It has been a whirlwind of ‘to do lists’ over the last week since I returned from my winter Iceland workshop and Namibia overland workshops and as usual my photograph of the month is somewhat belated. Between catching up on all my email correspondence, office paper work and winning the 2014 Epson Victorian Professional Science, Environment and Nature photographer of the year, Creative Photographer of the Year, Highest Scoring Print of the Year and scooping the pool with the grand prize of Epson Victorian Professional Photographer of the Year I have just barely had a few moments to begin to sort and edit the more than five thousand images I shot whilst I was away. The reality is it will likely be many months before I have finished the editing and post production work. I do feel I did some good work in both Iceland and Namibia and I am looking forward to sharing them here on my blog and on my website over the coming months. I have very much enjoyed seeing some of the photographs that were captured during these workshops by participants and it never ceases to amaze me how high the standard of work can be from people who are passionate about their photography. I will also have a full debrief report from both the Iceland and Namibia workshops over the coming weeks here on my blog.
In the meantime, my photograph of the month for May is of a large female Polar Bear I photographed in late July last year at the edge of the permanent pack ice north of Svalbard. I was fortunate to be in the right position when this bear wandered up to the edge of the ice and peered down into the still waters and her own reflection. In terms of distance this Polar Bear was less than thirty feet from the boat when I made this image and I used Canon’s new 200-400mm F4L IS lens with inbuilt 1.4 Teleconverter. This photograph scored a highly coveted Gold Award at the recent VPPY Awards and was one of the photographs in my Creative Folio and Science, Nature and Environment Folio. 
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