About Dennis
Dennis Buurman has always had a love for the outdoors. Dennis was born in Cheviot, North Canterbury, New Zealand in 1953, his parents having immigrated to New Zealand from the Netherlands in the early 1950’s. Dennis’s father worked on various farms in the North Canterbury region, so from an early age exposure to the outdoors was a normal part of every day life.
In 1958 Dennis’s family moved to Oaro, 20 kilometres south of Kaikoura. From the age of 5 his father introduced him to the local outdoor environment, which would influence his choice of careers in the years to come.
Dennis went to Christchurch Teachers College and trained as a primary school teacher, doing one years teaching in Kaikoura before taking a break. The break however turned out to become rather long lasting. In 1978 Dennis took up commercial rock lobster fishing and developed a successful business in this vocation over the next 14 years.
In 1991, Dennis and his wife Lynette sold out of the fishing industry, to join his brother Rik and business partner Ian Bradshaw, in their tourist operation, which involved swimming and watching the dusky dolphins. Kaikoura was in the early days of a burgeoning tourist development.
The necessity of obtaining good images for promotional purposes meant Dennis’s limited knowledge of photography was about to change. The Pentax K1000 was exchanged for a Minolta 8000i (an ex Barbara Todd camera) and the skills developed on the land at a young age were put to good use in a different field, the ocean.
Hours spent at sea and many, many rolls of film passing through the camera slowly saw the beginnings of marine mammal portfolio. For many years now Dennis has been using Canon equipment and now shoots nearly all digital.
To Dennis, dedication, patience, knowing your subject and above all, learning continually and putting this knowledge to good use, are the main keys to successful photography.
Dennis is General Manager of the very successful Dolphin Encounter and Albatross Encounter product brands operated in Kaikoura under the Encounter Kaikoura brand.