Head for heights wins photography award

A dramatic picture taken during a recent mountain rescue training exercise with the Ruapehu Alpine Rescue Organisation has seen Taupo Senior Constable Barry Shepherd win a national photographic competition.

A keen amateur photographer and crew member of Taupo’s Lion Foundation Rescue Helicopter, Barry won the Classic Flyers Aviation Photographic Competition held at the Classic Flyers Aviation Museum at Tauranga Airport. In doing so, he took out the Adult Open Section and Overall Champion awards.

He took the photo while standing further up Mt Ruapehu.

The week before receiving the award, Barry was involved in the search and rescue operation in the Mangatepopo Stream in which six students and a teacher tragically lost their lives during a ‘canyoning’ tragedy.

Barry has been involved in search and rescue for more than 20 years and says his photography skills have come about through “dabbling around” and “yarning” with those in the know.

Photography obviously runs in the family, with Barry’s son, Sam, a senior photographer in the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

The competition attracted many entries from military and civilian photographers.

Last year, Barry also featured in Ten-One having received the prestigious Igor Sikorsky Award for Humanitarian Service for his part in the rescue mission of five DoC staff trapped by a volcanic eruption on Raoul Island in the Kermadecs.