Entry for National Geographic Travel Photography Scholarship

I was sitting watching the National Geographic Channel about two and a half weeks ago. This ad caught my attention for a chance to win a Travel Photography Scholarship with National Geographic. If you are the lucky winner, you get to spend 8 days in South Africa. Here is the link to the competition details:

 http://natgeotv.com.au/events/event.aspx?id=5

I have been a big fan of National Geographic for a long time. I would rather watch a good documentary than a movie any day. I have a real thirst for knowledge and will spend hours researching any topic that takes my interest. Therefore when I saw this ad come up on the television, I had to jump at the chance to at least be in the running. 

The criteria had me deep in thought for days and I have spent a bit of time agonising over exactly what to say, the place to illustrate and the images to use. I have been to Asia and the UK, but I decided to choose my own backyard playground - South East Queensland. As I have a passion for storm chasing and as it involves quite extensive travelling at times, I decided this would be my topic. 


 I will upload the images here and put up my 300 word entry. You can also view my entry by going to my World Nomad travel journal and the images in my flickr gallery:

http://journals.worldnomads.com/jessitar/photos/31368/Worldwide/My-Photo-scholarship-2011-entry

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessitar/sets/72157627939170805/


 Here is the 300 word entry where I have to talk about myself and why I feel I would deserve this scholarship:

“My foray into the world of photography started back when I was 12 years old and I discovered the joy of the disposable Kodak camera. From that time on, I would beg my parents for a camera on every school camp or family trip. Throughout the years, from learning film processing at school to my first digital camera purchase, my initial fascination with photography grew into a real passion. 

I have learnt what I know so far from collaborating with other photographers, who varied from amateur to semi-professional. We would come up with different places to visit over a weekend around Queensland and New South Wales. I loved seeing how everyone interpreted and composed their images in the same location.  I appreciate the value of collaboration and the sharing of knowledge that has assisted in the development of my technique so far. I really feel though that further mentoring with Jason would improve my technique in leaps and bounds.

I have travelled solo overseas to Asia and England and immensely enjoyed the experience. I spent a lot of time travelling by foot, within the places I visited to see beyond the tourist centres. I have had some incredibly rewarding experiences by taking the time to really find out about the place, people and culture of the locations I have been. 

I genuinely love travel and although I cannot always head as far as I would like, I regularly satisfy my craving for travel and photography by storm chasing. Storm chasing safely and finding the best spots to shoot takes a lot of planning, knowledge, patience and instinct. South East Queensland would have to be one of my favourite places to chase, from the birthplace of most storms in the far Western Darling Downs region through to the coast.”