Great chat with Adam Williams – we explore my work, why I have gone the route I have, and I’ve hopefully lobbed a few grenades into the ‘play nicely’ brigade that is considered ‘proper’ Landscape Photography …. with constructive ends it’s hoped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Cpu9OFdgw&feature=youtu.be

Just received a copy of a book I have been working on. It incorporates all images to date in the series Terra Australis Incognita (unknown Southern Land). There is a superb forward by Tony Hewitt and it has allowed me to evaluate the progression of the work which began, in earnest, 2 years ago.

I missed the announcement on this one!!!  Only saw it when I went to enter this year’s (2017) competition…

I received two honourable mentions in two categories – Self Portrait and People for The Hatters Exit in the 2016 competition.  Not too shabby considering there were 26,000 other images …

The Hatters Exit

Only just got word that I received a few more citations than I had realised during the annual ‘Supremo’ Black and White Awards last year….

I got an Honorable Mention for Kickoff along with two further images that were nominated as contenders for the Architectural and the Still Life Categories not too shabby for 7,500 entries….

Kickoff!!

Central Region

Circular Paddock

Just heard I’m a Gallery Award Winner and this image will be exhibited in Berkeley California at the ACCI Gallery …. its also eligible to be selected as a 1st, 2nd or 3rd award placement.  Shot at Dawn in Ubud Market, Bali in May 2017.

Ubud Market at Dawn

Two Silver Awards and one Silver with Distinction Award in this outing….

farmer

Berrima Weir

Ubud Market at Dawn

I’m very appreciative of my peers in the regional arm of the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers for giving me a gold and three silver awards for images I submitted into the regional (NSW/ACT) Professional Print Awards in Sydney this past weekend.  Especially gratifying is that the gold was in a category which I have only entered once before.  Here are the images.

Fortunate news – after having got only 3 images as nominees for awards at the 2014 competition I’ve been fortunate this year to have 6 images nominated (shortlisted) for the 2015 Spider Black and White Awards.  The most encouraging thing is that the images were in a wide variety of categories from ‘Children of the World’, to ‘Fine Art’ as well as ‘People’ and ‘Wildlife’.

I feel very humbled and fortunate that the veritable Stark Awards have awarded me winner of the Fine Art Category of the 2015 competition (with luminaries in the photography firmament judging the competition such as Michael Levin, Scott Kelby, Michael Freeman and Ted Forbes). One of the judges had the following commentary on my image:  “This in my first place selection. While reviewing all the images this was the one that kept pulling me back to look at it. The curve of the branches with the soft focus droplets created a mysterious image and those I find are the most compelling. The photographer has taken a simple subject matter ( one that you and I can see everyday) and elevated it to something unexpected …..the measure of a strong photograph. I also think that the hue of blue combined with added layer of “etching” makes it all the more intriguing . Well done.”

Two of my images have received Silver Awards at the 2015 Australian Professional Print Awards – it’s always a harrowing experience where five Master Photographers of the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers (AIPP) get up to inspect your (physical) print and pass commentary (if you’re lucky!) and their scores… it was a particularly tough year of judging by all accounts.

Two images (see below) have been voted to be include in the book published annually of what is considered the Top 101 Landscape Photographs of the Year as voted for by my Landscape Photographer peers – very rewarding, particularly in light of the fact that my images were selected against 2600 others.

As part of the Australian Professional Print Awards regional outing I elected to enter two images into categories I’ve not entered before (with much seriousness) ie. Portrait and Illustrative.  I was very surprised and proud to have been given a Silver and a Gold image respectively – a real honour as this is my first Gold Award – and one given by my peers.  In Landscape (my go-to category) I was successful in getting 3 Silver Awards.

In April I heard that two of my images had been selected as finalists in two categories: Aerial and nature.  One was taken from a chopper in the Kimberleys at Wyndham Airport, the other was taken at the Wombeyan Caves close to where I live in the Southern Highlands NSW.

I travelled in early February to Antarctica via Chile on a workshop with 6 of the finest Landscape photographers around:  Art Wolfe, Jackie Ranken, Christian Fletcher, Charlie Cramer, Joe Cornish and Peter Cox. It was unreal!  Art Wolfe, who has been to Antarctica 20 times, towards the end of the trip remarked “you have no idea how lucky you have been with the weather – I have NEVER had anything like it here before!”  We had glassy water, full moon, catabolic winds, snow….for only 7 days it was superb….I released a book “The Sacred Space” with 20 images printed on a Japanese Washi Paper and bound using Japanese stitching to commemorate the trip.

It took a while for this one to arrive but here is my certificate for inclusion in the Top 101 International Landscape Photographs of the Year 2014 – and here’s the image that did the deed

3 of my image have been selected as Nominees in the World’s largest and most prestigious Black and White Photo competition.  What was quite reassuring from a photographic evolution viewpoint is that the images were entered into 3 separate categories – Nature, Wildlife and People.  Very pleased!

When the aliens come…

Bay of Islands, NZ

Following on my one solitary Silver Award at the 2013 Australian Professional Print Awards (the Oscars of Australian Professional Photography) I am very pleased to announce that this year I’ve managed three!  All the images were shot in my new home, the Southern Highlands of NSW.

I learned a crucial thing this year – the first year I’ve been able to sit and watch the judging (five Master Photographers get up to view your print at a range of millimetres!).  I learned to ask the following:  What are you trying to say with this image?  If it can be answered with an adjective, rather than a noun you are taking the viewer into a realm where they can import their own meaning and symbolism and thereby you are INVOLVING the viewer and thus communicating….not just documenting or being literal.  It’s this ‘transporting’ of the viewer that gets awarded.

It will be the lesson for my photography going forward.

leaning barn Berrima

Wires in the mist

Tree in the Snow? Bowral

I heard last night that of the 5 images I submitted this year to the Pano awards, 3 were given Bronzes – one in the Built Envinroment category and the other two in the nature section.  Judging was no doubt harsher this year with a particular emphasis on ‘stitched’ ie. multiple images blended together – I am almost exclusively shooting single captures nowadays with the vast dynamic range that Medium Format photography permits so all mine were cropped images – I suffered as a result I’m sure….anyhow, nice to feel the flutter of accomplishment always!

Deadvlei Graphic

….don’t call me….I’ll call you