I have been fortunate enough to have two of my entered images short-listed in the 2015 Australian Geographic ANZANG Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. I’ve been in the finals twice before with landscape images but these two are in the ‘Botanical ‘ category.
The ANZANG comp is organised by the South Australian Museum and “celebrates the unique natural beauty of Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea through the eye of the nature photographer”. See http://www.anzang.samuseum.sa.gov.au/competition/
Competitions don’t really mean very much, but it’s nice to have validation that you’re producing worthwhile images. What I like about this comp is that its all about conservation and nature in the raw. Entries can only be produced from a single image with minimal editing. Observation and camera work are more important than computer imaging skills.
Brittle Gum and snow
One of the short-listed images was captured during heavy blizzard that hit the Blue Mountains suddenly in October of 2012. “Brittle Gum and snow” features (fittingly) on the July page of the 2015 Wild Blue Mountains Calendar (the new 2016 edition will be available in September).
The other ANZANG finalist is a stark contrast. While walking in a part of the Victorian Alps that has seen several recent bush fires, I saw silvery trunks of dead Alpine Ash trees against a blue-shaded and dead-stick valley. This eucalypt is killed by hot fire and regenerates from seed…which it is doing, vigorously.
Alpine Ash
These images will now appear in the touring exhibition and in the book published for each annual competition. Prize-winners are announced on 31 July.