In late September 2016 I entered the FOCUS Awards, a photography competition hosted by the FOCUS Seascape and Landscape photography group in Australia. I'd entered previously in 2014 and received some great feedback, but hadn't had much success. I'd built a reasonably interesting portfolio of landscape images over the course of 2016 so I thought I'd enter a few to see how they fared under a more critical eye than my own.
There are a few reasons why I like entering these awards - they help to support the group, the standard is always extremely impressive (the excellent prize pool provided by sponsors make these awards very popular) and every year there are high quality, experienced judges lending their time to the process.
This year I was extremely fortunate to take home several awards, including:
- Photographer of the Year
- 1st Place in the Landscape category for my image of La Paz from El Alto
- 1st Place in the Sunrise / Sunset category for my image of Taulliraju (Cordillera Blanca in Peru)
- 2nd Place in the Sunrise / Sunset category for my image of Nevado Humantay near Cusco in Peru
Its humbling to have done well amongst such a talented and supportive group of people, and to have your work acknowledged by peers is extremely pleasing.
Be sure to head over to the FOCUS website (main site here) to check out the awesome work in the award galleries, there is some truly inspiring work on display.
The following images were awarded and / or contributed to my overall portfolio in the awards:
1st Place Landscape Category - La Paz and Illimani from El Alto
1st Place Sunrise/Sunset Category - Taulliraju on the Santa Cruz Trek (Huaraz, Peru)
2nd Place Sunrise/Sunset Category - Sunrise over Nevado Humantay (Salkantay Trail, Peru)
Seascape Category - Moeraki Boulders in New Zealand
Black & White Category - Milford Sound at mid-tide (New Zealand)
Creative Category - A composite image of Machu Picchu, a tree from the Amazon and some birds from regional Peru.
This was a great way to round out the end of 2016. Not sure what I'm going to come up with for next years awards!