This past weekend past saw the annual running of the annual 2016 Australian Professional Photography Awards (affectionately known to all those who enter as APPA). For those of you who may be unfamiliar with APPA you can read a previous blog post with my thoughts on the awards HERE.
This year was different for me as I was neither attending or judging the awards as I am currently in Iceland finishing up the second of two back-to-back workshops in the Highlands (I am headed back to Australia as soon as I finish this post – currently at the Iceland Air Saga Lounge). Although the APPA awards are live streamed across the internet the award timing happened to coincide with a period of time when I was in a very remote part of the Highlands without internet access and as such I subsequently learned of my scores after the event.
This was the sixth year I have entered the APPA awards. This year I again chose to enter the Science, Wildlife and Wild Places category (formally known as the Science, Environment and Nature Category), not only because I won this overall category in 2014, but also because this category has very rigid rules on image manipulation that are consistent with my own ethics for minimalist post production techniques. I have actually developed a severe allergy to the Landscape category at APPA for its ‘anything goes’ post production mantra that turns the entire category into a photoshop farce. More to come on this in a future post…
This year I chose to enter three images from the Arctic that I felt conveyed strong emotional feelings of wildlife in the landscape in dramatic conditions and one from South Georgia Island. I was thrilled to receive a Gold Award, a Silver with Distinction award and a Silver award for my first three entries. The fourth scored a 79 falling just short of Silver. This overall total placed me in the finals for the overall category win. It also provided sufficient points for my first Gold Bar toward my Grand Masters.
This year I also chose to enter my new book ‘Melrakki‘ into the Professional Book Award and was very pleased to receive a highly coveted Silver with Distinction award. Thank you very much to all those who contacted me after the judging with such overwhelmingly positive feedback on the book. Those of you who have pre-ordered the book (thank you) should start receiving them later this month.
This photography workshop will last for 11 days (11 nights). We will be staying in good hotels and guest houses that are functional and clean. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all included and will generally be held at the hotels where we are staying. However, this workshop is all about photography and we will be putting in long hours in the field in order to ensure we get the best possible light for photography. We may take food and drink with us into the field to ensure we are in the right locations get the best possible light. 
Itinerary: We start in the morning of May 27th in Reykjavik City and drive out to the Snaefellsnes peninsula. We’ll photograph birds and landscapes out at the edge of Snaefellsnes at Hellnar and Arnarstapi and will visit the iconic Mt. Kirkjufell. We’ll then overnight in the town of Stykkisholmur.
In the morning of May 29th we’ll get back on the ferry and finish the crossing. From the ferry port at the northern side of Breidafjordur bay we have couple of hours journey to Breidavik, where we’ll be based for the next three nights. From there it’s a 12km drive out to the magnificent seabird cliff Latrabjarg. This westernmost point of Europe is the home of millions of seabirds. It rises 440m out of the sea and is 14km long. The best locations for photography are within walking distance from the car park and we’ll have Fulmars and Kittiwakes soaring through the air, Guillemots (Murres) and Razorbills sitting on the cliff but it’s for the Puffins that we have come to Latrabjarg. Nowhere else are Puffins as tame. They can be photographed at close range, even with a wide-angle lens, and the cliff faces in a perfect direction for the setting sun. The Puffins can therefore be photographed in beautiful golden light or against the setting sun, creating wonderful silhouettes. As we are fast approaching the longest day of the year we have many hours of low light in the evening and early morning.
Closer to our accommodation in Breidavik we can venture out and photograph the birds in the area, such as Common Eider, Ringed Plover and possibly Ptarmigan. Arctic Foxes are frequently also seen in this part of the country and with luck we might find some arctic foxes to photograph during our time in this area.
After our stay in the West Fjords we prepare for a long journey along the northern coast to the town of Dalvik. We’ll make a number of stops for photography on the way and will stay in Dalvik the night of June 1st so that we’ll be ready for the morning ferry to Grimsey Island on June 2nd. Grimsey is the northernmost inhabited Icelandic territory and the Arctic Circle runs through the island. The small island has about 85 inhabitants, is 5.3 square kilometres in size and has steep cliffs on almost every side, which makes it an ideal habitat for seabirds. During our three-day stay on the island we’ll continue to expand on our Puffin photography, now in a completely different environment that has a much larger population of Puffins than at Latrabjarg. Due to the remoteness of the island the accommodation is quite basic. The guesthouse offers comfortable full-board lodging but bathrooms are shared. Visiting Grimsey is a once in a lifetime adventure and its rich birdlife will keep us busy throughout the day and night.
On June 5th we’ll depart Grimsey for the main land and drive back west along the scenic northern coast. We’ll overnight in Skagafjordur in the north, where we’ll have good opportunities for coastal landscapes and more of Iceland’s common birds, such as Whooper Swans. The Skagafjordur area is also known for its horse breeding and there are Icelandic horses almost everywhere.
www.WILDNATUREPHOTOTRAVEL.com 