Hawke’s Bay Photographers 2025 Calendar
I am very pleased that one of my images has been selected to feature on the cover of the Hawke’s Bay Photographers 2025 Calendar.
Featuring 12 amazing local images, selected from more than 30 submitted by local photographers, this calendar has been sponsored by local businesses as a fundraiser for creative youth programmes for Fotofest 2025, Hawke's Bay's annual photography festival.
Golden Tree Reflection - Pekapeka Wetlands, Hawke's Bay (2020)
I took this photo of a couple of trees catching the first light of the day from the Pekapeka Wetlands boardwalk just outside of Hastings, Hawke’s Bay. It was a clear, cold winter’s morning and the frost in the hollow around the trees combined with the warm glow of the early sunlight adds a little extra to the mood.
Note for photographers: I decided to emphasize the natural symmetry of the scene by placing the tree right in the middle of the frame, breaking the rule of thirds, and creating a symmetrically balanced composition.
You can order the calendar on the Fotofest website now. All sales support Fotofest youth education programme and exhibition for 2025.
If you would like to hang this picture as a high-quality print or canvas on your wall or give it as a gift, you can purchase it on my store.
I arrived expecting cold — not just physical chill, but a particular visual cold: an Antarctica of the imagination, reduced to white and grey. The Ross Sea had other ideas. What I found instead was gold settling across volcanic peaks, pancake ice that looked impossibly like Monet's water lilies, and light that refused to behave the way Antarctic light was supposed to. For one hour in McMurdo Sound, the continent became the warmest place I have ever been.