Our 10 favourite images of 2016
These are our favourite photos we've featured in Australian Photography magazine in 2016.
It's fair to say we see a lot of photographs here at Australian Photography. It's also fair to say we've probably seen enough photos of jetties at sunrise and the Sydney Harbour Bridge to last us a lifetime (we do love them, promise!)
However when we decided to do a wrap up of the best images we'd seen in 2016, we didn't realise just how challenging it would be. We've seen some stunners this year, but we've also seen some great images with even greater stories behind them, like Nick Melidonis' amazing image from the Ladakh Valley in India, where he battled serious altitude sickness to get the shot, or Dasha Riley's stunning images of her daughter that helped her bag the 2015 Photographer of the Year award.
So without further ado, these are our ten favourite shots we were lucky enough to see this year.
When we saw James Smart's images of storms in the US, we knew we had to talk to him about how he took them. 'Storm Chaser,' the story about his amazing images and how he captures them was published in the September issue. In this image, taken in Blackhawk, South Dakota, it looked like the world was about to be eaten by this beast of a storm. © James Smart. A series of remarkable images of her daughter, Julia, by Queensland's Dasha Riley, was good enough to bag the highest award in the 2015 Photographer of the Year, announced in the February issue of the mag. © Dasha Riley US Army Sergeant Anderson sits at a temporary patrol base after a patrol in the Tangi Valley, Wardak Province, Afghanistan, on September 11, 2009. Australian Adam Ferguson's images from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were some of the finest documentary images we saw this year. © Adam Ferguson. From the article 'War Story' (Australian Photography , May 2016) Chris Wiewiora's image of Lake Oberon in Tasmania's Wester Arthurs ranges graced the cover of our March issue. He spent five days trekking up and down the mountain to get the shot. © Chris Wiewiora In his story 'Perfect Strangers' in the November issue of Australian Photography Nick Rains shared his best tips for shooting powerful travel portraits. In this striking image a local keeps his focus trained on Nick's lens in Chandelao, Rajasthan. © Nick Rains. Cradle Mountain by Will Patino. We interviewed Will in the November issue of Australian Photography magazine. "The morning began with the entire valley a dense sea of fog," says Patino. "Soon though, the wind changed direction and in less than a minute the entire valley was cleared, revealing the beautiful calm reflections of dove lake and iconic peak of cradle mountain. My friend Zach helped give some scale as he takes in what would have to be one of Australia's finest views." © Will Patino In the August issue of AP, Dylan Fox shared his best advice for landscape lighting in the story 'Light it Up'. This image was shot in Cape Naturaliste, WA, as the first light of day kisses the top of Sugarloaf rock. © Dylan Fox A novice Monk in Mingun, Sangaing region, Myanmar. By photographing through an opening in the temple, Drew Hopper was able to pick up the blue walls in the reflection of his eyes which contrasted nicely with the red robe. © Drew Hopper. From the story 7 Tips for Perfect Portraits (Australian Photography, March 2016). Nick Melidonis travelled to Ladakh in Northern India with the hope of capturing the remote monasteries in the high Himalayan region for this shot. "The trip would take me across the 5 highest mountain passes in the world. I crossed the Khardungla Pass from Leh towards the Nubra Valley which at 18,380 feet is the highest motorable road in the world. We descended into the Nubra Valley and rested on the valley floor, where I first noticed the camel trains in the distance heading towards the Diskit monastery. I asked my driver and guide to cross a stream and head as close as we could towards a peak where I knew the camels would have to cross, separating them from the snow tipped Himalayas in the background. The sun was starting to set and I could see that the breaks in the clouds produced shafts of golden light moving in and out of the valley floor behind where the camels would cross." From the story Behind the Lens: Camel Train (Australian Photography , June 2016).
In our December issue, wildlife photographer Greg Basco explained how he uses flash to add impact to his images of animals in their natural environment. In this shot of a red-webbed tree frog, photographed in Costa Rica, Greg used two flashes to boost the sharpness of the image and create more natural-looking shadows. All images published in Australian Photography magazine. If you'd like to see more great images in 2017, you can subscribe to the print edition here or buy the digital edition (compatible with iOS, Android, Mac and Windows) here .
