Photography students
By F/S Gareth Davies
The latest Junior Photographer course graduation took place at the Central Photographic Establishment (CPE), Base Ohakea. Wing Commander Russell Mardon presented the students with their certificates in front of family, friends, and work colleagues.
Following their graduation, four students were posted to their initial employment – AC’s Ridley, McDonald and McErlich have been posted to CPE, Base Ohakea, and AC Aalbers has been posted to the Photo section, Base Auckland.
The tough and demanding junior course has recently been overhauled to reflect the digital advancement of photography.
This saw the students take part in Air Security and Fire training school exercises, as well as all the administrative photography such as portraits, groups and presentations.
As the RNZAF photographers work closely with all three NZDF Services, the course also provided the students with the opportunity to visit the Navy Base at Devonport and to deploy to Waiouru army training area for a week, where they worked with the majority of Units on the Base.
Alongside the skills of producing high quality Public Relations images, the students also learned the vital skills of imagery capture for evidence and technical support. Both are key areas required of today’s professional digital image makers in an ever increasing and demanding imagery driven environment.