Spotlight on talented Waiatarua Local

Readers who are on the Waiatarua Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Waiatarua/) will be familiar with the stunning nature photographs shared by Greg Lokes. Recently I asked Greg if he would mind telling us a little bit about himself and how he became interested in photography, and he very kindly accepted. Here’s his story.

“I moved into Waiatarua, from Mt. Albert, in January this year along with my wife and daughter. I also have two sons. We shifted into a gorgeous house designed and built by the late Les Fletcher. It had been his family home since the early seventies.

Recently I became a grandparent for the first time, courtesy of my youngest son and his partner.

Photography first became a thing for me when an older brother began working in a cam-era shop. He used to bring different 35mm film cameras home and sometimes he’d let me have a go with them. I bought my own camera, an Olympus OM10, soon after. I real-ly only dabbled a bit in photography in the early days. A few years later I met my future wife, got married, bought a house and had children. Photography took a back seat.

Once we became empty nesters, I had more time for my hobbies. It was now the digital age and I had a lot to catch up on. There were probably three areas that really helped improve my photography. Firstly, with the car club I belong to, I became their unofficial ‘official’ photographer and secondly I began contributing lots of neighbourhood photos to my local Facebook community page. My photos seem to be well received in both these communities, which gave me a lot of confidence. Thirdly in 2019 my wife and I sold our business, rent-ed out our house and flew to Europe/UK for a nine month campervan holiday. It was a different world back then. I was taking lots of photos every day, sometimes hundreds, and of many different subjects. In doing this I learnt a lot about photography.

Whilst in Europe we decided that we might as well include Africa in our holiday plans. We booked wildlife safaris in Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania. This was absolute bliss for me and another step in my photography journey.

I’ve never had any formal training in photography although I have watched a few YouTube videos. Generally I’ve just picked it up as I’ve gone along. I’m not into spending hours on a computer delving into the dark arts of Photoshop etc, preferring to capture what I want in-camera and then do a little bit of tweaking on my MacBook. I now have a Facebook page…https://www.facebook.com/Gregs-Eye-2180581698675099. Please do check it out when you have a moment”.