We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2017 AFS Photographer of the Year Award.
Our photo contest called on photographers across Australia to show us what forests mean to them. And they really delivered with a diverse range of entries that highlighted the enjoyment our forests give to visitors from all walks of life.
Robyn MacRae of Tumut, NSW in the northwest foothills of the Snowy Mountains scooped the main prize with her stunning photo among towering sugar pines (Pinus lambertiana). The photo was taken during a snowfall in Bago State Forest which is home to a diversity of species including native Alpine Ash, historic plantation stands dating back to the 1920s and large areas of commercial Radiata Pine.
She receives a $500 cash voucher from AFS and enters the PEFC international competition with a chance to win a trip to Helsinki, Finland, to present at the PEFC General Assembly in November.
A farmer’s daughter, 2014 Churchill Fellow, teacher and keen photographer, Robyn captured the winning photo on her Cannon 7D camera. She was thrilled about her win which was selected from an incredible range of photos that showcased the diversity of our forests – from individual trees and plants to forest landscapes, harvesters to families hiking in the woods, indigenous people to rural village life, and wooden buildings to wood products.
An entry from Robyn’s workmate at TAFE, Fiona D’Alessandro, was highly commended by the judges, and was also taken in Bago State Forest. The photo features one of Robyn’s three children.
