The SATW (Society of American Travel Writers) recently held its annual Bill Muster Photography Awards. The competition is named for renowned photographer Bill Muster, who established a foundation to support excellence in travel photography. The 2026 Awards, consisting of 10 categories, were based on photos captured between July 2023 and June 2025. Robin was thrilled to win two Golds and one Merit Award.
One Gold Award was for the Best Animal Photo, featuring an Atlantic puffin framed by two razorbills. I got this shot while on a trip of a lifetime to Machias Seal Island in New Brunswick. This tiny remote island is bird heaven. While it attracts a variety of sea birds, it’s the nesting puffins that steal the show. Visits are tightly controlled, with only 15 people per day allowed to visit the island, where we spent one hour in a photography blind in the midst of the action. Read about that trip below.
For a photographer, this was like being a kid let loose in a candy store. Puffins are the coolest-looking birds in any setting, but here so much of the action was taking place just a few metres away. It was possible to shoot clusters of birds, flying birds, and close-up portraits. Razorbills, fascinating birds in their own right, often take second billing to the puffins. But when a puffin appeared between two razorbills, who seemed to be posing and providing a supporting role in the background, it was a composition I couldn’t resist.
I also received a Merit Award in the Best Animal Photo category. This was for a red fox in Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert National Park. The park is a great place for foxes, which always look their best in winter when they sport thick, lustrous coats. Photographing the fox against the snow draws attention to the animal without any distracting background.
The other Gold Award was for the Best Natural Scenic category. It featured an old truck against the night sky in Saskatchewan’s Thickwood Hills. The image is made up of a series of 30-second exposures taken over 2.5 hours. I did some light painting on the truck during one of the exposures. The result was star trails caused by the movement of the rotation of the Earth. An unexpected bonus was that some low-level northern lights added a bit of extra colour just above the horizon.
See all the award winners along with a video presentation.