John Cowpland is a news / sports and commercial photographer based in Hawke's Bay.

He can be found on the sidelines of top sporting events, climbing around the top of a crane at the local Port or wandering around one of the countries many stunning farms.

A 30+ year career started with a broken leg at 16, a stint as an Airforce Photographer then working as a newspaper photographer and going out on his own, to and now running the team who are offical photographers for NZ Rugby and the All Blacks.

A love of "action" has seen John cover the Olympics in Rio and Tokyo, the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and the World Cups of many sports. Johns work is seen around the world on various news sites and newspapers.

Living in the Bay meant he also covered the cyclone last year - not only was the community as whole deeply affected, but many of his commercial clients were either badly affected or were part of the rebuild. "Working with Unison, the local powerlines company, meant I was out covering the amazing work their crews were doing in often horrendous conditions to get the Bay back up and running. Telling their stories was a real privilege during a tough time in a region I love",

John has always been a bit of a tech geek so the switch to digital and then mirrorless were only natural. The switch to mirrorless and Sony just before the Tokyo Olympics has seen a massive shift in work flow - but the change is exciting!

Over the years John has placed in or won many awards including Press Photographer of the year, Sports Photographer of the year and a bronze in the 2022 World Sports Photography Awards.