When Observation Meets Serendipity — Justin Shea’s Wildlife Moment Takes Platinum

Photographer Justin Shea has been awarded the Platinum Award in the Nature & Experimental Photography category at the World Grand Prix Photography Award 2025 Autumn Season. His winning work, titled “Where Are We Looking, Guys?”, captures a striking moment in nature featuring a group of cormorants positioned in alternating directions — a spontaneous and visually compelling pattern that appeared to unfold like choreography in the wild.

The jury praised Shea’s image for its sense of timing, observational depth, and the subtle interplay between structure and spontaneity in nature. The photograph stands out for transforming an everyday moment into a humorous yet thoughtful visual narrative about perspective, attention, and natural harmony.

In addition to his success in photography, Shea has a background as a lifelong musician and martial artist — influences that shape his approach to creative discipline, emotional expression, and technical mastery.

Q: What inspired you to take this award-winning photo? Is there a story behind the piece you’d like to share?

Justin: I am a lover of nature and one of the best reasons to shoot this genre is that it often surprises you with behaviours or actions you never thought possible. Watching a group of Cormorants from a viewing area over the river, I spotted this group drying off from their stint in the water moments before. I realized that the composition of the shot was beautiful and when I noticed that some of them were turning their heads independently, I kept shooting until some were facing left and some were facing the right. I just happened to get lucky that they were facing a certain direction in alternating patterns. Sometimes luck is essential to landing that perfect shot.

Q: How do you approach the balance between technical skill and emotional/artistic expression in your photography?

Justin: As with any art, photography requires a distinct balance of both technical skill and emotional/artistic expression. Without technical skill, one’s abilities can only be theoretical and without evidence and without emotional/artistic expression, one can only achieve near-perfect mimicry of others’ style. Without a high standard tied to a unique mix of both of these aspects, no one can hope to achieve brilliance using their own voice.

As a lifelong musician and martial artist, I personally know that my emotional/artistic expression has always been strong within any artistic endeavour. The technical skills for me have always been the hurdles to striving for that next level of evolution of my craft. I’ve proven it to myself in several fields that if I can aim towards perfection within the vocabulary of technical skills required in any of my arts, my emotional/artistic expression can take me to new heights and further my journey exponentially once I have succeeded technically.

Q: What message or feeling do you hope your photography conveys to viewers?

Justin: My interests in photography spans a very wide range, however, one of my main goals of photography is always to pique someone’s interest with deeper questions. Whether it’s asking themselves questions like ‘I wonder how he shot this’ or ‘I wonder where he shot this’ or better yet: ‘I really want to know how to replicate this and/or make it better’. As a martial arts instructor, I’m always partial to helping anyone hone and improve their skills in whatever they desire to excel at: especially by being a good example of where to be or go (as this is quickly becoming a lost art these days with the rise of ‘CEO-style’ leadership).

Q: In your view, what role does photography play in today’s world?

Justin: Unlike today’s seemingly perpetually moving world, photography – I believe – is a medium we need now more than ever. Being almost ‘forced’ to actually slow down to not only see or watch, but also study the uncountable details in a single image frozen in time will help people rediscover such concepts as focus, depth of understanding, detailed analysis and so on. As I was growing up, art – whether it was pictures or stories or TV – was a tool to helping me learn facts and concepts sometimes far beyond my years. As a result of this desire to learn in this manner – to linger on a single phrase, photo or video – I believe I have developed greatly in my depth of thought and thus, have been able to harness my creativity in ways that I didn’t even imagine I could. It is convention to believe that dabbling in many different fields provides an unmatched breadth of experience to further anyone’s interests, however, it is crucial that a critical level of depth must also be attainted in order to continue exploring the infinite sea of exciting knowledge and beauty.