And he is well qualified to judge -- he has spent two decades photographing the island and living off the earnings of his trade.

His work is to be found on postcards, prints and even on the Spirit of Tasmania ferries.

This month he won the prestigious Canon/AIPP Landscape Photographer of the Year Award for 2006, part of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography's annual Australian Professional Photographer of the Year Awards.

His dramatic digital images of Tasmanian scenery, including a stormy sea around rocks at Port Davey in the far south and moody portrayals of the Bruny Island lighthouse, impressed the judges.

His image of the sea breaking over rocks at Port Davey was ranked in the top 10 of all photographs submitted for the awards -- more than 1500 images.

But Lea's award celebrations have been tempered by a realisation the muse and inspiration for his work is changing fast.

He blames the massive conversion of native forests to tree plantations in the past five years.

"The traditional and much admired image of farmland pastures and paddocks merging into native forests and surrounding mountains is going fast," Lea said.

"Native forest is being replaced by plantations on a huge scale."

Lea said for Australia's bicentennary in 1988, he took photographs of Tasmanian views which had been made popular by painters in the late 19th century.

After researching the paintings and visiting the places where they were painted, he was intrigued to discover there was probably more native forest in 1988 than there was in the late 19th century.

"The places had been cleared extensively when first settled and it was discovered some areas were less viable and so the bush was left to regenerate, so there was actually some sort of recovery going on."

But Lea said the trend had not continued.

"I've been thinking recently about the proliferation of plantations and I've realised this change in the past few years has probably been the biggest change in the landscape since British occupation when the first settlers started clearing land," he said.

Lea said many of his photographs were now very different to the landscape that remained.

"You can go back and see the plantations taking out the native forests," he said.

Tasmania's coastal scenery also was changing fast.

"I think we have been relatively lucky in Tasmania that there still hasn't been the strong development pressure here until quite recently," he said.

"I think Tasmanians in general do look at coastal development in NSW and Queensland and there is an awareness here of the pitfalls of coastal development, but we had a close shave with Ralphs Bay and Crescent Bay at Port Arthur.

"Inevitably if 10 undesirable projects are put up and nine are knocked over, you still lose."

Lea was named Tasmanian Professional Photographer of the Year in 2003.

He has been publishing landscape work since 1989 and his pictures have appeared in national and international magazines and on Australian stamps.

Lea said he urged the Tasmanian government to do more to protect Tasmania's landscape values, particularly those in areas outside national parks.