Australian Landscape Photographer of the year 2020

I am pleased to share that my image collection of 4 images titled “Moving World” of the night-sky around Australia was awarded 7th place from the highly competitive Australian Photographer of the Year competition by Australian Photography Magazine and Panasonic.

Entries all around Australia and New Zealand were received and my entries received a high percentage of votes to enter the top 10. I’m thrilled that the judges recognized not only one but two of my image collections and my standalone image won the image of the year in such a crowded field. I am speechless to have my image collection “moving world” featured in the magazine, certainly quite the achievement!
These images are incredibly meaningful to me because of the difficulty and commitment it took to get them.

I had to travel multiple times to the same locations over the last year from my home in Melbourne to get a clear night with no moon, rain or clouds. Once the conditions were perfect I stayed all night under the stars to capture each star trail. It took me about 6-8 hours to get these images and one more day to process the images in Photoshop manually for the highest quality outcome. I won’t forget the incredible nights under the stars in the cold, the wind, the frustrations when you noticed your lens fogged as you forgot to charge your battery, and the remote control function not working all night despite the shutter of the camera going automatically all night. It is all worth it when you go back home successful and spent the night on the ocean listening to the crashing waves after the Cape Schanck and Cape Woolamai star trails. I am very fond of my star trail in Mount Buffalo, The Horn. It is a long drive that you don’t do often and the disappointment is horrible when you are keen for the shining skies as it turns to dust because of clouds. At the top of Mount Buffalo where one of the star trail images was taken it was so cold that night, I could barely feel my fingers and feet. Thankfully our We Are Raw Photography tour van was right next to me waiting with a warm sleeping bag and hot tea to shelter me from the wind.

If you love night photography as much as I do, please check out my Introduction to Astro Photography Course where I share all the things I wish I knew when I started shooting the milky-way and star trails 5 years ago. You can see the course HERE.

Karolin Schild
We Are Raw Photography

Also, Karolin’s “Light and Shadow,” an exceptional collection of 4 images entered in the landscape category representing contemporary colour photography at its finest, received highly commended. Her “In My Shadow” entry received highly commended as the image of the year 2020.

AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD is the leading AUSTRALIAN award honouring excellence in landscape photography. This celebrated event shines a spotlight on the best professional and amateur photographers across Australia and New Zealand and honours the finest images with the highest achievements in landscape photography.