Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition

A Showcase for the Some of the Best Photos of the Natural World

Jan 12, 2009 Paul Lightfoot

The 2009 edition of one of the world's most prestigious and oldest photography contests will soon open and attract entries of the highest standard.

Established in 1964, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition is jointly organised by London’s Natural History Museum and the BBC Wildlife Magazine.

According to Mark Carwardine, chairman of the panel of judges in 2008, it is “the greatest showcase for wildlife photographers anywhere in the world.” Or as one of the judges, Ross Hoddinott, put it, “It is the Oscars for natural history snappers.”

Professional Photographers

In 2008 entries for adults were invited in eleven categories ranging from the behaviour of birds to “The Underwater World” and “Animal Portraits.” While standards are extremely high in all categories, one of the competition’s strengths is that it offers a wide range of challenges.

Some categories, such as “Wild Places,” demand entries that are “truly wild and awesome” and will stretch the skills of professional photographers while perhaps being beyond the reach of most amateurs. But “Urban and Garden Wildlife,” “In Praise of Plants,” “Creative Visions of Nature” and “Nature in Black and White,” for example, emphasise imagination and originality, as well as technical skill, and should be accessible to many who have relatively modest means and photography equipment.

Wildlife Photography Prizes

Prizes are awarded for each category, as well as an overall prize for the best photograph in any category. Other awards such as those in memory of Eric Hosking and Gerald Durrell, two of Britain’s most respected naturalists and photographers, aim to encourage particular kinds of wildlife photography or groups of photographers. The competition also encourages entries from young people, with three age categories from the under elevens to the under eighteens.

Aside from the sheer beauty of the photographs, one of the increasingly important benefits of the contest is to promote a greater appreciation for the world’s wildlife and therefore a wider awareness of the importance of conservation.

“Nothing speaks louder than an evocative photograph that stirs the imagination, tugs at the heart strings and engages the mind,” writes Carwardine on the competition’s website. A browse through the accompanying pages shows that many of the 30,000 entries easily meet those criteria.

Travelling Photography Exhibition

Under the competition’s usual calendar entries are invited from the end of January until the end of March each year, a no doubt heartrending process of selecting a handful of winners from thousands of stunning images takes place in the following months and results are announced in October.

Then comes the best part. The organisers arrange publications and travelling photography exhibitions that allow thousands of people around the world to enjoy and be inspired by a selection of the photographs. An exhibition of more than 100 entries from the 2008 contest will be at the Natural History Museum in London until April 2009. During the rest of the year it will tour 18 UK provincial cities and 14 countries, including the USA, Canada and Australia.

Keep an eye on the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition website for inspiration from previous contests, and for details of how to enter in 2009.

The copyright of the article Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition in Photography is owned by Paul Lightfoot. Permission to republish Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

A feathered friend