Michelle Taylor-Holmes, Festive Lights (LANDSCAPE 2025)

On Christmas evening 2024, thunder boomed and lightning crackled through the camp where I was staying, as fierce storms had already driven many campers away. It was my first attempt at capturing lightning, and I used a wide-angle lens to showcase the vastness of the landscape, with small sections illuminated by the flashes. As 120 km/h winds howled through the night, the pop-up caravan’s canvas walls buckled in the storm’s grip, and water flooded the floor through the vents. It was the most fear I’ve ever felt, yet there was a raw beauty in the chaos that surrounded me.

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