Your Best Shot Feb 2025: The winners!
Your Best Shot is a photo competition open to Australian residents. There's a different theme every couple of months, and a selection of the winning shots will be published in AP mag and online.
Each issue, AP's Editor Mike O'Connor will choose six images to be published both in print and online, with both a winner and a runner-up selected. Our winner will also receive an amazing prize thanks to Think Tank.
You can find out all the details for entry and the themes for 2025 here.
Feb 2025
Theme: Wild places
Having a look at the phenomenal images that made our shortlist this month, it’s clear there are plenty of beautiful places in the world to point your camera at.
But what we really wanted to see were images that captured a feeling of untamed nature – places that few get to see, let alone photograph. These are our picks.
This issue's winner
Joy Kachina, Alpine light, NW Tasmania
Editor’s comment: The rising sun casts a gentle glow as the mist lifts from the buttongrass in the alpine valley of Cradle Mountain National Park.
Joy Kachina’s beautiful image captures everything that makes remote places special to photograph.
There’s lovely light, the perfect balance of an ethereal mist to soften the scene, and a nice, balanced composition that’s been edited with a deft hand.
This is a great shot that would look amazing printed large.
Technical details
Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S lens @ 68mm. 1/100s @ f8, ISO 400.
Highly commended
Darren Wassell, Into Another World
Editor’s comment: Captured on his last morning at Tasman Lake, New Zealand, Darren Wassell says this image with its stunning lenticular clouds made him feel as if he has entered another world.
It’s also an image that’s beautifully sharp front to back, which really helps accentuate the beauty of the landscape on show here. Combine this with a nice, subtle night sky that softens the light, and the result is a powerful landscape that really showcases the raw beauty of this iconic location.
Technical details
Sony A7 IV, Sony 16-35mm GM lens @ 21mm. 15s @ f4, ISO 1600.
Special mentions
How I did it: Curracurrong Falls is in the Royal National Park in New South Wales. It drops 82 metres from the top of the cliff to the South Pacific Ocean below. Eagle Rock (or Turtle Rock, as some prefer to call it) is near the top of the cliff on the right.
It takes the best part of an hour to walk here from the nearest car park at Wattamolla. The last part of the journey to the undercliff lookout where I took this photo is not marked and there is no path, but it is not difficult to find. It is worth waiting until a time when there has been a lot of rain, otherwise there is little water in the Falls.
Technical details
Sony Alpha A7R IV, Sony FE 20mm F1.8 lens. 1/8s @ f10, ISO 100 (focus stack).
How I did it: This image was taken in the Bavarian Alps, near Ramsau, Germany. I liked the way the forest and mountain looked like they were hidden in the clouds.
Technical details
Nikon D750, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens @ 135mm. 1/400s @ f10, ISO 125.
How I did it: Taken at high tide at Bombo Quarry on the South Coast of NSW when the area was experiencing an East Coast low. This young lad was high on the cliff, almost mocking the huge waves. He made a quick decision to escape when seeing this monster wave quickly approaching!
Technical details
Olympus OMD 1 Mk III, 12-100mm lens @ 100mm. 1/1600s @ f7.1, ISO 500.
How I did it: In Scoresbysund in Greenland, near Bear Islands, spectacular blue and black icebergs float amongst the more usually encountered blue/white ones.
Layered with freshwater ice coloured by glacial moraines, and glacial ice, their rugged shapes are influenced by the black bands absorbing more heat from the sun. These complex natural sculptures were breathtakingly beautiful.
Technical details
Canon R6, Canon EF 24-70 L lens @ 32mm. 1/800s @ f11, ISO 500.