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The photograph of the month for March 2024 comes from my recent December 2023 expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula (Read the Trip Report) and is of Adelie penguins riding an Iceberg. Photographed on our very last full day in Antarctica, this image was made by holding the camera with a wide angle 14-35mm lens over the side of the zodiac, just a few centimetres above the water line. The key to making this approach work is the focal point and the choice of f-stop to ensure sufficient depth of field. You really need to focus one-third into the frame and ensure you have stopped down enough to have the image sharp front to back. In this situation, I manually selected the focus point I wanted to ensure the depth of field was correct. The Auto focus would otherwise lock the penguins or iceberg, leaving the foreground too soft for my tastes.

I have just published episode #92 of my Wild Nature Photography Podcast. In this episode, I briefly wrap up my recent February Arctic Fox workshop at the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve in the far north of Iceland and give my thoughts on cold weather gloves for Nature photographers. As a specialist Polar photographer and over the years of trying many different pairs, I have some experience with what works and what doesn’t when it comes to shooting in cold climates. If you shoot a Canon EOS R3 or 1 1DXMK3 with the touch-sensitive AF button in cold weather, you are going to want to listen to this podcast.

Very excited that for the second year in a row (and only my second time entering), I have multiple photographs in the final round of judging of Bird Photographer of the Year. For 2024, four of the eight photographs I entered into the competition have been accepted into the final round of judging. I cannot as yet share which photographs made the finals, but I will do so as soon as possible. In the meantime, please enjoy this photograph of the wonderful Malachite Kingfisher, shot in South Africa last year. This is just one of the incredible bird species to be found on my Zululand Ground level masterclass.

The single place that became available on my May 2024 Namibia Wildlife and Aerial masterclass has now been taken. Thank you.