Pheatured Photo of the Week

Niseko, Japan

Niseko on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido is a white apocalypse, a place where snow falls as though there is no tomorrow. Moist air blowing across the Sea of Japan is dumped almost continuously on the mountains, giving the area its famous powder and ensuring that on nearly every run you are making fresh tracks. When I was there with my mate Brad, there were only two days where it was clear without snow, and during this time the snow became icy and hard packed. Since the conditions were not great, most opted for some time out to sit in front of the fire and help recover strained muscles. But I went out on my own with my camera to get some shots of the surrounding area on one of the few "clear" days. I snapped this shot of the nearby Mt Yotei volcano from the slopes of Grand Hirafu in Niseko.

Chalk cliffs at Beachy Head, near Eastbourne in the south of England

This photo was taken on a recent trip to London. I'd been staying with my friends Scott and Sam and having a blast in London town. But one day we decided it'd be awesome to get out into the countryside, so we rented a car and took a trip to Eastbourne. Eastbourne is a charming little town with a seaside pier. Just out of town is Beachy Head with these gigantic chalk cliffs. It's hard to imagine a stretch of coastline more spectacular. It had been a grey morning but by this time the sun was just starting to make an appearance and it hung around for the rest of the day. It would have been nice to have a filter to cut down on the glare, but alas I didn't, and so I had to soften the image a little in post-production. This is the result.

A cheeky monkey hanging out on the boardwalk of Forest Walk, looking to harass a hapless tourist

There were a family of about five monkeys in this spot on Forest Treetop Walk in Singapore and taking a nice detailed shot was difficult as they are constantly running, diving, wrestling and rolling, especially the younger ones. This older female was more content to sit and watch. I was a little bit apprehensive as I have seen monkeys get a little aggressive before and a girl on Ko Phi Phi in Thailand told me a horror story about getting attacked by a large group of them. Nonetheless, this girl seemed pretty chilled out! I used a large aperture to blur the background and place the emphasis only on the monkey. A 300 mm zoom lens helped fill the viewfinder.

A typical green curtain of the aurora. Photo by United States Air Force Senior Airman Joshua Strang. Yeah, I wish I took this shot.

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, shines above Bear Lake here Jan. 18. The lights are the result of solar particles colliding with gases in Earth's atmosphere. Early Eskimos and Indians believed different legends about the Northern Lights, such as they were the souls of animals dancing in the sky or the souls of fallen enemies trying to rise again. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Strang)

Booting the ball around at Leblon

Everywhere you go up and down the beach in Rio city, people are playing ball games. Usually it's football (soccer) but they also play a sort of hybrid volleyball-soccer which is like regular volleyball but with only the feet and head being used to propel the ball over the net. These kids kicked the ball around in front of us while we sat on the beach in the afternoon. The sun is setting in the west, casting the nice glow you see in the shot. I used a small enough aperture to capture the sand and coconut in the foreground, the boys in the mid ground and the waves and islands in the background, all in focus. I used a slow ISO to capture plenty of detail and sharpness in the image. I like the way the coconut and the islands give context while the coconut almost begs to be kicked.

Kayakers in front of one of the glaciers. Gives you an idea of scale. The cave is formed from the runoff meltwater of the ice. I imagine this was a decent kayaking trip for these two

I took this photo from the deck of the carnival cruise ship Island Princess. I love using my 300 mm zoom lens as it allows me to get up close and personal on wildlife or details in the landscape as if I were standing right in front. With landscape photos, I always try to capture a human element. I find this leads to a better sense of scale, majesty and grandeur of the scenery. In Alaska however this is not always easy as most of the locations are so remote. For that reason I was so excited to see these kayakers in Glacier bay- it was a rare opportunity and I snapped off several shots of them passing in front of the immense face of this glacier.