For the second week in a row, I can finally share some exciting news. Again apologies to my social media followers who will already be aware of this. Last week the news was being again selected as a finalist in the NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year. This week the news is that two of my images have been selected for inclusion in the Bird Photographer of the Year 2023 Collection 8. The the full results see Bird Photographer of the Year.

At the end of 2022 I submitted a portfolio of images to the competition and was excited to receive an email in early March requesting high res files for 7 images that had been shortlisted. In early July I received the news that two images had been selected for publication and one had been Highly Commend and included in the touring exhibition. Having been competing in a pool of over 23 000 submissions, I was pleased to have had 2 images selected among the approximately 300 for publication and one for the exhibition.

I must acknowledge Edin as the stimulus to enter this competition. She entered last year and had a lovely image of a NZ Storm Petrel selected for inclusion in Collection 7. Sharing her journey was exciting and she nudged me and helped me select images for a submission.

The award for the Albatross pan blur is especially pleasing for me. It is one of those images that really excited me when I caught it. Albatross in general, but greater albatross in particular, are stunning birds in flight and this pass was something special as I was working on expanding my repertoire of pan blurs. Reviewing on my camera LCD, I was immediately excited by the image as it captured exactly what I was looking for with the bird appearing, to my eye at least, to be flying out of the image 3 dimensionally.

I submitted it in the wildlife category of another competition where it wasn’t recognised and I began to feel that my feelings for it were too tied up with my emotions around the experience. Having it now recognised and Highly Commended in a specialist bird photography competition by international bird photography judges gives me a quiet satisfaction that I’m not too far outside the extreme of the Bell curve of bird photographers despite being happily well adrift from the “normal” population!

Photos with Nikon Z9. Albatross with Nikkor Z 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR S at 140mm f8, Shoveller with Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S + 1.4x teleconverter (1120mm f9).