Interview With Alexandra Bernard From Australia

In my first semester of a journalism degree at Bond University I took a photography class.

I think the first shot I took myself was at the zoo. I've always loved zebras so I wanted to take my own photo of them using my parent's camera.

I use a canon 600D, nothing too fancy but a good quality camera I saved up and bought myself in high school. I'm hoping to upgrade sometime soon!

I want to try and take things as artistically as possible and really highlighting the little things.

I put out a photobook showcasing my local area and I had so many lovely compliments on the back of that. One of them was from someone I didn't really know at the time and was very gushing about it all. The fact that I didn't know them well really inspired me to continue and take more.

Noticing the little things. It's so important for me to try and take things differently and I really love a good close up and experimenting with different angles.

Creative, artistic & natural.

It's such an honour. I haven't been doing photography professionally for very long so to be internationally recognised is so exciting. I have lots of people tell me how much they like my photos but to have other professionals award my photos is a whole new level.

My platinum winning photograph was taken on one of my absolute favourite mornings. I went out to a property near Willow Tree before dawn to watch the sunrise from on top of a hill. I was taking photos of the properties canola crop and was so mesmerised by the grid and the long shadows cast by the trees in the early morning. I decided to enter this photo as it was something different to the standard crop photo and has been one of my favourite shots.

Being in Australia I always loved going to the Ken Duncan Gallery growing up and that inspired me from the start.

I think just to keep taking photos.

Doing my own thing and continuous experimenting. There's a lot of technical elements involved in photography that I got bogged down in to start with but now I'm also trying to push boundaries and do things differently as well as including those.

Things are changing all the way and I'm always keen to try new things.

To those who are nervous about showing their photos, show them off. Be proud. The more you take, the better you get. Take criticism as a positive and improve. It really does work. Even if the weather/location turns out not to be ideal, just be with nature.