1^st place – Karen Dawe Pio­neer Riv­er, Mack­ay, Queensland

2^nd place – Juer­gen Lohrbaech­er ​“The Man­grove”, Palm Island, Queensland

3^rd place – Sali­na Wool­ley Bal­go, West­ern Australia

The CRANAplus Well­be­ing Team would sin­cere­ly like to con­grat­u­late every­one who took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in our Mind­ful Pho­tog­ra­phy com­pe­ti­tion. It was a reward­ing expe­ri­ence to see so many rur­al and remote health work­ers tak­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­sid­er their sur­round­ings on a deep­er lev­el, open­ing them­selves up to view­ing things with a dif­fer­ent or new per­spec­tive, and cap­tur­ing a sto­ry in a sin­gle photo. 

The judg­ing pan­el thor­ough­ly enjoyed the expe­ri­ence and for that we thank every­one who entered. 

It was a chal­leng­ing task for the judges, who rather than judg­ing an image on the tra­di­tion­al con­ven­tions of a pho­to (e.g. light­ing, tech­ni­cal qual­i­ty, cre­ativ­i­ty, com­po­si­tion), were asked to con­sid­er how the pho­to told a sto­ry of being in the moment.

Judges were asked to assess how the pho­to con­sid­ers the key com­po­nents of mindfulness:

• Inten­tion – choos­ing to cul­ti­vate your aware­ness.
• Atten­tion – to the present moment, sen­sa­tions, and thoughts.
• Atti­tude – being kind, curi­ous, and non-judgmental.

We received so many incred­i­ble entries from health work­ers from all over Aus­tralia, mak­ing it a very chal­leng­ing job for the judges.

There were so many entries that tru­ly stood out, cap­ti­vat­ing the judges with their abil­i­ty to evoke a true sense of mind­ful­ness that we have award­ed not only a first, sec­ond and third prize but have made anoth­er six spe­cial mentions. 

Once again, con­grat­u­la­tions to all of the entries. May you con­tin­ue to cap­ture mind­ful­ness through photography.

Final­ly, we would like to thank every­one who sub­mit­ted a pho­to and took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be more mind­ful. We hope these pho­tos will encour­age you to con­sid­er using pho­tog­ra­phy to prac­tise mind­ful­ness. There is plen­ty of research out there show­ing the ben­e­fits of mind­ful­ness, specif­i­cal­ly mind­ful pho­tog­ra­phy, includ­ing increased hap­pi­ness, moti­va­tion, and more appre­ci­a­tion of life.¹

So, give it a go, relate to the present moment by stop­ping, observ­ing, focus­ing and capturing!

Spe­cial mentions

Rebec­ca Voigt,
East Arn­hem, North­ern Territory 

“The pic­ture forces you to be in the present and absorb every detail of its beauty.”

Mered­ith Brown,
War­bur­ton, Victoria 

“The trees reach­ing up to the sky as I take deep calm crisp breaths. Each breath I expand, open and grow toward my goals. Clar­i­ty being in nature and let­ting her guide me.”

Jo-Ann Riley Tele­graph,
Fitzroy Riv­er, West­ern Australia

“Remem­ber­ing to relax.”

Jen­na Mat­ters,
Kalum­bu­ru, West­ern Australia 

“This pho­to was tak­en on an after­noon walk with my col­leagues after fin­ish­ing a day’s work in a remote com­mu­ni­ty in the East Kim­ber­ley. Get­ting out in nature and appre­ci­at­ing its beau­ty is our way of slow­ing down after a busy day. My col­league picked up this rock and asked me to take a pho­to of it. It remind­ed me to be mind­ful and to observe the fin­er details of my surroundings.”

Jan­ice Bart­ley ​“Clipped Wings”,
Zee­han, Tasmania 

“There is not only beau­ty in the minu­ti­ae of our world, but also beau­ty in its imper­fec­tions. A dam­aged wing as part of a beau­ti­ful whole is still a moth who can fly. A reminder, not to wor­ry about life’s small imper­fec­tions and setbacks.”

Annie Den­holm ​“Untouched Par­adise”,
West Arn­hem Land, North­ern Territory 

“I was cap­ti­vat­ed by the beau­ty of Arn­hem Land and was able to not only appre­ci­ate its beau­ty and sacred­ness but also to be at peace and clear my mind.”

Ref­er­ences

1. Sut­ton, J. (2021). Mind­ful Pho­tog­ra­phy: 11 Ther­a­peu­tic Ways to Use Your Cam­era. Pos­i­tive Psy­chol­o­gy. Accessed 09 Feb 2023 at https://​pos​i​tivepsy​chol​o​gy​.com/​m​i​n​d​f​u​l​-​p​h​o​t​o​g​r​aphy/