Andy Holliman
winner: spirit of travel, outdoor photographer of the Year (2017) Pre-owned Nikon D700 (body only) around £375
Andy Holliman carried out a lot of research before buying a nikon d700, his first dSLR. Having used Minolta film cameras until then, it was a steep learning curve. But switching to digital reignited his passion for photography, and he soon found his motivation for travelling changing, too. ‘ Whereas before I had taken a camera with me on my travels, after buying the d700 I was travelling for photography.’
On one such trip, Andy found himself stranded at Kangerlussuaq airport in Greenland, where he took this picture. ‘Air Greenland has a near monopoly on flights here, so almost everything is in the company’s red colours,’ he explains. ‘ The simple colour palette of this scene appealed to me.’ However, Andy had to work hard to balance all the elements. ‘ There weren’t a lot of options for changing viewpoint, but everything came together when the plane taking me back to denmark arrived in the background and added the final piece to the jigsaw,’ he recalls.
As he got more into photography, Andy discovered limitations with his gear (particularly the ISO performance and AF speed), and eventually upgraded. However, he’s still of the opinion that money spent on travelling and investing in photographic tuition has a far more beneficial effect on your photography than buying new gear. Andy’s top tips ‘Anyone after a robust, inexpensive camera – perhaps to risk in harsh conditions – would do well to consider the d700. In most situations, the limitations can be worked around by improving technique: use a tripod to keep the ISO at the native 200, and be careful to compose accurately to avoid too much cropping later, for example.’