Category: Wildlife Photographs

Wildlife Photographs from around the World

Photo of the Month November 2018 – Emperor Colony

Posted in Antarctica, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel Photography, Uncategorized, Wildlife Photographs2 Comments

The photograph of the month for November 2018 comes from my 2016 expedition to the remote sea ice of Gould Bay in Antarctica to visit and photograph the Emperor Penguins (Read the Trip Report). This particular photograph remains one of my favourites from  this expedition. It includes the main Emperor colony  with the small fluffy chick leading the line of penguins that recedes off into the distance.

I am very excited that in less than two weeks now I will be returning to Gould Bay in Antarctica to lead my sold out 2018 expedition to the Emperor Penguins.  I am planning to shoot a bit more video this time and hope to have some behind the scenes snippets to show just what its like to participate in this expedition to one of the most remote and hard to reach places on the planet.

EmperorsExpedition2016-20102-Edit

In other news my blog has just gone through a fairly major behind the scenes update over the last few days. Most of the changes that needed to be made are ‘under the hood’, but there are a few cosmetic changes. As a result of these necessary upgrades you may need to re-subscribe if you want to be kept updated (apologies for that – it was unavoidable).

Lastly, to those of you who asked about Part Two of the Master the Craft series of articles, I am hoping to have Part Two ready late next week and will publish as soon as possible. Website updates, printing and life have just got in the way this week…

Photo of the Month October 2018 – The Wolverine

Posted in Finland, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel Photography, Wildlife PhotographsLeave a comment

The photograph of the month for October 2018 comes from my recent trip to northern Finland. I had travelled to Finland to speak at the Nature Photo festival in Kuusamo (which was a fantastic event with some wonderful photography). Since Finland its such a long way from Australia (four flights each way) I decided to extend the trip by a few days and take the opportunity for some photography.

This photograph was made just near the northern Russian border with Finland from a small photo hide just near dusk. I was extremely fortunate to have this large Wolverine come very close to the hide just as the light was beginning to turn warm and golden. This sort of encounter doesn’t happen very often with wildlife and I had quite honestly expected to have to spend many hours or even days in the hide to catch a glimpse of a Wolverine. As it turned out I did not have to wait more than a couple of hours and was able to capture this wonderful moment with the Wolverine quite close to my hide position. What really works for me is the warm golden light catching the fur of the Wolverine and of course that wonderful moment with the huge paw (and claws!) on the log. I will be heading back to Finland in both Winter and Autumn next year for both landscape and wildlife (more to come on the Autumn workshop soon). The February winter workshop is primarily based in Kuusamo, although we will actually begin in Kajanni in the north of Finland where we will be working from private hides in an effort to photograph Wolves, Wolverine and Golden eagles in a snow covered landscape.

The main activity of this winter workshop is wildlife photography. However, you will also be able to take advantage of the spectacular winter landscape (the frozen trees and landscape of Finland in winter are superb for photography). This exclusive opportunity to photograph the wildlife and landscapes of northern Finland in Winter is for a strictly limited number of just 6 photographers plus leader and guide – with only two places remaining before it will be sold out. If you are interested in joining us and securing the last remaining place you can download a complete itinerary with costings and all details HERE.

Photo of the Month September 2018 – Polar Bear Reflections

Posted in Arctic, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel Photography, Uncategorized, Wildlife Photographs, Workshops and ExpeditionsLeave a comment

The middle of September has rolled around and its high time for the photograph of the month. This photograph from my Polar Bears of Svalbard expedition this July and August. What I really love about this photograph is the sense of environment and space in which the Polar Bear lives. If memory serves correctly I think it was close to midnight when I took this photograph. The light is soft and ethereal and there was a light fog that just softened everything beautifully. The Polar Bear was wandering up and down the ice flow and paused for just a moment in just the right place for this photograph. This was quite close to our expedition ship and I was able to make this image with just a 24-70mm F4L IS lens. If you want to photograph Polar Bears like this up in the pack ice in their natural environment then there are now only three places left on my Svalbard High Arctic expedition next July before it will be sold out. You can drop me an email for further details or download the full PDF itinerary from my website at www.jholko.com

AIPP Luminous Project Print Auction 2018

Posted in Antarctica, Media, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel Photography, Uncategorized, Wildlife PhotographsLeave a comment

Unless you are a member of the AIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photography) you probably haven’t heard of the AIPP’s Luminous Project. The Luminous Project was a concept created a few years ago, and has been designed to celebrate photographic excellence, community spirit and offering photographers a helping hand when needed.

 One part of the Project is the Luminous Fund, which has been established to accept donations and bequests, and raise funds via the Luminous Auction. This is a silent auction run online, comprised of photographs from the year’s APPA submissions, with images selected before the judging to ensure the print’s score is not a consideration. Previous auctions have raised over $11,500 for the Luminous Fund, which is set aside in the accounts and only used for the purposes of the Luminous Project.

This year’s silent auction offers prints, chosen from this year’s 2018 APPA entries, with the objective of raising funds for The Luminous Grant for student education. This year I am pleased to announce that one of my photographs ‘Lone Gentoo’ from Antarctica has been selected (the print scored a Silver with Distinction at APPA), and a 13 x 19 inch print will be auctioned for the Luminous Fund. Only 15 images were selected in total this year, so its quite an honour to be chosen.

You can bid on the print of your choice HERE. Prints are available for bidding until 5pm AEST Monday 17th September 2018 on the AIPP Galabid site.

APPA – Australian Professional Photography Awards Finalist Nature Category 2018

Posted in Antarctica, Arctic, Media, News and Updates, Travel Photography, Uncategorized, Wildlife Photographs1 Comment

The 2018 APPA (Australian Professional Photography Awards) awards wrapped up this evening with the awards ceremony and Gala dinner in Melbourne. Due to some personal commitments I was not able to attend the ceremony and dinner in person this year, but I did very much enjoy judging on the Saturday and Sunday. The standard of work this year was particularly strong (especially in the Nature category) with some absolutely outstanding images in all categories.

This year I chose to enter my four photographs into the Wildlife sub-category of Nature and was very pleased to have all four score extremely well. Whilst I didn’t quite reach my stretch goal of 6 points (I scored 5) I did accrue enough overall points to make the finals in the category (which in many ways is even better!) My individual prints scored 91 Gold Award (2 Points), 87 Silver with Distinction (1 Point), 85 Silver with Distinction (1 Point) and 85 Silver with Distinction (1 Point). I am now just one point (one point!) away from my 2nd Gold Bar and a double Master of Photography – M.Photog II. That honour will have to wait until APPA 2019 though. Importantly for me, I now have the five required Gold Awards (I already had the 10 required Silver with Distinctions) for the honour of Grand Master of Photography. That will come in a few more years I hope if I can amass enough points. In the meantime, my images from APPA 2018 below and congratulations to the winners of each category and the overall PPY winner. See you at APPA 2019…

Mother and Cub – 87 Silver with DistinctionPolar Bear on Blue Ice – 91 Gold AwardPolar Bear For-play – 85 Silver with DistinctionLone Gentoo – 85 Silver with Distinction