Western Crowned Pigeon. Burgers' Bush.

As you may know I was nominated for the National Geographic Emerging Nature Photographer Award 2012 together with Joris de Raedt (Belgium) and Marten van Dijl (the Netherlands). This is a new award in the Netherlands and Belgium for “seriously talented photographers with proven contributions to nature conservation and awareness raising (…) meant to stimulate [them] in their professional career.”

I am thrilled to announce that the jury has appointed me as the winner!

Right now, this means several of my photos are in the Dutch edition of National Geographic Magazine, which is in the stores today. Those images are part of a photo story about Burgers’ Bush that I shot during a 6-hour challenge for the contest. I’ve added it to the photo stories section of the website, so you can see all the images if you wish. There you can also view the photo series about barn owls that secured my nomination.

For the near future, the award means that I will travel to Chile to photograph a blue whale conservation project for the Dutch National Geographic Magazine. I’m sorry that this is a little hastily written, but I will try to share more later as it is a very interesting project. I’m hoping to take you with me ‘into the wild’ through the means of the world wide web. I may be able to do some blog and/or video updates from the field, either here or on the Dutch National Geographic website, and I might devote a post or two to the preparations, but like I said, more about that later …

I have several interviews in the Dutch media today. Firstly, the newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden has again devoted a page to me with an interview and several photos. Also, you can tune into Radio Noord between 16.00 and 18.00 (Central European Time, UTC +02:00). The piece will probably air around 17:00. Finally, I will be on RTV Noord live in the studio at 18.00. If you don’t live in the area, you can listen and watch the livestreams for the radio and television broadcasts.

Finally, be sure to check out the work of my fellow nominees Joris de Raedt and Marten van Dijl as they are both excellent photographers, and in addition Joris does beautiful illustrations of the natural world.

Update — Here’s the piece that aired on RTV Noord: