British Wildlife Photography Awards 2019 Winners Announced

Although Britain is small in size, it has a whole host of birds, mammals, marine life, and more. The BWPA celebrates our wide variety species and showcases some of the most beautiful imagery. The competition is celebrating its tenth year and the standard just keeps getting better and better.

Both professional and amateur photographers are invited to showcase their images of British wildlife and the judges have the really difficult task of sifting through thousands of fabulous images to award fifteen separate category winners, including two junior categories.

To honour the tenth anniversary, the BWPA focused on British coasts by expanding the Coast and Marine category to include four separate categories.

“Our island nation has an impressive 31,368 kilometres of coastline. We are surrounded by some of the richest seas in the world, teeming with an astonishing abundance and diversity of marine wildlife,” said judge Mark Carwardine. “But we do a shockingly bad job of looking after them. We take out far too many fish and shellfish, often catching them in destructive ways that have devastating impacts on other wildlife, and we use the seas as a dumping ground for an insidious tide of plastic waste and all sorts of other pollution.”

Daniel Trim was this year’s overall competition winner, with his image “Behind Bars” and depicts an urban grey heron in Londons waterways. ’Grey herons thrive around London’s wilder waterways, but they also do well in more urban settings such as the smaller parks and canals, despite the litter and large numbers of people walking by. This individual was hunting in the cover of a bridge – presumably the fish were taking shelter among the fallen leaves and plastic bottles. The morning light shining through a grill gives the impression that the bird is trapped as it gazes out through the mesh.’ (BWPA, 2019)

Coast & Marine Overall Winner & Coast and Marine Scotland Winner

Alex Mustard - “Seal in a Seaweed Garden”

Animal Behaviour Winner

Robin Chittenden - “Common Swift Skimming the Water”

Animal Portrait Winner

Mark Kirkland - “Peering Through the Darkness”

Botanical Britain Winner

Jack Mortimer - “Amongst Emerald Depths”

British Nature in Black and White Winner

Nicholas Court - “Marbled White in Grass”

Coast and Marine England Winner

Paul Pettitt - “Stalked Jellyfish and Rissoa Snail”

Coast and Marine Northern Ireland and the Coast of Ireland Winner

Trevor Rees - “Mauve Stinger”

Coast and Marine Wales Winner

Mark Thomas - “Plaice Face”

Habitat Winner

Rich Bunce - “Brighter Skies on the Horizon”

Hidden Britain Winner

Alan Smith - “Garden Spider”

Wild Woods Winner

Dave Fieldhouse - “Welcome to Narnia”

Wildpix 12-18 Years Winner

Jacob Guy - “Spiny Starfish”

Wildpix Under 12 Years Winner

Ollie Teasdale - “In The Spotlight”

British Seasons Winner

Paul Sawer - “Blue Tits in Winter, Spring, Summer & Autumn”

Documentary Series Winner

Lawrie Brailey - “Britain’s Most Loved Mammal”

Congratulations to all the winners and highly commended photographers, the images are fantastic! 

A Beginner’s Guide to Composing a Macro Photo

Macro photography can cover a whole host of species, from insects, plants, reptiles, etc… and can be very challenging when magnifying such a tiny creature. The steps listed below should give you an idea of how to best approach this type of photography and produce some wonderful results.

1) Focal Points

The use of a focal point in macro photography is very important for your composition, because you are magnifying such a small subject. In landscape photography you can have various focal points without it looking too cluttered because you are photographing such a vast scene. However, in a macro shot you only need to have one or possibly two as the viewers eye will become too distracted.

2) Rule of Thirds

This is one of the most common and basic rules used when composing a shot. It’s a great starting point and will help in the early stages of photography, however rules are meant to be broken so this is generally used as more of a guide!

In the image above you will see that it has been divided into 9 equal rectangles, the general rule is to place something of interest at one of these points where the lines intersect. Any natural leading lines are also placed near these points, which makes it more pleasing and appealing to the eye.

3) Leading Lines

Leading Lines are a natural path for the eye to follow as it guides them through an image. The best part is that they can be found pretty much anywhere and they don’t have to be straight either. Our eyes will follow any line with a curve, twist or bend in them. It is one of those things that when you start to spot them, you will be able to see them everywhere!

4) Subject Isolation

Isolating the subject within the frame forms an interesting and appealing composition and it can easily be done by having a nice clean backdrop. The subject should be the main focal point of your image, and you want the viewer’s eye to be instantly drawn to it. Sometimes foliage or other macro subjects can be a real distraction in the scene.

One photographer who is especially good at this is Perdita Petzl and she has to be one of my favourites to follow! 

5) Use of Negative Space

Adding some negative space into your image is a great way of ensuring that the viewer’s eye is drawn straight to the subject. In the shot below, you can see that I’ve included more space to the right and moved the subject to the left side of the frame.

6) Research Your Subject

So we get to the final step in this list and this is the most important of them all. Taking the time to watch and photograph various species allows you to predict their behaviour with more accuracy. Trying to predict a spider’s path, or if a bee is going to remain stationary or not is tricky but practicing and watching them will allow you to get the shots that you want.

For example, when photographing spiders, it is easier to capture the image by trying to get ahead of them and allowing them to walk into your frame. Compose your shot and patiently wait! Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but photography would be too easy if every animal behaved themselves!

Last weekend was my first opportunity to sell my work at a local fayre, and was so pleased with how successful it went! 

Above you can see my setup and that is all thanks to my dad and his crafty skills. I envisioned a booth and had no idea how to make it happen, but lucky for me he is the man to go to with such things! 

So whilst my dad got down to the technical stuff, I researched the best places to get my work printed and looking its best. The internet is great for this kind of thing, a general Google search told me the do’s and don’ts and so it was left to me to decide which company I wanted to go for. 

Obviously I looked at some of the big printing companies, such as theprintspace, digitalab, loxleycolour, whitewall, etc… but I finally decided to go with photographyprinting.co.uk

Chris is a one man band and a photographer himself, so I knew I was on to a winner when I found his company. He is based in Norfolk and could produce all the products I was looking to get printed and at competitive prices!

When the prints arrived in the post I couldn’t wait to have a look at them, they all came carefully packaged and the colour quality was amazing! I wanted to print my photos onto Fine Art Giclee Paper, as this really shows them off well and ensures the print quality lasts for years and years. Although it’s a little pricey it is well worth it in my opinion.

So the day came to sell my work, and the feedback received was very positive. My dad had done a sterling job with the booth and it really helped to show off the prints. It is definitely something I want to do again, so hope to see you all at the next event :) Keep your eyes and ears open to see the next confirmed date!