Photography

Hare for it: 2024 British Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners

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"Sunrise Hare" – Spencer Burrows, Animal Portraits Runner-up. Taken with Nikon Z 9 with Nikon 800mm f/6.3 lens. 800mm; 1/3,200th second; f/6.3; ISO 2,000
Burrows/BWPA
"Sunrise Hare" – Spencer Burrows, Animal Portraits Runner-up. Taken with Nikon Z 9 with Nikon 800mm f/6.3 lens. 800mm; 1/3,200th second; f/6.3; ISO 2,000
Burrows/BWPA
"Tiny Forrest Balloons" – Jason McCombe, Botanical Britain Winner. Taken with Canon EOS R7 with Canon 100mm f/2.8 lens & Kenko extension tubes
McCombe/BWPA
"Rainbow at Dawn" – Martin Stevens, Botanical Britain Runner-up. Taken with Olympus E-M5 III with Olympus 8mm f/1.8 Fisheye lens. 8mm; 1/160th second; f/14; ISO 640
Stevens/BWPA
"Starling at Night" – Mark Williams, Animal Portrait Winner. Taken with Canon 5D III with Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. 200mm; 1/15th second; f/16; ISO 200
Williams/BWPA
"Dancing in the Dark" – Matthew Glover, Animal Behaviour Runner-up. Taken with Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 lens. 500mm; 1/1,000th second; f/7.1; ISO 8,000
Glover/BWPA
"Three Frogs in Amplexus" – Ian Mason, Animal Behaviour Winner. Taken with Canon EOS 1D X with Canon 300mm f/4 lens and 1.4x teleconverter. 420mm; 1/160th second; f/10; ISO 800
Mason/BWPA
"Running on Water" – Max Wood, RSPB Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023 and 15-17 Years Winner. Taken with Canon EOS 6D with Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 II lens & 2x teleconverter. 400mm; 1/1,250th second; f/5.6; ISO 400

Wood/BWPA
"British Drifter" – Ryan Stalker, British Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 and Winner of Coast & Marine. Taken with Sony A7R IV with Sony 28-60mm f/4-5.6 lens. 29mm; 1/200th second; f/7.1; ISO 80

Stalker/BWPA
"What’s All the Fuss About?" – Will Palmer, Urban Wildlife Runner-up. Taken with Nikon D5 with Sigma 85mm f/1.6 lens. 85mm; 1/80th second; f/1.6; ISO 6,400

Palmer/BWPA
"Day Walker" – Simon Withyman, Urban Wildlife Winner. Taken with Canon EOS R5 with Canon 24-80mm f/2.8 II lens. 41mm; 1/1,000th second; f/2.8; ISO 100

Withyman/BWPA
"Three’s a Crowd" – Ross Hoddinott, Hidden Britain Winner. Taken with Nikon D850 and Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro lens. 200mm; 1/100th second; f/16; ISO 640
Hoddinott/BWPA
"Daisy Danger", Lucien Harris, Hidden Britain Runner-up. Nikon Z6 with Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide Angle 1:1 Macro lens. 15 mm; 1/125th second; f/16; ISO 100

Harris/BWPA
"Fire in the Night" – Dan Bolt, Coast & Marine Runner-up. Taken with Olympus E-M1 with Olympus 18-42mm lens. 14mm; 1/320th second; f/5.6; ISO 1,000
Bolt/BWPA
"Squirrel Silhouette" – Rosamund Macfarlane, Black & White Runner-up. Taken with Canon EOS R6 with Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 II lens. 400mm; 1/5,000th second; f/8; ISO 1,600
Macfarlane/BWPA
"Raven Above Arran" – Robin Dodd, Black & White Winner. Taken with Canon EOS R with Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 lens. 105mm; 1/320th second; f/14; ISO 400

Dodd/BWPA
"Beech for the Sky" – Graham Niven, Wild Woods Winner. Taken with Nikon D850 with Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens. 16mm; 1/50th second; f/9; ISO 100

Niven/BWPA
"Into the Mist" – Philip Selby, Wild Woods Runner-Up. Taken with Canon 5D IV with Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 II lens. 200mm; 1.6 seconds; f/14; ISO 100

Selby/BWPA
"The Tightrope Walker" – Daniel Valverde Fernandez, Habitat Winner. Taken with Canon EOS R3 with Canon 300mm f/2.8 II lens. 300mm; 1/5,000th second; f/2.8; ISO 3,200

Valverde Fernandez/BWPA
"The Crop Thief" – Steven Allcock, Habitat Runner-up. Taken with Canon EOS 7D with Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 lens. 500mm; 1/400th second; f/6.3; ISO 400

Allcock/BWPA
"Spring’s Treasures" – Jamie Smart, 11 and under Winner. Taken with Nikon Z 9 with Sigma 150-600mm f/5- 6.3 lens. 480mm; 1/1,000th second; f/6.3; ISO 5,600

Smart/BWPA
"Mother and Fawn" – Felix Walker-Nix, 12-14 Years Winner. Taken with Canon EOS 5D II with Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 lens. 400mm; 1/320th second; f/6.3; ISO 800

Walker-Nix/BWPA
View gallery - 21 images

A dramatic image of a soccer ball covered in invasive goose barnacles has taken out the top prize in this year's prestigious British Wildlife Photography Awards, beating out more than 14,000 entries capturing the world around us.

The photo, snapped by Ryan Stalker, is a powerful reminder of how many wonders of nature are out there – if you know where to look.

“Above the water is just a football," Stalker said. "But below the waterline is a colony of creatures. The football was washed up in Dorset after making a huge ocean journey across the Atlantic. More rubbish in the sea could increase the risk of more creatures making it to our shores and becoming invasive species.”

"British Drifter" – Ryan Stalker, British Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 and Winner of Coast & Marine. Taken with Sony A7R IV with Sony 28-60mm f/4-5.6 lens. 29mm; 1/200th second; f/7.1; ISO 80

Stalker/BWPA

“The British Wildlife Photography Awards brings to light the spectacular tapestry of Britain’s natural heritage,” said Will Nicholls, Director of BWPA. “This collection is more than just a gallery of images; it is a celebration, a reminder of the enduring beauty of British wildlife and a call to preserve the natural spaces that we are so fortunate to have.”

Check out some of the highlights below, and view our gallery to see all winners and runners-up across the 10 adult categories (Animal Behaviour, Animal Portraits, Botanical Britain, Black & White, British Seasons, Coast & Marine, Habitat, Hidden Britain, Urban Wildlife and Wild Woods) and three junior groups (11 and Under, 12-14 Years and 15-17 Years).

"Starling at Night" – Mark Williams, Animal Portrait Winner. Taken with Canon 5D III with Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. 200mm; 1/15th second; f/16; ISO 200
Williams/BWPA

Mark Williams captured this otherworldly shot of a common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in the West Midlands, which earned him the top prize in the Animal Portraits category. It's a stunning image, especially given how difficult it is to capture birds in flight at night.

"I had been observing the birds in my garden as they fed on sunflower seeds and peanuts from the feeder for some time," Williams said. "I aimed to capture the sense of movement and flight patterns in my images while still preserving the fine details of the birds. To achieve this, I used flash in rear curtain sync mode. Timing was crucial, and I needed to carefully balance the flash with the ambient light to record the starling’s trail at the beginning of the exposure, while a brief burst of flash would freeze the bird in mid-flight."

"Tiny Forrest Balloons" – Jason McCombe, Botanical Britain Winner. Taken with Canon EOS R7 with Canon 100mm f/2.8 lens & Kenko extension tubes
McCombe/BWPA

In what may make slime mold enthusiasts a little hot under the collar, this image of the delicate, tiny single-celled organisms won the Botanical Britain category. A little controversial, since slime mold (Comatricha nigra) is not a botanical – nor is it an animal or a fungus. It's a microscopic protist. It's also incredibly cool.

"The world of slime molds is fascinating," said photographer Jason McCombe, who snapped this tiny growth in Essex. "They’re neither plants nor fungi. I had never noticed them before, but when I set out to find some to photograph, I discovered that, if conditions are right, they’re everywhere! They’re just so small that if you are not looking for them you will simply overlook them. Each head on these fruiting bodies is approximately 1-mm wide, and the depth of field when shooting at such high magnification is so shallow that focus stacking is required. This image was made using 160 images, each focused on a different area of the scene, then stacked together to create one highly detailed image."

While it can be argued the protists' name is hardly appealing – slime and mold? No thanks – they spend much of their life invisible to the human eye, in microscopic form. But during the plasmodial stage of their life cycle, the formations McCombe captured emerge – and they can span up to three feet in size. They're also harmless to humans and animals, and actually act as ecosystem helpers, feeding on bacteria, fungi and decaying organic matter.

"Beech for the Sky" – Graham Niven, Wild Woods Winner. Taken with Nikon D850 with Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens. 16mm; 1/50th second; f/9; ISO 100

Niven/BWPA

Another dazzling winner, this time in the Wild Woods category, comes from Graham Niven in Scotland. Having lost most of their leaves for the season, these beech (Fagus sylvatica) show a perfect example of canopy shyness, or crown shyness, in which the tops of mature trees go to great lengths to not touch each other and instead form an all-but-interlocking system of thousands of branches that form the forest's cover.

"The trees form a canopy that has channel-like gaps which, when photographed from below, appear to create an intricate network of channels between the respective canopies," said Niven. "Besides the wondrous vision you are afforded, it’s also just a great excuse to lie down in the forest.

Scientists believe that trees avoid touching each other to maximize each one's access to light for photosynthesis. However, there are also theories that the process limits the spread of parasites and disease jumping from tree to tree, and it may limit damage inflicted by neighbors during windy weather.

"Fire in the Night" – Dan Bolt, Coast & Marine Runner-up. Taken with Olympus E-M1 with Olympus 18-42mm lens. 14mm; 1/320th second; f/5.6; ISO 1,000
Bolt/BWPA

Another bizarre and rare capture is this shot of a fireworks anemone (Pachycerianthus multiplicatus), taken by Dan Bolt in Scotland. These anemones, which grow up through mud in subtidal areas, have extruding tentacles that look to be bursting outwards in the water, which inspired their common name.

Naturally, they're brown and white, but Bolt leaned into their 'fireworks' side and gave them a fluorescent makeover – and, lucky for him, they remained blissfully unaware.

"Fluorescence photography requires specialist filters: one ‘exciter’ filter on your white-light source to create the blue light and another ‘barrier’ filter in front of your lens to reduce the ambient light reaching your sensor," he explained. "These dual filters mean that high ISOs and open apertures are very much required in order to capture the excited, or fluoresced, light. The subject requires a careful approach too; these anemones live in very still water and are sensitive to the slightest movement. If disturbed, they will retract in mere seconds."

See the rest of the winners and runners-up in our gallery here.

Source: British Wildlife Photography Awards

View gallery - 21 images
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2 comments
JeJe
Several yet another disturbance shot - where the camera person is effectively in the picture - most obvious with the two deer both looking directly at the disturber. Its a terrible picture in my view. Is the "Running on water" running away from the cameraman? Several of the others are looking at the picture taker so is the next thing that happens, they run off or fly off... the disturber interrupted their feeding, cost them some energy as they struggled to survive but got their (tainted I'd say) picture.
KaiserPingo
There is "to be hysterical" and there is "to be hysterical"...
Some people should just stay still and silent in their basement, as not to startle anyone, making us miss a meal.
Just saying!