Painterly valleys, evocative storms and chilly mountain vistas feature in the winning images for this year's Landscape Photographer of the Year, a unique photographic competition that is designed to showcase the British countryside.
Founded in 2006 by photographer Charlie Waite, the Take a View - Landscape Photographer of the Year competition is designed to celebrate the breadth and beauty of the British landscape. The competition spans both Adult and Youth sections with four categories in each section: Classic view, Living the view, Your view and Urban view.
This year's overall grand prize went to photographer Pete Rowbottom for his magnificent image of ice in a region of the Scottish Highlands called Glencoe. Selected from thousands of entries Rowbottom's image scored him a top prize of £10,000 (US$13,000).
"The numerous strong diagonal lines of the ice fractures in Pete's image echo the shape of Buachaille Etive Mòr in the background and have peaks of their own," says head judge Charlie Waite, of Rowbottom's winning image. "You can't take your eyes away from the relationship between the mountain and the ice; it is visually very strong and has a mathematical precision."
The Young Landscape Photographer of the Year prize went to a perfectly timed snap of a mountain bike rider dramatically leaping in the air in Cornwall (see top of article).
A special award from The Sunday Times Magazine was also given to a photograph from Stuart McGlennon called Buttermere Bloom. The image, featuring the Lake District in Cumbira, resembles a gorgeous 19th century landscape painting with its lush sepia tones.
"The rich diversity of the British landscape is something that is available to all of us and is ours to enjoy," explains Charlie Waite on the origins of the competition. "This competition will provide an on-going platform for capturing images that best symbolize our land and our times, and that will stand as a record of our country."
Some of the other notable Landscape Photographer of the Year category winners for 2018 include:
Your view category winner - Beauty in Decay, Edinburgh, Scotland by Nicky Goodfellow.
Fujifilm Print Prize winner - Collide, Newhaven, East Sussex, England by Edd Allen.
Living the view category winner - Fisherman, Porth Nanven, Cornwall, England by Mick Blakey.
Urban view category winner - Terraced houses, Bristol, England by Alex Wolfe-Warman.
All the winning entries will be exhibited for several months from November 19 in a special exhibition space at London's Waterloo train station. The winning photographs are also showcased in an accompanying book entitled Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 12.
