December Photo of the Month Winner – Rachel Mallais

Congratulations to the twelfth and final print winner for 2015 ‘Rachel Mallais’ for the photograph of the month for December 2015: ‘Fox Huddle’.

What Rachel said: Joshua, another gorgeous image to complete the year. It would look beautiful in my renovated house. I love the look in that face as both foxes are about to become ‘snowfoxies’! Keep up with those beautiful traveling images in the upcoming year.Hornvik-9854-EditCongratulations Rachel (and thank you for the wonderful comment!), your print will be sent to you next week. This was the final print giveaway for 2015 – my congratulations to all the winners throughout the year.  Remember the best way to get instant updates is to subscribe via email.

Photo of the Month December – Fox Huddle – Win a Fine Art Print!

The final photograph of the month for 2015 is part of the Arctic Fox project I have been working on for the last few years in a remote part of Iceland during the winter months. This male and female fox were huddled together near my snow blind for about an hour during some pretty serious weather last winter. The wind was howling and the snow was flying – the ideal conditions I look for when photographing Arctic and Antarctic wildlife. Photographing in these conditions is challenging, but the results are incredibly rewarding.

I will be returning to Iceland to finish this project early in the new year and will subsequently be releasing a small portfolio of prints and a limited edition book later next year to celebrate the completion of the project on what is one of Nature’s greatest survivors. The portfolio will be available early in the New Year with the book to follow around the middle of 2016.Hornvik-9854-EditDon’t forget! You can win a free 13″ x 19″ Fine Art Print of this photograph including shipping anywhere in the world. All you need do is to be the first to comment on this post on the home page with your thoughts on why you like this photograph or why you would like to own a print of the image and then share the post with your preferred social media outlet.

This will be the final print giveaway for 2015. Over the course of the year I have given away more than a dozen prints (some months I sent out several prints) that have gone around the world and that have found their way onto the walls of homes and offices. The chance to give something back in 2015 has been something I have very much enjoyed and the feedback I have received from those who have won a print throughout the year has been incredibly fulfilling. I would very much to continue this series going forward, but due to a very heavy travel schedule next year I will just not have time to regularly make and send out the prints. As such, this will be final print give away for the foreseeable future – so don’t miss your last chance to own a fine art print from this contest.

Wishing you Seasons Greetings for the Festive Season

A few days ago I returned home to Australia from back-to-back expeditions to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands.  I am slowly catching up on all my correspondence, office paper work and image processing (as well as getting over a horrible case of jet lag), but wanted to take a moment to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and to say thank you for what has been an extraordinary year in many ways. I will have more to say in my year in review post in a week or so, but I feel its important to take a moment and be thankful for a great year and to wish all of you the very best of festive seasons. Take care, stay safe and enjoy good times with family and friends.Antarctica2015-5242-Edit

Travel and Outdoor Photographer of the Year Finalist 2015

A few days ago I wrapped up the South Georgia and Falkland Islands 2015 expeditions. Both of these expeditions were a resounding success with some incredible light and weather (my sincere thanks to all who participated and to my good friends and co-leaders Ole and Roy). I think we may actually have set a record for the number of shore landings in South Georgia during our time in this area and we certainly set a record for the number of incredible sunrises in a row. We were blessed with some really calm weather and stunning light in the early morning hours of our photographic shoots. Whilst I would have preferred it to be snowing more often (my favourite conditions for shooting) the weather was nevertheless ideal for the expedition. I will have more to say about both these trips when I return to Australia with full trip reports after Christmas.

Currently I am still in Punta Arenas in South America where bad weather and a huge storm over the South Pole have indefinately delayed my flight down to Union Glacier and the scouting trip to the Emperor penguins. Whilst it seriously sucks to be delayed from this trip, it has given me an opportunity to catch up on some of the back log of email I have accumulated whilst in South Georgia and the Falkland Islands (There is some limited internet access in the Falklands – but at ten GBP per hour for snail speed its far from efficient). I am now waiting on the next MET weather report from Union Glacier around eight pm local time tonight to see if its going to be possible to fly tonight or very early tomorrow morning – fingers crossed. In the meantime I received the exciting news that a number of my photographs have been selected as finalist images in both the 2015 Travel Photographer of the Year competition and the 2015 Outdoor Photographer of the Year Award. This is the fourth year in a row I have made the finals in both of these competitions (I have also previously won outright categories in both competitions). It is a huge honour to have had my work selected with such consistency and I am thrilled to be in the finals yet again. I cannot share which images are in the finals at present; but will do so as soon as the winners are announced. My congratulations also to the other finalists.

I am continually inspired to enter the Travel Photographer of the Year competition as it is one of the few photographic competitions remaining today that still judge the ‘print’ rather than a compressed jpeg. I wrote a couple of years ago of my disillusionment with so many of the photography competitions that make their judgements solely on a compressed jpeg file. The craft of producing a beautiful fine art print is one of the most enjoyable aspects of photography for me and is how I prefer to have my work viewed and judged. To this end, I am looking forward to processing and printing some of the photographs I made this year in both South Georgia and the Falklands when I return Australia at Christmas. In the meantime, please enjoy this image of a Southern Giant Petrel taking flight during a brief snow shower.Giant Petrel

Photo of the Month November – Polar Bear Breath – Win a Fine Art Print!

The photograph of the month for November 2015 was taken in March this year in Svalbard in winter of a Polar Bear, back lit by the setting Arctic sun and standing guard over a recent seal kill. Its breath steaming in the winter sunlight this remarkable situation was the absolute highlight of this scouting trip to the Arctic in Winter. This photograph recently won a coveted Silver with Distinction at the 2015 Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPA) here in Melbourne.Svalbard-9725-Edit copyDon’t forget! You can win a free 13″ x 19″ Fine Art Print of this photograph including shipping anywhere in the world. All you need do is to be the first to comment on this post on the home page with your thoughts on why you like this photograph or why you would like to own a print of the image and then share the post with your preferred social media outlet.

I am making the long journey to the Falkland Islands later today and then onto South Georgia Island and Antarctica for back-to-back expeditions (updates will be a little thin between now and Christmas). If you are the lucky print winner please be patient and I will make and send the print to you when I get back at the end of December. See you in the Falklands.