My 2023 Spring Light expedition to Svalbard this April is now Sold Out. Thank you to all those joining me for this exciting Winter / early Spring expedition this year. Early April in Svalbard is a magical time, and I look forward to traveling and photographing in the Arctic in winter with you. This also will be my last planned expedition to Svalbard for the foreseeable future. Keep an eye on my website for future Polar Bear expeditions to the Arctic in new destinations.

This year (2023), I will be judging several categories for Capture Magazines ‘Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers competition. Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers recognizes, encourages, and promotes talented photographers in the early stages of their careers. Winners and runners-up will be showcased in the May/June 2023 issue of Capture. If you fit the bill for the emerging photographer, be sure to get your entries in soon.

The photograph of the month for January 2023 comes from my July 2022 expedition to Svalbard (Read the Trip Report) and is of a giant male Walrus on the beach in Svalbard during a heavy downpour. This photograph was taken by lying down on the wet sand (a very wet and sandy place to be that necessitated being hosed off on return to the ship!) using a 600mm lens. This photograph was featured in the recent Wildlife Photographic magazine that included a full feature on Walrus and one of my photographs as the cover shot.

I have just published Episode #61  of my Wild Nature Photography Podcast. In this episode, I briefly wrap up our fantastic Pallas Cat expedition in the far east of Mongolia in Winter (full trip report coming soon) and then move on to a significant rant about the total lack of customer service and care from what is supposed to be Australia’s number-one premier airline – Qantas. The total lack of customer support, lack of care, and total focus on profit at all costs is an embarrassment to Australia. I have been a Qantas Platinum flyer (a status that is apparently utterly worthless) for nearly ten years. I have spent many tens of thousands of dollars annually with the airline over the last decade. Today was the final straw, with Qantas providing me an unworkable connection time of just twenty minutes in Helsinki as their solution to a change in their flight schedules. Apparently, I am expected to land in Helsinki from Reykjavik and change to my international flight to Doha in twenty minutes. An absolutely impossible transit time. Their solution when I pointed this out was, I quote, ‘We are sorry; that is all we can offer you. You can speak with the service desk when you arrive in Helsinki.‘ My answer is to vote with my wallet and take my business elsewhere. In summary, I am absolutely done with Qantas and will no longer book future travel with them if I can avoid it. Sayonara Qantas.

The just-published January / February 2023 issue of Wildlife Photographic magazine includes one of my photographs of Walrus on the front cover and a feature article on my experiences photographing Walrus in the Arctic – ‘Beauty in the Beast.’ This is the sixth time I have been published in Wildlife Photographic and the fifth time I have been fortunate to score the cover shot! (the last four cover shot editions were on Grey Wolf Photography, Pallas Cat Photography,  Arctic Fox Photography, and Polar Bear Photography). I have also been published in Wildlife Photographic for my Emperor Penguin photography.

The magazine can be found in the Apple App Store http://bit.ly/1aKP3qR and in the Google Play Store at http://bit.ly/1JOhMcW

Please use the following link to get three free issues!  Free Subscription to Wildlife Photographic Magazine.