Hi I am Gavin Mitchell, welcome and thank you for taking the time to look at Third Eye Photography's web site.

For an introduction to my life and a background to my photography career please read on………..

Gav's World

A smile still comes to my face (and my cheeks go red) when I think about the things I use to take photographs of at the ripe old age of 7 years old. Out would come the trusty Kodak Ektar 100 - 110 cartridge, pocket camera (a present from my mum), and take photographs of my family and friends and other things of interest to a 7 year old. In my teens my friends affectionately knew me as the ‘Kodak Kid', because I always had a camera on hand to capture the embarrassing moments and here a passion was born.

My photography education started in the 4th form at Waitakere Collage during art classes where we got to learn how to process and print photographs by hand. I then moved to London to do my O.E. (overseas experience) where I took up and attended, over a 2-year period, the University of Westminster to gain the City and Guilds Modular Photography Certificate.

By the time I moved to London my passion had been aroused and I decided it was time to chase my dream and get what I wanted. Little was I to know that in my pursuit, my level of excitement was to grow as I experimented, shared experiences with, and gained knowledge from others with similar passions - it was time for a career change, time to move towards my passion and into photography as a career, I went looking and was lucky enough to land a great job.

I went to work in a civilian photographic unit for the British Military, which exposed me to a wide range of photography practices, from the taking of photographs - product shots (guns and stuff), fashion (Uniforms), promotional (events) and journalistic types of photography, right through to the processing and printing of different types of film. During this time I negotiated as part of my contract to have time off to attend further study, so it was off to City of Westminster Collage to complete my City and Guilds Certificate in Professional Photography.

I moved on to work at one of London's top Professional Photo Labs ‘Joes Basement' were I would concentrate on the processing of film, specifically E6 (transparency or slide) film. While at ‘Joes Basement' I attended the London Collage of Distributive Trades and Printing to complete a Fuji Film Advanced E6 Processing course.

Back to good old NZ, where I steadily continued taking personal photographs while doing Wedding Photographs, Portraits and Commercial Photography.

A logical progression to still image creation, was to step into video filming, which can be added to photography for complete coverage of special events such as Weddings.

I have been filming a lot of sports for the last couple of years and have been heavily involved in filming Rugby, Rugby league, and Soccer with and for some of the top clubs and teams in their respective games including NPC matches, International tests involving the All Blacks and the New Zealand Knights FC.

It was nearly 20 years ago for my first wedding, and as much as I love my Rugby, Rugby League, and Soccer,and as much as I love filming, I guess I still love the most, to create great images of people with the still camera. - you could be next - Till then

See ya,

Gav