Capture Magazine the Annual 2014 Features Epic Sense of Scale

I am fortunate to be enjoying a few days down time in Ushuaia at the bottom of South America at the moment before I head back down to Antarctica for one more expedition before Christmas. I have been catching up on a plethora of email and web correspondence as well as enjoying some good coffee at my favourite South American cafe: ‘Ramos’ (and letting my legs recover after a weeks hiking in Patagonia – more to come on Patagonia at a later date). If you ever find yourself in Ushuaia be sure to stop in at Ramos – the rustic charm is as as inviting as the coffee aroma.

Whilst I was in Patagonia the annual edition Capture magazine was released and I was pleased to subsequently find one of my photographs ‘An Epic Sense of Scale‘ was featured. This is the third year in a row I have been fortunate to have some of my photography featured in the annual and it is always a pleasant surprise to flick through a magazine and see your work in print.Capture2014Annual

Curated Canon 2014 APPA Exhibition News

For those of you in Melbourne Australia in November and December this year, Eleven 40 photographic Gallery in Malvern is presenting a curated exhibition of prints from the 2014 APPA Awards that opened on the 25th of November this year. The exhibition will run until the 19th of December.

This exhibition brings together a selection of the high scoring images from this year’s Canon AIPP APPA awards. Held at the Digital Playground in September, The Canon AIPP Australian Professional Photography Awards bring competing photographers world wide together who are interested in, not only presenting their images for competition, but also advancing their professional development. 

This exhibition brings together a collection of these images considered the best by the judges across all categories – ranging from commercial, advertising and weddings, through to travel, portraiture and the creative category. 

 Eleven 40 Gallery is proud to have partnered with Canon AIPP APPA to highlight the works of these esteemed photographers. APPA-VIC-Exhibition

My winning photographs from the Science, Nature and Environment Category will be on display as a part of the exhibition.

Australian Professional Photography Awards: Science, Environment and Nature Category Winner 2014
Australian Professional Photography Awards: Science, Environment and Nature Category Winner 2014

Dates: Exhibition open from Tuesday 25th November until Friday 19th December 2014

Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10am – 5pm

Location: Eleven 40 Gallery, 1140 Malvern Rd, Malvern, VIC

Entry is Free.

Photo Review December / February Issue Now on Newsstands

The new December / February issue of Photo Review ‘Inspiring Australian Photographers’, is now on sale and includes a feature article ‘Ice Work‘ on my polar photography as well as one of my recent photographs from Antarctica on the cover. The cover shot was taken last November during a photographic expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula and is of a Gentoo Penguin calling its mate during a heavy snow fall. I had forgotten the exact location this was taken – but thank you to friend and participant Clemens for remembering it was in fact Cuverville Island. It was shot with a Canon EOS 1DX and the new Canon 200-400mm F4L IS lens with inbuilt 1.4 Teleconverter. Magazines rarely  advise you prior to publication that you have made the cover so it is always a wonderful surprise to see the issue for the first time. You can click on the image below to download the full article or HERE to download as a PDF. The full issue of Photo Review is available now in both print as well as digital editions for the iPad or PDF for other electronic readers.PhotoReview-Cover

Travel Photographer of the Year Finalist 2014

It was a pleasant surprise to receive an email on docking back in Ushuaia a few days ago after twenty-one days in South Georgia and Antarctica that several of my photographs have been selected for the final round of judging in the 2014 International Travel Photographer of the Year competition. I took third place and  was highly commended in the Single-Shot Water Category in 2012 with the ‘Blue Berg’ photograph from the Jökulsarlon lagoon in Iceland and this is now the third year in a row I have made the finals of this competition. This year I have photographs in the finals in the Earth, Air, Fire, Water Portfolio category (four photographs), Spirit of Adventure Portfolio (four photographs), and the Wild and Vibrant Single Shot category. As final judging has not yet taken place I am unable to share the photographs at this point, but will do so once judging is complete.TPOTY 2014 finalistBlue-BergI 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.

Antarctica and South Georgia Island 2014 Expedition Complete

Andy Biggs and I have now wrapped up our twenty one day South Georgia Island and Antarctica photography expedition.  We docked yesterday in Ushuaia after experiencing some of the most incredible polar landscapes and wildlife experiences of my photographic career. It was a unique experience and an absolute joy and pleasure to share it with so many other passionate and keen photographers. I recall something renowned photographer Art Wolfe once said – “If you can only visit one place in the world for wildlife photography it should be South Georgia Island”. He was most definitely right. From what I have already seen from those aboard there were some incredible photographs created during this voyage. No doubt, more will emerge over the coming weeks and months as everyone gets a chance to sort through the plethora of images we made during this expedition. Our ship was abuzz with excitement during our voyage and the recounting of our daily experiences over the evening meal that included everything from wildlife encounters to talk of dramatic landscapes, weather, photography and myriad of other topics made the whole shared experience simply wonderful.SouthGeorgiaThis brief post is not intended to be a full trip report as that will come later once I have had a chance to fully digest our experiences and sort and process a few more of the many thousands of photographs I made during this voyage. After twenty one days of pretty much non stop landscape and wildlife photography my cameras and lenses are smoking and my shot count well in excess of seven thousand images – including many underwater and split (half above / half below) photographs thanks to Aquatech who kindly provided sponsorship equipment for this expedition. It is going to take me a long time to sort and edit the photographs from this expedition, but I do hope to publish a few images when I get home just before Christmas. On top of that, my good friend and fellow photographer Antony Watson was tasked with shooting video for the duration of the expedition and we hope to cobble that together into a short movie of our experiences to be shared at a later date.For now, Antony, Martyn, Louisa and I have a day to rest and recover in Ushuaia before we fly out for ten days trekking and photography on the Argentinean side of Patagonia. The last time I visited Patagonia a year ago with my my friend and fellow photographer Martyn Lucas we experienced horrendous winds for six out of the seven days we were in the park and photography was more or less impossible. We have high hopes for better conditions this time. It will certainly be very nice to stretch the legs with some long hikes in the Patagonian back country after twenty one days of being at sea.Zodiac CruisingJust by way of a small teaser announcement for a future expedition: Once I finish in Patagonia I will return to Ushuaia for one more Antarctic expedition this season to the Peninsula with my friend Antony before I fly home in time for Christmas. I will be home for just over a week before I will return to Antarctica at the end of the year for a scouting trip to photograph Emperor Penguins in a very remote region of Antarctica. This scouting trip is something I have been working on for more than a year now and it is my hope that this test trip will result in a future photographic expedition to photograph the world’s largest and most majestic penguin – The mighty Emperor.