While Albany photographer Tracy Ryan is no stranger to professional camera gear, it was her photos taken on her iPhone during a holiday to Norway that caught the eye of international judges.
A series of three images captured on her iPhone 14 earned Ryan an Honourable Mention in the 2026 International Photography Awards.
The images called Trollfjorden Series, Lofoten Islands, Norway features one of Norway’s most spectacular fjords.
The fjord is 2km long with a 100m wide entrance, dramatic steep walls rising up to 1100m high and a deep basin showing the slow-moving glaciers.
The location is only accessible by boat and Ryan describes it as a place with an atmosphere that felt “truly magical”.
The IPA is one of the world’s major photography competitions, with this year’s international judging panel assessing more than 14,000 entries from 139 countries to select the category winners and honourable mentions.
The 2026 IPA honourable mention adds to a strong track record for Ryan in international competitions, including a third place win in the IPA in 2021 for her image Sunflower and a first place at the IPA in 2008 for her series Into the Sea, Mooloolaba.
Ryan who usually takes her pictures with high-end photography gear said she didn’t want to lug it all overseas on this trip.
“I went to Norway and decided not to take all my gear with me because it was just too hard so I got myself a really good iPhone — the iPhone 14 as it has really good photography possibilities so I decided just to do that,” she said.
Ryan said receiving the honourable mention in the smartphone category proves that you don’t need all the right gear, just the right idea.
“It’s the smartphone photography section I got the award in, which is strange because I’ve been using proper big cameras forever,” she said.
“I think that it’s pretty cool, it shows that you don’t have to have all the right equipment its just about the composition of the photograph.
“It proves that it doesn’t have to be the most amazing camera, it’s just how you take it and what it looks like in the end.
“I’m really pleased.”
Ryan said she originally entered the competition as she thought it would be good marketing to enter, but she said she is chuffed to have received this type of recognition.
“I just thought I’d give it a whirl and that it would be good marketing for me but to actually get an award was just quite interesting,” she said.
“I was really chuffed when I got the accolade that I did — the honourable mention — its been a really fun.
“To have received international recognition for the series is really exciting.”
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