Photo of the Year 2012 winners’ Papua New Guinea expedition

The hours are ticking away until we announce the results of the our 2013 Travel Photo of the Year competition. In the mean time, we catch up with last year’s winners, who share the secrets of their success and reveal what they learned from their incredible prize: a photography expedition to the wilds of Papua New Guinea.

What was it like knowing you’d beaten off stiff competition to win the Photo of the Year competition? How did you feel?

I was shocked when I saw I had won the wildlife category. I originally thought there was a mistake when I saw my picture as the winning shot. I though they were rotating through all the finalists but then I realised it had won. I still can’t really believe it!

How did you prepare for your trip to Papua New Guinea?

I tried to research it on the internet but information was limited. I spent ages debating what lenses to take. In the end I found a forum where someone had been to Papua New Guinea and said that the birds of paradise [which I was interested in photographing] lived high in the tree tops meaning he had been unable to take any photos of them. So I decided not to take my big lens and to focus on photographing people, which is something I haven’t done before. I then spent a long time researching travel photos and photos of tribesmen and women so I had an idea of the images I would like to try and get.