I'm lucky to work with a lot of the best photographers as Editor-in-Chief of one of the world's most-read nature magazines, but it's always great to come across some new talent.
Up and coming photographers Ed Marshall and James Shooter have blogged here before when volunteering on Nature's Home - you may have received a response form one of them yourself in you wrote to or e-mailed the magazine. I'm excited to also announce another guest blogger and brilliant photographer, Tom Mason will be providing photography tips and commenting on some of the photographs you'll be seeing in Nature's Home.
El vino did flowYesterday evening, I attended the British Wildlife Photography Awards ceremony at The Mall Galleries in London. I have judged the competition for the last four years and I am so proud to be involved in a competition that goes from strength to strength each year. It was an incredibly difficult judging process this year and I was delighted that our overall winner was of urban wildlife, showing that you don’t have to go far to find and photograph wildlife.
Yours truly was also quoted in the national press, which was a great honour, and also led to lots of radio appearances in the last couple of days, talking about the competition, the winners and what makes a great wildlife shot.
I was delighted to see that one of Ed’s shots was highly commended in the competition but also that a very good friend of mine Ben Andrew had also received a highly commended for his shot of two great crested grebe chicks on the back of a parent, taken at York University at RSPB Members’ Weekend in April this year. He was justifiably in celebratory mood (just the six glasses of champagne for him last night) and the superb catering provided by organiser Maggie Gowan and her team meant that I can't recall many moments when Ben was without a sausage in hand!
Ben and I will be teaming up for some dormouse action next month (hazel and edible varieties) and I am very excited as both would be new species for me. I'll be blogging about that soon after the event.
SpidermenThe other lunchtime, I took Ben to see a wasp spider I had discovered on the Old Heath here at RSPB HQ. This species is spreading northwards and turned up at my local nature reserve at Paxton Pits in Cambridgeshire for the first time this year, enabling me to get some snaps. Ben didn’t let me down on the photography front – take a look at these great shots. It’s handy having a friend who is a top photographer – free photos for the blog! You'll see more of Ben's shots in October Nature's Home, plus some winter wildlife photography tips.
Well done to all the BWPA winners - and thank you for giving me such an enjoyable job! Take a look at them all in the gallery here.
Don't forget to keep all your photos coming in to me at Nature's Home - and let me know what you think about the winners of BWPA . I hope you'll be inspired to get out this autumn with your camera