Katikati photographer Anna Menendez couldn’t believe what she was watching on livestream this month.

The 2025 New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography’s Iris Awards were being judged live by a panel of five – and one appraiser had challenged the score of her entry of a family on a beach being splashed by a wave, exuding pure joy and surprise in their expressions.

“A panel of five judges critique each photo and decide their scores. If they all agree, you get that score. If there’s difference of opinion, they debate it,” said Menendez.

“In my case, I thought I got a silver and was so excited. Then one judge challenged the score and talked it up to gold. I was speechless!”

The result named Menendez a finalist for Professional Family Photographer of the Year category in the 2025 Iris Awards – her highest accolade since she began snapping Katikati and all its faces in 2018.

In total Menendez won eight awards – a bronze and silver in Landscape, two silvers in Nature; plus a gold, two silvers and a bronze in the Family category.

Eight awards matches her award tally last year – but there was no gold then – and trumps her 2023 win of three awards.

Her 2025 Gold award winner was a photograph of a family she’d captured three times.

“They always try to get together annually. This one, they were all there.”

This Waihi Beach photo won Anna Menendez a gold award in the family category at the 2025 NZIPP Iris Awards. Photo / Anna Menendez

Know your subjects 

Everyone wants the straight-on image where all subjects look at the camera, said Menendez. “But to get that special image – it’s about getting to know your subjects.

“I get that straight-on image done first, then it’s: ‘Hey guys, what about this?’ I might try the same thing with heaps of families but they all respond differently.”

While some are keen to jump waves, others stay reserved. “That is fine too,” said Menendez. “They’ll get the photo they want.”

Now, she has repeat customers booking her to capture their families. However, her start in photography wasn’t trouble-free.

Menendez moved back to her hometown, Katikati, in 2016 with her husband and three boys. Prior, she had a career in marketing.

“I’ve always done some kind of art. I was a painter, drawer and I did an art history degree at university.”

But it was having children that led her to a camera: “My husband brought home a nice one and I wanted to know how to use it properly. When we moved here it felt like a good time to learn.”

Covid

After online courses and a workshop, in 2018 Menendez asked friends if she could capture them.

“At some point you just have to decide to call yourself a photographer, so I took the plunge.”

All was going well: “I was starting to get bookings, then Covid hit and overnight I lost everything. It all just shut down. All my contract work got cancelled immediately and that was the end of that.”

Or so she thought. On lockdown at home, Menendez saw, on social media, the Front Steps project in the US.

“It was a fundraiser and community connection project that some women started where they just went around in Covid taking photos of people on their front doorsteps in return for donations to charity.

“I thought: ‘Well, I’ll do that here’ because I really wanted to take photos again, I wanted to see people, and it was a good thing to do.”

Front steps in Katikati

She asked friends first and posted the results on social media, asking the wider community to participate in exchange for food or fund donation to Katikati Community Foodbank. It took off.

“In Level 2 I extended it to small businesses because it was all about supporting local at the time.”

Menendez was honoured for this work at the NZ Mural Contest in 2022, with a theme of “celebrating unsung heroes of 2020″.

Images of six heroes who helped the Katikati community during 2020’s lockdown were painted by artists on the town’s Anglican Church. Menendez was one of them.

Anna Menendez in front of the painting on the town’s Anglican Church, which was done as part of the NZ Mural Contest in 2022, with a theme of “celebrating unsung heroes of 2020″ to six heroes who helped the Katikati community during 2020’s lockdown. Photo / Merle Cave

Her generous act also became a blessing in disguise – many families and business owners she met then have become today’s clients.

“I’m lucky I get great local support. I think that was maybe part of it.”

Now, no two days are the same. Menendez could be shooting families, expectant parents, businesses, council events or community happenings.

“I’m really bad with routine so I love that each day is different, and I love meeting people and building a rapport with them.

“There is no product I find boring – I’ll do anything – because you never know what you’re going to make when you’re asked to take a photo.”

Family favourite

Families keep Menendez’s calendar busy. Katikati resident Melissa Laughton said Menendez’s silver award-winning image of her two sons, Kereama and Hemi, was taken at Bowentown last year when the boys were aged 3 and 5.

This shot of Katikati brothers Kereama and Hemi Laughton won Anna Menendez a silver award in the family category at the 2025 NZIPP Iris Awards. Photo / Anna Menendez

“That was our third photoshoot with her and we’re booked in for our fourth,” said Laughton, who found Menendez online in 2023.

“For me, it’s all about the natural shots – I’ve gone back to her because I’ve just been so impressed with how she captures the boys.

“She just captures them in the moment. She does get the really good portrait-style photos then she gets moments that you usually can’t capture yourself.”

Nature and landscapes

Her not-so-traditional landscape images are more of a labour of love. Menendez likes to experiment with techniques around the district. The blurry seagull shot – which won silver in the Nature category – was taken at The Landing.

This photograph won a silver award in the landscape category at the 2025 NZIPP Iris Awards. Photo / Anna Menendez

“If you’re not practising you never know what you can create or how things work. Many techniques you achieve in nature photography you can take to commercial jobs.”

What’s the secret to taking a great photo? “When it comes to people it’s having a connection. It doesn’t matter how technically great you are, if you can’t get the person to connect with you or each other then it’s just a photo,” Menendez said.

This shot of dew drops won a silver award in the nature category at the 2025 NZIPP Iris Awards. Photo / Anna Menendez

“Even with landscape or nature, if you’re not connected with what you’re looking at, you’re literally just looking at a scene. But if you look at it, going: ‘I love the way the light is sparkling on the water – how do I make that work?’ then you get really involved. I find it really relaxing doing that.”

The awards

In the 2025 Iris Awards 1405 images were live-judged, which included 1118 from New Zealand, 284 from Australia and two international entries. From these, 1125 images received an award – which comprised 18 Gold distinctions, 103 Golds, 194 Silver distinctions, 370 Silvers and 440 Bronze awards – including five category finalists and two category winners being BOP-based photographers.

An accredited professional portrait photographer with the NZIPP, Menendez believes entering the Iris awards and connecting with other NZIPP members had significantly improved her photography across all genres and supported the growth of her business. “It’s so important to find your own connections and community so that you can keep growing, learning and improving your art.”

NZIPP president Rachael Smith said photography is about more than just capturing an image – “it’s about connection, vision, and craft”.

“The Iris Awards are “a testament to the talent and dedication of photographers on both sides of the Tasman, and a celebration of the printed image in its most powerful form.”