The Eisa Maestro Awards 2023, themed “The Animal Kingdom”, has announced its winners. Magnus Berggren from Sweden took home the 1st place award, while the Public’s Choice award was bestowed upon Mirjam Radke from Germany.
The winners will enjoy extensive national exposure with their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize series being published in the EISA Photography magazine of their respective countries. Moreover, the international 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners will be featured in all 16 EISA photography magazines and websites globally, providing them with the most extensive audience reach a photographer could wish for.
1st Place by Magnus Berggren, Sweden
Magnus Berggren started photographing in 2007, but it was not until 2018 that he decided to focus on wildlife photography. “I started photographing small birds and just got hooked,” he says. “But I also like to photograph other animals, of course.”
His image style is distinctive and dramatic. “I try to plan how the background looks as I try to get the animal separated from the background. I want to try to show the beauty of the animal by editing the photos a bit dramatically and bring out their soul in the photos,” he explains. “I’ve been developing my style for a few years and it’s still evolving.”
Magnus uses a Sony Alpha A7 IV with a Sony 400mm F2.8 lens, but he hopes to upgrade to a Sony 600mm F4 soon. “It would be better suited to smaller birds,” he says. He edits his photos on a PC with Lightroom Classic and Topaz Sharpen.
More: Eisa, Instagram h/t: 121clicks
2nd Place by Angi Wallace, UK
“I am an ex nurse turned multi award-winning photographer with a passion for close up and macro, nature, still life, creative portraiture, landscapes and gig photography”, Angi Wallace says. Over 18 years of enjoying photography, she has relished learning various genres, concentrating initially on capturing images of amphibians and reptiles (another hobby of hers). More recently she have been focusing on floral, fungi and other close up nature images as well as honing her skills in still life, focus stacking macro and food photography. “I produce a lot of my photography from home, using a mini studio set up in our dining room, simply because my health does not allow for energy demanding activities,” she explains.
3rd Place by Pål Hermansen, Norway
Pål Hermansen works as a photographer in the field of nature and arts. He is educated from Robert Meyer College of Art, Oslo, in addition to degrees in dentistry and homeopathy. In his work, he is mainly focusing on the interaction between man and nature, existential landscapes, and creative wildlife photography.
Public’s Choice Award by Mirjam Radke, Germany
Whenever German travel blogger Mirjam Radke is selecting a new destination for an upcoming trip, it’s always the local wildlife in a country, that will be crucial for her decision making, she admits. This 38 year old amateur photographer from Munich has captured outstanding images of orangutans in Sumatra, lions in Tanzania and hippos in Uganda. She is more than aware of one essential quality required in wildlife photography: Wherever she will go, she will need to bring along a lot of patience. Mirjam Radke knows that it will take time to get adapted to a place, learn about the resident animals, their habitat, and their behaviour – and find the perfect situation for outstanding photographs.