Chris Hillock Photographer

08/03/2026

This is a case study of an interveiw in a location that, at first sight, has nothing to do with the story. Those in the know will recognise that we met Steve at Ruakura Innovation park, a well known business hub here in the Waikato. However to the casual ready, ... where?

This was defiantley a case of make it dynamic with lighting and composition. The location was lit by skylights above and mixed lights from the sides of the open atrium. Happily that meant I didn't have to gell my flash to either match the available light or make it a colour source, (not really appropriate for this story)

So I got Steve to sit in the chair I wanted and the reporter to sit where he would look in a direction that I could work some angles, and have leading lines from the corridor behind him. One big wide corridor.

In this case I used one bare flash on a stand at a fraction above his eye line and well off to the side set to wide to help illuminate the seats around him. The bare flash gave me some strong shadows and really made his eyes and skin (and beard) pop which is great to make the image stand out on the newspaper print that really does swallow details when you put a photo on it. (Always bare in mind the final output of your photos).

Let me know which photo you like the best and your guess on which one the paper printed!

Waikato Times Caption
100511 BUSNESS Photo: Chris Hillock / Waikato Times. Steve Barclay is the Hong Kong Director of trade visiting Hamilton from his Austrailian base in Sydney. He is looking at ways to develop businesss relationships between New Zealand and Hong Kong.

02/03/2026

What does free range actually mean?

That was the mission to find out on this assignment. FRENZ invited us out to have a look at their farms.
Rob with chickens.

17/02/2026

Great to support this cool team and sport. If you've ever wanted to try a different sport for fitness and team work this is the one!

15/02/2026

As a visual journalist you're often sent out with a short amount of time to tell the story. (Yep it's always about creating a story.) In this case I've to come back with a set of images the amazing Richard O'Brien, famous for the Rocky Horror Picture Show (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0639782/) many other things.

I started off taking head shots while the interview was going on. Looking for emotion, gesture, and expression. I positioned myself so that the light from the street side fell nicely across his face and the wall on the left handside acted as a negative fill (creating shadow). My job was to be as quiet as I could, let the reporter do their job and wait for Richard to talk and express himself.

Richard was great, an actor and writer and very expressive. Once the interview was complete I took Richard down to the Rocky Horror Picture Show statue just down the street, and set a single flash on a stand on the long side with the statue behind. I think the dynamic of Richards gestures and statues work well with a strong left to right flow.

Any guesses on the shot that was choosen for the story?


























231111 - NEWS - Photo: Chris Hillock / Fairfax NZ. Richard O'Brien has just found out that he has been given citizenship to New Zealand and is putting on a show at Founders Theatre Hamilton.

17/01/2026

Alex Ellis is an extraordinary performer. As part of the Fuel Festival 2012, Alex played Victoria Lake in "Drowning in Veronica Lake". I took these images as part of a promotional piece for the performance and the festival. However, and there's always a hitch, it would be a while before the performance and no access to the performance location, props or other actors. So, what to do?

As you can see we did have this fantastic costume, and had arranged to meet in Garden place. Garden place was not relivant to the story, so that had to be minimised or hidden.

My everyday cary was a Canon 1 D mark iv, lens set 16-35, 35-70, 70-200mm, a couple of flashes and remote syncs, a light stand, and a monopod. Tactic 1 is to darken the background using High Speed Sync, and a flash. Mounting the flash on a light stand gives me the ability shape the light and it's direction, creating texture, shadow and Rembrant lighting when you need it.

So in this case HSS to help drop the background, and put the focus on Alex, wide angle to capture all of the dress. Mount the camera on the monopod for the high shot, and lie down to get the upward angle. Lighting to suit each shot.

Given the nature of the play and Veronica Lake's story of cultural icon, I really felt the low angle shot with the sun behind her really has a strong punch.

Can you guess which image they used to illustrate the story?

Image from Waikato Times. Orginal caption.
220612 - NEWS - Photo: Chris Hillock / Fairfax NZ. Fuel Festival launch with Alex Ellis playing "Veronica Lake" in "Drowing in Veronica Lake".
https://aucklandactors.co.nz/actors/alex-ellis/

13/01/2026

This assignment was for the Tempo magazine, a simple shot of an upcoming play "Accidental Death of an Anarchist", a play from the Fullhouse production theatre company. I didn't know much about the play, just the title and the name of the director.

Booked in to get a quick shot, and on to the next, the team wasn't ready for me. It took a bit of persuading, but I pushed hard to get something really different for this. Using light and shadow, props and dynamic posing I was able to really pack a punch in to these images, I hope to give you the impression of the story. Espcially as it was only going to be a single pic and a short caption for the page.

That's definately the job, tell the maximum story in a single frame. That's espicially true in the social media age, where people flick passed content without much engagement or thought (let's be honest).

10/01/2026

So the amazing Dame Malvina Major, one of New Zealands cultural treasures.

There's a story attached to these photos, that I am happy to share. For this assignment there was a pretty straight forward requirement for a simple portrait. After the reporter (so sorry I can't remember who) had concluded their interview I set up some lights in Dame Malvina's living room and got a few different angles and expressions, done, right?

Nothing wrong with the images but a few more won't hurt, so lets head out into the garden. I asked her to sit on a garden bench. With a small SB flash to the right I looked for angle that would give some interest. As Dame Malvina was sitting in the middle of the bench it wasn't quite right, so I said to her "Could you please shuffle your bum a little bit down the bench towards me?" I needed her to lean on the arm of the bench, to get a better pose.

I have to say the instant the words left my mouth I realised I'd just told a Dame to shuffle her bum, oh dear. Sometimes as a press photographer you meet a wide range of people and need to get them to relax, smile (if appropriate) and interact with you. Lord knows getting your photo taken can sometimes make you uncomfortable.

However, I got an amazing smile and laugh from Dame Malvina and a great photo of her.

Waikato Times caption
010612 - NEWS - Photo: Chris Hillock / Fairfax NZ. Dame Malvina Major is receiving a Queen's Birthday award (embargo - 5 am Monday)

27/12/2025

So here's the story, Winston Anthony is a Law and Political science student from Waikato University (LLB BA) and has been invited to represent New Zealand at the Indie Entertainment Summit in L.A. Originally from Malawi. (110612 - NEWS - Photo: Chris Hillock / Fairfax NZ. )

My job is to illustrate this amazing talent, and the opportunity he had. But, we aren't in NYC, and he's in a plain bedroom with only, well not much to help tell this story. So, ok, a nice plain portrait will do.

Did that, but as I got back in the car something made me go back. Winston was kind enough to let me take a few more pics. This time I used his microphone rig as a prop and I setup a snooted flash to create a rim light as though he was on stage singing, (not mentioned in the caption but he's a rapper).

Moral of the story, trust your gut and don't be afraid to push super hard for the extra shot. As Ian Mcgregor said to me when he left the Waikato Times for the Christchurch Press,
"There's always a winning picture in every job, you just have to find it."

Thank you Ian. I have always lived by that.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/7083658/One-man-band-eyes-big-stage
No pic I'm sorry to say.
Link to his spotify. https://open.spotify.com/artist/4t2NrWo71pQP4UP1BiZ9cU?si=hb-oRZjVSaW7KjO8JQLvPQ

27/12/2025

The Rena shipping accident occurred on 5 October 2011, when the container ship MV Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef (Ōtāiti) off the coast of Tauranga in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, after deviating from its planned course. The grounding caused the ship to leak heavy fuel oil into the sea, eventually releasing around 350 tonnes, making it New Zealand’s worst maritime environmental disaster. Oil washed ashore along beaches and estuaries, wildlife was heavily affected, and dozens of containers were lost overboard during rough seas. Despite a large-scale response involving government agencies, iwi, volunteers, and international experts, the ship broke apart in January 2012, prolonging the cleanup, which became the largest and most complex environmental recovery operation in New Zealand’s history.
I took the aerial shots with in a day or so of the ship running aground. Later on in the summer oil and cargo were still washing up on the beaches and animals needed rescuing and care. This is a story that I'll never forget.

19/12/2025

Every summer the Waikato Times would send a team of a reporter and photographer to the Coromandel to cover stories happening there with the holiday crowds that would flock in. There would always be something happening, good and bad.

But the Coromandel is hill country and it's big, so lots of kms and lots of hunting for stories.

Whatever happened in the day, and everyday, as the photographer in the team you needed to produce at least a handful of beautiful summer shots for weather stories, fill a hole in the pages with a fatcap (fat caption = a paragraph of description rather than a couple of sentences) whatever the need.

So picture this, (yes I said it), early morning in Whangamata and need to bag some pics for the day so, head to the beach. There's bound to be some dog walkers there. Silhouettes are the order of the day. There's a bit of thinking behind it and a catch phrase or too, but more of that kind of thing in later posts.

What are your favorite summer beach stories?

30/11/2025

A bit of fun on a Sunday morning, come stockfootage, product photography and some classical music. A spec creation of one of my families favourite products!

Great product, which my famliy goes through a lot of. Great to have a bit of fun making a spec promo video with some stock food footage and some classical m...