WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR AWARDS IN A PANDEMIC?

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

Representing wildlife photography at the first socially distanced Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards

Let’s not beat around the bush - 2020 has been the weirdest year most of us can remember. With all of the restrictions around social distancing, it was also one of the strangest years for the NHM Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards in its half-century history. Typically, there’s a big ceremony held at the Hintze Hall (the main entrance atrium where Hope and Dippy have welcomed 5 million annual visitors) in the Natural History Museum, where all of the winners, judges and special guests get dressed up for dinner with the dinosaurs and amazing stories are shared, speeches are made and awards are handed out. But this year of course, that wasn’t possible…

HOWEVER! The Natural History Museum and the team at Wildlife Photographer of the Year made certain that despite the pandemic, we would celebrate wildlife photography and the show would go on. Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin were invited to host the first ever live-streamed and socially distanced ceremony and the winners were invited to accept their awards online in real-time, so that we could all get a glimpse inside the awards from the comfort of our homes.

Having been awarded in the competition twice previously, I was invited to attend and be on hand to answer any questions from the public. It was a little strange to be the only photographer physically there, but it was really great to see the event come together and all of the hard work the organisers put in to make it work despite the pandemic! You can watch the main event via the link below, but the stream of the intro and all of the behind-the-scenes extras etc. is unfortunately only available via a private link.

The 2020 overall winner was this amazing image displayed below by Sergey Gorshkov. I don’t want to get into the technicalities of why this was such a difficult image to capture, but trust me - IT WAS! But… I do want to say that this winning image is representative of the sea-change that we are experiencing as human beings. There is a wild part of us inside that resents losing our connection with nature and will do everything we can to cling to it. This pandemic has made us all realise how important nature is for our physical and mental health and for me, this image is about embracing and remembering that. Roll on WPY 2021!

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR BOOK FRONT COVER AND LEAD PUBLICITY IMAGE WORLDWIDE!

THE MOST FAMOUS FOX IN THE WORLD?

The 2016 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards results have recently been announced so I'm really happy to share that my image "Nosy Neighbour" has been chosen as not only the front cover of this year's winners portfolio book, but it's also going to be used as the lead publicity image to promote the WPY 52 exhibition as it tours the globe. I'm super stoked as apparently it's the first time in the competition's history that the same image has been used for both.

I've already seen it on on billboards across the UK, but I've also been sent pictures of Nosy Neighbour posters by friends on all sides of the globe, including the USA, Canada and Australia, so he's possibly the most famous fox in the world right now! Having my picture on the front cover of the Portfolio 26 book is a great accolade and dream come true for me as the WPY portfolio books are real collectors items for all wildlife photographers - they showcase the world's best and most innovative wildlife photography, so I'm humbled to be featured so prominently in this year's competition.

MARINE LITTER STORY IN 6 PAGE AUDUBON FEATURE AND AWARDED BY IUCN

I'm super excited to see my gannet / marine litter story published across 6 pages in the winter issue of Audubon Magazine - the flagship quarterly journal of the National Audubon Society. The same series has also been awarded 3rd place in the Nature Images Awards presented by Terre Sauvage Magazine and IUCN - the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

You can read the full article online on the Audubon site here:

An Annual Rescue Mission to Free Northern Gannets Tangled in Plastic Trash

It's such an important story, which highlights the problem of plastic marine pollution, so I'm stoked to see it getting plenty of attention and exposure on both sides of the Atlantic. It's an international problem and the only real solution is education, so I'm really happy and appreciative that Audubon, Terre Sauvage and IUCN are helping to spread the word.

BRITISH WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS - 9 IMAGES AWARDED

The British Wildlife Photography Awards recently announced the 2016 winners, including nine of my pictures, which were highly commended. A set of six from my Northern Gannet series, featuring the desperate situation on Grassholm Island, where birds become entangled in marine litter was the runner up in the Documentary Series category.

I also received two highly commended in the Urban Wildlife category - a spotted flycatcher nest in an old brick wall and an unusual mistle thrush nest in a traffic light. Lastly, my image of a red fox vixen suckling young cubs in a suburban garden was awarded highly commended in the Behaviour category. A pretty good haul in total!

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR FINALIST

My fox image "Nosy Neighbour" has just been released as one of the handful of preview images from this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards. It's all over the papers and online today, being shared widely and is being used as the lead image in most of the features. The best headline I think I've read so far is "This stunning picture of a fox on a Bristol street could be the best wildlife picture in the world"!! This image has already had some decent exposure, so I'm pretty surprised it made it into this year's WPY52 collection, but I'm really happy the judges thought it was strong enough despite that. It may have been seen by a lot of the wildlife photography community, but WPY will bring it to a whole new audience when the exhibition tours the globe and the book goes on sale internationally. Excited and looking forward to awards night and seeing the rest of the winners. Awesome to be a part of this competition for the second time!!

WINNER - BIRD BEHAVIOUR - BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

My image of a herring gull snatching a Cornish pasty recently won the Bird Behaviour category in the Bird Photographer of the Year Awards 2016. I also received a Highly Commended award for my lesser spotted woodpecker image in the Birds in the Environment category. Below, a slightly more beardy than usual me receiving a prize from Chris Packham (credit: Rob Read).

COVER OF THE YEAR AND RECENTLY PUBLISHED

Lumo Magazine Issue 4, featuring one of my fox pictures was recently awarded Magazine Cover of the Year in Finland. Below is a picture from the awards (credit: Merja Yeung/Edit Magazine Awards 2015/FPPA) of Lasse Kurkela at the awards gala in Helsinki. Lasse was commended twice in the 2013 Wildlife Photographer of the Year at just 10 years of age.

I've had a few stories and covers published recently including another fox on the cover of RSPB kids' magazine Bird Life and features in both BBC Wildlife Magazine and BBC Countryfile Magazine. Opening spreads below..