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Ignacio Palacios

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25.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ This is an image of Uluru (Ayers Rock) that I photographed whilst running a photography workshop with my very good friend and colleague, Adam Williams. Uluru is arguably Australias most famous and iconic landmark, and its also a hugely important part of the countrys cultural history.... According to the local Aboriginal people, the Anangu tribe, Uluru is thought to have been formed by ancestral beings during the Dream Time. And fitting to their history and beliefs, its many caves and fissures were all formed due to ancestral beings actions in the Dreaming. The term Dreaming refers to the time when the land and the people were brought into being by the ancestral spirits. They created and formed all the features of the natural world - the rivers, hills, rocks and more. Some areas are held and understood to be particularly sacred. For the Anangu people, the sacred site extends well past the ends of the rock monolith and into the nearby riverbanks and trees surrounding the site. Ceremonies are still held in the sacred caves along its base. But it isnt just the Aboriginal people who find this site significant. Due to its iconic nature and uniqueness, it has been a massive drawcard for tourism in Australia for decades. It has been an issue of contention for some time about the accessibility and appropriateness of allowing access for tourists to climb to the top of the monolith. This has compromised the integrity and sacredness of the site for the indigenous people and they have fought hard for many years for the right to end this type of access. They eventually succeeded and it is no longer allowed. Perhaps the spirits and ancestors of this sacred place can now be more at peace Although the Anangu people have their own beliefs on its creations, scientists have studied the rock, the largest of its kind in the world, and found it to be an extremely unique geological site.

25.01.2022 Photo tip Ignacio from IP Travel Photography The process of selecting, post-processing, printing, entering competitions and continually failing was a great experience on many levels - for me anyway. In the early stages of my career, photography was all about learning, and competitions gave me the opportunity to assess and objectively judge my work against the work of others (winners and finalists). Photography competitions may assist in giving you direction and push you out o...f your comfort zone, focusing your mind on perfection and leading you to great inspiration. The entire process has helped me to improve my confidence, style & vision and to cultivate instincts to know which creative risks to take to create stronger images and tell better stories through my work. To this very day, I still enter a handful of yearly photographic competitions, to continue to push my craft. I try to enter only the most prestigious competitions nowadays. Having your photographic efforts validated and recognised by your peers is a reminder that you continue to remain with your eyes on the ball, an additional positive to what is already a very rewarding and enjoyable pastime and career. It is really important to read the terms and conditions prior to entering competitions. Some of the most recognised competitions don’t allow digital creative interpretation of the landscape and ask for minimal processing, checking the RAW file to ensure that the conditions have been met. Other competitions allow for heavy manipulation, following a side of photography that believes that landscape is something that is to be interpreted and that there are no limits on creativity and post-processing techniques that may be applied to an image. Enter the 360 Photo Awards here https://360photoawards.com Remember that the early bird offer of US$12 for single image or portfolio categories finishes 30 June, 2021 and the ‘pay for 4 and receive 5th entry free’ offer ends 31 May, 2021!

25.01.2022 Madagascar had always been on my bucket list. It is such an exotic location and as well as seeing so many lemurs, I also had the opportunity to photograph a number of chameleons and reptiles during one of my photography workshops to the island, in July 2018. Found in the eastern and northeastern tropical forest areas, Panther chameleons (Furcifer pardalis) are some of the most colourful reptiles native to this country. Everyone knows of the chameleon’s amazing ability to cha...nge colour as a way to communicate mood, to better absorb or reflect radiant heat and to blend in with his or her natural habitat. There are several subspecies of Panther chameleon yet the Ambilobe would have to be the most colourful, with their colour determining where exactly in Madagascar, the particular subspecies originated from. The males grow up to 50 centimetres in length, displaying a wider range of colours than their smaller female counterpart. This image was taken with a macro lens handheld. It is very tricky to photograph with a macro lens without a tripod and I would have liked to have captured with a greater depth of field. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough light to do this, so I had to use a smaller f-number and that means that some areas of the skin is a bit blurred. In hindsight, I perhaps could have focus stacked the image but time was of the essence. The intense array of vibrant colour and magnified texture has such incredible impact in this image, immediately commanding your attention. The ‘Delay and Reveal’ component then gains your attention once again, keeping you entertained as you search throughout the image to make some sense as to what it is you are looking at is it the head of the animal? Or is it the tail? Where is the eye? Success in any art form is achieved when you hold the viewers attention for as long as possible.

24.01.2022 Today is the International Tiger day!. I love tigers and I love them so much that this year I published a book about Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan, India. Ranthambore is a park where you can see them in the wild. This is an image of my favorite tiger in there: Arrowhead walking around Rajbagh lake, the most picturesque of the three lakes in the park. Tigress Arrowhead is a very impatient hunter, compared to her sister and mother, often missing simple hunting opportunities due to her careless attitude. Soon after the birth of her first litter, her cubs were lost to a leopard or male tiger. At the end of 2018, Arrowhead gave birth to her second litter of two cubs and has been successful in raising them to this point. At the age of five, she controls one of the largest territories of all female tigers in Ranthambore.

23.01.2022 This is an image that I captured during my second trip to the Masai Mara (Kenya) in August 2008. It was taken during the Masai Mara Migration using a Nikon D300. The Great Wildebeest Migration in the plains of East Africa is one of the world’s most thrilling, intriguing and extraordinary displays of wildlife behaviour and it was incredible to bear witness to. I was photographing the Cape buffalo, when I realised that one of the buffalos was looking straight at me with five... little Yellow-billed oxpeckers beautifully perched on his head and back. I was using a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 and at the time I didn’t have a longer lens so I was unable to get closer to its face, which meant that I had to crop it heavily in post-production. It makes for a stronger image I feel, yet the downside is that as I was shooting in JPEG and at the time sensors didn’t have the resolution that they have today, I am unable to reproduce it very large. Oxpeckers are found on the sub-Saharan African savannah where they feed on ectoparasites such as ticks, dandruff, ear wax and scar tissue, as well as insects infecting wounds on the backs of buffalo, giraffes, impalas and other large grazing mammals. Also known as the Vampire finch, the Oxpeckers’ constant pecking at wounds enables them to continually feed on the blood and flesh of their host. Oxpeckers are known to hiss when they become alarmed which warns of potential danger and will spend their entire life on their chosen mammal, except when nesting in the cavities of trees. The tight crop has greatly strengthened this image with the graphic nature of the horns effectively pointing to the secondary subject that of the Yellow-billed oxpeckers. The natural rhythm created by the presence of the horns in the foreground and background, coupled with the positioning of the oxpeckers, draws your eye to and throughout the image, allowing you firstly to explore the features of the buffalo and then follow the journey into the image.

23.01.2022 Meet the judges: Ricardo Da Cunha Ricardo is part of The Light Collective and is judging the Creative category of the 360 Photo Awards. He won the Landscape category of the Australian Professional Photography Awards in 2014 and is one of the most talented photographers I know. In his images, Ricardo aims to portray a world that is simple, silent, and devoid of the noise that increasingly dominates our complicated and distracted lives. Ricardo likes to give his subjects space... for them to breathe, just like he needs space to allow his soul to breathe. Photography provides Ricardo with the silence that he increasingly desires. Do you have images that you think will impress Ricardo? Ricardo is also supporting the competition with an incredibly stunning A3 coffee table book called 'SPACE' that celebrates a decade of his image making. The carefully curated and cohesive body of images provides a multisensory experience, with the aim of evoking a sense of calmness and tranquility within the reader. It offers a soothing sense of peace amid our chaotic, distracting and noisy world. You have the opportunity to win this prize for as little as US$12. Remember that the early bird offer of US$12 for single image or portfolio categories finishes 30 June, 2021 and the ‘pay for 4 and receive 5th entry free’ offer ends 31 May, 2021! Enter the 360 Photo Awards here https://360photoawards.com Image by Ricardo Da Cunha

23.01.2022 Im really enjoying the process of reviewing imagery. Contact me if you would like to join one of these sessions!

22.01.2022 Just announced. The photography workshop in Kiama sold out in 8 hours, so if you would like to secure a spot for this workshop at the amazing Blue Mountains, be quick! Link to book in the comments below.

21.01.2022 Only 4 spots left for this photography workshop along the coast of NSW. Booking details on the comments below.

20.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ The first image was photographed whilst running a photography workshop, co-led with my very good friend and Light Collective colleague, Luke Austin, through the Yukon region of Canada which is home to some of the most pristine wilderness in the world. For outdoor lovers and photographers, theres arguably no better time to travel to Canada than during the Autumn season. The spectacularly rich array of colours on display is no...thing short of breath-taking. The trees are literally ablaze with an assortment of dazzling reds, oranges and yellows. The second image was captured in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. This mountain range spans the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. With jagged, ice-capped peaks, it's a region full of beautiful alpine lakes and a diverse range of wildlife. It is interesting that both of these images were photographed in Canada during the same trip, just at different locations. In both situations, I was scanning the scene with my telephoto lens, when I found these lonely trees standing out. The overlap and story parallels are quite fascinating! What works about this image This image offers a wonderfully atmospheric autumn scene with a twist of added narrative through the positioning of the central lone tree. The soft atmospherics of the mist works to counterbalance the richness of texture and colour beautifully. The wide landscape cropping gives plenty of breathing room to move around the frame and enjoy all its features. Composition A longer telephoto lens has been used to isolate an element of a broader scene. By limiting the access to the wider environment and contextual cues, the image becomes more abstract and focused purely on the texture, colour and atmosphere.

20.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ This is an image that I captured in Iceland in February 2016 whilst running a photography tour with my friends and colleagues from The Light Collective, Adam Williams and Luke Austin. It was my first visiting there in winter and it was amazing. Its most certainly the kind of place that photographers daydream about. Despite its small size, Iceland has tremendous natural diversity due to its geologically recent volcanic origin.... Within a single day driving from the capital Reykjavík, you will pass steaming geothermal areas, the largest glacier in Europe, waterfalls hundreds of feet high, extensive fields of moss-covered lava rocks and flowering purple lupine, rich green hillsides and mountains, wild horses, desolate expanses of sand braided with glacial rivers, multiple volcanoes and still arrive at the lagoon filled with massive icebergs that feeds the ice onto the Black Sand of Diamond Beach, as featured above. Diamond Beach is a strip of black sand belonging to the greater Breiðamerkursandur glacial plain, located right next to Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon on the South Coast of Iceland. The icebergs that float down from the glacier upstream fill the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon then get washed through and up onto the shores of the beach. They create a stark and unique contrast with the volcanic black sand and open up a lot of creative potential for images due to this distinctive combination. For this reason and more, it has become a favourite location for photographers. What works about this image This image is deceptively simple in its composition but includes an element of diagonal flow and mirroring that adds both movement and story to the capture. The soft wrapping light, complementary pastel tones and smooth velvety skies, combine to imbue a delightful feeling of both grace and harmony into the scene, despite the harshness of the environment.

20.01.2022 Just a brief note to let you know that today I have released my new eBook: Dissecting Award-Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2. I have been working on this second volume for a few months with Paul and with 20 articles and 150 pages in total, I think there is a lot of valuable information to gain from it. If you have got Vol.1 and have enjoyed, this will be a great addition! I would like to thank a few people for their efforts in making this a reality. Again, first, to my friend ...and colleague @Paul Hoelen, who has put as much love into it as myself and has done an incredible amount of work writing and editing my articles and adding even more ideas about the images. I would also like to acknowledge Douwe Dijkstra (Dex) for pulling together another amazing design. I am not sure how many books you have designed for me already Dex, but this is another amazing piece of art. Also, to Suzanne Nelson for proofreading this book in such a short time frame, thanks so much. And of course to my very good friend Adam Williams of EasyWay photography for writting the foreword of this eBook. Last but not least, to Peter Eastway who has and continues to be one of the most highly regarded image makers in Australia. I owe him a lot of what I am today and I thank him deeply for contributing with a commentary on each of the images of this book. The eBook has a special launch price of US$39.90 but in a month from today it will go to its full price of US$59.90. If you enjoy my work, please purchase a copy of my new eBook. If you cant afford to buy at this time, a great way to support me would be to share this post with your photography friends and family. I would really appreciate it! The 20 images posted here are the images I dissect in my book. I think it is a great book.If you want to check it out this is the link to my site: https://iptravelphotography.com.au/award-winning-shots-land

19.01.2022 Today is World Rhino day! This is an amazing animal and it breaks my heart everytime I see images of dead rhinos cruelty killed by poachers.... There aren't many left. It is so bad that conservationists in some countries in Africa have started to cut off the horns of rhinos to protect them from poachers... The rhino poaching crisis began in 2008, with increasing numbers of rhino killed for their horn throughout Africa until 2015. Thankfully, poaching numbers have decreased a...cross Africa since the peak of 1,349 in 2015. Yet, a rhino is still killed every 10 hours... South Africa holds nearly 80% of the worlds rhinos and has been the country hit hardest by poaching criminals, with more than 1,000 rhinos killed each year between 2013 and 2017.

19.01.2022 Hi there, I am cleaning up my place and if anyone is interested I am selling my award-winning APPA prints for $99 including postage within Australia. It is a great deal, if you are interested in any of these images, please send me a private message and I will post straightaway!

19.01.2022 Today is Amazon Rainforest Day and is commemorated most of all in Brazil with special celebrations. The date was established in 1850 to mark the creation of the Province of Amazonas. This is an image I captured in Brazil during a photography workshop. We were staying in a really nice resort in the jungle (Cristalino lodge) and shoot image this with my drone, which I launched from one of their observation towers. It was really beautiful to watch the wildlife and sunrise from this higher point of view.

19.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ This is an aerial image taken whilst I was leading a photography workshop with Ken Duncan in Brazil in June 2019. The image was taken in the same area where I captured my image Erotic Flower (previous post) but I havent processed it as creatively. I just added contrast, extracted detail and adjusted the colour to match the way I felt when I first came across it. What works about this image... The plethora of beautiful curves and flowing shapes give us a delightful method to move around this image visually. We are given a smooth entry point in the bottom left into a maelstrom of texture and colour that is somehow well contained in the square framing. The image has a lot of emotion and energy flowing through the rich colour swirling around the shapes and across the patterns. Composition The tight cropping from the wider vista pulls away any obviously contextual cues and sense of scale and lends itself to a more abstract interpretation. The gentle curving dune in the bottom left provides a gentle bridge to enter the image into both physically and visually. Its large enough and smooth enough to allow you a moment of pause before entering the maelstrom of energy, texture and colour coursing through the rest of the image. It acts like a well needed gateway to pace your entry into what is arguably quite an overwhelming scene. From a design and structural perspective, the image is essentially made up of a sea of sinuous curves. And yet it is beautifully and concisely contained in the square format. The plethora of curves create a wonderful amount of visual flow and movement, mirroring the physical movement of the waterways themselves. There is a larger subtle fractal patterning you can see that comes through when relating to the image from a pulled back, broader perspective, that speaks a lot to the interconnectivity of nature.

19.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ This aerial image was taken during a large-scale conservation project with my friends and colleagues from The Light Collective, over the massive salt pan lake Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, deep in the central desert of South Australia. Seemingly immeasurable in scope, this vast and ancient lake literally sinks into the heart of the land well below the level of the sea and holds tenure to being the deepest land point in Australia.... The sun bakes its clay surface and shallow bays with such a fierce intensity that the resultant cycle of evaporation forms layer upon layer of salted crusts as is displayed here in this capture. The lake is full of salt deposits, eroded channels and inlets, layers of sediment and algal blooms which provide endlessly subtle variations of texture, lines, pattern and colour. Its really a photographers paradise from the air! Just recently the land tenure for the full 10,000 square km basin was handed back to the first nation people - the Arabana tribe. The images of this project were exhibited in various galleries in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and resulted in a beautiful book that was well awarded at the Australian Professional Photography Awards. What works about this image This image is a wonderfully painterly abstraction of a landscape, with a gorgeously complementary colour palette of oranges and blues and a delicate reveal, introducing a compelling narrative. Well contained in the square crop, it still has a genuine sense of flow, is full of intriguing shape and structure and has an overall majestic feel to it. And how amazing would it look printed huge on a wall!

19.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ I took this image whilst I was running a photography workshop in Iceland in February 2016. Skógafoss is a waterfall situated on the Skógá River in the south of Iceland and it is very popular amongst all photographers who visit the area. The Skógafoss is one of the biggest waterfalls in the country and due to the amount of spray, the waterfall consistently produces a rainbow that is often visible on sunny days. According to le...gend, the first Viking settler in the area buried a treasure in a cave behind the waterfall. The legend also says that locals found the chest years later but were only able to grasp the ring on the side of the chest before it disappeared again. The ring was allegedly given to the local church. The conditions on this day were absolutely incredible and there was ice and snow just everywhere. Even though the conditions were so good, its always a challenge to create something unique and different from such an iconic location. A lot of time was spent scouting around the location for different angles and perspectives before this one was settled on. I even used my drone as a scouting tool for unique angles and how to make best use of the available light. You can see several examples below. I chose a more simple and intimate composition in the end, with subdued light, to bring to life the mood and feeling I felt most drawn to express. One of the challenges of choosing this composition was its proximity to the waterfall. It meant I had to clean the lens every few seconds as the drops of water from the spray of the falls were freezing instantly on my lens! What works about this image The incredible structural detail and contrast in this image give it wonderful visual dimension and depth and provide an excellent counterpoint to the soft flowing waters in the centre.

19.01.2022 The Kamchatka brown bear is a very large bear the largest in Eurasia standing up to 3 metres tall on its hind legs, and is found in the far Eastern Siberian wilderness of Kamchatka. The peninsular of Kamchatka was closed as a military restricted zone until 1990 and because of this, its nature has been well preserved and virtually untouched by human development. The terrain, rich in natural resources is dotted with geysers, lakes, glaciers, hot springs, and volcanoes - the... ideal backdrop to capture the magnificent wildlife. Kamchatka has Russia’s highest concentration of bears and Kurile lake has the highest concentration of bears within Kamchatka, so of course, this lake (the second largest salmon spawning site in the world) is the best place to photograph them in their natural habitat, as they gather in their hundreds during the summer months to enjoy the abundant salmon. The bears gain between 150-180kg of weight before they return to hibernation in the winter and spend much of their time feeding and nurturing their young in the area so you have plenty of opportunities at the lake to enjoy these magnificent animals. From a photographic perspective, this location is a wildlife photographers’ dream, with the opportunity to be so close to the bears in their natural habitat. This is an image that I captured with my Nikon D810 and 200-500mm f5.6 lens, at Kurile Lake, part of the eastern volcanic zone of Kamchatka, whilst running a photography tour in July 2017. The dramatic landscapes, mesmerizing brown bears and ‘off the beaten path’ nature of this tour was memorable, to say the least. The simplicity of composition and rim lighting, combined with the limited warm colour palette and darkened background gives the image a sense of elegance and poise. Capturing the exact moment when the saliva and water droplets were present in frame, creates a sense of movement, in an otherwise static image.

18.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ This is a composite image that I created whilst running a photography workshop in Ethiopia in October 2019. Dallol in the Danakil Depression had always been high on my list of places to go and photograph. It is an incredibly surreal place unlike anywhere else in the world. The term Dallol was coined by the Afar people and means dissolution or disintegration. It is one of the most remote places on Earth and currently holds the... official record for the highest average temperature for an inhabited location on the planet (with an average annual temperature of 35C recorded between 1960 and 1966). I always thought that it would look quite mind-blowing from the air. When I was doing my research for the trip, I realised it would be extremely difficult to get an aerial flight out there, so I made the decision to take my drone. This is an area very close to the border with Eritrea, where there had been some major issues with tourists in the recent past, so there was a certain edge to putting the trip together and leading a group through the region. In 2012, a group of European tourists were attacked - killing five, injuring two and kidnapping four people, so this wasnt just conjecture. We arranged for an armed escort and I was concerned I would not be allowed to fly my drone at all. I had to do some pleading and apply a fair bit of Palacios charm, but I was eventually given permission. I was extremely excited, and rightly so, as the images I managed to capture from that flight from this higher perspective were out of this world! Much of the colour and unusual structures come from numerous hot springs which are discharging brine and acidic liquid. The area is littered with small geysers which are responsible for the haze and also for the production of the bright white cones of salt.

18.01.2022 My September Blue Mountains Weekend Workshop is now fully booked so if you missed your opportunity or you couldn't make the dates, here is another chance to join. Just announced! Link to book in comments below.

16.01.2022 Today is International Mountain Day! Mountains are home of the 15% of the world´s population and a quarter of the world’s land animals and plants. They provide freshwater for everyday life to half of humanity. Their conservation is a key factor for sustainable development. To celebrate the International Mountain Day, I am sharing with you an image of my favorite mountain in the world, the Horns in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.

16.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ La Puna Argentina is a natural extension of the Bolivian highlands. Whilst Bolivia is for all intents and purposes a high open plateau, the Puna region of Argentina is made up largely of an internal fissure of mountain ranges and depressions. The area has not opened up to tourism substantially as of yet and few outsiders have ventured into this part of Argentina. This is partly why it holds such an attraction for me person...ally. During my first trip to this region with my family, I did not get the opportunity to visit the more remote and high-altitude areas such as the incredible pumice field presented here, but I was determined to photograph it sometime in the future as I had seen some amazing images of the area. I made sure to include it in the itinerary of this first tour to the region and everyone was blown away by its astoundingly diverse beauty. This unique section of Argentina has an incredibly rich array of features such as dreamlike rock formations, massive sand dunes, endless salt pans, dramatic mountains, volcanoes, lava fields, cinder cones, and even turquoise-coloured pools. The large areas of pumice rock are found, nestled under the gaze of the Carachi Pampa volcano. The fierce winds the region is known for are the main force that has carved and sculpted them from their volcanic origins into the strange shapes that present themselves today. What works about this image The compressed composition accentuates the complex layering of soft colour and repeating forms that pull the viewer through the image and speak to the process of their formation. There is a simple complexity and visual depth that is well contained and balanced in the square crop and a vibrant visual rhythm that runs through the image along the intensive array of curves, shapes and edges.

16.01.2022 Backstory This is an image captured during a trip to Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan, India. I was leading my first tour in the park and although I had done many game drives around Africa previously, it was very exciting to get face to face with these beautiful creatures for the first time in India. Ranthambore, is famous for its Royal Bengal Tigers and is one of the largest and most renowned National Parks in all of India.Once known as the famous, former royal huntin...g grounds of the Maharaja’s of Jaipur, today the park is a major wildlife tourist attraction that has drawn the attention of many wildlife photographers around the world, being one of the best locations in India to see these majestic predators in their natural habitat. This image was photographed with a Nikon 400mm f2.8 prime lens at around sunrise. I love it because it is a little different to most tiger shots you see around. Instead of a being a close-up portrait, you have to find the tiger within the frame. One of the most noticeable physical adaptations of the Bengal tiger is their striped fur. In the forests where the tigers live - like this one in Ranthambore - the light filters through the trees, creating a shadow. The pattern of the tigers' fur matches that shadow, allowing it to blend into its environment. This way, the tiger can sneak up on its prey without the prey spotting it. And this is what this image is about! An environmental portrait of the tiger in his habitat. At first glance, it is purely a landscape image. As the visual cues within the image take you on a journey, you are rewarded by the discovery of the tiger. The image, presented as an environmental wildlife portrait, creates a narrative to the viewer that would be absent, should the tiger have been presented purely as a tight crop. The inclusion of the tiger’s habitat within the image also creates a strong sense of mood, a sense of sound and a sense of atmosphere.

16.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ Both of these images are composites but have done well in photography competitions where composites are allowed such as the EPSON Pano Awards, the International Landscape Photographer of the Year and the Australian Professional Photography Awards. The original captures used to create this image were photographed from the exact same location, at different times. For the first image, the upper section was photographed in Novem...ber 2013 and the lower section was captured in April 2015 during a photography tour, co-lead with Lonely Planet photographer Richard IAnson. For the second image, both the lenticular cloud and the Horns were photographed on the same day during a photography workshop with Kevin Raber and Art Wolfe in April 2016. However, the mountains were photographed during sunrise and the lenticular cloud was photographed at sunset.

15.01.2022 This is an image I took whilst running a photography workshop at Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia, March 2018. It was my 8th trip to the area since 2013. Patagonia is a very special place to me and it was the very first place that I ran a photography workshop. On our way to our accommodation, there is a beautiful lookout with a wonderful view of the Serrano River and the Paine Horns in the background, yet what captured my attention was not the wide vista bu...t this particular section of brightly coloured foliage. The autumn colours that year were quite exceptional and beautifully on display here. So out came the tripod and a long lens to hunt for an image that showcased this well and made sense compositionally. What works about this image The tight composition of this image creates a focus purely on the sea of trees. This provides the viewer with a blanket of pure texture and delightful fragments of colour, and leaves them with both a feeling for the season and a wealth of micro detail to explore. The pockets of colour create a certain visual tempo and rhythm and leave us with an energetic, yet delicate, impressionistic interpretation of the Patagonian autumn with a painterly and abstract feel to it. Composition This image was captured with a longer telephoto lens resulting in a very tight composition. The original photograph had a section of sky viewable in the top left corner, and content aware fill was used in Photoshop to remove it. In combination with the long lens choice used, this took away any element of context by removing obvious references to the wider landscape. This works to challenge the viewer as to its scale, sense of place and position in a natural landscape scene. Once again, a long telephoto lens has been used to isolate a limited range of features from a wider, more complex vista and consequently brings a significant level of abstraction into the image.

15.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ This image was taken at the Kuntivaara fjell Frozen Forest, in Finnish Lapland whilst running a photography workshop with Ken Duncan in February 2018. The trees here develop a hard, frosty covering, known in Finnish as tykky or tykkylumi. The coating transforms the trees into snow sculptures that look like enormous misshapen towers of shaving foam. It felt a lot like being on another planet, being out there amongst them. It w...as the second day of the trip and we were still trying to adjust to how to shoot in the incredibly low temperatures. Some of our cameras on tripods outside, had completely frozen and the batteries were running out at a ridiculously fast rate, despite the use of our warmers. The temperature that afternoon was close to -28C. I was trying to stay warm in a thick down jacket and using snowshoes to help me get myself around. It felt like a very harsh environment to be in, even though it was an incredibly beautiful clear day. That afternoon, we drove to the top of the hill on our snowmobiles and I set up my tripod and camera at the top of a platform, found at the end of the road. The view from here was a wide stunning vista of the snowy hills, but what really captured my attention was a section of the forest with a very high density of frozen trees that looked like sentinels. Using a long lens, I was able to compress the image to what you see here. What works about this image You are invited to walk through the beautifully backlit delicate repetition of shape and form to the back of the frame by the gentle gradation of light and shifting colour hue. The tight composition and long focal length add an intriguing intensity to the core subjects of the packed trees who are literally frozen in time with a wonderfully silent, graceful poise.

14.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ These images were taken on a photography workshop with Grand Master of Photography, Peter Eastway, at the magnificent Torres del Paine National Park in Chile and I must say, capturing them took some seriously hard work! The trek to the Base of the Towers is the most famous and possibly the most challenging walk in the National Park. Despite being such a test for everyone, we were rewarded a hundred times over for our efforts,... with spectacular views amongst some of the most incredible natural scenery in the world. We left our hotel at 2 am to start the walk to the top of the towers which gave us just enough time to reach the summit and set up for the sunrise. After a long walk in the dark, we started the final ascent to the Base of the Towers just after clearing the forest. We made it just in time, and the conditions and lighting were absolutely incredible. On reflection, the trek to the top of this lookout is one of the hardest I have ever done, and my legs and knees were in pretty bad form when we returned to our hotel! Was it worth it? Of course it was! We earned every second of that amazing view and we managed to get the kind of captures you only dream about. I havent yet had the opportunity to be able to do this walk again, despite numerous visits to the park, mainly due to unfavourable weather conditions. This is certainly not a walk you can attempt when the strong Patagonian winds are baring their teeth! What works about this image This beautifully balanced scene benefits greatly from the use of clear diagonals, sensual curves and rich colour to lead the viewers eye around the frame. The evenly distributed tone smooths out this visual flow, the colours give it an engaging vibrance and the image structure and design give clear premise to the hero of the image - the magnificent granite towers.

14.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ The base image for this creation was an urban carpark captured in Queensland, Australia. There arent any brown bears in this part of the world of course so somewhat unsurprisingly, this is a composite of two separate images. The brown bear was actually captured with my drone whilst running a photography workshop in the remote Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia, in July 2017. Ill explain the process of its creation a bit ...more in depth, as it took some time and a fair stretch of the imagination to reach this final version. The image of the carpark was photographed from a chopper during a personal project called Black and Blue with my colleagues from The Light Collective and whilst I was reviewing and selecting images for this project, this image of the car park captured my attention. The lines and the geometry intrigued me and kept coming back into my mind, and I felt I could do something more with it. So, I began to clean up the image, but my mind was still ticking over as to what else it needed to really bring it to life Finally, it came to me that the maze of lines looked somewhat like a cage, and perhaps I could place something within it to symbolize it being trapped. I then remembered that I had taken a few images of bears with my drone the year before. When I found an image of one of them looking up with an engaging expression, I thought it would be perfect for the idea I had in mind What works about this image This is a strong graphical image in its own right with its crisp structure, pops of colour and refined spatial composition, but its true strength lies in its intriguing narrative. The concept of such a powerful, wild creature being trapped in the confines of a completely human constructed scene evokes a number of intriguing questions to be explored.

13.01.2022 Today is Monkey Day! I took these two images in Bali and Ethiopia. One is of a gelada monkey, sometimes called the bleeding-heart monkey or the gelada "baboon" and only in the Ethiopian Highlands and the other is a Balinese long-tailed Monkey. Do you know which one is which?

12.01.2022 Today is World African Wild Dog Day! African wild dogs were once found across the African continent but their populations have declined due to loss of habitat and threats from farmers who fear for their livestock. Unfortunately, African wild dogs are often hunted and killed by farmers who fear for their livestock. They are also threatened by shrinking space to roam in their African home as well as their susceptibility to diseases like rabies and canine distemper. The Interna...tional Union for Conservation of Nature reports that the population level of African wild dogs fluctuates but is in a likely irreversible decline, which is why it considers this species to be endangered. Their population is currently estimated at approximately 6,600 adults... The images attached were captured during a trip to Namibia in August 2008.

12.01.2022 I was running a photography workshop co-lead with Peter Eastway, through Bolivia. With the Bolivian jungle covering almost half of the country, a visit to the jungle is a must when exploring the country and the most popular gateway to this area is Rurrenabaque, a small town on the Beni River in the Bolivian Amazon Basin. Rurrenabaque is the entrance to the Madidi National Park and the Pampas wetlands that surround it. This image was captured whilst we were travelling along t...he Yacuma River in the Pampas, in the early hours of the evening. During the several hour journey to reach our accommodation, we were all amazed by the concentration of Alligators and Black caimans on the river and its banks. We literally saw hundreds of them! Although, we didn't manage to see an Anaconda in the region, we did see everything else including Macaws, Toucans, Capybaras a giant native cavey rodent and of course the Amazon River Dolphin otherwise known as the pink river dolphin! The concentration of birdlife along the river was phenomenal and in the moments of darkness, I was nursing my camera on my lap. Coming round a bend in the river, I noticed a group of white birds (perhaps Herons) roosting on a tree up ahead. I was pretty convinced that the birds would be disturbed by the noise of our boat and fly off, as soon as we approached them. I was ready for them and quickly pumped up my ISO to 51200, changed the aperture to f2.8 and shot the image at 1/20th of a second hand-held, whilst the boat was moving and the birds were flying away. Given that it was pitch black, and there was so much movement going on, I am not at all surprised that I didn’t achieve sharpness in any area of the image (I didn’t expect to) and I find the outcome to be quite appealing. See more

11.01.2022 This is an image that I photographed at Laguna Colorada (Red Lagoon) in Bolivia in September 2019 whilst co-leading a photography workshop with Grand Master of Photography, Peter Eastway. The Red Lagoon is located in the Altiplano, a vast, high-altitude desert plain of smoking volcanoes, rock formations, boiling mud ponds and drifting snow, with the Andes towering ever present. It is a sensational, otherworldly destination for photography and with its remote location, you are... guaranteed to get all of your shots without having to dodge any crowds or vie for the best position with your tripod. The vast lake, containing borax islands, whose white colour contrasts magnificently with the reddish colour of its waters, was on this morning, like a millpond. There was so many flamingos feeding and flying around during sunrise and we had plenty of time to try different vantage points and compositions to capture the James’, Andean and Chilean flamingos in their natural environment. It is quite an awe-inspiring experience just to see the colour of this lake and the number of flamingos in the area had increased since my last visit, which was a wonderful thing to see. I had previously been to this location many times and I took this opportunity to capture and create something a little different. A few days before arriving at this location, I had been thinking of using a 10-stop filter to portray a more creative interpretation of the scene, by capturing the blur/movement of the flamingo colony. I used my Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 lens and a 10-stop filter with my camera positioned on the tripod, concentrating on different areas of the lake, at various times during the morning. The lack of detail creates a level of mystery as the viewer searches through the image, trying to grasp what it is they are looking at, and being rewarded by the presence of the sharp detail of just a few flamingos in the scene.

11.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ This image was captured at Salar de Uyuni in the Bolivian Altiplano whilst running a photography workshop with Australian Landscape Photography legend Ken Duncan. I had been at the lake twice before, but this was my first time seeing it completely flooded and it was unlike anything I have ever experienced. Even though Im singing its praises as to capturing it in flood, its equally wonderful to experience and photograph whe...n dry. The two types of conditions lend themselves to uniquely different imagery. There is no good or bad time to visit the salt flats, it is simply a question of what you are looking for. I find that in early March, after the rainy season, you can often get lucky and capture it with some areas flooded and also some dry areas with striking hexagons to photograph as well. Driving on the lake while it was wet was amazing. It was like driving on top of a huge mirror reflecting the sky. The biggest natural mirror in the world. Several rivers drain their sediments into the Uyuni Salt Flats and the water accumulates on the nearly waterproof salty surface. What works about this image The image is simple yet bold in its design, leaning on the reflection and its resultant symmetry to tie a number of elements together. The colour and contrast give a striking initial impact and the human element adds scale, depth and a sense of story. It breaks a few rules but certainly benefits from doing so! Composition Generally, if the sky is more interesting than the foreground, it works best to compose it with the horizon line near the bottom of the frame. However, if the foreground is more interesting, it is often better to place the horizon line near the top of the frame. In this image, since it is a perfect reflection and both the foreground and sky have an equal amount of visual interest, it makes sense and works better to break the rules and place the horizon in the middle of the image.

10.01.2022 Judge tip: Douwe Dijkstra Douwe Dijkstra is a professional senior graphic designer based in Sydney. Born and raised in The Netherlands, he relocated down under in 2003 and now calls Australia home. His unique eye and creative flair make for engaging imagery, full of dynamic angles, unusual compositions, surprising reflections, strong lines, sharp light, graphic shapes, dramatic shadows, stark contrasts, candid moments and striking silhouettes.... Let’s take a look at his tip on Surprising reflections: Douwe is always on the lookout for reflections. He uses steel, water or glass surfaces to capture some surprising images. They appear like double exposures but are single shots, full of extra layers, interest and dimensions. Morphing two worlds into one. Douwe is one of the best mobile phone photographers I know. His composition is superb, and he is always looking for new angles and new ways to shoot some of Sydney’s most photographed icons. He is also supporting the 360 Degrees Photo Awards with his book #MySydney. If you are entering the Mobile Category, make sure that your images are unique from a compositional point of view as I am sure that is what he will be looking for. Have a look at his Instagram account, he just shoots black and white, which is something to take into account as well as he thinks that colour is a distraction, yet I am sure that you will be able to impress him with some colour images, if you dare Remember that the early bird offer of US$12 for single image or portfolio categories finishes 30 June, 2021 and the ‘pay for 4 and receive 5th entry free’ offer ends 31 May, 2021! Enter the 360 Photo Awards here https://360photoawards.com

09.01.2022 This image was taken during a photography workshop that I ran with Luminous Landscape and Art Wolfe in the Bolivian Altiplano. It is an image taken at sunset from the main viewpoint of Laguna Colorada (Red Lagoon). Red Lagoon is a shallow salt lake in the south-western region of the Altiplano of Bolivia, within the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve. The lagoon is home to thousands of James's flamingos and it is a beautiful location to photograph at all different ti...mes of the day as the colours of the lake continually change based on the position of the sun. A rare natural wonder in an already awe-inspiring landscape near the border of Chile; the blood-red lagoon spans 6000 hectares on the high-altitude desert plain and while vast in area, it is less than a metre deep. Some suggest that the water is actually the blood of the gods, but the colour derives from the algae and rich minerals in the water. It is a spectacular setting for photography, with the deep crimson lake providing a stark contrast to the clear blue sky and the white snow on the distant mountain peaks. The lake has an abundant supply of plankton and it is for this reason that an abundance of three different species - the Chilean, Andean and the incredibly rare James Flamingo call it their home. The flamingos are naturally white in colour and the red algae stains their feathers to a magnificent hue. I love the simplicity of this image with a lonely flamingo crossing the white borax island peppered lake. As the flamingo is quite a social bird, thriving on the interaction of other members of their very large colony and also staying together to help protect each other from predators when their heads are down in the mud, I really had to keep my eyes peeled, continually scanning the scene, until I found a Flamingo alone. This sense of loneliness captured, and the scale evident against the vast expanse of the lake, creates a very emotive and simplistic image.

09.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ This is a composite image with a bit of a love story behind it. The original capture was photographed in Lapland in February 2018 during my first ever visit to Finland in winter. The aurora was photographed in the Lofoten islands in Norway, during another trip in 2019. The original capture of the frozen tree was taken at Kuntivaara fjell Frozen Forest at around sunset with a completely overcast sky. I had to walk for quite a... long time in -25C temperatures using snowshoes until I found this tree that was completely bent over with enough weight of snow for its tip to touch the ground. When I first engaged with this image back home, I decided to call the image Broken because thats how I was feeling at that time. I began working on this image at the same time I created Heartbroken, which is featured in Volume 1. I was having huge relationship issues and I was feeling such a weight on my soul, similar to this tree. A year later, I again travelled to Scandinavia where I witnessed an incredible aurora in Hamnøy, in the Lofoten Islands (Norway). This aurora seemed to lift my spirits with a great feeling of hope. So, 12 months after I created Broken, while still working through some issues in my relationship, I decided to blend this element of hope into the original Broken capture and drop in the aurora I had captured in Lofoten. I changed the name of the image with the aurora in reflection of this hope I was feeling in my relationship. What works about this image This capture has a bold and arresting combination of shape and colour, plenty of interesting compositional lines to follow with the eye and a fresh take on an aurora scene with its striking and unique foreground. The blend of sinuous curves throughout infuses the image with a delightful sensuality and visual rhythm and the colour way in the sky lifts the viewer away from the heavier emotions below up into the realm of hope and possibility.

08.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ This is an image taken in Bolivia at Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat. I was running a photography tour with my friend and colleague Peter Eastway and a group of intrepid photographers. It was September and the lake was dry - the perfect time to visit to photograph its iconic hexagons. There is an island in the centre of the salt flats called Incahuasi island. It is a hilly and rocky outcrop situated at a very ...high elevation of 3,656 metres. Incahuasi means house of the Inca in the native language of Quechua. The island hosts gigantic cacti. These cacti are hundreds of years old and grow at an approximate rate of one centimeter per year. Most of them are over two meters high with some even reaching up to an astonishing 10 metres. The stark contrast with the barren and dry salt flats is what makes the abundant plant life of this island even more fascinating. This particular morning, I focused on photographing cacti with the Salar and mountains in the background. I took quite a few images until I found the kind of shot that I was looking for with qualities of simplicity, symmetry and minimalism. What works about this image This capture cleverly presents us a snapshot of life in the worlds largest salt flat with a graphic, surreal and minimalistic interpretation. The high light speaks to the harshness of the landscape, the depth of scene has been staged through depth of field and subject overlay and we are given a huge amount of negative space to explore its underlying feeling and narrative. Composition This image is intentionally minimalistic with only three elements - the cactus, the mountains in the background and the white Salar salt plains being presented in the scene.

07.01.2022 New Workshop Announced! - Lord Howe Island is my favorite island in the world. A tiny Australian island in the Tasman Sea with sandy beaches, subtropical forests, and incredibly clear and coral-rich waters. Mt Gower, the Valley of the Shadows, Neds Beach are some of it highlights and the seabird colonies, including masked boobies. Limited to just 9 guests, a great price to this paradise that includes return flights to the island and accomodation.

07.01.2022 Today is International Cheetah day! With fewer than 7,500 cheetahs remaining in the wild (down from 100,000 a century ago), the survival of the species depends on human conservation action. Famous for being fast cheetahs can reach speeds of up to 110 kph in short bursts however, sadly they are losing their race for survival. Cheetahs face numerous threats, including human-wildlife conflict, habitat loss, loss of prey base and fragmentation. Their situation is further chal...lenged by a lack of genetic diversity, which makes the species more vulnerable to ecological and environmental changes. Over the past decade, a new threat has emerged with devastating consequences, the poaching of cheetah cubs from East Africa to supply the illegal pet trade demand in the Middle East. Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), the longest-running research, education and conservation organisation dedicated to saving the wild cheetah. If you want to help these beautiful animals, here is the link for CCFL: https://cheetah.org/

07.01.2022 Today is World Gorilla day, one of our closest relatives! These pictures taken in the Virungas Volcanos National Park in August 2008. The family I photographed was the Amahoro (meaning peaceful). At that time, the family had 17 members led by the peaceful silverback called Ubumwe. As of Spring 2010, the estimated total number of Mountain Gorillas worldwide was 790. Nowadays this number has increased a bit due to international efforts on different projects. We were only allowe...d to be with the gorillas for one hour. A very short but amazing experience that will always be at the top of African memories. The family was not very active that day but regardless of that, it was a good opportunity to get some very special images. The mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) is one of the two subspecies of the Eastern Gorilla. One is found in the Virunga volcanic mountains of Central Africa. The other is found in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

07.01.2022 This image was captured using my Nikon D300 (1.5 crop factor) with a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 lens attached, in the Virungas Volcanoes National Park located in north-western Rwanda, in August 2008. I was travelling around the African continent on one of those large trucks with a canvas canopy (like an army troop mover) that go from Nairobi all the way to Victoria Falls, crossing though Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Malawi and Zambia. It was an absolutely incredible experience and was... paramount in cementing my love for Africa, a destination that I have since returned to, time and time again. The Virungas Volcanoes National Park, Africa’s oldest national park, named after the chain of dormant volcanoes making up the Virunga Massif, is home to the endangered mountain gorilla and a rich mosaic of mountain ecosystems, including evergreen and bamboo forest, open grassland, swamp and heath. The rainforest is also home to over 200 species of colourful birds and the rare golden monkey. The endangered Mountain gorilla, one of the two sub-species of Eastern gorilla, lives in forests high in the mountainous region, at an elevation of 8000-13000 feet. The gorilla, weighing up to 200kg and growing to a height of 180cm, have thick, dense fur which helps them to survive in a habitat where temperatures often fall below freezing. Our trip to visit the Mountain gorilla came at a high price of USD1000 per person to spend just one hour with the family troop that I photographed. This troop, known as the Amahoro (meaning peaceful), at the time, consisted of 17 members, and was led by the peaceful silverback named Ubumwe. The experience was certainly a peaceful one, in the almost impenetrable jungle and the low light conditions required the moment to be captured using an aperture of f4.5, 1/125th and ISO200. The awe-inspiring experience, although very short and the family wasn’t terribly active on the day, remains as the most memorable of all of my African adventures.

07.01.2022 ~Dissecting Award Winning Shots: Landscapes Vol.2~ I had travelled to Patagonia before and captured some wonderful imagery, but never during the Autumn season. This image was from my inaugural photography workshop to the region, co-led with my good friend and Grand Master of Photography, Peter Eastway with an intrepid group of photographers in tow! We arrived in March, which is traditionally an excellent time to catch the autumn colours and the timing didnt disappoint Thi...s image was shot at Parque Nacional los Glaciares (Glaciers National Park) near El Chalten in Argentinian Patagonia. The mountain in the background is Mt. Fitz Roy, which is a great subject to photograph in itself. The best way to access the most incredible scenery in this area of the National Park is to embark on a three day / two-night bushwalking and camping loop. Although the last day can be a little tough for some people, it never disappoints, and everyone almost always comes back with remarkable images and a very memorable experience. This image was captured from a location very close to our base campsite on Poincenot. There are some excellent side walks to waterfalls from there and a few lakes which make make stunning foregrounds for the iconic Mt. Fitz Roy in the background. It took me quite some time to compose this image and I had to step off the bridge and wet my boots to get closer to the tree trunk with my wide-angle lens. I was photographing this image with a medium format camera and a 25 mm f4 prime lens at f11. This is a 19.5mm equivalent field-of-view in most camera types. What works about this image This capture is strikingly rich in its variety and display of colour, texture and form. It has a wonderful sense of depth and dimensionality and an interesting mix of intricate detail and wider grandeur woven together into the one scene. Despite its myriad of features packed into almost every space, it still presents with a clear visual balance and pleasing flow.

07.01.2022 This is an image I captured in the Bolivian Altiplano, when I was running a photography workshop alongside Grand Master of Photography, Peter Eastway. This was taken at Green Lagoon, very close to the border with Chile. It is a stunningly beautiful place! Green Lagoon is positioned at the southwestern extremity of the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve. It has suspensions of arsenic and other minerals which are responsible for the distinct colour of its waters. This... colour varies from turquoise to dark emerald depending on the disturbance caused to sediments in the lake by winds. Strong winds are not an uncommon phenomenon in this area so the colour change is often dynamic and changeable but always striking. The lake waters can attain temperatures as low as -56 C, yet because of its chemical composition, it never actually freezes. In the backdrop behind the lake you can see the inactive volcano Licancabur which reaches a soaring height of 5,868 metres. This is a region that I have visited many times and I know very well personally but what made this trip extra interesting for me visually was the fact that I had never experienced these kind of weather conditions before. What works about this image The rich colour, punchy contrast and dramatic weather and light give this image a lot of energy and dynamism. Graphically it has a myriad of intriguing shapes and design features and the timing and positioning to catch this fleeting moment of drama is impeccable. It has a simple but lush mix of complementary colours, distinctive natural framing and a lot of detail and layering to enjoy when you walk around the image.

06.01.2022 Today is World Elephant day!. It I was supposed to see and photograph some elephants this month in South Africa with a group of guests but due to covid-19 we have had to postpone our trip to 2021. Elephants are smart, emotional, self-aware and highly social creatures. As well as being the largest land mammal on earth, elephants are a keystone species and play an important role in the environment where they live. However, having roamed the wild for 15 million years, today, this iconic species faces the biggest threats to its survival due to ivory poaching, human-wildlife conflict and habitat destruction.

05.01.2022 Today is Save the Koala Day! Australia is recovering from a nationwide bushfire emergency. More than 12 million hectares of Australian land was burnt last summer... When habitat is lost, our wildlife suffers. It's estimated over 1.25 billion animals may have been killed directly or indirectly from the fires so far, including thousands of koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, birds and other iconic wildlife. ... Koalas are heading towards extinction in New South Wales and southeast Queensland as early as 2050. Will you help launch a critical and bold plan to save them, before it's too late? If you care, donate here: https://donate.wwf.org.au/#gs.7ri9ws

04.01.2022 Just announced...! Peter Eastway and I are organising an inpirational photography workshop at the beautiful Blue Mountains in June. During the weekend, we will touch on all aspects of photography from the capture/composition point of view to editing and printing. It will be intense but we hope you can get a lot out of it...There will be presentations, processing/critique sessions and printing sessions. And Peter will bring some new jokes! We will be bringing an Epson printer and lots of different types of Canson paper for you to print a few of your master pieces. If you want to learn a bit more about this, click on the link below or contact me.

04.01.2022 Today is World Orangutan day! This is an image of an orangutan that I took in October 2007 at Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Malaysia. Not an amazing image but reminds me of some great memories I had in Borneo... I am so looking forward to another trip to Malaysia or Sumatra to photograph them in the wild properly... The Sepilok Orangutan Rehab centre opened in 1964 as the first official orangutan rehabilitation project for rescued orphaned baby orangutans from logging sites, plantations, illegal hunting or kept as pets. The orphaned orangutans are trained to survive again in the wild and are released as soon as they are ready.

02.01.2022 Today is World Lion Day and I invite you to bring awareness to the declining population of lions and his habitats. The lion species, also known as Panthera leo, is one of the largest species on earth. Unfortunately, as majestic lions my seem, they are slowly disappearing. As far back as 3 million years ago, lions roamed freely across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Today, lions are live freely in their natural habitat in only two locations, Africa and Asia.... Curr...ently, there are about 30,000 to 100,000 lions left on earth. In the past few decades, lion populations have decreased almost by half. Trophy hunting and loss of natural habitat are the primary reasons for the diminishing lion population. Get involved here: https://www.worldlionday.com/

01.01.2022 Thank you to Epson Australia for generously sponsoring the 360 Photo Awards and one of the main categories of this competition. Epson is giving away an amazing printer, the SureColor P906. I have been using Epson printers since 2008 and they are incredible. At the moment I own and print with an Epson SureColor P800. The model that Epson is providing as a prize is a newer model that features: Exhibition Quality prints up to A2+ size but in an A3 sized footprint.... Superb print quality and colour Epson UltraChrome Pro10 Ink with Violet, is a new industry-leading ink technology, delivering an extended colour gamut producing vibrant and rich prints. Dedicated black inks No more automatic switching of the Photo / Matte Black inks with both inks having their own channel in the print head that means you will be printing straight away rather than waiting for ink cartridges to switch over. Optional Roll paper Support Many specialty media stocks are only available in a roll format. With a low cost add-on you can now output onto an expanded range of media while also producing panoramic images up to 17" wide and over 1m in length. Customisable 4.3" touchscreen with gesture control The SureColor SC-P906 has a built-in 4.3" touchscreen with a keypad and gesture navigation that features an impressive touch sensitive customisable LCD display panel which allows you to check the printer status, ink levels and perform routine maintenance tasks along with a variety of other tasks all with a swipe of the screen. You have the opportunity to win this prize for as little as US$12. Remember that the early bird offer of US$12 for a single image or portolio categories finishes 30 June, 2021 and the ‘pay for 4 and receive 5th entry free’ offer ends 31 May, 2021! Enter the 360 Photo Awards here https://360photoawards.com #Epson #EpsonAustralia

01.01.2022 Second round . These images are super special for me, absolutely amazing prints that have received gold awards and silver distinction awards at the APPAs and WPPI. They were printed and matted by Perth ProLab and are beautiful. They have been for too long in my office but now they need to find an owner. I will charge a bit more for these ones $200 including postage to Australia. Some of them are already gone but I can print them again if you wre interested. It is still an incredible offer You can find classics like Salar de Uyuni, Spa Pool, Welcome to life, Flamingos, Heartbroken Send me a private message and confirm in the comments below.