• Photography competition

Photography competition

Photography competition

Winners announced!

We have had a great response to our photography competition “British Wildlife and Habitats”.  We received a large number of brilliant pictures, showing landscapes, insects, plant life, fungi, reptiles, birds, and animals.  Thank you to everyone who entered.

It was incredibly difficult to pick our favourites, although we are very confident that the pictures we have chosen reflect the judging criteria perfectly: artistic merit, photographic quality and relevance.

The winner, Robert Chapman, has been awarded £250 and the 5 runners-up, Dan Beeden, Dai Lewis, Andrew Pringle, Soren Pears and Anthony Murden have been awarded £50 each.

Please see the winning pictures below. They can also be viewed in a larger size in our Gallery.

The winner: Robert Chapman, Puffin With Sand Eels.

The judges unanimously agreed that this should be the winning picture.  It was  taken on the Farne Islands, whilst Robert saw the puffin walking towards him with the sand eels in its mouth ready to feed its young. The puffin was just 3m away.  Robert used a Panasonic Lumix camera, and as he is just 15 years old we are looking forward to seeing more of his future photos.

Runner-up: Dan Beeden, Woodwalton.

Dan took this image at Woodwalton, near Huntingdon, part of the Great Fen project which aims to restore land to fenland habitat.  He took this picture at sunrise, using his Nikon D300 camera.

Runner-up: Dai Lewis, Great Crested Newt.

Dai managed to get up close to this great crested newt at Malvern, Worcestershire. The newt was resting on a log pile, the perfect habitat for newts, and Dai managed to photograph it using his Fuji Finepix camera.

Runner-up: Anthony Murden, Stooping Sea Eagle.

This picture was taken on Loch na Keal on the Isle of Mull.  Anthony used a Nikon D300 camera to catch the eagle in flight.

Runner-up: Soren Pears, Water Vole.

Soren took this photo of a water vole at Cromford Canal in Derbyshire using his Canon EOS camera.  We were really impressed that he was able to take such a sharp image, considering that water voles are notoriously shy and very difficult to observe.

Runner-up: Andrew Pringle, Web Of Life.

Andrew took this picture at dusk in Gosford Woods, East Lothian using a Canon Rebel camera. We were really impressed  with how well Andrew caught the light streaming through the trees to illuminate the grasses entwined with web.