WPOTY...

Hi,

Got in at 1.30am this morning after the awards, back to the museum for 7.30am, just got back from the Media preview....

So here are the results....

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/onlineGallery.do

All the best

Phil

Been looking this morning.

My favourites are, (in no particular order):

Brian Skerry's, diver and whale shot. (First encounter)

Claudio Contreras, Elephant seal pup, (big baby nap)

Andy Rouse, Osprey (Love branch)


Some great shots as normal, a few i'm not really sold on though.

Thansk for the heads up Phil

Bird entry subject matter is rather predictable - starling swirl, wader blur, eagles over a carcas, black grouse on lek. But I love that Hoopoe shot, more innovative than the rest - not too sure about the osprey snatch, the trout looks suspiciously like a farmed rainbow, not a wild lake trout as described and Andy Rouse's shot looks a bit un-inspiring for a category winner

two strongest categories for me this year are the animals in their environment and in praise of plants loads of good shots there

Congrats to Migual, I think he posted his polar bear shot earlier this year on the forum - which for me is technically better and more original than the snow leopard winner - surely the leopard has walked out of frame..........

Animals in their environment/Yongkang Zhu

Snow swans....Awesome...not sure about the winner!!

Craig
www.craigchurchill.co.uk

Cheers Phil

Had a quick look and the standard again is very high, congrats to Steve Winter he put in a tremendous amount of work to obtain these images of Snow leopards they really are truly amazing, the swan shot is my own favourite in Animals in their Environment what a picture, also liked the storm terns beautiful shot. The Ostrich shot is fantastic as well. Big congrats to the brits Paul Hobson, Brian Matthews, Migual Lasa and Andy Rouse again has an image in the comp which is a great achievement. The only thing that dissapoints me and this is not against the competetion because how would they know when it is judged but against the photographers involved is the fact that some of the exact same images have been successful in the European Nature photographer of the year as well, come on if you have a good image save it for the best and not the rest.

Danny

I have to say that yes a lot of work went into getting the Snow Leopard images, but very unsure if a remote picture should win a PHOTOGRAPHIC competition!!!!!
Stewart

I think the Leopard images were very good, and obviously an enormous amount of work went into getting them.. I just can't help thinking that its more the rarity of the species and the work spent, as opposed to pure photographic appeal, which made them win.

I surpose everyone has a view on this but why should it matter if an image is done by hand or remote release an image is an image the fact that they are unique and a very rare subject ofcourse this should play an important role as well which it has so good on them for choosing an image that is hard to achieve because of the terrain, the conditions and the subject, this means more surely in this day and age of easy wildlife photography where we just turn up at hotspots or pay a huge amount of money to be shown where it is and photograph it.

Danny

Some stunning images, not least the winner, had seen the other two shots in national geographic and been impressed, but the winner is even better, maybe not the best in my opinion, but such a large competition will always be controversial and when it tries to orientate itself from an artistic basis the winner has got to be different as well as a brilliant shot, don't have a problem with it being a camera trap either, the photographer has still set up the shot and made all the creative decisions (especially the brilliant lighting )

aside from that the quality is outstanding this year so many brilliant shots, very inspiring in all, my favourites are Window on the ice melt, City descent , mountain prowl, Saffrondrop bonnets, Sailfish strike, Troublemaker, Shark nursery, Whooper lift-off, Sand sprinters, Storm terns (my favourite), Polar sunrise and the winner of course

Just been looking at the WPOTY winners and whilst mostly i am impressed, im not sure about the creative visions runner up the shot of the hare .... am i getting grumpy in my old age or is that shot something we would mostly delete???

Andy
Agree entirely about the out of focus hare shot, there is a fine line between a technically bad image and an "arty" one, in my opinion this is way over on the wrong side, creative images should still be technically good, it even says it was a mistake in the write-up

some great shots, I particularly like the Whooper lift off (animals in their environment) and the Hoopoe in-flight (animal behaviour birds). Both were given double page spreads in a recent BBC Wildlife magazine issue and looked great.

Regarding the hare shot, I think the moment you have to 'explain' your image you're on to a loser Definitely one that I would have binned

Matt

Migual Lasa's image head and shoulders over everything else for me. The hoopoe shot works as a remote shot for me as the photographer was trying to capture a specific part of his subject's behaviour. The snow leopard winner on the other hand smacks more of set it up and see, not to mention the iffy compostion. Mind you that's a very humble opinion having looked at that lot.

Jon