Glenn Young, The Cradle of the Southern Lights (LANDSCAPE 2026)

I was lucky enough to spend some time at Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake earlier this year and even luckier to visit at night with a short period of clear skies. It was very dark and quiet with no wind, I'd have to say a little eerie and surreal as I walked around the lakes edge. I was keen to get some photos of the boat shed, Cradle Mountain and lake reflections, and I set up and took my first photo. Wow I could not believe that I saw in my photo that there was a weak aurora happening, it looked so beautiful on the back of the camera, for a dark location it suddenly seemed so bright ! I spent the next few hours taking photos and chatting to some other photographers that had arrived, it was a surreal experience and one that I will never forget with the beauty of the scenes etched in my mind.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.