.
Colin was among the journalists
taking photographs and making
their way into the marae for the
rest of the ceremony. The sight
of cameras, notebooks and micro-
phones brought tears to my eyes. I
recalled all the exciting days when
I was a news reporter accompany-
ing senior colleagues like Todagia
Kelola, Isaac Nicholas and the late
Jerry Ginua, just to name a few.
“I had missed the media approach
of doing things,’’ I said. By then
the ceremony ended and everyone
was walking around admiring the
designs in the house and busy tak-
ing photographs. I walked over to
Colin, introduced myself and po-
litely asked him for a photograph
to be taken.
I was surprised later when I
discovered that Colin owns a cor-
porate photographic business in
Wellington. Interestingly, he had
a vast experience of working as a
photographer for the Royal New
Zealand Air Force.
Colin was born in 1960 in South-
land, New Zealand, where he grew
up as a sheep farmer’s son until
he flew off to join the Royal New
Zealand Air Force at the age of 16.
“I joined the Air Force because it
sounded like an exciting thing to
do, back then,’’ Colin told me. He
said becoming a photographer for
the military was a dream-come-
true, doing things which he could
have never imagined.
Working for the Air Force, he had
been photographing parachutes
leaving a C130 Hercules at 10,000
feet flying in small, fast and jet
aircraft-aerobics from inside the
aerobatic aircraft (under crushing
G forces). He described it as doing
air to air shots of other aircraft in
tight or loose formation. This may
sound risky but he said there have
been a few exciting times through-
out.
Colin described working for the
army as bouncing around in the
back of an armoured personnel
carrier (like a tank without a big
gun), or truck or helicopter. This is
so he could get to an either dusty or
snowy army exercise somewhere
in NZ, or in a jungle overseas, or
spending a rather intense time
photographing with the New Zea-
land Special Air Service (NZSAS).
For the navy it was cruising the
Mediterranean on board a naval
frigate and photographing the ship
from the ship’s helicopter around
Greek Islands. Or providing pub-
licity images of the work of the
navy’s hydrographic research ves-
sel, tanker, dive tender or the rigid
hull inflatable boats which hang
off the sides of the ships.
“I spent three-and-a-half months
over the summer period in Antarc-
tica, attached with the US Navy. I
travelled to places like Somalia and
Cambodia with the United Nations,
USA and Hawaii, the United King-
dom and Ireland, Athens, Crete,
Dubai, Bahrain, Germany, lots of
trips to some of the Pacific Islands
(alas not PNG), including Austral-
ia,’’ he said.
His most frightening experience
was flying in an andover with the
back ramp open to take photos of
another andover that was follow-
ing them. He was secured to the
floor with a long strop when they
hit some turbulence. “I was thrown
against the roof of the aircraft then
crashed to the floor (near the end
of the lowered ramp). My camera
followed and hit me in the face. Un-
able to continue, we called off the
sortie,’’ he said.
Half of his 20 years’ service was
spent as a publicity photographer,
which saw him travelling around
the world to photograph military
personnel doing their “thing”
overseas. “Eventually I would be
found travelling around the Pacific
Islands and around the world tak-
ing newspaper/magazine images to
give the folks back home an idea of
what their sons, daughters, friends
or relatives were doing in those of-
ten trouble lands,” he said.
During that time this was a fan-
tastic recruiting idea, as people in
the serviceman’s hometown would
read about what “Johnny Bloggs”
had been doing in some exotic over-
seas destinations.
As a result of such images and
caption detail “Johnny Bloggs’s’’
and friends could then imagine
themselves in that situation and
could contact local recruiters to
see if they could join up.
Colin said once out of uniform,
he was able to dedicate his skill
and enthusiasm to own corporate
photographic business which he
operates today in Wellington. His
firm plans and creates images for
customers for wedding, corporate
clients and shooting video for web-
sites.
Just like journalists where your
contacts become lifelong friends,
Colin said wedding photogra-
phy has been a real strength. He
reckons he must have been doing
something right when past cus-
tomers meet him on the street and
introduce their children or friends
to him.
So if you are creative, keep on
doing what you love and the world
is yours.
Passion combined with
Ambition
Colin and I after the powhiri, a traditional Maori welcome
ceremony
Here is an inspiring story of a military
photographer whom I met in New
Zealand. He has been to some of the
world’s amazing places, including
Antarctica, writes DOREEN PHILIP.
Low level flying in the cockpit of a C130 Hercules, NZ
Weekend | Inspiration Send your stories, feedback or jokes to Carmella at cgware@spp.com.pg