First of the four is this shot of baby Mariella with dad, taken when she was six days old. I love this shot for its intimacy, and also the eye contact, which is hard to capture with a newborn baby. Although this looks like a studio shot it was actually taken at the client’s home, using window light only.

Next up is one of my favourite wildlife photographs. It’s not widely known that I lead photo safaris to Africa on behalf of a specialist USA-based photo tour company.  This one was taken on a tour to Tanzania. A few moments later and it was all over. Feel sorry for the frog

The next gold is a powerful and moving picture of a young Masai, also taken in Tanzania. The day before I’d run a ‘photographing people’ workshop for the tour participants, and one of the techniques I taught was shooting in to the sun when the the light is harsh and there is no shade. That technique works well here – I love the way the light rims her face. There’s a soulful look to her expression that really appeals to me too.

The final gold award (for now?) was for this image we took of Richard Ashcroft at a rock festival promoted by one of our clients. Photographing at a rock concert is a real eye-opener. You’re only allowed to be in the ‘pit’ for three songs so it’s a mad scrum with all the other photographers to get the best angles. Because Karen and I were working as a team the pressure was off slightly, so I could take a step back and look at what the lights were doing. Positioned myself carefully in a line with Richard and the backlight and this is the result. The lighting director should really get half this credit

These four pictures now go forward to the annual judging in January. Flushed with initial success I guess we’ll be entering a few more images next year

For those with sufficient money to enjoy it, the country is stunning.  We went to Cape Town and then drove the Garden Route (via the wine region), continuing to Addo, just north of Port Elizabeth.  We’re not great city folk, though we enjoyed Cape Town.  The highlight for us in the cape was our two visits to Boulders Beach to photograph the African Penguins:

Cape of Good hope:

Franschoek, in the wine region:

A guided wine tour was great fun and a real eye opener as to the quality of South Africa wine.  The good stuff doesn’t make it to Majestic or the supermarkets!

Knysna forest, on the Garden Route.

Southern SA’s forests were almost logged to destruction, but the Knysna forest remains largely unspoilt.  Its now preserved as National Park though the hardwood is still selectively logged – something I thought a slightly odd concept.

Finally to Addo, which is the home of the Addo Elephant National Park.  This is a fenced reserve (as they all are in SA, including Kruger).  It has been a major conservation success story with the local elephants rescued from extinction.  They are a strange genetic mix – the females are almost all without tusks and the males all have small tusks.  Probably the result of selective hunting in the early 20th century. All these shots taken from the window of our VW Polo rental car

Kudu:

Leopard tortoise:

Lions were introduced to the park in 2003.  This guy had been badly beaten up in a territorial dispute the night before (hence the open wounds on his face):

View the gallery here

We also made a visit to White Sands National Monument. This is a spectacular range of sand dunes formed from crystals of white gypsum. Its quite unlike anything else on earth. As with many landscape subjects, good photography is limited to about an hour after sunrise and before sunset. And although you have to walk a way into the dunes to escape visitor footprints, you have to stay close enough to your car to be out of the park before dark.

The shot’s of an elephant crossing Lake Ndutu at dawn in the southern Serengeti in Tanzania. Here’s a better look at it: