Australian Geographic has announced the finalists for the 2020 Nature Photographer of the Year and all of the finalist images can be seen online: www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/event/NPOTY2020 One of my photographs from Gould Bay, Antarctica of Emperor Penguins made the finals in the Animal Habitat category.
The announcement of winners is scheduled for Thursday 27 August: More information on the timing and format of this announcement will be provided soon.
If you are interested in learning the ins and outs of Adobe Lightroom and taking your digital content management and image processing to the next level, I am now offering private online mentoring sessions via ZOOM. This is an opportunity for you to work one-on-one with a multi- award winning Master of Photography on all aspects of Lightroom. We will cover everything from how to set up your catalogue and manage your digital files, including how to key word your images and how you can use Lightroom to easily sort, edit and manage your photographs. We will extensively cover image processing of RAW files including a deep dive under the hood of the controls so you can really understand what the sliders are doing as you adjust them. Adobe Lightroom mentoring sessions are by appointment and are scheduled around my other workshop and expedition commitments. Please contact me at info@jholko.com for additional information.
Topaz are offering an extended 15% discount off their excellent A.I Gigapixel, A.I Sharpen and A.I DeNoise products (in addition to the full suite of products). Just use the following link for the discount http://topazlabs.refr.cc/joshuaholko. The photograph below of the young wolf on the border between Finland and Russia was processed in Lightroom and then upscaled for a 40″ x 60″ print using Topaz A.I Gigapixel. I will have a future video on this very soon.
My planned expedition to the Russian Arctic and Wrangle Island next year (2021) has now been delayed until 2022 . This delay is an indirect result of the ongoing COVID-19 situation with all ship charters being pushed back.
The Wrangle Island expedition crosses the Arctic Circle and includes the isolated and pristine Wrangel and Herald Islands and a significant section of the wild North Eastern Siberian coastline. It is a journey only made possible in recent years by the thawing in the politics of the region and the retreat of summer pack ice in the Chukchi Sea. The very small distance between Russia and the USA along this border area was known as the Ice Curtain, behind which then and now lies one of the last great undiscovered wilderness areas in the world. The voyage journeys through the narrow Bering Strait, which separates Russia from the United States of America, and then travels west along the Chukotka coastline before crossing the De Long Strait to Wrangel Island. There we will spend four to five days photographing under the guidance of local rangers on the nature reserve. Untouched by glaciers during the last ice age, this island is a treasure trove of Arctic biodiversity and is perhaps best known for the multitude of Polar Bears that breed here. We hope to photograph this beautiful mammal in its native environment. The island also boasts the world’s largest population of Pacific Walrus and lies near major feeding grounds for the Gray Whales that migrate thousands of kilometres north from their breeding grounds in Baja, Mexico. Reindeer, Musk Ox and Snow Geese can normally be seen further inland. A visit to massive bird cliffs on nearby Herald Island is also planned. Full details are available on my website at www.jholko.com/workshops.
For those who are interested in a future expedition to the remote north of Iceland to photograph Arctic Fox in a beautiful winter setting I have put together a short Adobe Spark Presentation and Website with some teaser photographs and some information on the expedition. Of course, more photographs are also available on my website at www.jholko.com.
www.WILDNATUREPHOTOTRAVEL.com 