The retired commercial real estate salesman Martin Barwood said it "blew him away" to win the 2022 Otago Museum photographer of the year award on Saturday.
When he retired three years ago he had planned to take up woodworking.
However, he never got around to picking up a chisel because he lent towards photography instead.
His photos had come a long way since his teenage years and he was still learning.
Over the years he had shifted from macro photography towards mostly taking pictures of wildlife.
He usually used a Nikon 600mm lens with a 1.4× teleconverter, because the long lens let him keep a distance from his subjects.
To add to his win of the overall prize, two of Mr Barwood’s shots of shorebirds took the top places in their respective categories.
A photo of a grebe with two chicks perched on its back won the adult wildlife category, while a royal spoonbill mixed up in a fishing line took the top spot in the human impact category.
The photo of the spoonbill with fishing line was a lucky shot, Mr Barwood said.
He liked the murky background of the spoonbill which he had just framed when the bird came up with the fishing line.
A few moments after he pressed the shutter, some paradise ducks flew past and scared away all the birds in the area.
Getting the perfect shot was about putting yourself in situations so you could be in the right place in the right time, he said.
Often, Mr Barwood found himself spending more time than he expected at a location, just in case an extraordinary shot came along.
His advice for aspiring photographers was to "just get out there and do it".
Photography was an "awesome hobby" which got people into the environment, and anything that got people into the environment and gave people a respect for the animals here in New Zealand was really important, he said.
One of his bucket-list items was to shoot polar bears, but for his next trip he was planning to see gannets in the North Island, he said.
