The Outdoor Photographer of the Year Competition
Spirit of Travel: Gunarto Gunawan (Indonesia) – Shwe Gu monastery, Bagan, Myanmar.
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.
Live the Adventure: Mikolaj Nowacki (Poland) – The Baltic Sea (somewhere on the way from the Swedish island of Utklippan to the Danish island of Christiansø).
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’ experience sailing in open seas – remained completely calm and relaxed, even though waves were breaking over him every few minutes.
Under Exposed: Saeed Rashid (UK) – Sohal surgeonfish, Fury Shoals, Red Sea, Egypt.
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.
Live the Adventure: Mark Bridgwater (New Zealand) – Temple Basin, Arthur’s Pass, Canterbury, New Zealand.
There are some moments in time when the photography stars align; clouds break in the perfect spot and the sun shines exactly where you are standing. This was one of those moments for Charlie Lyons and myself. While most people were oblivious to the perfection we had found on our mid-week excursion, we were having the time of our lives.