A Rotorua woman has beaten thousands of New Zealanders to win a national photography award.
Former John Paul College student Edin Whitehead was on a family holiday in South Africa when she saw a western cattle egret flying overhead.
A passionate, amateur wildlife photographer, Miss Whitehead pointed her camera at the white sky and clicked.
The image she captured led to her being awarded D-Photo Sigma Amateur Photographer of the Year 2014.
Miss Whitehead said at first she couldn't believe she had won, but was then "extremely excited".
"Photography is a passion of mine and this has been a huge learning experience. It is a really great feeling to know I am heading in the right direction."
Coming out on top of 5783 entries from amateur photographers across the country, Miss Whitehead won $3000 worth of Sigma lenses, as well as having her photograph on the cover of the latest D-Photo magazine - the Aug-Sept 2014 issue.
Miss Whitehead said she loved photographing wildlife more than anything else but it was a "take what she can get" type of subject.
"Once the moment is gone you can't recreate it, all you can do is click away and hope you capture what you need.
"This particular photo was technically difficult because I was shooting a white bird against a white sky so I had to adjust the exposure."
Editor of D-Photo magazine Adrian Hatwell said Miss Whitehead should be proud of her achievement because this year's amateur photography event marked the fiercest competition to date.
"Every year we have seen the number of entries in the competition rise, as well as the overall quality. The surge in creativity and technical acumen was simply remarkable, not an easy job for our judges at all."
Miss Whitehead is in her third year at the University of Auckland studying a Bachelor of Science majoring in biological sciences and psychology.