ANIMAL PORTRAIT WINNER: LEOPARD ANEMONE by RIchard Robinson
ANIMAL PORTRAIT WINNER: LEOPARD ANEMONE by RIchard Robinson
"Just one of those moments when it all comes together." That's Richard Robinson's explanation for how he captured his award-winning photograph of a Leopard anemone off the Poor Knight's Islands.
"I saw a dozen or so anemones floating in the blue and this one was so symmetrical. I drifted overslowly and fired off a frame before the water pressure pushed it away."
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR RUNNER-UP: SPAWNING JEWEL ANEMONES Richard Robinson
Robinson, a former New Zealand Herald photographer, won the Animal Portrait section of the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year for the anemone picture and the Human Impact section for a rather harrowing picture of dead penguins, as well as being runner-up in the animal behaviour section, too.
HUMAN IMPACT WINNER: THE WRECK OF THE PENGUINS by RIchard Robinson
The overall competition winner was Australian Ben Blanche for his dramatic photograph of a bush fire at Mt Blarney, taken in the horrific period over last summer.
OVERALL and LANDSCAPE WINNER: BORDER FIRE MT BARNEY by Ben Blanche
Robinson had just returned from Port Ross in the Sub-Antarctic Islands at the weekend when he opened the letter telling him of the wins, which were awarded in Adelaide last Thursday.
MONOCHROME WINNER: COMMON WOMBAT by Charles Davis
"It was a real surprise, especially as I'd been almost a month photographing southern right whales with a team from the University of Auckland," he said.
PORTFOLIO WINNER: ROOSTING BEE by Ethan Mann
The competition was a real positive for Robinson, who was a finalist in five of the nine categories and is hoping to raise his profile in Australia.
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR WINNER: COWNOSE RAYS by Alex Kydd
"Underwater photography is a bit limited [commercially] in New Zealand," he said, "so I hope it can lead me to new things."
