Ucol senior lecturer Ian Rotherham has not yet told his students of his international awards.
"It's tricky to talk about your own work.
"Maybe they can find out through this story."
Rotherham decided to give it a go and entered the Rise International Photography Awards.
It was a first time for Rotherham who won two silver and a bronze.
"I'm rapt," he said. "This competition was a bit of an unknown for me.
"The categories were so diverse, I just had to put forward the work I was proudest of and hope for the best."
Rotherham said he liked to create for his own reasons.
"I'm not keen on creating something solely for entering it in awards.
"Everything I entered this year was from my daily life and work, it was very me.
"As a lecturer, it's a way of checking 'Have I still got it?'
"It's about knowing that my work is up to standard."
"One of my silver awards, 2B, was taken on a job – the model is a well-known cosplayer, Angie Lurie, who wanted some professional shots of her newest video game character 2B," say Rotherham.
"It was actually taken by the silos of Milson Transfer station.
"We were out in the carpark and it just had that perfect post-apocalyptic look to it."
The judges agreed, mentioning in their feedback that the piece had a 'strong narrative', with the styling 'well planned, with great attention to detail'.
On the other end of the spectrum is Ball of Light, which the judges said was a 'fantastic and clever take on this lighting technique'.
"Balls of light is a technique I teach my Ucol Diploma of photography students."
"I took this one when I was holidaying in Christchurch – it was a beach in the middle of nowhere that my brother-in-law took us to, and we were having some fun with the family.
"He's since passed away, so I think of this shot as being in honour of him."
Over the past two years, the Rise International Photography Awards has received more than 7000 entries from photographers all over the world.
Andy Stewart pushed on with his motorbike trek despite his growing pain.