I have just published episode 167 of my Wild Nature Photography Podcast. In this episode, I caught up with and interviewed Australian professional landscape photographer and fine-art gallery owner Matt Palmer. This is an informal discussion about our thoughts on landscape photography, covering everything from equipment and field craft to gallery ownership and printing.
Yesterday I received the wonderful and unexpected news that I had been awarded the Gold Award and named the overall Nature/Wildlife Category Winner in the 2026 Golden Shot Photography Awards. I also won the Silver second-place award in the minimalist category.
This was my very first time entering these awards, so to receive this recognition is both incredibly humbling and deeply gratifying. I’m truly grateful to the judges for selecting my photograph from so many outstanding entries from photographers around the world. Awards are never the reason I head into the field, but they are a wonderful affirmation of the patience, persistence, and passion that go into creating meaningful wildlife photographs. I’m honoured that this image resonated so strongly with the judging panel, as it’s a photograph I have vivid memories of capturing only earlier this year.
The second stage of the Australian Photographic Prize in the Natural Landscape category has now been run and judged (the Wildlife and Birds Category were just a few days ago). This was the third and final category I chose to enter into this year’s awards (Wildlife was my primary category with two photographs also in the Bird category). The Natural Landscape category was a section I mused over for some time before deciding to enter a single image to ‘test the waters’. I was subsequently absolutely thrilled to have my photograph selected as part of the ‘Top 30‘ in the category.
The second and final stage of the judging was online and livestreamed to YouTube yesterday afternoon here in Australia. Just click the link below if you want to watch the judging for the scores and judges’ comments. The photograph I entered from Iceland of a storm wave went on to earn a highly coveted Gold Award, for which I am thrilled and extremely grateful.
Overall, I entered eight photographs into this year’s Australian Photographic Prize Award, and I am feeling extremely honoured that my final haul included two Gold with Distinction Awards, five Gold Awards, and a Silver with Distinction. My Points tally for this year came to a grand total of 16.5 points; my best ever year and pushing me will into the Laurette category, just a few points shy of Laurette II. It also earned me enough points for my Master of Photography with three gold bars. The overall winner of the categories will be announced on August 13th next month.
The second stage of the Australian Photographic Prize in the Birds category has now been run and judged (Wildlife Category was just a few days ago – RESULTS). This was the secondary category I chose to enter into this year’s awards (Wildlife was my primary category and I also have one photograph in the Natural Landscape Category, which is yet to be judged), and I was absolutely thrilled to have both of my photographs I entered be selected as part of the ‘Top 30‘ in the category.
The second and final stage of the judging was online and livestreamed to YouTube just two days ago. Just click the link above if you want to watch the judging for the scores and judges’ comments. Both of the photographs I entered went on to earn highly coveted Gold Awards (the only Gold Awards in the category). I am blown away to have the two highest-scoring images in the entire category!
The overall Bird category winner will be announced on 13 August. Although my photographs received the highest scores in the category during the public judging, the category winner is selected separately during a final private voting by the judging panel, with each finalist considered again on its own merits. Whatever the outcome, I already feel enormously fortunate with the results so far, and I’m simply grateful to have had my work recognised alongside so many outstanding photographs. The final scores for each photograph are included above.
I have just published episode 166 of my Wild Nature Photography podcast. In this episode, I dive into a discussion on the ideal gloves for cold-weather photography. This podcast is an expanded discussion and deeper dive into the confused world of cold weather gloves that are suitable for photography in frigid climates. I have previously published a fairly extensive blog post and podcast on boots for cold-weather photography.
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