Cowps Productions's video: Surf Photos by Rogan Houghton Wainui Gisborne

PHOTOGRAPHY - GISBORNE surf photographer Rogan Houghton’s work has featured in a three-part pictorial in New Zealand Surfing magazine. His shot of the birth of the new millennium made the front page of the Bay of Plenty Times. He has devoted himself to his art for more than 30 years . . . and now he is holding his first exhibition ever at Zest cafe. Subscribe for more videos http://www.youtube.com/cowps1 http://www.youtube.com/gisborneherald The exhibition features select photographs of autumnal scenes ranging from Eastwoodhill, sunsets and hollowing waves. “My main thing is surfing because I surf as well,” says Houghton. “At the moment I seem to be spending more time behind the camera than in the surf. But surfing photography has always been my first passion.” Houghton started taking photos from the age of seven whe he lived on Auckland’s North Shore. “I borrowed everyone’s cameras and used up all their rolls of film and I was always one for weird and different angles, like hanging upside-down in trees to take photos of the traffic,” he said. “I looked for diagonals or odd angles.” He bought his first camera, an Instamatic, while in Hong Kong when he was 18 or 19. Then he was given a Minolta as a birthday present. “Next step, I saved up and bought a converter which makes the size of the lens bigger.” These days he uses a 550D Canon digital but his favourite film was Fuji slide film. “The slide film brings out the real natural colours and make them stand out. It was expensive to get it developed, though.” In his teens, Houghton regularly visited Gisborne to surf, staying with his brother who lived at Makorori. His own wave-weapon of choice is an eight-and-a-half foot board he has owned for 20 years. He used to have a short board but he sold it a few years ago so he could buy a Canon lens. He has always loved the beach, he says. When he left Auckland he lived at Mount Maunganui for about 15 years but came to Gisborne to shoot surf photos. He finally moved here permanently about 10 years ago. Houghton’s art (and motorcycle) takes him and his pint-sized Maltese-Bijon Frise cross Precious up and down the coast in search of photogenic surf scenes. When he is on the on the road, the letterbox on the back of his bike serves as Precious’s mobile home. “She loves it,” he said. “We’ll probably go on longer trips one day, up the East Cape.” A few weeks ago he and Precious rode to Mahia and, by chance, international surf champ Maz Quinn was wave-hunting there at the time. “He said it was the windiest offshore he’d seen at that place (and) I thought there was a bit of history right there.” Riding his motorbike with its letter-box kennel on the back, Houghton and Precious withstood 70 knot winds. “I grovelled all the way along the road to Black’s Bay. There were whirlwinds from the winds hitting the cliffs. The surf was pumping. It must have been about five foot.” Houghton shot some dramatic images of a battleship-grey sea with its backdrop of glittering white caps. In one of his photographs from that day, a solid sleeve of white-water capped with a mane of sea-spray casts an ominous shadow across the face of the wave. “I just wanted a picture of the wave with the foam ball inside the barrel,” says Houghton. “The foam ball is what shoots the surfer out of the barrel. If I see something that catches my eye, a lot of the time I don’t even think about what it is. I just click what I feel. I just tune in and get it.” The surf photographer has been involved with CCS Disability Action for many years and for some time staff there had talked about finding a cafe to exhibit his work in. Inquiries were made at the city-centre Zest Cafe and Houghton was offered a month’s showing. He’s only just hung his first exhibition but Houghton already has his sights set on another project. “My next adventure, but later on, is to put together my own book.” Music Gisbornes Skankamelia.