2019
31 July 2019: New Zealand leading photography magazine D-Photo in its 91 Issue (August/September 2019) has published a feature story about Alpine photography titled "Alpine Glow".
1 March 2019: My image "Mount Taranaki" has been awarded "Highly Commended" in 2019 Memorial Maria Luisa (MML) International Mountain, Nature and Adventure Photo Contest.
25 February 2019: My image "Secrete Beach" has been made to 101 selection in 2018 International Landscape Photographer Competition.
Feature Story: Moonlighting, New Zealand Geographic, January/February Issue, 2019.
2018
15 November 2018: 2018 EPSON International Pano Awards: 1XSilver Award (Landscape Open).
9 October 2018: Two of my New Zealand images made in July have been selected into the finalists of 2018 New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year competition. I am very pleased for this outcome. This is also the second time my images made into the finalists of New Zealand Geographic photography competition - one of the most prestigious photography competitions in the region.
10 July 2018: I am glad that I have been informed that my profile Patagonia (6 images) have been judged Top 20 in Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers 2018. This competition is for emerging professional photographers and I am the first time to participate in this event.
2017
20 December 2017: I have Just been informed that my following image "Patagonia Autumn Night" , made from my 2016 40-days photography and mountaineering expedition, has won the 1st Place Prize in Landscape (Professional) category in 2017 Chromatic Photography Awards - International Color Photography Contest.
CertifcateCertifcate
13 December 2017: Very glad to receive the Runner-Up Award in prestigious New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year 2017. The award event was held on 13 December 2017 in Auckland Museum.
29 October 2017: I was informed that I have selected to be a finalist for my image "On the Edge of Glacier", which I made in my Tasman Glacier expedition in May 2017, in prestigious New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year 2017. This photo will be exhibited in Auckland Museum and I have been invited to the awards night there on 13 December 2017.
On the Edge of Glacier
28 October 2017: My overall results for Pano Awards: I am pretty happy for my overall results for this year's Pano Awards. Altogether I submitted 4 images in Amateur Landscape/Nature category, and one received 87 score, Gold Award, and got into Top 50 (ranked 17th out of 50); the other three received 84, 84, and 82 scores, and all received Silver Award.
You can view all Pano Awards winning images at here.
10 October 2017: I am glad that I have been just informed that two of my entries to Australian Photography Awards 2017 have been shortlisted in two categories: Landscape and Mobile. Finally results have yet been announced. These two images are "Mount Hallelujah" (Landscape) and "Blue Mountains Waterfalls" (Mobile):
"Mount Hallelujah""Mount Hallelujah"
1 March 2017: I am pleased to announce that my image "Cathedral Cove" has been selected to be a winning photo in the Nature category of the 27th Memorial Maria Lusia International Mountain and Nature Photography Competition (MML 2017).
20 February 2017: I am glad to announce that my two profile entries to 2016 Australian Photographer of the Year competition were ranked to 8th and 11th, respectively, in landscape category, have been honourable mentioned. One of them has been selected to be published in the February Issue (2017) of Australian Photography magazine.
2016
18 May 2016: This news has been a bit out of date, but I thought I should put here. Although it did not win an award, my image "Twilight" entered into the final list of the 26th Memorial Maria Lusia International Mountain and Nature Photography Competition. This photo was taken back in 2012 in Mount Assiniboine, Canada.
22 March 2016: I am very glad that my image "Mount Taranaki under Moonlight" has been selected to the shortlist of 2016 Australian Geographic ANZANG Nature Photographer of the Year Competition (Landscape category). This is the three years in a row that I have image(s) made into the shortlist of this most prestigious nature photography competition in the region.
Mount TaranakiAfter a severe storm for 20 hours, the mountain returned to its calmness. I came to this location at 3:30am on 4 July 2015. It was a full moon night. The moonlight starry sky was impressive over the summit of Mount Taranaki. Again, this is one single shot capturing such amazing mountain and sky and their reflections in the tarn.
This photo has been published on 1x.
2015
29 September 2015: Just received an notice that my image Cathedral Cove has been awarded the prestigious 1X "Curator's Choice" award. Now this image has become one of the two images of mine received most awards at various competitions and places.
24 September 2015: This year I have a photo Cathedral Cove selected to be published in prestigious 1X Year Photobook Memento. This is the third time I gain this important recognition for my photography, following my images selected for publishing in 1X 2012 Yearbook and 2013 Yearbook respectively.
14 June 2015: I am glad that my image "Mount Hallelujah" has been selected as the Image of the Day by the prestigious Nature Photography website Whytake.
16 March 2015: I am very glad to announce that my image "Blue Lake", made from my 2014 winter New Zealand Photography Expedition, has been selected to the shortlist of 2015 ANZANG Nature Photographer of the Year Competition. This is the two years in a row that I have images made into the shortlist of this most prestigious nature photography competition in the region.
Blue LakeBlue Lake is located in St Bathans - a former gold and mining town in the high land of Otago region of South Island, New Zealand.
During our recent 17-day winter photography expedition to New Zealand, we only stayed one day in St Bathans. It was a cold morning and we got up before dawn. When the first light appeared, we witnessed a dramatic change of the sky.
This image illustrated a magic transition from night to day. It was made from four shots with 14-24mm f/2.8 lens at 14mm end so that I could capture the entire lake and its surrounding mountain features.
This image has been also published on 1x.
5 February 2015: My image "Touching the Sky" has been nominated for the awards in the category of "Mountain and Landscape", during the 25th Memorial Maria Lusia International Mountain and Nature Photography Competition. Although this image did not finally receive an award in this competition, I am quite happy for been nominated :)
2014
2 December 2014: My image "Touching the Sky" made from my July 2014 New Zealand Southern Alps Expedition has been selected as "Editors' Choice" by 500px.
3 October 2014: I was just informed that two of my images entered for Outdoor Photographer's 2014 Vistas Photo Contest have been selected to the finalist.
"Mount Hallelujah"Mount Hallelujah created in movie Avatar has its origin from three famous Chinese mountain regions: Huangshan, Zhangjiajie and Guilin. This image was made in one of these three beautiful mountain areas: Huangshan. An unexpected snow storm suddenly arrived in West Sea Valley in the later afternoon on 22 Feb 2013. It was very cold and the storm was so strong especially in such an open location. Everyone left but I decided to stay a bit longer. The storm only lasted 15 minutes. By the end I was glad to be able to make this image under such extreme weather condition.
Starry Night at Mount AssiniboineThis image was taken on 21 September 2012, in Mount Assiniboine, Canadian Rockies. A dramatic sky appeared over Mount Assiniboine: after sunset, the rising moon was hidden behind Mount Sunburst while its light was burst from the peak, and moving clouds crossed the starry sky and formed such magic patterns.
3 September 2014: Final results of 2014 ANZANG Photographer of the Year competition will be announced on 10 October 2014. Selected finalist images will be published in the book 2014 ANZANG Nature Photos of the Year, where one of my two finalist images Surreal Ocean will be reproduced in this book.
25 August 2014: I have received four Bronze Awards in The 2014 EPSON International Pano Awards in the category of amateur competition (nature) for all my four photo submissions. These photos are:
Maligne LakeThis image captured the sunset and moonrise over Maligne Lake, revealed a peaceful mood at that moment.
In order to produce such a panorama view of Maligne Lake, I took 11 separate yet successive shots from left to right of Maligne Lake, then stitched them together in Photoshop.
2 April 2014: Two of my images "Cathedral Cove" and "Surreal Ocean" have been selected in the finalist of the 2014 Australian Geographic ANZANG Photographer of the Year Competition.
Cathedral CoveThis Cathedral Cove is located in Hahei coast, about 2 hours drive from Auckland towards south east direction. Arriving in this place before 4.30am, I looked into the beautiful sky through this magic arch.
It was also a super test of my patience to make this incredible image during the two hours of witnessing such a magic moment.
14 February 2014: My image "Great Wall" has been selected as the "Editor's Award" on 500px.
Great WallIt was an unforgettable night at the West Tower with Five Holes at Jinshanlin Great Wall. Severe thunderstorms and lightning just came suddenly, and the tower was my only shelter during the whole night. <br/><br/>This photo was taken at the night of 4 August 2013 in the tower. As it was raining together with severe thunderstorms and lightnings, I could only take photos through the arches and windows of the tower. Both the foreground and background of the great wall and mountains were greatly lighten up by a series of lightening that made them clearly visible.
This image was a result from blending four shots with the same composition, two for the foreground, background and sky that were lighten up by two separate strong lightnings, and two captured the three major lightnings as showed in the final image.
The West Tower with Five Holes (西五眼楼) was built in 1599 with a masonry structure. It once had an important geographic position in the old time due to its connection of the both east and west sides of Jinshanlin (金山岭）Great Wall.
5 February 2014: My image "Mount Hallelujah", made from the famous Chinese mountains Huangshan (黄山), has received "Highly commended mentions" in the category Mountain Landscape in the 24th Memorial Maria Lusia International Mountain and Nature Photography Competition.
"Mount Hallelujah"Mount Hallelujah created in movie Avatar has its origin from three famous Chinese mountain regions: Huangshan, Zhangjiajie and Guilin. This image was made in one of these three beautiful mountain areas: Huangshan. An unexpected snow storm suddenly arrived in West Sea Valley in the later afternoon on 22 Feb 2013. It was very cold and the storm was so strong especially in such an open location. Everyone left but I decided to stay a bit longer. The storm only lasted 15 minutes. By the end I was glad to be able to make this image under such extreme weather condition.
"Memorial Maria Lusia International Mountain and Nature Photo Contest" is created as a means of remembering mountaineer Maria Lusia Alvarez, who lived friendship intensely in the mountains and everywhere, and died in a mountain accident on 18th November 1990.
This photo has also been selected as the "Curator's Award" on 1X.