The winners of the 2009 Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism were announced in Sydney on November 27 and images from the finalists in the five photographic categories will tour to Brisbane, Newcastle and Perth in 2010.

With emotive, celebratory and evocative images of daily life, sports and spot news both in Australia and around the world; photographs depicted an array of events and topics from Victoria’s terrible bushfires to the glory of the Olympic Games and the loss and pain in refuge camps in Congo.

The Nikon sponsored awards include daily life, sport, news, photographic essay and the coveted award for Press Photographer of the Year. This went to Renee Nowytarger from The Australia for her body of work that features an exhausted Malcolm Turnbull.

Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the year:
Renee Nowytarger, The Australian

Daily Life / Feature Photography:
Kirk Gilmour, Illawarra Mercury & The Sydney Morning Herald: Batten Down the Boogie Boards

Sport Photography:
…

On December 12 photographers around the world came together to give the gift of a photo. Help-Portrait was set up as a means for photographers to utilise their skills and equipment to help the less fortunate during the Christmas holiday period.

And for many of the people that came to the Help-Portrait events, it was their first ever family photo.

Events t ook place in 715 locations in 42 countries as photographers took individual portraits and family photos of those that came.

In Sydney studios were set up at the Australian Technology Park to take photos of people utilising services from Mission Australia, Saint Vincent de Paul, the Sydney Children’s Hospital and The Salvation Army and included the homeless, those in need and victims of domestic violence.

Help-Portrait was founded in Nashville, Tennessee by celebrity entertainment photographer Jeremy Cowart.

Cowart said, “we’re consistently hearing from many photographers worldwide that this is the greatest thing they’ve ever done with their cameras.”

If you missed the 2009…

“The best camera is the one that’s with you.”

And for Chase Jarvis, that camera would be his iPhone.

A lot of people complain that the iPhone camera isn’t good, and that it doesn’t take good photos. Well, Chase successfully proved with this project that a “good photo” is not defined by a cutting-edge camera, but rather, by the one who takes the shot. He takes between 1 to 1000 photos every day, he says, and to some that may be a tad too obsessive. Well when someone really loves what he does, and he has the thing he needs to do it all time, why shouldn’t he?

Chase shares at least one photo everyday, taken and directly uploaded from his iPhone, through his iPhone photo gallery contains his favorite shots, completely untouched by Photoshop and are post processed using only iPhone applications.

Here are some photos Chase took using…

Chase Jarvis, at 37, is a highly successful photographer for someone his age.

But photography wasn’t the first career path Chase pursued. His interest in photography began at school, where he was an athlete and is often photographed by his father and grandfather (and the local newspaper). Chase’s life, though he didn’t realize it at first, changed when his grandfather died and left him his camera equipment. He then began learning to work behind the camera (instead of being in front).

Chase was about to begin his Masters in Philosophy when he realized that pursuing a career in photography was what he actually wanted. He had been submitting photos to some magazines and he realized that he can make money from the photos he took. He has a knack for sports photography and his talent was apparent from the photos he took, and soon enough, in 1996, he got his first big break—he struck a deal with a big outdoor sports…

When you’re only 37 and you’re already one of the most respected photographers in the country (so much that you’re the first person EVER Nikon trusted to test and play with one of their most anticipated products, the D90) and has already won a handful of awards, then you can safely say that you’re a very successful man.

But not if you’re as down-to-earth as Advertising Photographers of America (which describes him as an “innovative thinker with his head completely up in the sky”) in Action, Sports and Adventure category for not just one, and not even two, but four years (2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008), or if you’re the youngest photographer to be named