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!

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC COMMISSION - BIG CAT WEEK

I was recently commissioned by National Geographic to shoot a rather unusual model after dark on the streets of London...

To launch BIG CAT WEEK in the UK, Nat Geo WILD had a fully animatronic leopard built by John Nolan Studio and I had one night to photograph it in iconic London locations. The idea was inspired by Nat Geo Wild TV episode Mission Critical: Leopards at the Door. Wild leopards roam the streets of Mumbai but the people who live in the city and the leopards have found a way to coexist. There are of course occasional conflicts, but Mumbai is a great example of how people and wildlife can share urban areas - even if that wildlife is a big cat or other top predator. Read the full story here: Learning to Live with Leopards.

As it was such a complicated build, the leopard wasn't fully finished and operational until the night before the press release, so we had to work through the night to create a set of publicity images ready to go to press in the morning. Assisted by the talented Josh Perrett, we spent the night driving "Lily" all over the city, from Brick Lane, to the Gherkin and Tower Bridge. We got some pretty funny looks and had a great time watching people's reactions to seeing a life-size and incredibly realistic leopard on the streets of London. The story was picked up by a few major news outlets and with the accompanying tv programmes will hopefully help to raise awareness of the threats facing leopards and other big cats in the wild.

INTERVIEW: BBC Radio 2 - The Radio 2 Arts Show with Jonathan Ross

As mentioned in my previous post, I was recently interviewed by Jonathan Ross on BBC Radio 2 - the most popular national radio station in the UK. I was pretty excited to get the opportunity to spread the word about my wildlife photography and promote the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition to such a wide audience. You can listen to the full interview below...

MEDIA COVERAGE - INTERVIEWS WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, JONATHAN ROSS AND WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Since the announcement of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 (WPY52) winners, I've had the opportunity to promote the WPY competition / exhibition, wildlife photography and my own work across many platforms. Here are some of my recent favourites...

During the WPY52 results week I was interviewed on the National Geographic Facebook Live channel by my good friend Bertie Gregory. Above is a pic of the interview at the Natural History Museum in London by amazing underwater photographer / photo-naturalist and all-round great guy Tony Wu, with a couple of screen grabs from the interview, which had 62,681 views!!! If you don't already know Bertie's work, check out his series for Nat Geo here - it's awesome.

I also did a couple of TV and radio reviews including this interview for ITV News to promote the opening of the WPY exhibition at the M Shed in my home town of Bristol and a #WPYinsights video at the Natural History Museum about how I work, with some tips for nocturnal wildlife photography.

Perhaps my most fun interview though was with Jonathan Ross on the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show, where I got to bang the drum about the importance of urban wildlife photography and Jonathan made me do a pretty embarrassing / amazing impression of a fox. It was pretty cool, if not a little surreal hanging out with Dame Vivienne Westwood and John Simpson, whilst Jarvis Cocker complained about the broken coffee machine and Mr. Ross informed me that he's a big fan of my photography, but all in a day's work and great fun :)

Iplayer link here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0848ybt

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.

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!!

ADORAMA TV INTERVIEW

I'm a bit behind with my latest posts as I've been taking some time for paternity leave. It's been a roller coaster but tons of fun and I'm really enjoying being a dad for the first time. I've been working on some local projects in the background, so will catch up with things on here when they are published in the coming weeks. For now, here's an interview about my work that I did for Adorama TV at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum.

nb. The black-headed gull image at 1:34 is not mine - I was showing the interviewer some techniques after the interview and I set up the camera, but she took the picture!

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR BLOG CONTRIBUTION

The "Urban" category is making a comeback in the 2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. To celebrate this, the organisers asked myself and two awesome wildlife photographers - Alex Badyaev and Pål Hermansen, to share our thoughts about urban wildlife. I am a big believer that wildlife should not be seen as something that exists outside of the city and that urban wildlife photography plays a big part in helping people realise that humans and wildlife must coexist. The piece can be found on the Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year site here..

 

URBAN WILDLIFE - THE QUIET SPECTACLE OF THE COMMONPLACE

WILDSCREEN PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL / WILDPHOTOS 2014

I just got back home to Bristol after a full on week in London at Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Wildscreen Photography Festival (formerly Wildphotos). Wildphotos is held at the prestigious Royal Geographical Society and I always have a great time at the event, so I was honoured to be asked to be a speaker this year - it's not often you get asked to share a stage with some of the top wildlife photographers in the world! My talk on the art of urban wildlife photography went down really well and afterwards I got to meet and catch up with loads of inspiring people and chat about ideas and new projects and I came home feeling pretty inspired. I also did a masterclass at the Natural History Museum. Now time to take it all in and focus on what's next!

Thanks to Lara Nouri for the picture

BBC WILDLIFE COVER AND WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Tuesday was definitely my biggest night of the year. First of all, it was Wildlife Photographer of the year week, which in itself was great to be a part of. The night of the awards was loads of fun and the standard this year is absolutely incredible. My parakeet image "Feral Spirits" was a finalist in the birds category so I got my first peek of it in the special 50th anniversary awards book and in the competition exhibition at the Natural History Museum. I also had a dream come true when I got to meet Sir David Attenborough and shake him by the hand. He's been a hero of mine ever since I can remember and has always been an inspiration in keeping my interest in natural history alive. What made the night even more special, was that I got to see my fox image on the cover of BBC Wildlife Magazine. The special WPY issue featuring all the winners is given out on the night with a copy of the WPY book, and the awards is the first time anybody sees it, so to have the front cover and of this particular issue totally blew me away. Finally, it was also announced that my parakeet image was highly commended in the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the Man and Nature category. To say I'm on a high is quite an understatement!

BBC Wildlife magazine are currently running a gallery of my fox pictures including the cover: www.discoverwildlife.com/gallery/amazing-urban-fox-photos

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR SUCCESS

UPDATE OCTOBER 25th: LINK TO IMAGE ON WPY SITE

A few images have been released early from this year's special 50th anniversary Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and I'm really excited to finally share that I have been awarded in the birds category. There's a sneak preview of this year’s awards is in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine, featuring a nice double page spread of my image of parakeets flying through an urban cemetery at dusk.

I’m really happy to be included this year as it’s the 50th anniversary of the awards and my image was chosen from over 41000 entries. I can’t wait to see my picture in the exhibition and book, alongside so many photographers that I respect and that have been such an inspiration to me.

The September BBC Wildlife Magazine will be available in shops from tomorrow and the results of the awards will be announced on the 21st October, when the exhibition will start running at the Natural History Museum and the book containing all of the 50th anniversary awards images will be available.

Competition picture info. 

Feral spirits

Just before dusk fell over London, the birds would start to appear. Sam says there were ‘swarms of them coming in low across the cemetery, heading for their roost in the trees just behind me. I’d keep having to duck.’ Ring-necked parakeets, an Afro-Asian species, are now well established in the wild in Britain – the result of escapes and deliberate releases from captivity – and they are thriving in London. Their winter roosts can be huge – Sam had checked out several before opting for this one. ‘There were probably 5,000 birds – the noise was amazing,’ he says. With a constant stream of arrivals squawking past in groups of 20 or30, Sam worked out the parakeets’ typical flight paths. He set up his kit, experimented with various techniques and realised they were coming close enough for him to use a wide-angle lens. With a burst of flash at the end of a long exposure to create their ghostly trails, Sam captured the essence of these eye‑catching aliens in the English urban landscape. By the time it was dark, an hour and a half after the first arrival, the fly‑past of thousands was complete.

Technical specification

Nikon D7000 + 17–35mm f2.8 lens at 17mm; 1/30 sec at f6.3; ISO 800; Nikon Speedlight SB-800 flash + PocketWizard Plus III remote release; Manfrotto tripod.