Masterclass in Nature Photography by Jürgen Freund at JCU

Cairns-based photographer Jürgen Freund has been pointing his camera at all creatures great and small for several decades now, and with great success.

He won the 2010 PATA Gold Award for Travel Photography with an image of marine biologist Brad Norman tagging a whale shark at Ningaloo Reef. A spectacular picture of a Minke whale’s eye won the Oceans category of the Nature’s Best Magazine international competition. He has also placed highly in competitions including the World Press Photo Award and UK’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Yogi, as he is widely known, works with his wife Stella Chiu-Freund.  They have published some stunning books that aim to focus attention on valuable and fragile places.

The Coral Triangle is the result of an 18-month expedition undertaken for WWF, documenting the wildlife, land and seascapes of a six million-square kilometer expanse of land and sea encompassing the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

For Sulu-Sulawesi Seas they documented some of the millions of species, from marine mammal behemoths to minute micro-organisms, that live in the eco-region encompassing the waters and islands of Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Closer to home in Cairns, Yogi and Stella are inspired by the rainforests of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and the neighbouring woodlands and savannah.

In June 2012 they will have returned from another Asian expedition to teach a masterclass in nature photography for James Cook University in Queensland’s far north.

The majority of the week’s classes will be held in the field, visiting the lush forests, crater lakes and extinct volcanoes of the Atherton Tablelands. Yogi will help you capture your best shots of the region’s inspiring flora, fauna, landscapes and waterways.

Fish Faces of the Coral Triangle featured in GEO Magazine

Last April, we had a truly charming feature in Germany’s GEO Magazine on the Coral Triangle’s colourful and cryptic marine creatures – a sure sign of biodiversity in this ecoregion. Soon it will also come out in GEO International magazines all over the world in around 16 countries!

BBC Wildlife Magazine features The Coral Triangle

We have been working hard to promote the Coral Triangle through our pictures. The images we accumulated during our epic 18 month WWF Coral Triangle Photographic Expedition is slowly getting its proper exposure in the world. For starters, here’s a beautiful portfolio last March in BBC Wildlife Magazine.

 

GEO October 2011 – Lake Eyre Story

GEO October 2011 – Lake Eyre Story

Our 2.5 month winter expedition this year to outback Australia’s Lake Eyre Basin is now out in the German GEO Magazine!

Tauchen Magazine – West Australia 2008

Tauchen Magazine – West Australia 2008

FLASHBACK – October 2008

We were boarding the fabulous diveboat MV Febrina on Yogi’s birthday in 2008 when a fellow guest from Germany chased Yogi with a magazine upon finding out he was Jürgen Freund. The newest issue of Tauchen Magazine had our West Australia story in it and the cover was Yogi’s! Here’s a chance to show it off for the first time in 3 years!

Rolex Laureates Collaborating – Jürgen Freund on Assignment for Rolex in Ningaloo 2008

Rolex Laureates Collaborating – Jürgen Freund on Assignment for Rolex in Ningaloo 2008

FLASHBACK – May 2008

Rory Wilson and Brad Norman - two Rolex Award for Enterprise Laureates joined forces to study whale sharks of Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. Yogi was given this “difficult” assignment of spending luxurious time onboard the boat of retired NBA basketball player Luc Longley to photograph these two scientists. First thing he told me about the boat was that it was custom built for Luc who towers 7’2″ and Yogi’s feet were dangling when he sat on the toilet!

With the many Rolex press releases that came out about this collaboration, one particular article from Qatar Airways’ inflight magazine Oryx led to Yogi winning the 2010 PATA Gold Award for Travel Photographer! Search for the winning picture in the December 2009 issue of Oryx Magazine!

AIMS CReefs – Census of Marine Life, Lizard Island 2008

The Census of Marine Life (CoML) is a grand global project with an objective to survey and analyze changes from past to present in marine life biodiversity, distribution and abundance, and to compile the resultant data into a comprehensive database called the “Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS),” to be used in forecasting the future of marine life. We are so fortunate to have been a part of this mammoth marine research project, which recently won the International Cosmos Prize 2011  in Japan. Congratulations to the Scientific Steering Committee of CoML.

With our rich and varied collection of images from the Great Barrier Reef, an big article called Great Barrier Reef: Das blaue Mysterium came out August 2010 in GEO Magazine.  See the GEO Fotogalerie of the GBR story here.

GEO Snake Expedition – Australia 2008

GEO Snake Expedition – Australia 2008

FLASHBACK – February 2008

Way back December 2007, Yogi was asked by the GEO photo editors to do a photographic snake expedition with scientist Dr. Guido Westhoff. The assignment required them to go to the Queensland outback for land snakes and Weipa for sea snakes. This expedition marked our first big collaboration with GEO Magazine and I was so happy for Yogi. It finally happened. For those who are not familiar, GEO is Germany’s most prestigious science, nature and geographical magazine, which also come out in 16 other countries worldwide. Simply put – it is an fantastic publication! See Yogi’s GEO Portfolio here.

Now I was (pre-expedition) petrified of snakes. The mere mention of the S-word was enough to turn my knees into jelly and make my stomach turn. But it was either stay home alone for a month or bite the bullet and go with the team to look for snakes and photograph them. EEEEEEK! So, not wishing to be left behind, I joined the team comprised of the GEO writer Hania Luczak, Guido Westhoff and his wife, Katja. It was awesome.