After having to keep things under wraps for a couple of weeks it is nice to be able to share the news that I am again a finalist in the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year. Those that follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter will have already seen this news so apologies if this news isn’t news!

See all the finalist images here. You can vote for your top 5 images and I would appreciate your vote.

Edin and I have had a pretty good run in this competition. She won Young Photographer of the Year in 2014 and we were both finalists in 2016 where I ended up as Landscape runner up. In 2017 I was again a finalist with a Black and White landscape image and in 2018 Edin was runner up in the Wildlife category. In 2020 Edin was again a finalist taking out the People’s Choice Award with her stunning Seabird Astrophotography image. As outlined in her post she was involved in her research on Tawhiti Rahi so could not attend the Awards evening. Angela and I attended so that I could accept the award on her behalf and it was great to see her beamed in from her research site to be interviewed on the night.

For me this year is special. I have been working hard at my photography as always but feel that I am doing some of my best work ever which is good. Most significantly it is nice to finally have a wildlife image selected as a finalist. My photographic passion is wildlife and especially birds. Landscapes are things I happen upon more than search out so while it was exciting and humbling to be selected as a finalist with landscape images it made me question whether my skillset was mismatched with my passion. I have had wildlife images shortlisted in the past by never selected as finalist images. This time was a little different as my image seemed selected as a finalist pending RAW file validation without being shortlisted first.

I have written before on Photography Competitions and Bird Photography Competitions. What nudged me to begin entering some competitions was helping Edin lead workshops after her recognition as NZ Geo Young Photographer of the year. Competition recognition is a way of validating that you have some skill worth sharing. Being a finalist in New Zealand Geographic POTY is nice recognition of working to a standard and achieving it repeatedly shows some consistency so is a degree of validation. A threepeat reduces the risk of it being a fluke! I have a Bird Photography Masterclass scheduled for early 2023 and Edin and I are due to run more workshops in the future so watch this space.

Photo with Nikon Z9 and Nikon 500mm f5.6PF lens with 1.7x teleconverter on FTZii adaptor. This is one image where the Nikon Z9 autofocus played a big role. Tracking these small mobile birds bobbing over waves and keeping sharp focus on eyes was made much more achievable with eye tracking AF.