Two weeks ago I was honoured to receive an award for the New Zealand based photographer to be identified as the Nature Photographer of the Year via the 2026 NZIPP IRIS awards.

So how did this occur?

The top 3 scoring images from each finalist from the top 3 New Zealand based contestants in the 2026 IRIS awards in the nature category were blindly assessed by a panel of judges after category judging took place. On Thursday, 6 August the three finalists were announced and the winners were subsequently announced at the Gala Dinner on Sunday, 9 August. I was lucky to be at the gala dinner so was able to collect the Sony sponsored award in person. It was quite an occasion for this first time entrant.

The three images are shown below.