Thursday saw us in Auckland for the NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year 2025 awards night. This was the seventh time we’ve attended the awards with Edin and I having been finalists five times each and on three occasions finalist in the same year. It is always a fun evening with an opportunity to catch up with some fellow photographers and enjoy the amazing work that is being done. Unfortunately wild weather had cancelled most flights from the South Island so a number photographers had been stranded.

We began by visiting the exhibition where it is lovely to see the images printed up large. Edin had two finalist images and I had high hopes for one of them as it was just so powerful and topical in it’s message.

Her second image was a captivating black and white rendition of a swallow plunge bathing.

We didn’t have long to wait as wildlife was one of the first categories to be announced. Jonathan Harrod, whose work I have followed for some time and had hoped to meet, took out the runner up spot with his lovely monochrome kea in rain. Unfortunately he was one of those stuck by weather so had to connect by video link. Edin was then announced as the winner and headed up to get her award and be interviewed about her seabird research and photography work.

After that we could just relax and enjoy the evening.

Edin has an enviable record in this competition and it has been a privilege and pleasure to follow her growth as a scientist and photographer. She began with the Young Photographer award in 2014, following it up with a Highly Commended wildlife image in 2016 , Wildlife Runner-up in 2018, People’s Choice Award in 2020 (I had to accept the award on her behalf that year as she was working on the Poor Knights islands). 2023 brought another Highly Commended wildlife image (unfortunately we could not attend the awards that year due to a last minute date change that clashed it with our Wildlife Masterclass in Otago),