<strong>View from Above: Laura Daly (United Kingdom) Duntulm, Isle of Skye, Scotland</strong>“On our last night on the Isle of Skye, we ventured just five minutes from our accommodation to Duntulm Castle at sunset. Sharing the hillside with the midges and the sheep, we launched the drone, knowing the ruins were best seen from above. I chose to include the bright blue water of the ocean as it perfectly complemented the lush green grass, especially with the soft sunset light catching the walls of the castle. The view from above captures the beauty and lure of Skye, both natural and man-made.”
<strong>Alicia Hayden (United Kingdom) Puffin, Isle of May, Scotland</strong>“The misty grey background and subtle yellow lichens were the perfect background for the beautiful colours of this puffin’s bright, breeding-season beak. I chose a close-up shot to show as much detail as possible, including the internal structure of the sand eels and the puffin’s bill. I waited behind a rock for the perfect moment to arise when this puffin returned to land. Due to the low light and misty conditions, I used a wide aperture to deliver a sharp, yet atmospheric, portrait.”
<strong>Under Exposed: Saeed Rashid (United Kingdom) Sohal surgeonfish, Fury Shoals, Red Sea, Egypt </strong>“In the summer months, sohal surgeonfish tend to mate and lay eggs on the top of the reefs in the Red Sea. They fiercely defend their egg patch and rush upon anything that invades that area. They will often swipe their tail, which has a bony protrusion sticking from it that can be as sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, towards the intruder. Because of this you need to make sure you don’t get too close as a photographer’s hands make a very easy target and often get cut.”
<strong>Under Exposed: Pekka Tuuri (Finland) Great white shark, Guadalupe Island, Mexico </strong>“Isla Guadalupe is the world capital when it comes to observing great white sharks, but cage diving seriously limits the possibilities to take ‘fresh’ pictures. When I took this, the water close to the surface was quite milky, making photography very challenging. From out of the ‘mist’, I saw this great white shark lurking behind a school of fusiliers. I quickly focused on the shark and set a wide aperture to get focus blur on the fish, along with a fast shutter to avoid excessive motion blur. No flash was used and that was key to getting this picture.”
<strong>Live the Adventure: Mikolaj Nowacki (Poland) The Baltic Sea (somewhere on the way from the Swedish island of Utklippan to the Danish island of Christiansý)</strong>“It was my first cruise on a yacht on the open sea and there were only two of us — myself and captain Jacek Pasikowski. I was helping Jacek take his small yacht Fri (‘Free’ in Danish) from the coast of Sweden to Poland, across the Baltic Sea. It was a stormy day, but the captain — who has more than 40 years of experience sailing in open seas — remained completely calm and relaxed, even though waves were breaking over him every few minutes. While taking this picture I was hiding partly below a folding canvas roof; scared, but pretending not to be.”
<strong>Spirit of Travel: Gunarto Gunawan (Indonesia) Shwe Gu monastery, Bagan, Burma</strong>“I took this photograph when I visited Shwe Gu monastery, which cares for orphans and trains them to be Buddhist monks. The orphans were gathering and playing, and I showed them a funny video on my iPhone — I did not expect them to be so excited! In the end, they were all scrambling to watch the video. Seeing them laugh, I immediately took my camera and photographed this magical moment.”
<strong>Light on the Land: Wojciech Kruczynski (Poland) Kallur lighthouse, Faroe Islands</strong>“The picture consists of nine frames arranged in a three-by-three grid, which is quite difficult to put together and requires a lot of work, but with this beautiful place it was worth the effort. Weather conditions like this do not often occur in the Faroe Islands — I had to wait for three days in a tent in the rain for them. The hardest thing, however, was getting to the location to start with. My journey involved an aeroplane, bus, ferry, another bus and then a long walk on foot. I had to walk through a tunnel that is close to one and a half miles long and then do roughly the same distance along a mountain sheep path; on the way I was attacked by Arctic skua that were so aggressive I had to carry an open tripod over my head. It was worth overcoming these difficulties, though, because Kallur lighthouse is located in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Because the cliff I was shooting from is very tall and vertical — and the wind blows hard — you definitely need a head for heights, and the rain will soak you again and again. You need to quickly take pictures and run away, again fighting with angry birds. The life of a landscape photographer is beautiful, isn’t it?”
<strong>A View from Above: Tom Sweetman (United Kingdom) Chiang Mai, Thailand </strong>“It was just before sunset in Chiang Mai and I decided to ride my scooter alongside the famous Ping River. As I was approaching a bridge I stopped to take a break and noticed that it was a motorbike bridge for locals, connecting two villages. I took this aerial photograph with my drone to document the incredible patterns in the river and the locals crossing the bridge on their scooters. Some days you just capture the moment.”
<strong>Bence Mýtý (Hungary): Red fox and white-tailed eagle, taken in Kiskunsýg national park, Hungary</strong>“Over the last four winters I have spent more than 200 full days photographing from a hide, and in this time there have been only three occasions when I’ve seen a fox and an eagle together. In this instance the fox didn’t approach the hide, but deliberately teased the birds resting on the ice. They occasionally flapped towards him, which emboldened the fox more and more — he continued to provoke the birds for about ten minutes before vanishing into the reeds. The scene was strengthened by the snow sitting on the ice and the foggy conditions, which enabled me to show my subjects in a completely white environment: this happens just a few times every winter.”