Cherry blossoms are one of the great signs of Spring. The delicate pale pink flowers only last a few short weeks, but they're so beautiful to look at and photograph. And once the petals start to fall, they look a bit like snow on the ground, which in turn leads to more photographic opportunities. Spring is a wonderful time to be amongst nature.

This diptych shows two versions of a willow tree in a lake at sunset: one photo taken during golden hour where the suns last rays give a golden glow across the willow branches, and one taken as the sun is setting with beautiful hues in the sky in the background and a silhouetted willow tree. There were Pied Shags, Phalacrocorax varius, roosting in the tree at various stages over the course of the evening.

Both images were taken using a neutral density filter to smooth out the water giving it a soft and dreamy appearance.

It was a beautiful sunny morning when I made this photograph of a New Zealand Fur Seal pup. I love how the golden early morning sun makes the seal pups fur glow. New Zealand fur seals, Arctocephalus forsteri, are found in colonies along the Wellington and Wairarapa coastlines.

On our voyage to the Antarctic Peninsula, we weren't expecting to see Emperor Penguins because the closest colony was over 350km away. So we were so excited to find two Emperor Penguins, Aptenodytes forsteri, resting on an ice floe in Crystal Sound, Antarctica early one morning. Later that day, one of the penguins was still hanging out so our expedition leader made the call to lower the zodiacs so we could get an up-close encounter. This three image Emperor Penguin triptych is the result.

This triptych received an acceptance award in the Nelson National Triptych Salon, an annual competition run by the Nelson Camera Club.

One of the images from this triptych is available as a fine-art print, canvas, or framed print in my Print Shop:

• Emperor Penguin