Winners Announced. The British Wildlife Photography Awards 2018: A Celebration of British Wildlife
The British Wildlife Photography Awards proudly announce the
winners for 2018. The awards celebrate both the work of amateur and
professional photographers and the beauty and diversity of British wildlife.
Winning images are chosen from thousands of entries in fifteen separate
categories including a category for film and two junior categories to encourage
young people to connect with nature through photography.
The Overall Winning Image
 |
| Contrails at Dawn (Daubenton’s Bats), Coate Water Country Park, Wiltshire by
Paul Colley |
Ghostly contrails reveal the flight paths and wing beats of
Daubenton’s bats. An infrared camera and lighting system that were 14 months in
development overcame the challenge of photographing the high- speed flight of
these small mammals in the dark. The in-camera double exposure caught the
foreground bat milliseconds before insect intercept. As these bats are a
protected species they were photographed in the wild following advice from the
Bat Conservation Trust and Natural England.
“No other
image in my portfolio had been so clearly conceived and yet so difficult to achieve.
My artistic intent was to capture this extraordinary little bat’s speed of
movement and hunting flight path, but the journey to success was littered with
disappointing failures. Fortunately, fellow photographers encouraged
imaginative experimentation and taught me to anticipate setbacks as a
reasonable price for ultimate success.
In hindsight, I experienced a huge gradient of emotion. There were the
lows felt during months of long, cold and exhausting dusk-to-dawn sessions,
sometimes waist deep in water and often without getting a single useable image.
And then the natural highs of those light bulb moments, when new ideas blossomed,
problems were solved and the project inched closer towards the potential to win
this exceptional accolade.” – Paul Colley.
Naturalist, Author and Wildlife TV Producer Stephen Moss
comments: “Once again, this collection of images from the British
Wildlife Photography Awards leaves us in awe of the skill, patience and
artistry of the photographers whose work is showcased here. The extraordinary
range of subjects, species and habitats, and the imaginative way they are
portrayed, leaves us in no doubt that we in Britain are fortunate to be home to
some of the most talented photographers in the world.
But stunning though this book is, it is not simply a
collection of beautiful images, preserved like museum specimens for us to
enjoy. It is also a snapshot of Britain’s diverse and beautiful wildlife, at a
time when these wild creatures – and the places where they live – are under threat
as never before.”
View all the winning Images, including the video winner and
a selection of highly commended entries here: http://www.bwpawards.org
We will be posting more details throughout the week - starting tomorrow with the winners of the Botanical Britain category - which CJS is delighted to sponsor - follow the BWPA2018 tag.