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2017 has arrived! (At least for those of us living in Australia). For those of you in America and Europe you still have a few more hours to go – but I i wanted to get in early and wish all of you a very safe, happy and prosperous 2017. I hope your year ahead is full of lots of photography, wonderful light and that you make some incredible photographs. 2017 is going to be a hectic year for me with a lot of travel and some exciting new destinations.  I am keen to make a start…

I am kicking off 2017 here on my blog with my photograph of the month for January. An image I made in the Arctic in August 0f 2015 of a large Polar Bear cub resting on an ice flow in Svalbard. We were fortunate to spot this Polar Bear and to be able to manoeuvre close in our small ship M.S Origo. M.S Origo is the same ship I have chartered for a dedicated Polar Bear photography trip in late July in 2017 (one place remaining before the expedition will be sold out). M.S Origo is widely regarded as the best ship in the Arctic for photographing Polar Bears due to its low decks and operable portholes a mere fifty centimetres above the waterline. This enables the photographer to get down to eye level with wild Polar Bears living and hunting on the pack ice. I made this particular photograph with the Canon EOS1DX and Canon’s 200-400 F4L IS with inbuilt 1.4 Teleconverter. This photograph was recently High Honoured by Natures Best Photography in the Polar Passion Category.